Romantics
Essay by 24 • April 3, 2011 • 380 Words (2 Pages) • 984 Views
The Romantics were known for their use of the exotic and archaic in their poetry because they were in a very exotic and archaic state of mind when writing their poetry. The Romantics were very experimental writers and they lived during a very tough period in time, and this showed in their poetry. The Romantic period had the shortest life span of any literary era in the English language. It lasted 43 years, 1789 to 1832, and it was very tough 43 years. It started during the French revolution and ended during the parliamentary reforms, which established a base for which still exists in modern day Britain. There were six major Romantics, and they were split into two generations. The first generation consisted of William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The second generation consisted of Percy Bysshe, John Keats, and George Gordon, Lord Byron.
These poets were considered archaic because they were the first to experiment with this style of writing. There was no one before them, so for influence they had to look back to the past for influence. Even when inventing a new style of writing there still has to be some influence. It is very hard to come up your own completely original literary style. They admired the work of Milton and Shakespeare very much. All the first generation romantics felt those two were the best poets and admired their style. Shakespeare and Milton were very old poets and they influenced the Romantics so their poems came off very archaic and out dated. They used very old English that was hard for people to comprehend, making some people feel the writings were exotic
The romantics were known for their theories on the connection between nature, the mind, and the imagination. The way that the romantic poets thought and the theories on politics were very different for that time. This made them seem exotic and different from the average poet. While most people were joining the army or supporting the government in
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