Sense and Sensuality in Romanticism
No, not Sense and Sensibility (although Austen was influenced by Romantics…but that's a story for another time). We're talking sense and sensuality. We'll find tons of sensory detail when we read Romantic writing: lots of sounds and sights and smells and tastes. The Romantics are really into exploring the world through the five senses.
Because of that, their writing is super sensual: it's sexy, even when they're not talking about sex. They get pretty orgasmic when talking about nature, for instance, especially because these writers are really into the body and how it perceives and interacts with its environment. Translation: while the Enlightenment emphasized the mind, the Romantics were all about the body, baby.
Chew on This
How does Romantic poetry emphasize sensory impressions? Look at these lines from William Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud (Daffodils)" in which the speaker describes a beautiful sea of daffodils.
And here's Samuel Taylor Coleridge really getting turned on by beautiful scenery in his poem "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" (Quote #3).