The dictionary defines the term romantic as displaying, expressive of, or conducive to love; imaginative but impractical; visionary; not based on fact; imaginary or fictitious; hence, fanciful; marvelous; extravagant; unreal. Much to my surprise this meaning and the meaning portrayed in its era of poetry are quite similar. The word romanticism has a complex and interesting history. In the Middle Ages 'romance' meant to compose or translate books in the vernacular. The work produced was then called romanz, roman, romanzo and romance. A roman or romant came to be known as an imaginative work and a 'courtly romance'. The terms also signified a 'popular book'. There are early suggestions that it was something new, different, divergent. By the 17th century in Britain, 'romance' had acquired the derogatory connotations of fanciful, bizarre, exaggerated, chimerical. It was later used in the sense of 'gentle', 'melancholy'. Many hold to the theory that it was in Britain that the romantic movement really started. At any rate, quite early in the 18th century, a definite shift in sensibility and feeling can be easily seen, particularly in relation to the natural order of life and nature itself. As time progresses, each era can be pinpointed with just a few defining elements. The Romantic Era is no different than any other. It happened during the industrial age yet still focused on nature and its ways. Imagination and creativity along with youth and self-renewal were embraced. Romanticism was a movement in poetry (and art and literature in general) of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in revolt against the type of poetry of previous centuries. It allowed poets to write about anything; no longer were there 'fit subjects for writing'. It introduced the use of realistic-sounding language and talked about first-hand experience, thus communicating meaning much more effectively to the reader. The German poet Friedrich Schlegel first used the te...