“The Age of Revolt ” During each period of life on the planet earth, a new idea, religion, or belief comes about. Each period is characterized by having a major idea that is shared among all that is living at the time. Writers and poets that lived in these time periods not only believed in what the others did, but wrote about their dreams and ideas they shared. The age of Romanticism was characterized as a time of love, but if a person was to examine a poem or work that was written during this they will realize it was not just a time of love at all. The Romantic period was gilded to be happy and peaceful, but it really was a time of revolt, world wonder, and the rejection of intellectualism (Essay topic page).
About one hundred and fifty years before the Romantic period was the Restoration time period. Poets and writers during the time wrote in a dull style that had very little imagination. They wrote of actual occurrences and told things the way they were. Toward the end of the Restoration and into the Romantic period, writer and poets began to write creative stories and poems that seemed to contradict the literature from the time before. Poets like Coleridge would write of unusual or supernatural things, and writers like Mary Shelly who wrote the gruesome tell of Frankenstein. One example of a supernatural idea is in Frankenstein when the lead character Victor Frankenstein say’s “I had glazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” The poems and stories of this time are so different from the Restoration time period, a person can only fathom that the writers at the time are just revolting from the time before.
The writers were just sick of the dull writing style before them and they set out to prove a point. During the Restoration time period people did not care about the earth and nature. All they cared about was themselves and what people thought of them in their social class. Social class was a major issue during the Restoration, for example in Chaucer’s the Canterbury the different characters in the story range in class from a Knight, to a Pardoner. Toward the end of the Restoration and into the Romantic time period writers began to ignore the social class issue and they became more concerned with the earth and universe. One romantic poet who was known for his poetry on the earth and the universe was William Wordsworth.
His poem, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” is about him returning to the Tintern Abby after it had been destroyed, and he r embers the past and tells of his emotion at the time. One example of the earth is in when he says, ” These waters, rolling form their mountain springs with a soft inland murmur” (line 4). The new concepts that William Wordsworth and many others came up with, led to other new ideas and eventually the rejection of intellectualism. The Romantic time period was a time of wonder, the writers at this time did not care about other people, they only cared about their imagination and they wrote about what ever they wanted. Some people say the Romantic time period was a time of great geniuses, but I think it was a time of the rejection the intellect. For example in the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelly she writes nothing more than her thoughts on the Egyptian king Rates.
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings” (line 10). This poem took no intellect to write, but since she did use her imagination unlike the writers in the Restoration time period, this poem stands out among all that was written before. The “Age of Revolt” or Romantic time period was a time of revolt, world wonder, and the rejection of intellectualism. If Romanticism had not occurred the human race would not be the same. If the writers during time like Mary Shelly and Coleridge would not have revolted from the Restoration, the people today would be writing about the social class and everyday boring accounts they encounter. With out the writings of William Wordsworth the human would not have walked on the moon, nor would the killing of animals be stopped, because no one would care about the earth or the universe.
Last if writers like Percy Bysshe Shelly would not have wrote nonsense stories like “Ozymandias” people today would not have thought to write non fiction movies and books that keep people entertained. Romanticism was a major time period and with out it’s religions, beliefs, and ideas that people have today would not exist.