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Romanticism
A German poet Friedrich Schlegel, who has been given a lot of credit for initially using the term romanticism in describing literature, defined the term as literature that depict emotional issue in the imaginative form (Millán-Zaibert 1). Since the first use of the term, it has been recognized as a movement in literature and art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the revolution against the previous centuries Neoclassicism.
The term “Elegy” is basically neo-classical and is traditional. However, in his poem, Gray, Elegy, written in a country churchyard, in attitudes and ideas breaks new ground by celebrating the humanity and worth of a common man in an approach that suggests the Romantics such as Wordsworth and Burns. Gray (1) ruminates with a romantic melancholy above “the short and simple annals of the poor.”
Gray further portrays one amongst the most noticeable features of Romanticism as nature. For instance, in his poem, the sounds and sights described in the poem’s opening stanzas have created a rural atmosphere, suggesting the concern in many edges of nature (Gray 2). In the opening lines, the poet has built up an evening atmosphere in a rural area.
One of the characteristics of Romanticism, as described by Johnson, in The Vanity of Human Wishes, is imagination in human nature. Johnson says every human always imagines leading happy lives but can merely do that if the individual is clever and wise enough to avoid making common mistakes (Johnson 2). Therefore, The Vanity of Human Wishes sums up all of the bad things people should avoid so that they can live a happy life of success but not a miserable one.
Works Cited
Gray, Thomas. Elegy wrote in a country churchyard. John Van Voorst, 1839.
Johnson, Samuel. The vanity of human wishes. RS Bear, 2000.
Millán-Zaibert, Elizabeth. Friedrich Schlegel and the emergence of romantic philosophy. SUNY Press, 2008.