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The Romanticism Period

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History is the story and knowledge of the past. There are individuals that are interested by history and wish to study it by learning more. It is very informative to know what has happened in the past for self-knowledge. An individual cannot be naïve to the past including but not limited to how literature came to. One can understand literature more when they understand the time period the author wrote during and the way they wrote. There are several time periods different authors have been through with each period having specific beliefs. Romanticism is the time period that interests me the most; it was a time during the eighteenth century and focused on nature along with the individual’s expression of imagination and emotion. The …show more content…

He is known as the father of Romanticism. “He believed that humans must follow ‘the promptings of our own nature’, and not be bound by social laws of politeness.” He also wrote an autobiography, Confessions that discusses his experience of crossing the Alps alone on foot; Confessions is a perfect example of his Romantic passion, for example, “I need torrents, rocks, firs, dark woods, mountains… to make me afraid” (King 11). Smart is recognized as an original poet and forerunner of the Romantics, “best known is his loving itemization of the qualities of his cat, a classically Romantic appreciation of a being that rejoices in being itself and living for the day.” Chatterton inspired Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Shelley because of his determination to seek his life in London although he was depressed and died at a young age. He was a product of youthful genius. Coleridge describes him as “the marvelous Boy, the sleepless Soul that perished in his pride.” Chatterton’s early death is also said to be a “Romantic foreshadowing of the early deaths of all three of the second generation of Romantic poets” (King 13-15). Godwin was an atheist and believed humans could improve themselves without institutions or laws. His daughter was Mary Godwin, who married Percy Shelley. She wrote Frankenstein, which is known as a Gothic novel in Romanticism (King 16). The period also developed lyrical ballads, short poems that express personal

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