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 17th 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.
