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.