English Literature Romantic Period

Breeana Whitehead The Art in Romanticism The works of William Woodsworth and William Blake are some of many great examples of Romantic literature. Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that began in Europe in the early 1800’s. It was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution as illustrated in William Woodsworth’s “Michael. ” This poem mourns the changes made by the Industrial Revolution. In Romantic texts, everything written is out of the ordinary and very fictional. The characters in a romantic piece of literature are created from nothing and the plot is often in imaginary places.

All pieces of art and intellect were nothing but fantasy put to paper in one form or another. There is nothing realistic about Romantic literature. This is the Romantic Period. Every piece of art, whether it is music or paintings or drawings or literature, was created to make their readers think about their own emotions within the art. William Blake displays the Romanticism in his poem “Garden of Love” by showing discussing an aspect of spirituality. He shows how with religion there is a disconnect of freedom. The poem speaks of a chapel that was built where the speaker, whether Blake or an unknown character, used to play.

The speaker notices a sign saying “Thou Shall Not” on the door of the chapel and so he turned to the garden of love. The speaker soon notices that there are tombstones where flowers should be, and priests were walking around in black binding the character’s joys and desires. This shows the captivity that Blake believed came to a person when that person claimed religion. This shows a free thought that well expresses the idea of Romanticism. This shows the intellectual freedom that the Romantic Period brought forth. William Woodsworth showed Romanticism in his many works, such as his poem, “Michael. Woodsworth romanticizes or dreams up the characters of Michael and Luke. Michael is a shepherd that lives in the forest side of Grasmere Vale, and Luke was his son. Michael’s family happily lives off in this beautiful countryside when a financial burden falls upon them because of a contract that Michael had signed. Instead of selling his land, Michael sends Luke off to work to pay off this debt. While gone Luke prospers well for himself at first but them falls into a criminal line and has to flee. Michael mourns the loss of his son and soon thereafter Michael and Isabel, Michael’s wife, both die.

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This poem is a good example of the changes from the Industrial Revolution that spurred the Romantic Movement but it is also a great example of the fictional aspect of Romanticism. Another brilliant example of Romantic literature is the poem, “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” by Percy Shelley. In this poem Shelley turns inward to this idea of intellectual beauty. This beauty is an intangible, spiritual idea that is different for everyone. This intellectual beauty becomes the freedom from the doom and gloom that Shelley describes the world to be.

The spiritual aspect and emotional pull of this poem makes it a perfect illustration of a Romantic poem. The literature and other arts from the Romantic period were created to create emotion within a person and to make them think about their emotions. This poem does a great job at forcing its reader to look inward to determine his or her own intellectual beauty, whether it be love or hope or self-esteem. A final example of a Romantic poem is Lord Byron’s “When We Two Parted. ” This poem definitely pulls at a readers heartstrings. The poem talks about two people who were lovers but something happened to break them apart.

It seems that one of the two in the relationship had had an affair or somehow broke their vows and forced a separation between the two lovers. Byron’s poem brings out the emotions of the audience. The Romantic Age was basically an era of an outpouring of feelings. All of the works of this time period were based on an effort to make their audience feel something. The works were of religious and intellectual standards that caused the reader or the observer to stop his or her own life for a second and contemplate a deeper meaning to the work and to life.

Artists and authors such as William Blake in his poem “Garden of Love,” William Woodsworth in his poem “Michael,” Percy Shelley in his “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” and Lord Byron in his emotional poem, “When We Two Parted,” developed pieces of art that brought this emotional appeal to the table. These pieces of literature represent and explain Romanticism and the Romantic Era perfectly with everything from the fantasy and fictional characters and plots and settings in the pieces such as “Michael,” to the emotional aspects as shown in “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” and in “When We Two Parted. ”

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