Romanticism was a literary movement in Europe which started in 1790 and lasted till 1850. The peculiar thing about this movement is that it did not start in England but it started in Germany and later on it was made popular in England by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge with the publication of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798 in which Wordsworth and Coleridge gave their own definition of poetry and propagated the main objective of the poetry.

It was a German poet, Friedrich Schlegel, who used the term for the first time to describe literature. He defined romanticism as “literature depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form.”Imagination, emotion and freedom are the focal points of romanticism. We can say that Romantic poetry is the poetry of Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18th century.

 In fact Romanticism was a revolt against Neo-classicism of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century which revived the ideas of classical Greece and Rome. The Romantic Movement was a reaction against the poetry of the eighteenth century. The poetry of the Romantic Revival is in the direct contrast to that of Neo-classical.

Characteristics of Romanticism: 

A love of the natural world: Nature was often lionized in Romantic verse. Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats became the champions of the Nature. 

An emphasis on the supernatural: In Romantic poetry we find the presence and description of supernatural elements.

Critical attitudes towards organized religion: Many Romantic writers were critical of organized religion, often finding it oppressive and in conducive to true transcendence or experience with the divine. Some such as Percy Shelley were open atheists, but others like William Blake were unconventional in their spiritual beliefs.

Fascination with the past: For the Romantics, the past was seen as free of the corrupting influence of modern industrialization. As a result, Romantic novels and poetry were often set in antiquity or the middle ages.

Critical attitudes towards industrialization and the city: Hand in hand with their love of nature, the Romantics abhorred industrialization's effects on the natural world as well as its effects on the health of the human psyche. 

An emphasis on nature: If there is one feature that far and away typifies Romantic poetry, it is taking nature as its subject. The Romantic poets loved nature as a expression of the divine, as a sublime force that would bring us close to the Godhead, and as an emotional solace

An emphasis on idealizing the common person: After nature, idealization of the common "man" is the trait most associated with the Romantic poets

An emphasis on simplicity:  The Romantics put great emphasis (on the whole) on using simple, accessible language that everyone could easily understand.

An emphasis on lyricism: Lyricism is the expression of emotion. Over and over again, Romantics try to capture emotions in verse.

An emphasis on the supernatural: The Romantics moved away from the rationalism of Neoclassic poetry to examine the whimsical, including fairies, folktales, and magic.

 Vivid Sensory Description. Another essential characteristic of nearly all Romantic-era literature is vivid sensory descriptions. . Wordsworth uses vivid descriptions, including similes and metaphors, in his famous poem, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."

Use of Personification. Romantic poets and prose writers also used personification in their works. 

 Focus on the Self and Autobiography. Many works of Romantic-era literature are deeply personal, and they often explore the self of the writer. We see autobiographical influences in poems and prose of the period. 

Thus we see that the Romantic period in English literature began in the late 1700s and lasted through the mid-1800s. Romanticism focuses on the emotional side of human nature, individualism, the beauty of the natural world and the simplicity of common people. Romantic authors value sentimental, heartfelt feelings and emotional experiences over historical and scientific facts.