The preromantic tradition

THE PREROMANTIC TRADITION

In the 18th century prose fiction moved gradually from Augustan Satire towards a new sentimentality, poetry reveals a marked change in sensibility during the 18th century.

The Reflective tradition was represented by Goldsmith and Gray that are the two poets that marked this new tendency. They used odes and elegies that incorporated elements of melancholy, nostalgia and the sublime. The first major difference is linguistic. While the Romantic poets, under the influence of Blake and Wordsworth, insisted on a new language that was simple and that followed the patterns of everyday speech, 18^th century poetry continued to use an elevated diction which included latinism, inversion, classical references and allusions. The second major point of difference is formal. While the Romantic poets sought to escape from traditional verse patterns and to follow the rhythms of natural speech, 18^th century poets use the Pindaric Ode, Miltonic blank verse and the Spenserian stanza. The 18^th century Reflective poets mark the period of transition from Augustan Neoclassicism to 19^th century Romanticism, from the Age of reason and objectivity. Under the influence of Edmund Burke, 18^th century Reflective poetry and 19^th century Romantic poetry share a thematic interest in the sublime nature of landscape. The urban poetry of Pope and Swift was gradually replaced by a new emphasis on nature. Inspiration , Reverie and Reflection, important aspects of Romantic poetry, can be recognized in the poetry of Gray, Goldsmith and Cowper. In Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", the immediate inspiration to reverie derives from nature, leads to a reflection on the human condition. A similar pattern of inspiration-reverie- reflection is revealed in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" poem. Until the 17^th century, the modern concept of the "nature poem" was unknown. The Pastoral Tradition produced a vision of nature, but the notion that nature is morally and spiritually uplifting did not exist. The sensibility at the end of the 18^th century can be documented as follows: a) Man's relationship to nature was changing due to the Industrial and Agricultural revolutions b)Increased technology and the migration of the rural population from country to town led to the creation of a sense of nostalgia for a lost natural harmony c) Man felt increasingly alienated from the country side as he moved away from it, exploited it or destroyed it. Whereas earlier poets took nature for granted and used pastoral landscapes as a background for a human drama, early Romantic poets treasured nature as a precious commodity and sought to make it the protagonist of the poem.