The Transition period: 1760-1798

 

 

The Transition period: 1760-1798

 

Introduction-

The second half of the eighteenth century is known as a transitional period. The period has witnessed two totally different phases of creation. The writing style of literature was changing from classical to Romantic. During this age writers were rebelling towards classical way of writing and were turning towards romantic literature. The rise of Romantic poetry has started from this period. This rise of Romantic poetry is also called,

“The romantic reaction, against the classical domination”

The age was dominated by Dr. Semuel Johnson, and it is also known as “An Age of Johnson”. It is also called ‘The Age of Sensibilty’.

 

What is the meaning of ‘Transition’?

It was a ‘movement’ or ‘shift from one position to another’. This can also be called ‘someone or something moving’ from one place to other. Here, in this age, literature was having a transaction from classical to romantic.

In literature, the transition period is between Augustan period (classics) and Romantic period. Writers have started following new ideals in literature writing, which were totally different than classical approach of writing.

 

Background:

Transition period was the age of change. Things were constantly changing from classical to romantic. From a political point of view, the period was of George III, king of Hanover. His reign was of sixty years from 1760-1820. He was patriotic and was accepted by all.

The age was also having revolutions such as,

1776: American Revolution

1763: France-England war

1789: French Revolution

There were other revolutions also like in 1780, there was a transport revolution and after that new factories were established and people were working for fifteen to sixteen hours in factories.

 

Works

1764: Horace Walpole wrote the first gothic novel in English, called 'The castle of Otranto', a frightening story full of supernatural events set in medieval times. He transformed his home in Strawberry Hill in a gothic castle;

1765: Bishop Percy published a volume of ballads called 'Reliques of Ancient English poetry' which became very popular and made ballads truly popular

James MacPherson, a Scottish poet, translated from Gaelic in English a story wrote by Ossian about an unknown hero. MacPherson was so famous for his characteristic 'ossianic poetry'.

1777: Thomas Chatterton wrote 'Rowley poems', poems in pseudo-middle English (saying he had found them and that they were written by Rowley who didn't exist. Thomas Chatterton committed suicide at the age of 17 and so he is now considered as the example of the romantic poet not appreciated by the society)

Some Characteristics of poetry of pre-romantics

1. Decline of the heroic couplet and free use of the Pindaric ode in the works of Gray and Collins.
2. The revival of the ballad.
3. The descriptive and narrative poems began – e.g. The Deserted Village.
4. The rise of lyric. The intense simplicity of the lyric of Burns and Blake.

James Thomson’s the Seasons (1730) had presented nature herself at first hand, Thomson’s The Seasons was the first noteworthy poem of the romantic revival; and the poems and poets increased steadily in number and importance till, in the age of Wordsworth and Scott, the spirit of romanticism dominated English literature more completely than Classicism had ever done.

This Romantic Movement – Victor Hugo says,

“Liberalism in literature – is simply the expression of life as seen by imagination, rather than by prosaic “common-sense”, which was the central doctrine of English philosophy in the 18th century.”

There The word 'romantic' started to be use in England in the 17^th century with the meaning of unreal, extraordinary, fictitious, fabulous, imaginary, each of one deriving its meaning from the medieval romance

Here is the difference between the characteristics of classical and romantics.

Classical age	Romantic Age
Individualism	Role of poet
Imitation of the classics	Use of Emotion
Politics and social issues	Imagination and Nature
Satire and irony	Spiritual and supernatural
Empiricism	Ordinary subjects

 

Conclusion:

The period transition has observed drastic change in the ideology of literature writing and revolutions. The spirit of one age has transitioned into another one. Some writers have followed their will and observed nature and its beauty and reflected that onto their poetry. They also revolted against the neo-classical style of writing which was mere imitating the classical forms.