From Neoclassicism to Romanticism

Paper Summary:

In this essay, the writer traces the evolution of literature across the 18th century from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. The writer contends that while both take nature as their models, there is a gulf of disparity between their interpretations of it. The writer points out that Neoclassicists were very aware of measure and balance, being moved by science, and took their models from the classical heritage. The writer then notes that Romantics, on the other hand, eschewed the cold calculation of science, and turned towards raw nature and feeling. The essay examines poetry and in particular prosody, diction and genre.

From the Paper:

"Eighteenth century poetry interests us because of the radical transformation that took place in literature as a whole across this period. It opens with the Augustan age in literature, in which the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome are extolled, so that reason, measure, balance and commons sense are made the highest virtues. At the other end come the Romantic movement, which is marked by a violent turning away from cold and measured rationalism, as practiced by Dryden and Pope, in favor of spontaneity and feeling. Both the Augustan and Romantic poets took nature as their model, and were thus in tune with the parallel rise of the natural sciences. The transformation, therefore, was in how nature came to be perceived. The Augustan poets conceived it differently from the Romantic ones, and we notice a gradual evolution from one to the other. Poetry affords us an ideal means to study this cultural phenomenon. Through analyzing prosody, diction and genre in selected poems of this period we are able to arrive at an illuminating picture of change. Each factor is considered in turn."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aristotle. (1920). On the Art of Poetry. Translated by Ingram Bywater. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Barber, C. (2000). The English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Gray, T. (1966). The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Publishing.
• Wordsworth, W., Samuel Taylor Coleridge, R. L. Brett. (1991). Lyrical Ballads. London: Routledge.

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