‘romanticism’ and ‘romantic’ are among the most controversial terms in literature. most readers, when encountering these words, would think of the well-known period of romanticism of the first three decades of the nineteenth century and the great six english poets known as ‘the big six’ of this period. however, romanticism does not belong to certain artists in a special period; one may seek elements of romanticism in the works of every artist or at least find slight romantic touches in them. thus, it is necessary to understand the meaning and also the history of such words in the first place. encarta encyclopedia provides us with the history and the development; the word romantic comes from the classical latin. in ancient rome, latin was the actual language of writing, but people would use a different language on the streets of rome. romans used a kind of language that was different from classical latin. the language was mainly called roman. roman’s languages in france and germany, the languages derived from latin, were called romance languages because they were different from true latin. they were considered remote, and not quite natural. that is why the word ‘romance’ and ‘romantic’ appeared.