Romanticism, a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era, is considered the largest artistic movement of the late 1700s. Romantic poets cultivated individualism, reverence for the natural world, idealism, physical and emotional passion, and an interest in the mystic and supernatural. Romantic writers replaced the universal types of classical 18th-century literature with more complex, heroic characters. Imagination was praised over reason, emotions over logic, and intuition over science-making way for a vast body of literature of great sensibility and passion.
The romantic period includes the work of two generations of writers. The first generation was born during the thirty and twenty years preceding 1800; the second generation was …show more content…
“Ozymandias” and “Ode to a Grecian Urn” are very unalike in how the statue and the urn interact with the passing of time. In “Ozymandias”, Shelley shows how a manmade object is destroyed in time by nature. Not only is the statue destroyed, but it is also obvious that the town has been destroyed as well when Shelley states that, “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay/ Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare” (12-13). Nature has the ability to destroy everything that a man can make, anything from a simple statue to an entire town. However, “Ode to a Grecian Urn” is an entire poem concerning a manmade object that has withstood the passage of time and anything nature threw its way. Keats states that even “When old age shall this generation waste/ Thou shalt remain” (46-47). Keats does not even acknowledge the fact that nature could destroy the urn in a split second. As stone, time has little effect on it and ageing is such a slow process that it can be seen as an eternal piece of …show more content…
Allusion to the past can also be supported by the following quote from the poem; “I met a traveler from an antique land.” When comparing the year this poem was written (1818) to thirteenth century B.C. (the setting of the poem) the difference in time contrasts so greatly that the land can be justified as being called antique, the interest of past is shown clearly in this quote. The Poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” shows interest in the past because it first alludes to ancient times in Greece (B.C.), and the following quote supports this; “In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?” In past, ancient times, Tempe was deemed as sacred to Apollo. The last quote to support this characteristic is , “Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme” This quote shows the history the urn is capable of emitting, it has been around for such a long time that it is able to tell stories of the past.
Another characteristic of Romanticism; “interest in immortality” is effectively present in both works. In “Ozymandias” Shelley presents a monarch that was overly proud, his pride was so towering that he built a statue of himself, that he believed would be relevant for some time. Ozymandias felt as though his greatness would
The romantic period includes the work of two generations of writers. The first generation was born during the thirty and twenty years preceding 1800; the second generation was …show more content…
“Ozymandias” and “Ode to a Grecian Urn” are very unalike in how the statue and the urn interact with the passing of time. In “Ozymandias”, Shelley shows how a manmade object is destroyed in time by nature. Not only is the statue destroyed, but it is also obvious that the town has been destroyed as well when Shelley states that, “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay/ Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare” (12-13). Nature has the ability to destroy everything that a man can make, anything from a simple statue to an entire town. However, “Ode to a Grecian Urn” is an entire poem concerning a manmade object that has withstood the passage of time and anything nature threw its way. Keats states that even “When old age shall this generation waste/ Thou shalt remain” (46-47). Keats does not even acknowledge the fact that nature could destroy the urn in a split second. As stone, time has little effect on it and ageing is such a slow process that it can be seen as an eternal piece of …show more content…
Allusion to the past can also be supported by the following quote from the poem; “I met a traveler from an antique land.” When comparing the year this poem was written (1818) to thirteenth century B.C. (the setting of the poem) the difference in time contrasts so greatly that the land can be justified as being called antique, the interest of past is shown clearly in this quote. The Poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” shows interest in the past because it first alludes to ancient times in Greece (B.C.), and the following quote supports this; “In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?” In past, ancient times, Tempe was deemed as sacred to Apollo. The last quote to support this characteristic is , “Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme” This quote shows the history the urn is capable of emitting, it has been around for such a long time that it is able to tell stories of the past.
Another characteristic of Romanticism; “interest in immortality” is effectively present in both works. In “Ozymandias” Shelley presents a monarch that was overly proud, his pride was so towering that he built a statue of himself, that he believed would be relevant for some time. Ozymandias felt as though his greatness would