Sublime in Romanticism
"Sublime" is one slippery term.
According to the Romantics, we experience the sublime when we're out in nature. But not just any nature—we have to be facing nature at its grandest, it's most awe-inspiring. Think big mountains, crazy deep valleys, a huge thunderstorm with lightning striking everywhere.
What happens when we are confronted with nature at its grandest is that we are both terrified and uplifted all at once. It's a hard feeling to describe, but we're guessing you've felt it.
The sublime was so important to the Romantics because (1) they loved nature and anything having to do with nature, and (2) they believed that the sublime transcended the rational. That is, the feelings of awe and terror evoked by the sublime are beyond words and the emotions that the sublime creates overwhelm rational thought. When that big thunderstorm hits, we are terrified and excited, we're laughing and we're crying. We're basically a whole mess of very powerful emotions. Think of it this way:
Nature + powerful emotion = the Sublime.
And who said poets weren't good at math?
Chew on This
See William Wordsworth describing the sublime in this quotation (Quote #2) from "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798"
How is the sublime scary and mysterious all at once? Check out William Blake's reflection on the "fearful mystery" of a tiger in his poem "The Tyger."