preview

Understanding Lord Byron ' The Romantic Period

Decent Essays

Stephanie Zavala
Mrs. Krudwig
English 12
3 March 2017
Understanding Lord Byron
The Romantic Period was a time where life changed for so many. At the time, nations were experiencing the results of the Industrial Revolution. “England was the first nation in the world to experience the effects of the Industrial Revolution” (Henry 527). Instead of products being made by hand, they were being made now by machines. Homes of people were being used for industries. The people most affected were those of the lower class. No one cared about them. People were ignoring the changes in the world. Romantics wanted to show the world that these changes were negative changes. The writers during the Romantic Period wanted to bring real life feelings …show more content…

It changed the way of living, which changed the way of thinking. Imagination was seen as one of the key features to describe one’s perspective of the world. Henry explains that the human imagination is some kind of desire - “a motive that drives the mind to discover things that it cannot learn by rational or logical thinking” (532). Logical thinking could not explain the importance in change, so something else had to be used. Imagination drives a person’s mind into deeper thought than does reason. He explains how life on earth dies off. “All earth was but one thought-and that was death” (Byron 42). Writing about an apocalyptic world, brings out the curiosity of people; therefore, people use imagination to put themselves in this situation to be able to understand. William quotes, “I see everything I paint in this world, but everybody does not see alike” (532). Everyone has a different perspective. It is hard to be able to explain the writer’s writing without imagination and creativity. Readers don’t use reason to understand the poet’s intention. Using reason, just describes only one point of view. Henry states, “Romanticism turned away from the eighteenth-century emphasis on reason and artifice. Instead, the Romantics embraced imagination and naturalness” (529). During the period, they believed that “imagination, rather than mere reason, was the best response to the forces of change” (Henry 529). According to Henry, Wordsworth

Get Access