Final answer:
Early 19th century Romantic writers often treated the natural world with sublime reverence, valuing emotion over logic. They used children and poets as symbols of pure imagination and celebrated individual freedom through the power of creativity and emotional response.
Step-by-step explanation:
Early 19th century Romantic writers often focused on the sublime quality of the natural world, treating it with reverence and awe. These writers highlighted the importance of emotion over logic and the structured order of society, especially when it came to experiencing uncultivated nature. Romanticism was characterized by a deep, emotional connection with the natural world, one that could evoke a range of feelings from love to terror, and in such extreme emotions, the writer felt a bond with the sublime. This relationship enabled them to perceive the world more profoundly than those who embraced conformity.
Romantic writers used children and poets as symbols of purity and authenticity, as they were believed to have untouched imaginations, unspoiled by societal norms. The imaginative responses of these individuals to nature—which included the possibility of animism—could be prophetic in power. Romanticism celebrated the imagination as a powerful form of individual freedom. Central themes of Romantic art included a reverence for nature, the organic connection between humanity and nature, and the idea that true art emanates from the genius of the individual, provoking a profound emotional response.