Poets of the Age of Johnson

 Poets of the Age of Johnson

1. ⤵

1. These experiments led to the romantic revival.

2. Experiments of the Age of Transition 

2. Its history is the history of the struggle between the old and the new.

3. The gradual triumph was of the new.

4. Johnson was of the opinion that the poetry of 

1. His time and

2. The poetry he heard from his childhood was the real poetry.

5. ⤵

1. His two chief poems ‘London’ and ‘The Vanity of Human Wishes’ are classical.

2. It had the didacticism, the rhetorical style and the closed couplet. 

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

1. Goldsmith was also of the opinion that the classical writing of poetry was the best.

2. That the poetry reached its perfection during the Augustan Age.

3. He suggested that all poets should imitate those standards.

4. According to him “Pope was the limit of classical literature.”

5. He opposed the blank verse and preferred the closed couplet.

6. His two poems “The Traveller” and “The Deserted Village” are versified pamphlets on political economy.

7. ⤵

1. These are classical in spirit and form.

2. They are written in closed couplets.

3. These poems may be described as the last outgoing poem of the 18th century.

4. But here also we have the subtle touches of Romanticism, especially in the treatment of nature and rural life.

8. The poets of the Age of Johnson are described as the precursors or Romantic Revival also.

James Thomson (1700-1748)

1. Thomson was the earliest eighteenth-century poet who showed romantic tendencies in his work.

2. The main romantic characteristic in his poetry is his minute observation of nature.

3. He gives minute descriptions of the field the woods, the streams and the creatures around.

4.  He used the blank verse of Millonic tradition.

5. He also used the Spenserian stanza, as we see in ‘The Castle of Indolence’.

6. Unlike the didactic poetry of the Augustans, his poetry is full of suggestions.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

1. ⤵

1. Gray also like his contemporary writers follows the classical model in form,

2. But in spirit, he takes the romantic characteristic.

2. ⤵

1. His famous work is “Elegy written in a country churchyard”.

2. It is “The best known in the English Language.”

3. We see the deep feelings of the poet in this poem.

3. In his poems, we find a clear melancholy spirit, which is a characteristic of the romantic trait.

4. This poem has deep reflections on the universal theme of death, death that spares no one.

5. His poems emphasise the independence of the poets, which again becomes the chief characteristic of romantic poetry.

William Collins (1721-1759)

1. His poetry of Collins also has deep feelings, especially the feelings of melancholy.

2. His notable works are the odes to simplicity, fear, the possession.

3. He wrote in a close couplet but the poems were of romantic spirit.

4. Collins values solitude and quietude because he is of the opinion that these afford opportunities for contemplation for contemplation.

5. Collins in his works advocates a return to nature and this was again a characteristic of the Romantic Revival.

James Macpherson (1736-1796)

1. Macpherson became the most famous poet by his Ossianic works.

2. His poem, ‘Works of Ossian was a translation of Gaelic flok literature.

3. His poetry was full of moonlight melancholy and ghostly romantic suggestions.

4. Blake and Burns were deeply influenced by Macpher's son

William Blake (1757-1827)

1. In the poetry of Blake, we find a complete break from classical poetry.

2. His poems have a fine lyrical quality.

3. His notable works are, “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”

4. Some of his poems are the most perfect and the most original songs in the English language.

5. Swinburne said of Blake, “Blake was the only poet of, ‘Supreme and simple poetic genius.’ of the 18th century”.

6. In some of his works, we have the prophetic voice of Blake.

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

1. Burns had a great love for nature.

2. ⤵

1. He had a firm belief in human dignity and quality.

2. Both qualities are characteristics of romanticism.

3. Burns is one of the greatest songwriters in the English language.

4. ⤵

1. Some of its songs of Burns are ‘The Cotter’s Saturday Night’, ‘To a Mouse’, and ‘Man was Made to Mourne’.

2. They go straight to the heart.

5. Most of his songs have the Elizabethan touch about them.

William Cowper (1731-1800)

1. Cowper was a genial and a man of kind soul.

2. His poetry has an autobiographical touch.

3. He describes the homely scenes and pleasures and pains of simple humanity and we should remember both are the important characteristics of romanticism.

4. His most laborious work is the translation of Homer in Blank verse.

5. He is also known for his small lovely lyrics-

1. His famous line - ‘Oh, that those lips had language’ (from his lyric ‘on the receipt of my mother’s picture) and

2. “I am monarch of all I survey” (from Alexander Selkirk)

Georgy Crabbe (1754-1832)

1. Crabbe stood mid-way between the Augustans and the Romantics.

2. In form, he was classic but in temper he was romantic.

3. Most of his poems are written in the heroic couplet.

4. To him, nature is a “presence, a motion and spirit”.

5. He realizes the intimate union of nature and man.

6. His well-known poem is, ‘The Village’.

Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770)

1. Thomas Chatterton was another poet of the Romantic Revival.

2. His poem ‘The Rowley Poems’ made a strong appeal to medievalism.

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