A liceo
classico
Emotion vs. reason: describe the main features of
Pre-Romantic poetry as a reaction to 18th century Enlightment.
The Pre-Romantic Age is
a period of transition between the Enlightment and the Romanticism: in the last
thirty years of the 18th century, the faith in reason, which
characterized the first part of the century, started losing its value. The
consequence of the industrial revolution was an "ugly world", in which men
followed precise schemes of living ruled by rationality. As a result of the
unsatisfaction for the present situation, men and especially poets turned their
attention to feelings and emotion. So the nature was no more an organism which
man can rule through rationality, but became something real and living,
existing as a man exists. The poets' attention was given to sensibility, to the
natural and real world. So everyday life, stories of poor people and folk
traditions became common themes in that literary context. Even though its
structure was still similar to the Augustan one, poetry was strictly related to
his author as a person and not only as a poet: his feeling, thoughts and
personal experiences was reflected in his works. Melancholy and sadness were
dominate feelings, connected to the historical and social context, which in
England evolved before than in the rest of Europe. An interest
in suffering and death grew and ruins, ancient castles and graveyards became
popular settings: desolate and peaceful places in contrast with the new active
and chaotic society. The concept of "sublime", an elevated feeling (often of
fear or terror) produce by what's terrible and infinitive, was developed too
and become a recurrent theme in Pre-Romantic poetry.
