The Romantic Period And Robert Burns Essay

, Research Paper At the end of the eighteenth century a new literature arose in England. It was called, Romanticism, and it opposed most of the ideas held earlier in the century. Romanticism had its roots in a changed attitude toward mankind.The forerunners of the Romanticists argued that men are naturally good; society makes them bad. If the social world could be changed, all men might be happier. Many reforms were suggested: better treatment of people in prisons and almshouses; fewer death penalties for minor crimes; and an increase in charitable institutions. Romanticism was a powerful reaction against Neoclassicism in liberation of the imagination and rediscovery of nature. English romantic writers tended to turn their backs upon cities and centers of culture for their inspiration, and to seek subjects and settings for their poems in mountains and valleys, forests, meadows and brooks. Romanticism made much of freedom and imagination. Some ideas that came with the romantic movement are that humble life is best, and another was that people should live close to nature. Thus the Romantic movement was essentially anti-progress, if progress meant industrialization. Because of this concern for nature and the simple folk, authors began to take an interest in old legends, folk ballads, and rustic characters. Many writers started to give more play to their senses and to their imagination. Their pictures of nature became livelier and more realistic. They loved to describe rural scenes, graveyards, majestic mountains and roaring waterfalls. With this Romanticism grew, but it can not be accurately defined. It was a group of ideas, a web of beliefs. No one Romantic writer expressed all these ideas, but each believed enough of them to set him apart from earlier writers. The Romanticist was emotional and imaginative. He acted through inspiration and intuition, believed in democracy, humanity, and the possibility of achieving a better world. Some of the first great romanticists included, William Blake. He not only wrote books, but he also illustrated and printed them. Many of his conservative contemporaries thought he was insane because his ideas were so unusual. Among those “insane” ideas was his devotion to freedom and universal love. He was interested in children and animals. Another significant author of the Romantic period is Samuel Taylor Coleridge. No one had put more wonder and mystery into beautiful melodic verse than he did. His strange, haunting supernaturalism of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Christabel’ have universal and irresistible appeal. A friend of Coleridge’s for many years was William Wordsworth. Together they wrote a volume of verse, ‘Lyrical Ballads’, which sounded the new note in poetry. This book really signaled the beginning of English Romanticism. Coleridge found beauty in the unreal, Wordsworth found it in the realities of nature. From nature Wordsworth learned that life may be a continuous development toward goodness. He believed that if man heeds the lessons of nature he will grow in character and moral worth. But before the Romantic movement burst into full expression there were beginners, or experimenters. Some of them are great names in English literature, one would be, Robert Burns. He was born on January 25,1759 in Alloway, Ayshire, in a home like he described in his poem ‘The Cotter’s Saturday Night’. His father, William Burness was a Scottish tenant farmer and his mother was Agnes Brown Burness, Robert was the eldest of seven. As a young boy he worked long hours on his father’s farm, which was not successful. But in spite of his poverty he was extremely well read at the insistence of his father , who employed a tutor for Robert and younger brother Gilbert. Watching his father suffer, Robert began to rebel against the social conventions of his time, and the seeds of his poetry’s satire were sown. At 15 Robert was the principal worker on the farm and this prompted him to start writing in an attempt to find “some kind of counterpoise for his circumstances.” It was at this tender age he penned his first verse, “My Handsome Nell”, which was an ode to the other subjects that dominated his life, namely scotch and women. When William Burness died in 1784, Robert and his brother became partners in the farm. He worked hard, wrote poetry and had several love affairs. His farm was not profitable and Burns was restless and unhappy, he was more interested in the romantic nature of poetry than farming. His rebellion against the Calvinist religion of his community led the parents of Jean Armour to forbid her marriage to Burns, even though he was pregnant with his child. Soon after Burns turned to a new relationship with Mary Campbell, who is featured in his poem ‘Highland Mary’. Because of Burns’ open support of the French Revolution it had upset the establishment and branded him a dangerous radical. He had invited Mary Campbell to immigrate with him to Jamaica, but she died before they could leave. In 1786 Burns published ‘Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’ in nearby Kilmarnock. It was an instant success, and he soon forgot about Jamaica. The poetry in the volume highlights the lives of Scottish peasants. ‘To a Mouse’ presents the world from the point of view of a field mouse dug up by a plow. Some of the work is satiric, such as the dramatic monologue ‘Holy Willie’s Prayer’, which revealed the hypocrisy Burns saw in Calvinism. Once his works were published, they received much critical acclaim. This and the fact that he had children made him stay in Scotland. After his season of fame, he reconciled with Jean Armour and her family , married her in 1788. They leased a farm in Ellisland, and then moved to Dumfries, where Burns was employed as a tax inspector. While collecting taxes, Burns had met up with James Johnston who he had met in Edinburgh. Johnston had asked Burns for help rewriting songs for his ‘Scots Musical Museum’. Burns proved himself to be a gifted and prolific songwriter, both in writing new lyrics and in rewriting new lyrics for old Scottish tunes. Burns considered the work to be in the service of his country and refused payment. Burns revealed many of his interests in his songs. His patriotism rings in such verses as ‘Scots Wha Hae wi’ Wallace Bled’, though it was first written anonymously, it was nothing less than a cry for liberty and independence for Scotland. His romantic self is expressed in his love songs, ‘My Jean’, ‘A Red,Red Rose’ and ‘The Banks o’ Doon’. The last years of Burns’ life were dedicated to his greatest works such as ‘The Lea Rig’, ‘Tam O’Shanter’ and ‘A Red,Red Rose’. He died when he was thirty seven years old on July 21,1796 the same day Jean gave birth to his last son, Maxwell. Robert Burns was a man before his time. His style of writing had distinct characteristics of the Romantic Period, though he was twenty years early. It showed emotions instead of reason, imagination instead of logic and creativity rather than intuition. Burns paved the way for future Romanticists, showing them that individualism rather than conformity can be accepted. It would be okay if their imagination longed to dwell on far-off, exotic lands. Unlike the Neoclassicists who had been interested exclusively in their own times and contemporary society. 34f