《浪漫主义时期的诗歌和散文英国》.docVIP

浪漫主义时期的诗歌和散文Poetry and Essays in the Romantic Age The literary movement called Romanticism represented a renewal of progressive thought and emotion (liberal, free and open-handed), which had existed before the 1700s and which had never totally died out. While Romanticism in the1800s signaled a new mood (a feeling or emotion held by a large number of people at a time当时许多人的一种共同的情绪), the world had witnessed earlier cultural movements that also merit the name Romanticism. Specifically, the ancient Greek epics （古代希腊史诗）can be called Romantic, as can much literature of the Medieval Period and of the Renaissance, or Elizabethan Age. All these writings---and the writings of the English Romantic Age under study here---emphasize human adventure, passion, delight, love of splendor, of extravagance, and of the supernatural. The Romantic tradition in all these periods can be viewed in contrast to another main literary tradition---Classicism or neoclassicism. The pendulum of literary taste seems to swing between the two traditions. Now let’s have a look and examine the following lists, which contrast elements, outlooks, and concerns associated with the neoclassicism of the 1700s and the Romanticism of the early 1800s. Keep in mind also that although earlier literary periods can indeed be seen as typically Romantic, the period discussed here (1798-1837) is considered the Romantic Age. Neoclassical Romantic Tradition experiment society Individual Urban rural Artificial Nature loving Intellect, reason Imagination, emotion Public Private, subjective Logical, solid Mysterious, supernatural aristocratic common Cultivated primitive Conformist independent constraint spontaneity Formal diction Natural diction Three notable poets of the 1700s---Thomas Gray, William Blake, and Robert Burns---were in many respects as “romantic” as any poets of the Romantic Age, but the work of these three was isolated. Why did English literatu