RomaB-Non-Poetry+Movements

=Unifying Principles and Connections to Examples of British Non-Poetry during the Romantic Era=

Chris Lo

[[image:http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/resourcesd/fri_wand.jpg width="181" height="233" align="right" caption="Wanderer above the Sea of Fog"]]

 * The Romantic Era** (1798-1832) was purely a reaction against the preceding the Age of Enlightenment, which championed logic and reason with no emotion. During the Enlightenment period, scientific knowledge was of utmost importance, as everything was taken with logical thought. However, the Romantic Era attacked Enlightenment, saying that it had no creativity or individuality. Some of the early works of the Romantic Era attest to this, such as Coleridge's //Biographia Literaria//, Wordworth's //A Preface to Lyrical Ballads//, and Shelley's //[|A Defense of Poetry]//. The authors of these give their own thoughts and opinions on poetry, suggesting poetry should be written without analyzing with a scientific eye, as writers of the Enlightenment would have done.

To the Romantics, emotions and unconventional methods were fairly important. The era was all about feeling, with no need for traditional format. It dared society to dream again and be free. No longer was there a traditional way to doing things; writers could now formulate original and different ways of expressing themselves. Instinct was the driving force behind Romantics, as reason was now gone with the previous Age of Enlightenment. In addition to reason, the Romantic Era also placed value in the wisdom of children and childlike elderly figures. Everyday and simple items were under constant scrutiny by Romantics, as the idea was that one could find understanding through such items. Though the movement was at first spearheaded by English prose and poetry writers, but soon was prevalent throughout all of society, influencing music and art as well.

[[image:http://www.poemofquotes.com/samueltaylorcoleridge/coleridge.jpg width="160" height="200" align="left" caption="Samuel Taylor Coleridge"]]Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Though Coleridge was mainly a composer of poems, he is accredited with starting the English Romantic Movement with William Wordsworth in their //Preface to Lyrical Ballads//. By using vernacular language and a new way of looking at things, Coleridge and Wordsworth were revolutionary in writing style. Their new poetry was so influential that it rejected the standard Enlightenment Era and started the Romantic.

Renowned for his poetry, Coleridge was also a writer of non-poetry as seen in his periodical //The Watchman//, known to be liberal--the Romantic aspect of rejecting conventional methods. Coleridge also kept a journal of his daily meditations in his life, his //Notebooks//. Through writing down the daily everyday portions of his life, Coleridge was most likely attempting to use the tactic of sifting through simplistic and ordinary behaviors to find understanding, a characteristic of the Romantic Era.

**Percy Bysshe Shelley **
While regarded primarily as a Romantic Poet, Shelley was also an avid prose composer. In his //A Defense of Poetry//, Shelley exemplified the Romantic notion that emotion was the essence of life. He declares, "The great secret of mortals is love…and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own." Characterizing the Romantics in this statement, Shelley stresses love above all else, is needed to achieve greatness. This tendency for emotion over rational thought gives credence to the Romantic Era being a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. However, this emphasis on relationships showed Percy Shelley to be a deviant from the typical thought of the Romantic. In saying that relationships were important, he denounced the Romantic idea that the individual was important.

[[image:http://www.granta.com/dyn/1238753031765.jpeg width="206" height="186" align="left" caption="Charles Lamb"]]Charles Lamb
Personally, Lamb had many connections to the Romantic Era, literally having friendship connections with many famous contributors to the period. While best friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he was also friends with figures such as Wordsworth, Keats, Manning, Southey, Hazlitt, and Godwin. In addition, he educated Godwin's stepdaughter, Mary Shelley, who was also a writer in the Romantic Era. However, his social life among significant Romantic writers was not Lamb's only association with the Era. He introduced the personal essay to Romanticism and also composed many works in areas of drama, fiction, and poetry. An unconventional author, Lamb had a unique style of expressing his thoughts, which gave way to the personal essay. In his writing, he employed a vivid imagination, focusing on everyday items, and also wrote to children. All these factors were in accordance with the general Romantic idea of thinking, articulated with his //Tales of Shakespeare//, which he directed at children. Lamb was therefore crucial in advancing the Romantic ideas of free expression and imagination, interest in insignificance, and importance of children.

Mary Shelley[[image:http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/%7Eulrich/19cdress/timelinepix/MaryShelley.jpg width="148" height="184" align="right" caption="Mary Shelley"]]
Spouse to the influential Romantic, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley was also a supporter of the Romantic Era, despite her somewhat Gothic tendencies. While her personal ideas spawned the Gothic movement, she was more in tune with the Romantic movement than her husband because she believed more in the importance of the individual. Percy Shelley emphasized relationship, but Mary Shelley rejected this and was more of a feminist. Writing numerous short stories, essays, poems, and reviews, Mary Shelley is most well known for //Frankenstein//, a tale about a creation apart from the natural and conventional tendencies of nature. This rejection of traditional means of creating life was in a sense a facet of the Romantic Era--a tendency for unconventional methods.