Enlightenment And The Romantic Movement Essay

The Age of Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement
The age of enlightenment is commonly understood by historians as a period of seminal change in political, philosophical and spiritual attitudes and ideas in the Western World, specifically in Europe. Changes so drastic that they would come to define the world we live in today. Beginning approximately in 1620 and ending around 1780, the Enlightenment consisted of a change from religious faith to reason as a means of understanding the world, and from absolute monarchies to more human forms of governance, putting emphasis on the concept of freedom. These attitudes entailed very severe cultural changes, such as an increasing distrust to the Catholic Church, the birth of formal sciences, and the emergence of democratic ideals. Although the clear central ideas of enlightenment varied geographically, and even contradicted one …show more content…
For one, to go back to Rousseau, his autobiography prioritized the feelings and thoughts of the protagonist, a characteristic that would be enhanced and exaggerated in romantic ideals, as well as the mesmerizing and inspirational power of the written word. This is an idea that was taken and transposed by romantics such as John Keats, an English poet who, true to romantic fashion, died tragically at the age of 25, leaving a wealth of unpublished poems and work. Later, many years after his death, he would be remembered as one of the finest romantic poets. In his poem On Looking Into Chapman’s Homer, the young poet speaks of the wonderful worlds he was transported to as a result of reading George Chapman’s translation of the Iliad and The Odyssey. Keats claims, in the poem, that he’s an avid reader, and had already come across the work of Homer, but could never capture the true wonder of the work until he read the