Oh, and to be sure, the Ritz is very romantic, particularly in Boston.

Claire

Sometimes 'romantic' is like 'charming' meaning 'tiny room' when related to hotels.

It's a quite little table in the corner where you and your partner can enjoy each other's company as well as the meal without being able to hear or sense the couple at the next table who are also enjoying their romantic dinner.

Hey Loisde---The "wet rat look" is totally in! When My wife walks through the back door with her favorite baseball cap on or rainwater dripping down her neck I'm chasing her all over the house. ;-)

To find an apt definition of "romantic", it might help to go to one of the sources of early romanticism, Jean Jacques Rousseau, who said:

"I am commencing an undertaking, hitherto without precedent and which will never find an imitator. I desire to set before my fellows the likeness of a man in all the truth of nature, and that man myself. Myself alone! I know the feelings of my heart, and I know men. I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different."

A romantic place is wherever my wife is!

Shouldn't feel badly if we hgave trouble coming up with a definition. It's a difficult task.

"Because the expression Romanticism is a phenomenon of immense scope, embracing as it does, literature, politics, history, philosophy and the arts in general, there has never been much agreement and much confusion as to what the word means. It has, in fact, been used in so many different ways that some scholars have argued that the best thing we could do with the expression is to abandon it once and for all. However, the phenomenon of Romanticism would not become less complex by simply throwing away its label of convenience."

Much more at the site: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/romanticism.html

And what discussion of romanticism would be complete without some Colderidge?

"The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,

That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise."

I don't think the larger concept of Romanticism in the arts is the same as a romantic atmosphere for lovers.

I have never had the pleasure of staying at a Ritz Carlton, but I am pretty sure I would find a room there exceedingly romantic. Anyone want to give DH and I a lovely Valentine's Day gift? ;-)

Sorry, the guy was a Harvard graduate.
As he said, you haven't seen his sister, either.
So you lack the basic competence to comment.

Sorry about the previous bloated posts. Valentine's Day always seems to turn me into a romantic gasbag.

I for one enjoyed your post. That's a favorite poem of mine. My similarly inspired attempts at the poetical have been ignored. Sigh....

Romantic for me is when my husband does something specifical specifically for me...goes out of his way to find fresh raspberries and serves them to me for breakfast with cream (one of my favorite things to eat ever), writes a letter for me to read while I am on a plane going somewhere without him, makes a CD of music that is special or particular to us for me to listen to when he's away....or together laying on our floor in the Living Room, drinking wine and wearing headphones while our cats curl up to us...thoughtful things that require really knowing the person you are with. When we were first dating he brought me the oddest looking piece of fruit I had ever seen-he's a chef so a lot of our moments are food centric!-called a Buddhist Hand Fruit-but it smelled so lovely so I kept it in my room. Not the typical roses kind of guy, that's for sure!

I meant special specifically for me, not "specifical!"