Restoration Literature and Romanticism: Common Facts

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Generally, Restoration Literature period in the English literature is the period between 1660 and 1689. Such commonly accepted literature pieces as “The imperfect Enjoyment”, “The disappointment”, “Country Wife”, “Oroonoko”, “A Modest Proposal” were written during this period. This period can be described as unusual in the English literature as it is marked by an unusual historic event of the Stuart monarchy’s restoration. King Charles’s presence is evident in numerous literature pieces of that period: poets and writers are united in their efforts to reflect on Charles’ personality and interests both positively and, in case of his adversaries, negatively.

First of all, this literature period is marked as an outstanding blossoming in poetry. The king was its main inspirer and each of his acts and accomplishments were immediately addressed in pieces of poetry. Thus, poetry became the most popular and the most wide-spread genre during this period. The main objective among poets of this period is considered to be creating English epic. Such efforts were made by Sir William Davenant; however, his work Gondibert was criticized as not enough sufficient and in addition, of a balladic nature (Greenblatt, p. 275). Unfortunately, there occurred no successful efforts in writing English epic; still, later the scientists discovered Beowulf which occupied this niche in the English literature. Observing the tendencies within lyric poetry where the poet expresses one’s own feelings and emotions from the first person, it should be said that it is not common for this period. The narrators of this period promote intellectual values and public interests rather than personal feelings and emotions. The poetry mainly features such genres as ariel verse, ode, and pastoral poetry (Hammond, 2009). Thus, devaluation of personal concerns, feelings and emotions to public matters, philosophic ideas and political propaganda is present during that period.

Discussing themes of this period, it should be said again that all the literature works along with the other pieces of art are addressed to king Charles and his personality. Namely, the literature pieces have two common tendencies in the peculiarities of topic choice: praising the king, or on the contrary, critiquing him. The diction of this period is strong, dry and pragmatic with minimum details and lyric deviations. The tone is serious and epic featuring dithyrambic phrases and proclamations.

All in all, the period of Restoration in the English literature can be described as the vindication of mind, intellectual values and political interests. All the literature works of this period are connected to the king in a way both praising and sometimes critiquing him. The period is especially marked by the flourishing of poetry which becomes the most popular and the most wide-spread genre in literature.

Romantics Literature

Romanticism in the English literature is the period which is believed to begin in the second half of the eighteenth century and continue till the Industrial Revolution. Such commonly accepted literature pieces as “Vindication of Rights of Men and Women”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode to the West Wind” can be mentioned with reference to this period. The literature of this period can be characterized as the protest against all the aristocratic values established during the earlier period of Restoration. Significant amount of literature scholars believe this period to be initiated by William Wordsworth and his “Lyrical Ballads” who established a new tendency in literature addressing personal values and concerns of common people. Among the other outstanding artisans of that period such names Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Keats Samuel Coleridge, Jane Austen , Robert Burns, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Daniel Defoe, Charles Lamb, William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft and Sir Walter Scott are to be mentioned. Basically, this period can be described as the vindication of humanism and the flourishing of creativity and expression of feelings.

Discussing the themes common for this period, it is important to mention that the literature of this period is the protest against the values and ideas of previous period. Poets and writers strive to promote personal concerns of every human including romantic feelings, admiration of nature beauty, the pursuit for happiness, understanding one’s place in the universe and so on. They reject intellectual and political values of the Restoration era calling it the time of “head” and promote the other values calling such tendency a time for “heart” (Huntington Fletcher, 2008). This period is marked by the efforts to prove the “glory of Imperfection” rather than pursuit for perfect things. The other common tendency during this period is the cult of “sensibility” which was centered around topics related to women, children, and the isolation of a poet as a narrator (Huntington Fletcher, 2008). One more popular theme in Romanticism is appealing to previously popular notions such as myths and gothic elements. The diction of this period is soft, inspiring, light and moving. The tone is calm and lyric.

As a final point, the literature of Romanticisms is a vindication of humanity and personal values of every human. It rejects political and ideological values by aristocracy relevant to the previous period.

Works Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton anthology of English literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. Print.
Hammond, Paul. Restoration Literature: An Anthology. United Stated: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Huntington Fletcher, Robert. “Period VI. The Restoration, 1660-1700”. About.com, 2008.

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Restoration Literature and Romanticism: Common Facts

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