Why is this considered a "romantic" poem?

Question

In Willam Blake's poem, what makes it a romantic poem? > I wandered through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
> In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
> How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.
> But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse. Can romantic poems have rhymes?

Answer 1

This poem is considered Romantic because it was written by William Blake, who is one of the prominent writers of the Romantic Period/ Romanticism movement. When people say this poem is "romantic," they don't mean it in the modern sense of the word (i.e. talking about love and relationships). Romanticism was a movement in arts and literature where the focus was on the "inspiration, subjectivity and primacy of the individual. (dictionary.com)"

Romantic poems may or may not rhyme. The goal was to express the authentic and strong emotional feelings of the author. One of the reasons Romanticism became popular is because it was reacting to the rapid modernization of London during the early 19th century. Romantic poems prefer to see the beauty of unspoiled nature, so the industrial revolution was seen as a source of tremendous pain and suffering for the people.