The Age of Romanticism
Below is a chart indicating in broad terms some of the tendencies in thought and literature as the Age of Reasom in the 18th Century moves into the period of Romanticism. Perhaps as important to the development of modern man as the enlightenment, it is a period that fosters individuality and a profound connection to nature.
We re-emphasize that these epochal transformations are not instant or universal, but rather revolutionary changes in thought and practice that gradually emerge to change the state of western civilization and beyond.
| Reason | Passion |
| "Humankind" | Individual |
| Hierarchy | Brotherhood of Man |
| Shared Qualities | Uniqueness |
| Institutions= Order | Culture Inst.= Repression, Distortion of Nature |
| Epic | Lyric |
| Reason, Empiricism | Imagination |
| Has Genius (understands Classics | Is Genius (Innate Quality) |
| Nature (patterns of Order) | Nature (Irrational, un-understandable) |
We might understand the attitude towards nature in two ways. One is the gentle beauty of the pastoral, which in many senses may be thought to reflect in nature the gentler states of being found in man. The sublime is considered to be that in nature which is terrifying, awe-inspiring, incomprehensible--the storm in the high mountains, the view from atop a sharp crag, the sheer immensity of the ocean, etc.
Link to summary of Wordsworth, Keats,
Leopardi
Link to brief characterization of Romanticism into Realism