Romantic Period

     In Romantic Period,romanticism was characterized by the five "I"s. They were imagination,intuition,idealism,inspiration and individuality. Imagination was over "reason." It was an view against rationalism. Romantics thought imagination was necessary for creating  all art. Emotions were important in Romantic literature. Poetry was identified in this period as "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." (Wordsworth) They used a genuine language fired by ideas of personal and political liberty and sublimity of the natural world. The romantic era was also rich in literary criticism and other nonfictional prose. If you want to take much more information,you can visit this website:
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/english-literature-the-romantic-period.html#ixzz32g3LHauX

Robinson Crusoe

     Robinson Crusoe written by Daniel Defoe has a realistic fiction without imagination. Defoe wrote this story with real events and he named this story "Robinson Crusoe". It is an adventure novel about a castaway and his friend Friday. Until the last three years of a twenty-eight years adventure,he lived alone in an island. After twenty-five years,he realized another people coming this island. He became friend with one of them,Friday. He spent with the last three years of his adventure with him. The most impressive aspect of this work is being a realistic novel without imagination. Time is real,place is real,settings are real and the names of characters are real. I think being a realistic novel makes it much more fluent,fastmoving.

18th Century and One of The Works of This Period "A Modest Proposal"

     In eighteenth century,we began to see the influence of rationalism in writings. The powers of reason and common sense were superior to imaginations and emotions. Order,reason and balance ruled the day and these words were the key words of this period. Poetry and drama took a secondary role in the 18th century. Poems were mostly in the form of satire and mock-heroic verse. There was a conflict between intellect and emotions. Drama included didactic elements and moral standards. Essays,journalism and the novel were the most important aspects of this age. Defoe,Swift and Johnson wrote articles and essays for periodicals. Real settings were used.

     One of the works in this period is "A
 Modest Proposal" written by Jonathan Swift. It is a satiric work. Jonathan talks about the children in his country. He suggests eating children because of the poverty in his country. Children would be used make clothes. By this way, he wanted to bring attention to poverty of his country. I think this work is very impressive. He tries to show the reality to his country and of his country. He did this job by choosing a satiric way.

Mac Flecknoe

     Mac Flecknoe was written by John Dryden. He is satirist,playwright and poet of the Restoration Period. It is written in a satiric and humorous way,"mock-heroic and mock-epic". In this poem,"hero" is Thomas Shadwell. Dryden wrote this poem to poke fun at Shadwell. In this poem "mac" means "son of" and Flecknoe is passing on his talent of dullness and stupidity to Shadwell,his supposed son. Who is Flecknoe? He is also a poet and writer,but he is a talentless person. He is the person who is living and sitting at the top of dullness and stupidity. Shadwell inherits the place of dulness and he is represented by Sh... Dryden used two objectives in using this abbreviation. Shadwell and Shit.

Obedience To God

John Milton expresses the importance of obedience to God in the first words of Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost is about Adam and Eve,how God created them and how they became lost in the Garden of Even,also called Heaven. It also includes the story of the origin of Satan,in this poem he is Lucifer. He is an angel who is against God with his followers and God sent him to hell with his followers. He tries to convince by turning into a traitor and tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. The climax of this poem is that Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

Civil War and The Writers of This Period

     The struggle between the monarchy and the parliament resulted in the Civil War. This civil war period  influenced English Literature as we can see the other periods' influences on literature. The first newspapers also begun to appear. Scientific discoveries was becoming increasingly important. John Milton and Andrew Marvell are writers of this period. If you want to take much more information about Civil War period and its influences on English Litarature,you can read Literature and The Civil War edited by Thomas Healy and Jonathan Sawday. (http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/literature/renaissance-and-early-modern-literature/literature-and-english-civil-war)
     Love of learning and strong religious beliefs are themes of John Milton's writings. He supported the Commonwealth against Charles I. He was imprisoned after the Restoration for a short period. What about "On His Blindness"? It's about John Milton's blindness. He talks to "Patience" in his poem. Patience says "You think God needs your work? No,man. Life is full of burden and if you can stand life's burden,you are the best servant of God. You can just bear and wait on him,and that's enough."
   

     Andrew Marvell is a politician and producedvarious poems and polemical religious pamphlets during the rest of his life. He published his first verses in Latin and Greek at the age of 16. What about "To His Coy Mistress". It is completely about carpediem between sex and time. We shouldn't consider about tomorrow or yesterday. Time is passing so fast. In the first stanza,he used heart metaphorically for love and sex. In the second stanza says us that we don't have the time,we are about to die. Life is very short,but death is forever. In the third stanza,he mentions about "now". Anyway,he says,we can not make time stop,but we can change places or our life with it. He provides a chance to explore some of those confusing thoughts.

Thought-provoking Poems

Metaphysical poetry dates back 17th century. Poets used unusual conceit and metaphysical wit. The love was physical love,not courtly love-platonic love. They developed ideas with detailed and complex ways. John Done was one of these poets. His poems "The Flea","Holy Sonnets" and George Herbert's poem "Easter Wings"  are the examples of this kind of poetry. Once we read these poems,firstly maybe we can't understand anything or we understand semantic meaning but not pragmatic meaning. In these kind of poems,poets try to tell something with a metaphoric meaning. So they are thought-provoking.

Death and End

     Macbeth is the shortest and one of the most important tragedy of Shakespeare. It tells us a man who is power-hungry and who goes back on his best friend. It's main idea is that a person shouldn't believe everthing and shouldn't go back on his/her best friend for anything.
     Macbeth believes in three witches and he thinks that prophecies will come true. He tells everything which three witches says to his wife. His wife gets inside his head and he kills Duncan and Banque,Macbeth's best friend. End of this play,Malcolm,Duncan's son, comes the king of Scotland. Prophecy of witches about Banque makes us think because witches says to Banque that you will be father of king.
     To sum up,I think the important point is that everybody should use his own mind. If Macbeth used his own mind,there would be no death and their relationship wouldn't be end.

Two Feuding Families' Elegy

"Love is to risk death."

There is an enmity between Capulet and Montague families. Because of this enmity,Prince Escalus of Verona says that : "If there is a problem between them,fighters will be punished by death." Later, Count Paris comes out of the blue to talk Capulet about his desire to marry his daughter Juliet. Although Capulet says Paris to wait two years,he tries to persuade Juliet to accept Paris's proposal. Capulets throw a ballroom party. Benvolio,Romeo's cousin, knows Romeo's severe depression and this depression's reason is a girl named Rosaline who is a member of Capulet family. Benvolio thinks that if Romeo goes their ballroom party,he can see her and declare his love. So,he goes Capulet's house secretly hoping to see Rosaline. But he sees Juliet who is Capulet's daughter. And he falls in love with Juliet. Romeo wants to tell his love to Juliet. Romeo slithers away the Capulet grove and overhears Juliet at her window vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. The next day,they are secretly married with helps of Friar Laurence who wants to reunite Capulet and Montague families. Tybalt,Juliet's cousin, challenges to Romeo but Romeo thinks that they are kinsman anymore. Meanwhile,Tybalt hurts Mercutio's,Romeo's confidant,feelings. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo interrupts their fight. At that exact moment, Romeo kills Tybalt. This circumstance reaches Prince of Verona's ears and Romeo is banished from Verona. Because of these events,Capulet want to Julitet marry to Paris but Juliet doesn't want to marry him. She wants to delay this marriage but her family rejects. So she goes to Friar Laurence for his help. Friar Laurence prepares a drug that will put her into a deathlike coma for forty two hours and he says Juliet to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan. Before wedding night,she takes this drug and her family discoveres her death. The messenger doesn't reach Romeo,but he hears the death of his love from Balthasar. He buys poison from an apothecary and goes to the Capulet crypt. When he reaches there,he encounters Paris. He kills Paris just over there.After Romeo drinks the poison,Juliet awakens and finds her love Romeo dead. She stabs herself his dagger. The enmity families and Prince encounters lovers' dead and Paris's dead. This love reunites the enmity families. The play end with Prince's elegy:
"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

"There is a chance more. Is it death?"

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

He was one of the most important English playwright and poets. He was best known for his masterpieces for instance Romeo and Juliet,Hamlet,Macbeth,Othello as tragedies;As You Like It,Twelft Night,Midsummer Night's Dream as comedies. His plays were played much more time,even today being played. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century like other poets or contemporaries. His quotations are very attractive to me,because I am very interested in literature. "To be or not to be." is very important for my life. Whenever I hear this quote or whenever I read it,I think and say myself  "There is a chance more. Do you think it is death?"