The 25 best poems of Romanticism (and their meaning)

Romanticism is a cultural movement that placed feelings as protagonists. Artistic expressions ranged from painting to sculpture, through literature, where the poem was one of the most representative literary genres of the time.

The common themes of romantic poems were love, freedom, melancholy, dreams, pain or fear. Around the world there were great works and representatives of the poetry of romanticism, of which here we compile the 25 best.

The 25 best poems of romanticism

Within the history of art, romanticism has a special place. It turned out to be a watershed in the techniques and themes that the authors of the time were dealing with. Its central themes were intended to express that reason was not always sufficient to explain reality.

Perhaps this is the reason why the poems of romanticism are still so beautiful and inspiring to us today. To understand and enjoy them, we show you the 25 best poems of the romantic era.

• It might interest you: "The 20 best poems for children"

1. Eternal love (Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer)

The sun may cloud forever; the sea may dry up in an instant; the axis of the earth may break like a weak glass. Everything will happen! Death may cover me with its funereal crepe; but the flame of your love can never go out in me.

One of the main representatives of romanticism, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, who left countless poems as a legacy, all of them of great rhythm and beauty. In this poem he forcefully expresses that true love goes beyond any calamity.

2. The Land of Dreams (William Blake)

Wake up, wake up, my little one! You were your mother's only joy; Why are you crying in your peaceful sleep? Awake! Your father protects you. Oh, what land is the Land of dreams? What are the mountains, and what are its rivers?

Oh father! There I saw my mother, among the lilies next to the beautiful waters. Among the lambs, dressed in white, she walked with hers Thomas of hers in sweet delight. I wept with joy, like a dove I lament; Oh! When will I go back there?

Dear son, I too, along pleasant rivers, have walked the entire night in the Land of Dreams; but no matter how serene and warm the wide waters were, I could not reach the other shore. Father, oh father! What are we doing here in this land of unbelief and fear? The land of Dreams is much better, far away, above the light of the morning star ”.

A nostalgic poem that expresses how the world of dreams sometimes builds scenarios that are much happier than the reality we have to live. A story that is also framed by an apparent tragedy.

3. The Giaour (Lord Byron)

But first, on earth, as a sent vampire, your corpse from the grave will be exiled; Then, livid, you will wander through what was your home, And the blood of your own you will draw; There, of your daughter, sister and wife, At midnight, the source of life will dry up; Although you abominate that banquet, you must, necessarily, Nourish your livid walking corpse, Your victims, before they expire, They will see their lord in the devil; Cursing you, cursing yourself, Your wilting flowers are on the stem. But one who for your crime must fall, the youngest, of all, the most loved, Calling you father, will bless you: this word will engulf your heart in flames! But you must finish your work and watch. On her cheeks the last color; From his eyes the final glint, And his glassy gaze you must see. Freeze over the lifeless blue; Then with wicked hands you will undo. The braids of his golden hair, Which were caressed by you. And with disheveled promises of tender love; But now you take it away, Monument to your agony! With your own best blood they will gush. Your gnashing teeth and haggard lips; Then to your gloomy grave you will walk; He sees, and with ghouls and afrits raves, Until in shocked horror, they flee. Of a specter more abominable than they.

The Giaour is a poem of romanticism that became one of the most recognized by the author. It is said to be one of the first vampire-themed poems that was inspiration for other writers of the time. This is just a fragment of the great poem El Giaour.

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4. When the Soft Voices Die (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

“When the soft voices die, their music still vibrates in the memory; when sweet violets fall ill, their fragrance lingers on the senses. The leaves of the rose bush, when the rose dies, are piled up for the lover's bed; and so in your thoughts, when you are gone, love itself will sleep "

This poem of romanticism expresses in a short fragment, how things leave after their existence, their essence and this becomes the memory of those who stay here.

5. Rima LIII (Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer)

"The dark swallows on your balcony will return their nests to hang, and again with the wing to their crystals playing they will call. But those that the flight restrained your beauty and my happiness to contemplate, those that learned our names... those... will not return !.

The dense honeysuckle of your garden will return, the walls to be climbed, and again in the afternoon its flowers will open even more beautiful. But those, curdled with dew whose drops we watched tremble and fall like tears of the day... those... will not return!

The burning words will come back from love in your ears; your heart from its deep sleep will perhaps awaken. But mute and absorbed and on his knees as God is worshiped before his altar, as I have loved you…; get off your bum, like that... they won't love you! "

One of the most recognized poems by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer that she was inclined to write about love and heartbreak. In this rhyme he speaks of the sadness of letting go of a love and the warning that no one will be able to love her like that again.

6. Black Shadow (Rosalía de Castro)

“When I think that you are running away, black shadow that amazes me, at the foot of my heads, you turn making me mock. If I imagine that you are gone, in the same sun you look out, and you are the star that shines, and you are the wind that blows.

If they sing, you are the one who sings, if they cry, you are the one who cries, and you are the murmur of the river and you are the night and the dawn. You are in everything and you are everything, for me you dwell in myself, you will never abandon me, a shadow that always amazes me. "

Rosalía de Castro is already considered part of the post-romantic period. A short poem that talks about her shadow and a beautiful way of expressing ourselves about this element that is part of each one of us.

7. Remember me (Lord Byron)

“My lonely soul cries in silence, except when my heart is united to yours in a heavenly alliance of mutual sighing and mutual love. It is the flame of my soul like aurora, shining in the sepulchral enclosure: almost extinct, invisible, but eternal... not even death can stain it.

Remember me... Near my grave do not pass, no, without giving me your prayer; for my soul there will be no greater torture than knowing that you have forgotten my pain. Hear my last voice. It is not a crime pray for those who were. I never asked you for anything: when I expired I demand that you shed your tears on my grave. "

The great writer Lord Byron always dealt with darker subjects and this short poem is no exception. Talk about the desire and the importance of staying in the memories and the hearts of those who love him when he was no longer alive.

8. Come walk with me (Emily Brönte)

Come, walk with me, only you have blessed immortal soul. We used to love the wintry night, roam the snow without witnesses. Are we going back to those old pleasures? The dark clouds rush down, shading the mountains as they did many years ago, until they die on the wild horizon in gigantic stacked blocks; As the moonlight rushes in like a furtive, nocturnal smile.

Come walk with me; Not long ago we existed but death has stolen our company-As the dawn steals the dew-. One by one he took the drops into the vacuum until only two remained; but my feelings still flash because they remain fixed in you. Don't claim my presence, can human love be that true? Can the flower of friendship die first and revive after many years?

No, even if they are bathed with tears, the burial mounds cover their stem, the vital sap has vanished and the green will no longer return. Safer than the final horror, inevitable like the underground rooms where the dead live and their reasons. Time, relentless, separates all hearts.

Emiliy Brönte is considered one of the British representatives of romanticism. Although her most recognized work is the novel "Wuthering Heights", this poem shows that love was always the central theme of her.

9. Annabelle Lee (Edgar Allan Poe)

“It was many, many years ago, in a kingdom by the sea, there lived a maiden whom you may know by the name of Annabel Lee; and this lady lived with no other desire than to love me, and to be loved by me.

I was a boy, and she was a girl in that kingdom by the sea; We love each other with a passion greater than love, Me and my Annabel Lee; with such tenderness that the winged seraphim wept rancor from on high. And for this reason, long, long ago, in that kingdom by the sea, a wind blew from a cloud, freezing my beautiful Annabel Lee; Her dark ancestors came suddenly, and dragged her far away from me, until she was locked in a dark tomb, in that kingdom by the sea.

The angels, half-happy in Heaven, envied us, Her, me. Yes, that was the reason (as men know, in that kingdom by the sea), that the wind blew from the nocturnal clouds, freezing and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love was stronger, more intense than that of all our ancestors, greater than that of all the sages. And no angel in her heavenly vault, no demon under the ocean, will ever be able to separate my soul from my beautiful Annabel Lee. Well, the moon never shines without bringing me the dream of my beautiful companion. And the stars never rise without evoking her radiant eyes. Even today, when the tide dances at night, I lie down next to my beloved, my beloved; to my life and my adored one, in her grave by the waves, in her grave by the roaring sea. “

Edgar Allan Poe is sometimes not very related to this movement of romanticism. She is most remembered for her horror short stories. However, this poem is part of the legacy of the movement and expresses its sorrow and pain for the death of a loved woman..

10. I found her! (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

“She was in a forest: absorbed, she thought she was walking without even knowing what she was looking for. I saw a flower in the shade. Shining and beautiful, like two blue eyes, like a white star.

I'm going to tear it off, and sweetly saying she found it; "To see me wither, do you break my stem?" I dug around and take it with vine and everything, and in my house I put it in the same way. There I planted it again, quiet and alone, and it blooms and is not afraid of being withered "

A short poem by Johann Wolfgang that conveys the need to see people and their circumstances as a whole and not as isolated subjects. In this way, loving becomes more authentic.

11. When two souls finally meet (Victor Hugo)

“When at last two souls meet, who for so long have looked for each other among the crowd, when they realize that they are couples, that they understand each other and correspond, in a word, that they are alike, then a union arises forever and pure as themselves, a union that begins on earth and lasts in heaven.

That union is love, authentic love, as in truth very few men can conceive, love that is a religion, that deifies to the loved one whose life emanates from fervor and passion and for whom the sacrifices, the greater the joys, the more sweet."

This poem is a worthy and total representative of romanticism, treating the theme of love as a complex process and from which the purest feelings arise. that they must be in tune between the beings who love each other.

12. A dream (William Blake)

“Once a dream wove a shadow over my bed that an angel protected: it was an ant that had gotten lost in the grass where I thought it was.

Confused, perplexed and desperate, dark, surrounded by darkness, exhausted, she stumbled through the sprawling tangle, all heartbroken, and I heard her say, “Oh my children! Do they cry? Will they hear their father sigh? Are they around to look for me? Are they coming back and sobbing for me? " Compassionate, I shed a tear; but nearby I saw a firefly, who replied: “What human groan summons the guardian of the night? It is up to me to illuminate the grove while the beetle makes its rounds: the hum of the beetle now follows; little tramp, come home soon. "

A beautiful poem about a dream. William Blake exalted emotion over reason in his poems, so it is said that he is one of the main promoters of romanticism. The themes that he usually dealt with in his poems give an account of that.

13. The Suicide Argument (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

“About the beginning of my life, whether I wanted it or not, Nobody ever asked me - otherwise it couldn't be- If life was the question, one thing sent to try. And if living is saying YES, what can NO be but dying?

Nature's response: Does it return the same as when it was sent? Isn't the wear worse? Think first of what YOU ARE! Be aware of what you ARE! I have given you innocence, I have given you hope, I have given you health, and genius, and a wide future, Will you return guilty, lethargic, desperate? Take inventory, examine, compare. Then die - if you dare to die -. "

A reflective poem with a complex theme. It is a clear example of the type of subjects that are treated in the stage of romanticism. About life, death and nature, which are the central axes of Samuel Taylor's poem.

14. The Dove (John Keats)

“I had a very sweet pigeon, but one day. He died. And I have thought that he died of sadness. Oh! What would make you sad? His feet tied a thread. Of silk, and with my fingers I entwined it myself. Why did you die, with pretty red feet? Why leave me, so sweet bird? Why? Tell me. Very lonely you lived in the tree in the forest: Why, funny bird, did you not live with me? I kissed you often, I gave you sweet peas: Why wouldn't you live like in the green tree? "

This poem by John Keats, who is part of the most representative group of romanticism, It is about a pigeon that lives in captivity and that, not having the necessary freedom, dies. It is a small outline in a chapter on nature and its coexistence with modern life.

15. Know Thyself (Georg Philipp Freiherr von Hardenberg)

“Man has only sought one thing at all times, And he has done it everywhere, on the heights and in the depths of the world. Under different names-in vain-he always hid himself, And always, even believing her close to her, he got out of hand. There was a man long ago who in kind childish myths. He revealed to his children the keys and the path to a hidden castle. Few managed to know the simple key to the enigma, But those few then became masters of destiny. It took a long time - error sharpened our wits - And the myth stopped hiding the truth from us. Happy who has become wise and has left his obsession with the world, Who for himself longs for the stone of eternal wisdom. The reasonable man then becomes an authentic disciple. He transforms everything into life and gold, he no longer needs elixirs. The sacred alembic boils within him, the king is in it, and so is Delphi, and in the end he understands what it means. Know yourself."

A clear and forceful message: know yourself. This poem by Georg Philipp is one of introspection and reassessment about life itself and the objective of getting to know ourselves before going out into the world to know it.

16. Don't stop (Walt Whitman)

"Do not let the day end without having grown a little, Without having been happy, without having increased your dreams. Do not be overcome by discouragement. Don't let anyone take away your right to express yourself, which is almost a duty. Do not give up the urge to make your life something extraordinary. Don't stop believing that words and poetry. Yes they can change the world. No matter what our essence is intact. We are beings full of passion. Life is desert and oasis. It knocks us down, hurts us, teaches us, makes us protagonists. From our own history. Although the wind blows against, The powerful work continues: You can contribute a verse. Never stop dreaming, Because in dreams man is free. Do not fall into the worst of mistakes: Silence. The majority lives in a scary silence. Do not resign yourself. Flees. "I emit my screams from the roofs of this world," says the poet. Appreciates the beauty of simple things. You can make beautiful poetry about little things, But we can't row against ourselves. That transforms life into hell. Enjoy the panic it causes you. Have life ahead of you. Live intensely, without mediocrity. Think that the future is in you. And face the task with pride and without fear. Learn from those who can teach you. The experiences of those who preceded us. From our "dead poets", They help you walk through life. Today's society is us: The "living poets." Don't let life pass you by without you living it. "

A classic from the writer Walt Whitman with a very deep and direct theme. The original language of this poem is English, so the prose and rhyme may lose strength in translationNot so the powerful message of this, one of the few poems belonging to the romanticism of Walt Whitman.

17. The Prisoner (Aleksander Pushkin)

“I am behind bars in a damp cell. Raised in captivity, a young eagle, my sad company, flapping her wings, by the window her pitanza pia. He picks her, throws her, looks at the window, as if she thinks the same as me.

Her eyes call me and her scream, and she wants to utter: Let's take flight! You and I are free as the wind, sister! Let's flee, it is time, do the mountain whitens among clouds and the seascape shines blue, where only the wind walks... and I! "

A poem about freedom, one of the favorite themes of romanticism. Short but full of beauty and the masterful way in which, in a few words, it takes us from the anxiety of confinement to the fullness of freedom.

18. Soul that you are running away from yourself (Rosalía de Castro)

“Soul that you are running away from yourself, what are you looking for, foolish, in others? If he dried up the source of comfort in you, you dry up all the sources you have to find. That there are still stars in heaven, and scented flowers on earth! Yes... but they are no longer those that you loved and loved, unfortunate. "

Rosalía de Castro, one of the few women belonging to the romanticism movement, in this poem captures the despair of souls that seek outside what surely they already have contained in themselves themselves.

19. The Farewell (Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe)

“Let me tell you goodbye with my eyes, since my lips refuse to say it! Parting is a serious thing even for a temperate man like me! Sad in the trance we are made, even of love, the sweetest and most tender test; The kiss of your mouth seems cold to me, your hand is weak, mine is tight.

The slightest caress, once furtive and flighty, I loved! It was something like the precocious violet, which started in the gardens in March. I will no longer cut fragrant roses to crown your forehead with them. Frances, it is spring, but autumn for me, unfortunately, it will always be ”

A topic about how painful it is to let go of the one we love and, together with him, the feelings that arise before a farewell. Like freedom, death and love, heartbreak is a recurring theme in romantic poems.

20. Rima IV (Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer)

“Do not say that, when his treasure was exhausted, his business was lacking, the lyre was silenced; there may be no poets; but there will always be poetry. While the waves of light to the kiss throb on, while the sun the torn clouds of fire and gold sight, as long as the air in her lap carries perfumes and harmonies, as long as there is spring in the world, there will be poetry!

As long as the science to discover does not reach the sources of life, and in the sea or in the sky there is an abyss that to the calculation resist, as long as humanity always advancing does not know where it is going, as long as there is a mystery to man, there will be poetry!

As long as you sit, the soul laughs, without the lips laughing; while crying, without crying to cloud the pupil; as long as the battling heart and head go on, as long as there are hopes and memories, there will be poetry!

As long as there are eyes that reflect the eyes that look at them, while the lip responds by sighing to the lip that sighs, as long as two confused souls can feel in a kiss, as long as there is a beautiful woman, there will be poetry!"

Perhaps one of the best known poems of the author and of the own era of romanticism, this text leaves us with a vibrant strength and certainty about the beauty of poetry, its importance and above all its significance.