Friday, March 28, 2014

Discuss the causes of the ROMANTIC REVOLUTION in English poetry?

The Romantic "revolution" is a convenient concept that
derives from the French Revolution (1789) and the dramatic changes that followed: 
freedom and dignity of the individual, appreciation for nature, expansion of imagination
in literature and the arts, and a celebratory approach to life.  The "revolution" in
English poetry is tied to William Wordsworth and his 1800 Preface to Lyrical
Ballads
, in which he argued for a new language for poetry, not dependent on
the poetic diction of the previous century, but on valid emotion and everyday words,
combined creatively and uniquely to capture a feeling, mood, atmosphere or scene, and
also to be blended with philosophy.  The preference for simple subjects was especially
new, and brought Wordsworth ridicule at first.  But the poets who followed him were able
to pursue the path that he had set, taking English poetry into entirely new, and
wondrous, directions.

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