STEP ONE: THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Two Historical Events



1) The Storming of The Bastille

The Storming of the Bastille was the beginning of the french revolution. The bastille was a prison and a fortress. A couple of people stormed it looking gun powder and stuff, at the time there were only seven people there being held as prisoners. The people of France stormed the bastille because the King Louis XVI was starving the people. They and already set up the national guard and was waiting for the people to come, but the people were just to much for them to handle. This is all happened on July 14 1789 , this is now a holiday in France called Fête de la Fédération. I think when people come together to get something changed we can make a huge impact.



2)The English Civil War

The English War ended the Restoration Period.This war lead to Charles I to exile along with his son Charles II. It basically was a war against the people for parliament and the people for the royal family. The war begin in 1642 and didn't end until September 3 1651. I think that the royal family was not doing there job in supporting they're people and the parliament was tired of it and made a change happen.





What I Think



After reading about my two topics I think that life during this period of time was kind of hard for these people. I think that they were going through some hard times and the people had got feed up with being treated poorly and they made changes occur. I think that they had been in such bad shape for such a long time that they thought they had to do something to change it. I think that this was a hard period in time for most people but they ended up striving to change it.



The Romantic Period Poems

I think that all of the poems were talking about something sad and something dealing with life like birth and death. It was never something light like Ice Cream. I mean they were thinking about pressing issues even though they may use something not that important like an dead violet.

These poems have alot of different meanings to them. Like they dealt with childhood and innocence , they question authority, how things change and living with change, overflow of powerful feelings, imaginative. They say Romantics were deeply concerned with the truths of the heart and the imagination with the truth.

I read The divine image by William Blake. What I got from that poem was just an overflow of emotion. He was telling how we view things in life and how we view oursleves. He kept saying to mercy, pity, peace and love. And these are some very important things that shape our lives. It was just an emotional poem period.

I read William Woodsworth, The Birth of Love. This was a poem that about youth and innocenece. It told how a new born child is so beautiful. And how taking care of a child is so beautiful. I was basiclly, oohh childbirth is so beautiful.

The Ode was a poem I read by John Keats. In the poem he was basically questioning religion. H ewas talking about how you stay on earth and when you die you go to heaven how can you live to places. O rhow can there be two different places. He was just questioning it.

Section 2

One poem that I read by William Blake was called The Divine Image. I liked the poem even thought it was kind of sad at the same time. He was basically talking about how we are as humans and how we view and act out things. Like he said, To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, All pray in their distress. And he was basically talking about how we all have this in our life but they are not always wanted. He repeated that line over and over in the poem. It was kind of like a sad but uplifting poem. I think that this is a good romanticism poem because it is just an overflow of feelings. He is just tellling you how he feels you should feel about certian things.

Another poem that I read was William Wordsworth, The Birth of Love. In this they just talk about the beauty of having a child of your own. He talks about the mother wanting no one to nurse him but her, and how the child was so happy to be with his mother. And how child birth is so beautiful. I think that he really means that life is so beautiful and that we should make every moment and make it as special as child birth. I think that this is a good romanticism poem because it talks about youth and innocence.

I read a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley called On a dead violet. I really liked this poem even though it was short, it made me want it to be longer. He talks about how when something is gone it is gone no matter what you do to make it come back it will not. He talks about longing for it again the smell. I think is just talking about how you long for something and it does not come even if you want it to come really bad. This poem was about change to me, when somehting leaves you it makes a change in your life and you have o deal with it.

The poem Ode by John Keats is extremely short and he is just talking about earth and heaven. He says how can we live two lives in heaven and earth. I think it is just a poem questioning religious beliefs like how we believe that when we die we go to heaven after we have been on earth. It is questioning authority, by questioning religion that is why it is a good poem. But I think he could of went into more detial it was kind of not obvious at first.

I read the poem by George Gordon a spirit passed before. In this poem he is truly questioning us as human beings. I liked this poem just because of how it was written, i think that he is a good writer. But one part was kind of confusing. I think that this is a good romanticism poem because he is questioning everything that we as human beings believe in. I liked this poem because it makes me want to question what I believe in.