William Wordsworth described poetry as the 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'. In light of this describe how emotion is presented in an example of Romantic poetry.

The poet, in the cultural imagination of the Romantic era, was perceived as a genius figure, whose inspirations and epiphanies were channeled through the poet by some higher power (often understood to be Nature) and directly onto the page. These works were thought of as spontaneous acts and therefore evidence of the unique connection of the poet with themselves as well as the natural sublime. One such poem which plays wit these concepts is John Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale'. While Keats' meditation on the fleeting nature of death is indeed with strong emotion, exemplified through word choice such as "ecstasy" and "forlorn", it is however, exactly that: a meditation. Keats' working out of the feelings by which he is tormented, are brought to a resolution at the poem's close, where he goes on to question and analyse the central symbol of the Nightingale (asking, "was it a vision or a waking dream?"). That this poem, which at its start frames itself as a "spontaneous overflow" of emotion, acts as a conscious breakdown and analyses of these "powerful feelings" is telling. The medium of literature then, naturally lends itself to a level of analysis which distances the end product from the spontaneous feelings which inspired them. In Keats' poem, emotions are indeed powerful, however it is only through the layered and conscious process of writing the text itself, that poetry can be created.