The Romantic Period

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The Romantic Period The Romantic period has many beginnings and takes different forms; so that in a celebrated essay, On the Discrimination of Romanticism (1924), A.O. Lovejoy argued that the word “Romantic” should no longer be used, since it has come to mean so many things that by itself, it means nothing. On the derivation of the word “Romanticism” we have definite and commonly accepted information which helps us to understand its meaning. Critics and literary historians differ widely and sometimes as violently, about the answer then have differed about love truth and other concepts. Romanticism is concerned with all these concepts and with others with equal importance. It is an attitude toward life and experience older than religion, as permanent as love, and as many-sided as truth. (Watson, J.R. English Poetry of the Romantic Period, Longman Inc. New York) These were a lot of people that made the Romantic Period what it is today. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) on the Romantic Period persuasive: not only did his writings anticipate specific movements and ideas, but their general tone and fundamental principles were influential in determining the broad movement of feeling and thought in the second half of the eighteenth century. (Watson, J.R. English Poetry of the Romantic Period, Longman Inc. New York) Toward the end of the discourse, Rousseau’s consideration of developing societies leads him to a condemnation of tyrannical government. Government he argues should be by construction, in which the good monarch should obey the laws of the state, while argues the subject of the monarch. Jean Jacques Rousseau was an important figure of the Romantic Period. (Watson, J.R. English Poetry of the Romantic Period, Longman Inc... ... middle of paper ... ...ford University Press) Both were from the country and early orphaned. The political symphonies of the two were similar. The Romantic Period was a time in which music and poetry talked about love, nature, and the good of being human. Different poets like Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge made poetry that will live on in literature forever. The Romantic period didn’t only affect Britain. It affected the entire world Work Cited Page Holmes, Richard Coleridge Early Visions New York: Viking Penguin 1990 Margoliouth, H. M. Wordsworth and Coleridge Oxford University Press 1953 Peter S. Baker, Richard Beadle English Literature avl.com 1996 Peter Crossley-Holland Alexander C. Ringer avl.com Watson, J. R. English Poetry of the Romantic Period New York: Longman Inc. 1985 Whiting, B. J. The College Survey of English Literature Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York 1949

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