The Romantic World View: Seven Symptoms and Five Metaphors

Abstract

The psychological experience of romanticism for the romantic writers as well as for their readers depends on the united effect of seven symptoms and five metaphors of deep human significance. The seven symptoms are: the predominance of sentiment over thought; the fusion of the poet’s soul with that of nature; the pseudo-divinity of the romantic; the sensation of solitude; the attitude of superiority; cosmic grief; and delight in grief. The five metaphors are: the loss of youth; the Satanity of the innocent soul; love; the single tear; and the contemplation of suicide. The examples abound in Spanish literary texts produced between 1770 and 1870, and this refutes the notion that Spanish romanticism is late and of scant duration.