National Mall Romance

This picture is what I think of when I think of a romantic image. This is a picture of the National Mall in Washington D.C. and when I see this picture I feel a sense of relaxation, calmness, and happiness that I don't feel when I look at anything else. When I look at this I don't see a city, I see a expanse of history, nature, and camaraderie. To me this is the perfect example of, what I like to call, neo-romanticism. To me, neo-romanticism is the idea of a balanced calmness that comes from the perfect combination of things that traditional romantics saw as opposites. This image gives a perfect example of neo-romanticism.

First, this image is one that combines nature and civilization. The trees and greenness of the mall area come together with the classic construction of the Smithsonian buildings to give a feeling of what would happen in the perfect world when nature meet with civilization. Neither are intruding on the other and they almost seem to compliment each other, in this situation, to create a calm balance. Those same things almost combine rural and urban to create a area somewhere in between where one minute you're in nature (the trees and greenness) and the next you're in an urban area (the classic construction of the Smithsonian building).

This image also combines art and science (or what I like to call intellectualism). The art in the construction of each of the Smithsonian buildings and in the construction of the memorials at the end of the mall combine with the intellectualism that is created in the Smithsonian buildings and the memorials as well. This feeling of calmness comes over you as you ingage your brain intellectually in these incredibly beautiful and artistic surroundings.

Lastly, this image perfectly combines poor and rich. The entire National Mall area is a place where being poor or rich no longer matters. Every Smithsonian museum, as well as all of the memorials at the end of the mall, are all free. This means that poor, rich, or somewhere in between everyone can go and enjoy the beauty and intellectualism of this area. To me, the fact that poor and rich no longer matter is the perfect combination of those two things and create a calmness that isn't allowed anywhere else.

This image is clearly not a typical representation of romanticism, but of neo-romanticism. This image combines what traditional romantics think of opposites to create a feeling of calmness that you can't find in many places in today's world.