DSSEP Home Page Linking Literature to Social Studies to Community Resources

Elementary and middle school teachers increasingly realize that in order to meet the Delaware curriculum standards in social studies, they must teach social studies through literature, as well as through usual textbook approaches. Further, in order to bring social studies to life and enhance literature, it is desirable to link the lessons to community resources that can give hands-on and meaningful experiences associated with the literature.

During the year 2000, a new book, Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson was published. The story is about sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook who is separated from her mother during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793 and experiences first-hand the horrors of that epidemic. The book is classified as suitable for young adult readers. I would use it with students in grades 5-8. Topics in the book present numerous opportunities for teaching social studies. Further, I see it as a springboard for a trip to Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, in order to clarify many of the words, phrases, concepts, and topics mentioned in the book. Other historic sites or museums might also serve that purpose, but I have chosen to use Winterthur as the example in this essay.

The yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793 was one of the worst epidemics in American history. Over four thousand people, about ten percent of the city’s population, died between August and November of that year. As the epidemic began to rage, twenty thousand people fled the city; this was half the population of Philadelphia, our country’s capital city at that time. Among those who fled were George Washington, Henry Knox, and Thomas Jefferson. Alexander Hamilton stayed and was stricken with yellow fever, though he was one of the lucky survivors. Dr. Benjamin Rush attended many of the victims and contracted the disease himself. Dolley Payne Todd’s husband, John Todd, died, along with the couple’s young son and John’s parents. She later became Dolley Madison. Charles Willson Peale and his family stayed in the city, holed up in their home, and escaped the pestilence. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones of the Free African Society, along with their followers, cared for the sick and dying and saw to the burial of the dead. Just these few names give you an idea of the historic figures that appear in Fever 1793.

As one reads about each of the people mentioned above, one is driven to search the Internet for further information about their experiences at that time and stories about their lives. These are golden opportunities for students to expand their historical knowledge and extend their reading. The coincidences and vagaries of history become fascinating. For instance, after he left Philadelphia because of the epidemic, George Washington laid the cornerstone for the United States Capitol on September 18, 1793 in what was to become Washington, D.C. (Anderson, p. 251). The story mentions Charles Willson Peale’s natural history museum and his extensive collection of stuffed animals and birds. When one reads that the family consumed some of the specimens (before they had been treated with arsenic and stuffed) in order to avoid hunger during the epidemic, one certainly is eager to search the Internet for more information about this extraordinary man and his multitude of interests and talents. One finds that the family had collected bird specimens at Cape Henlopen, and returned to Philadelphia in September 1793; it was those specimens they ate (Powell, 1949, p.111). Throughout the story, the Free African Society’s members ministered unflinchingly to the sick and dying. They performed invaluable service, yet they were attacked afterwards by a publisher named Matthew Carey; he accused them of overcharging the sick and bereaved and stealing from those they attended. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones refuted those charges in a pamphlet, A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia in 1793, which described what African-Americans of Philadelphia had done to help the citizens of Philadelphia (Allen, 1960, p. 48-68). The readers of Fever 1793 cannot help but be incensed by Carey’s false accusations, and, again, search the Internet and libraries to find the Carey article and the Allen and Jones pamphlet. These documents provide fine opportunities for students to address Delaware History Standard Three that asks them to interpret different historical accounts of the same event. Their Internet searching provides opportunities for students to address English Language Arts Standard Three.

Early in the book, there is a brief description of the famous balloon flight of Jean Pierre Blanchard from the Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia on January 9, 1793. This required another trip to the Internet to find out that George Washington was present that day to bid the Frenchman good luck and watch the first aerial voyage in America. The whole story of the event is fascinating reading, as is the story of Jean Pierre Blanchard, himself. (See http://www.thehistorynet.com/AviationHistory/articles/0996_cover.htm.)

The horrors of yellow fever are vividly described in the book. Most students I’ve encountered in thirty years of teaching would voraciously consume those descriptive passages and would want to know more. Again, the Internet provides the desired information. (See http://www.morgansranger.com/id77_m.htm.) In fact, a mere chronological listing of epidemics in the United States from 1657 to 1918 is mind-boggling and intensely sobering. (See the web site http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/9166/epidemics.htm.) Each epidemic is an opportunity for further research.

My personal favorite among search engines on the Internet is http://www.google.com. Search under such phrases as “yellow fever 1793,” “Jean Pierre Blanchard,” “epidemics,” “Richard Allen,” “Charles Willson Peale,” and any other phrase, placed in quotation marks, for which one desires information. Of course, google.com links to numerous other search engines and web sites.

In the paragraphs above, I have suggested some history extensions that arise from reading Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. There are numerous others. The economy of Philadelphia was affected by the yellow fever epidemic in those months of 1793. Opportunities abound to develop lessons that address the Delaware Economics Standards, especially Economics Standard One.

As the fever swept through Philadelphia, thousands fled the city, especially the wealthy, as was mentioned earlier. Businesses closed; those who didn’t flee often had no source of income since their employers were gone. The businesses that closed had provided important goods and services to the people; those goods and services were then not available. Imagine not having sufficient coffin makers in a city where thousands were dying and needing to be buried.

Farmers from the country refused to come into the city with foodstuffs. The market places were empty. What food was available in the city skyrocketed in price. Abandoned homes were looted in the desperate search for food, money, or goods that could be traded for food. Sawdust was added to the little wheat flour that was available in order to make bread. People were hungry, especially the poor.

. Some ships refused to dock at the piers and unload their cargo. Dock laborers were not available to unload ships that did arrive. Buildings near the docks were crowded with sick and dying seamen from many nations. Ships that had already been in the port when the epidemic began could not leave because vital crewmen were missing. International trade was, obviously, disrupted. Think Economics Standard Four.

Many towns and farming communities outside of the city forbade anyone from Philadelphia to enter their towns to buy food. Only those who had escaped the city early in the epidemic found refuge in those towns. Even then, they were admitted only if they showed no signs of the fever.

Babies and toddlers were found whimpering in the midst of the dead bodies of their parents. People were afraid to touch the children; no one wanted to take them in for fear that they carried the disease. The funds to support the orphans were limited. Those few merciful people who tried to help them by taking them to orphanages found those institutions overflowing and with minimal food to feed the tykes.

From an economic standpoint, the demand was high; the supply was extremely slim. Inflated prices and thievery resulted.

From a civics point of view, civic responsibility was a low priority for many people remaining in Philadelphia. A notable exception was the mayor of Philadelphia, Matthew Clarkson, who stayed in the city, established the Mayor’s Committee, and sought to help the citizens with food and aid whenever possible. The Free African Society members and volunteers at Bush Hill also labored for the benefit of others. A good topic for debate might be: “Is civic responsibility suspended when one’s life is at risk?” Think Civics Standards Three and Four.

Geography lessons associated with the Philadelphia area can also be derived from the book. One important activity would involve locating on maps the towns and communities around Philadelphia to which people fled – e.g., Wilmington, Dover, and Milford, Delaware, New York City, Germantown, Hog Island, Lititz, Lancaster, Chester, Gynedd, Bethlehem, Pembroke, and Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A further activity would be to calculate the mileage to each from Philadelphia’s center and how long it would have taken to reach those sites by wagon and horse. There are vivid descriptions in the book about life in Philadelphia in 1793, along with street and place locations. Based on the information in the book, children could construct maps of that early downtown area. From clues in the book the following sites would be included: the Delaware River, the Walnut Street Prison, the State House, High Street, the Court House, Christ Church, the President’s house (George Washington’s house was at 190 High Street), Water Street, Potter’s Field bounded by Sixth, Seventh, Walnut, and Locust Street, and other such locations. The Delaware Geographic Alliance can provide copies of the map of the city as originally laid out by William Penn, as well as a map showing the Fall Line that bisects the city, separating the Atlantic Coastal Plain from the Piedmont section. These along with present day maps of center-city Philadelphia could be used to surmise how the city looked at the time of the epidemic. Not only is this a good geography lesson, it is a good reading lesson in searching for the clues and details from the book that are necessary in order to construct the map. Following this mapping activity, children can then compare their maps to an actual 1793 map of Philadelphia that can be found in a book entitled Bring Out Your Dead, The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793 by J.H. Powell (1949), available at the University of Delaware library.

Vocabulary development is an important part of any reading lesson. In Fever 1793 not only is the vocabulary useful for language arts lessons, but social studies concepts and understandings are imbedded in the words and phrases themselves. From the following list, I believe the reader can see what I mean.



victuals forge miasma strongbox Indian Pudding

bilious fripperies pestilence mop cap the necessary

mutton purgative almshouse apprentice Grim Reaper

broadsheet pestle fractious odiferous mangle (wringer)

respite bleeding petticoats shift (gown) mooning (romantic)

washstand noggin stays grippe Quakers

keening cajole delectables apothecary wraith



Frequently when children read an historical fiction novel, they meet words and phrases that seem foreign to them. For instance, when Matilda arose from her bed, she had on a “shift.” Over that she fastened her “stays” and her embroidered “pocket.” The final act of dressing was to tuck her hair into a “mop cap.” A child of today may not be able to visualize that scene. However, the teacher desirous of giving students first-hand knowledge of the written word can work with the staff at Winterthur to design a field trip that shows students many of the items, such as clothing and household utensils, that are mentioned in the story. Among the household utensils they can see and touch in the “Touch-It” room are the following: a mortar and pestle, a spider (skillet on three legs), and a butter churn. There they can learn the art of serving tea, play with toys reminiscent of those in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and role-play working or shopping in an eighteenth century store. Elsewhere in the museum, children may view numerous eighteenth century items, such as a lap desk, shutters (on the inside of windows, as well as on the outside), a chamber pot, a loaf of sugar, a sugar nipper, and crockery.

Throughout the story there are descriptions of hairstyles, powdered wigs, and clothing popular in 1793. One can observe at Winterthur prints and portraits of people wearing the styles and apparel the story mentions. There are vivid narratives about life on Philadelphia streets, so children can see prints or paintings at Winterthur of city life and activities in American cities of that time.

An aristocratic woman in the story, Mrs. Ogilvie, haughtily commented at a tea that the French ambassador had often dined with her. What fun it is to learn, via the Internet, that Edmond Charles Genet, the French ambassador, was dismissed in disgrace and became a political refuge in the United States, knowing that if he were to return to France he would be executed. (See the web site http:www.americanpresident.org/KoTrain/Courses/GW/GW_Foreign_Affairs.htm.) It is interesting to note that during Yuletide 2000 at Winterthur visitors could view one of the French chairs that he sold to the Washington’s.

In the home of Mrs. Ogilvie, Mattie and her mother sat on “Chippendale” chairs around a gleaming mahogany table. A visit to Winterthur reveals what Chippendale chairs look like and who Thomas Chippendale was. Children will learn about the Chippendale design books that were brought to America where American craftsman copied the designs. Further, students will see many examples of gleaming mahogany tables, some of which are carved from a single piece of mahogany.

Charles Willson Peale and Dr. Benjamin Rush are important persons in the story. Children visiting Winterthur can view a number of Peale’s paintings, but they may be especially interested in his portrait of Dr. Rush and one of Julia Stockton Rush, the doctor’s wife. After seeing the magnificent paintings, students may be stunned to learn that by the 1790’s, Peale had turned most of his attention, not to painting, but to the creation of his natural history and art museum. (See the web site http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/peale/papers2.htm.) Dr. Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. At Winterthur students can view prints, needlework, and reproductions of Chinese export porcelain depicting that event and identify Dr. Rush, as well as other signers, in those works of art.

George Washington was the President of the United States in 1793, and the capital was in Philadelphia. There are numerous portraits of George Washington at Winterthur, including those by Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull. Further, representations of Washington are on porcelain, needlework objects, and other mediums. Children learn at Winterthur that pictures of George Washington were very popular items in a Federal period (c 1790-1815) home.

It is difficult for children today to fathom that doctors drained a pint or more of blood from a desperately ill person. Doctors then believed that the pestilence boiled in the blood of the victims and that bleeding would rid the body of the offending pestilence. Doctors’ mistakes often killed people that might have otherwise recovered. There is a medical instrument at Winterthur that was used to bleed people.

In summary, Winterthur is an excellent source of information regarding, people, events, life styles, art, furnishings, clothing, food, traditions, and recreation in America from 1640-1860. More importantly, many items, such as those mentioned in Fever 1793, can be seen at Winterthur, either as three-dimensional objects or in prints and paintings. Winterthur’s school programs staff would like to develop special materials for teachers using this book in conjunction with a visit to Winterthur, and also hopes to do a teacher workshop dealing with this book in February of 2002.

By engaging students in an exciting novel, teachers can generate students’ desires to expand their knowledge about an historic time period; hence students seek information from the Internet and assorted texts. Economics, geography, and civics lessons can be generated from topics in the novel. A trip to Winterthur (or another similar museum) to view objects students have encountered in the story is the final link in this chain of educational activities to make a time period in history forever remembered in the minds of the students. Further, students will use reading, writing, speaking, and listening to learn.



References

Allen, R. (1960). A narrative of the proceedings of the black people during the late awful

calamity in Philadelphia in 1793. The Life Experiences and Gospel Labors of the Rt.

Rev. Richard Allen. New York: Abingdon Press.

Anderson, L H. (2000). Fever 1793. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young

Readers.

Powell, J.H. (1949). Bring Out Your Dead, The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in

Biography and Work of William Blake

William Blake is commonly known as a poet. A few people know him as a painter. Blake, a well-known poet today, was not as famous and well known in his life. He was an imaginative and expressive person altogether, as it is evident from his expression of thoughts through poetry and painting. He was a true artist in the real sense of the word. In his time he was regarded as insane. But today, due to his extravagant work, William has been called “far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced” by a modern critic.

Biography:

William was born on 28th of November, 1757 in London, Great Britain. He was the third child of Catherine nee Wright and James Blake, a hosier and haberdasher, belonging to a middle class family. They at that time were residing at Broad Street in Golden Square, Soho. He was thought to be different from rest of the children from his early childhood due to his different approach of looking towards things.

At the age of ten, he started reporting as seeing the visions of god and angles, and having regular conversations with his deceased brother. The first incident was seeing the images of thirteen angles on a tree while gone for walking with his father. This can be regarded as a result of his interest in reading Bible from an early age. In very early years he started showing interest in engraving too. Due to such incidents it became apparent that his inner realm of mind was strongly at work. His parents decided to send him to drawing classes instead of sending him to attend regular school. Within two years he also showed his inclination towards poetry.

Apprenticeship

At the age of fourteen, William was sent for apprenticeship with James Basire who was the official engraver to The Society of Antiquaries, as the art school turned to be very costly. There he learnt almost every thing about the trade and he was often sent for drawing and engraving jobs. His remarkable work is still exhibited in churches like Westminster Abbey. This work at the churches exposed him to the Gothic style which continued showing up throughout the works he did in the rest of his life. He remained engaged in that job for seven years.

Royal Academy

In 17 78 Blake joined Royal Academy. But soon he left it too as he had a classical bent of mind and in art he was influenced by Michael Angelo and Raphael, and preferred to adopt their style. He highly detested the modern style of Rubens, a prolific seventeenth century painter. He also felt the ways of expression at the Royal Academy too restricted. Blake strongly rebelled against the ideas of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was the president and a neoclassicist. Reynolds took art much as an academic activity rather than an imaginative activity which provoked Blake against him.

Marriage

Blake got married in on 18th August, 17 82 to Catherine Sophia Boucher, an illiterate woman. They begot no children from their marriage, even though it is regarded as a happy marriage. Later he taught his wife to read and write. She then assisted him in printing his illuminated poetry for which he is more famous today.

Residing at Felpham

In 1800, he moved to Felpham, West Sussex taking residence in a cottage. He was commissioned to illustrate works by William Hayley. There he wrote a poem “Milton: a poem”. It includes his one of the most famous works today with one of his poems starting as: “And did those feet in ancient time”. Around 18 03, he came in clash with the authorities having a brawl with a soldier and uttering ill words for the king.

Death

William’s advanced years were spent mostly in poverty. He was a true artist. Even on the day of his death, he worked on illustrations of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’. He died at 6:00 in the evening with his wife sitting by his bedside on 12 August, 19 27. He was buried after 5 days of his death on his marriage anniversary

Works:

William and Catherine was a devoted couple, and due to the great help of his wife he was able to print his first collection of poetry: ’Poetical Sketches’ in 17 83. In these, his style was based upon the classical. Along with this he also took up the work of engraving and paintings, based upon the ideas projected in his own poetry. He started with experimenting sketching human anatomy and pieces of text from his poetical works on the same plate. His paintings project a metaphorical style portraying mystical images. The mediums he used for illustrations was water colour and engraving.

In 1800 he wrote his famous ‘Milton: a poem’. Influenced by Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’, he started illustrations in 18 05. His illustrations of that time include also ‘Virgil’ and ‘Paradise Lost’. Blake’s longest illuminated work includes ‘Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion’.

In his advanced years he started selling his work to Thomas Butts. The works which was sold most was his Bible illustrations. Thomas Butts purchased his works more or less as a friend rather than as an admirer of art.

In 18 26, the commission for Dante’s ‘Inferno’ came to Blake through Linnell. The aim was to produce a number of series of illustrations. These illustrations were only seven in number as Blake died before the completion of the work. It is one of the most praised works he did in his life.

Blake’s illustrative work took the medium of water colours to new dimensions. He did his job with extra ordinary mastery.

Style of Poetry

His poetry has been classified as being influenced by Romantic Movement. He has also been regarded as pre-romantic too as his work largely appeared in 18th century. Blake was greatly influenced by American and French Revolutions.
His poetical style can be regarded as original, mystical, prophetic and simple in language. William wished his work to be widely read and understood without compromising on his themes. His style is innovative along with its directness and freshness. “Songs of Innocence” still is the most popular of all of his literary works. His poetry can be easily understood:
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still.

Then come home, my children, the Sun is gone down
And the dews of night arise,
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies.

These lines are the first verses of the “Nurse’s Song” from “Songs of Innocence”. A reader can not find any complicated ideas or complex rhetoric devices in his poetry. Simple themes are put forth as simply.

Literary Influences:

William Blake was highly influenced by Bible from the very early years. Later he developed interest in more complex study of literature such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost which is a detailed literary work. It too has a biblical topic. More over his influences include Dante’s “Divina Commedia” again a master piece of the world of literature. Another of his influences is Emanuel Swedenborg, who was also regarded as having divine influences.

Acknowledgements

During his life Blake’s poetry was not famous amongst common people. And many of his paintings were also regarded as ‘hideous’. A few people also called him ‘insane’ as he was also friend of ‘mad Shelley’. But yet, he was mentioned in ‘A Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland’, published in 1816. S.T Coleridge considered him as ‘man of genius’ and William Wordsworth made several copies of ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience” himself.

Brief Discussion on History of English Literature

What is Literature? The most basic definition of literature is that it is the written records of a people. Such a broad definition includes legal and business records that have survived until today. Even though an accountant’s log book from the Middle Ages may fulfill this very basic definition, most people prefer a narrower definition of literature in which the piece of writing chosen has artistic merit and reflects the values and ideals of the people who wrote it.

Literature came into existence shortly after the creation of civilization and writing systems. Every culture has produced classic works that have stood the test of time. Whether this be the Bible produced by the Ancient Hebrews, the Iliad and the Odyssey of Greece’s Homer, or the plays of England’s Shakespeare, dubbed the bard, literature tells something about a people and it culture.


English Literature, like all other forms of literature, helps a person understand the cultures that produced it and how the language itself has developed over time. Few English speaking people today would understand or recognize the Old English of Beowulf. Modern speakers would have difficulty understanding the original text of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and even Shakespeare’s plays have needed modern language editions. Later authors, such as Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, can be read by modern speakers without the need for such interpretations, but even know the language seems quaint. Terry Pratchett, a modern satirist will likely to be remembered long beyond his death, but Discworld books and their memorable characters are still too new to be considered literature.

English Literature Helps Us Trace the Development of the Language. The language brought by the Heathen invaders Great Britain after the fall of Rome bears little resemblance to the form the language takes to day. The most accurate way to trace the development of the language is through translations of the Bible from the middle Ages to the Present. Although the earliest translations resulted in the execution of the person responsible by the Roman Catholic Church, copies of this holy text still survive. Translations of the Bible produced after the publication of the version that King James commissioned show further development since the time of Shakespeare. More modern usage in Bible translation printed after the King James version show the Modern English has developed, even if the language has been “dumbed down” from the original translation so more people can understand the text.


Good Literature Should Be a Thing of Beauty. The King James Version, despite its many translation mistakes, survived because it shows what the English language is capable of in the hands of skilled writers, as do the plays of William Shakespeare. Tolkien and Dickens are pleasing to the ear when their books are read aloud. While lyrical language is not required to make good literature, and authors such as George Orwell are considered to be literary despite not having the same gifts as many of his predecessors, become literature for another reason – they make a moral point.

Literature Makes a Moral Point. Rather than phrasing it as a moral point, it should be said that good literature has a moral. The former wording may leave the reader thinking that the moral must be religious in nature for a story to be good literature. Many good works of literature criticize prevailing social mores and such authors make an attempt to point out what the feel people should be doing in their texts. This does not mean that the reader has to agree with the author’s point, but that a moral should be present in all good literature.

English Literature Serves as a Cultural Yardstick. Not only does literature allow us to trace the changes to the language since the time of the British invasion by the Angles and Saxons shortly after the fall of the Roman Empire, the course English literature has taken through the centuries allows us to see how the cultures and values of people have changed. The humorless people who first wrote down Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon riddles are a far cry from the culture that produced bawdy tales of Chaucer and the many puns that occur in Shakespeare’s plays. Furthermore, by comparing the works of English authors to other English-speaking authors that other countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, show how their cultures diverged from the small island that many of their ancestors came from.

Literature Takes Us to Other Worlds. Even if the world of the author creates vaguely resembles our own and contains many of the same problems, the author’s world is not the same one in which we live. Escapism may have once been a dirty word to some, but that perception has since changed. Taking the time to get lost in the works of good authors gives us time to think about our own problems, or in some cases, how the problems of the heroes and villains in works of fiction seem so similar to our own. C.S. Lewis’s Narnia may seem nothing like our own, but the trials and triumphs of the hero have served to inspire generations of children around the world and will likely become a successful movie franchise, as have the works of his friend, English author and linguistics professor, J.R.R. Tolkien.

English literature has a long history. Beowulf, and the King Arthur tales may have been written down far after the original German tribes invaded England, but they tell us something about the peoples that produced them. Whether we follow Beowulf’s life, fight for the ideal kingdom of King Arthur, where justice and truth prevail, thrill to the powers of logic employed by Sherlock Holmes, or are terrified by the dystopian futures of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, we learn something about the people who lived during the times when these tales were written from reading their works. It may not be the same details that are most interesting to the archaeologist or historian, but they are the details that show us what people thought about how to live that was important enough to tell us through the written word.

An introduction to Romanticism

When a person hears the word Romanticism, his first thought may be of romance story books or novels or illustrated books depicting romantic art. A few individuals, however, may connect the root of the word to a certain city on the Tiber. Despite the apparent connection between the words, romanticism has little to do with romance, nor did the Romantic Movement originate in any country that speaks of romance related legends.

The Romantic Movement started in Germany and England in the late 18th Century, and it ended with the death of Goethe and Sir Walter Scott in 1832. The Romantic Movement followed the neoclassicism school of art and was in many ways a rebellion against the tenets of neoclassicism. The artists and writers who worked when the neoclassicism school held sway saw the universe as an orderly place that the human kid could control. Nature existed so that mankind could tame it and harness its power rather than the other way around. The prevailing philosophy of neoclassicism was that with the use of order and reason, the universe could ultimately be understood and that the individual was merely part of the greater whole. Although the official date marking the end of the Romantic period is given to be 1832, authors in the USA and some painters in Europe went on to continue the tradition beyond the day.

Instead of embracing the ideas of their predecessors, the artists of the Romantic period saw an individual as a heroic entity capable of achieving great things through sheer force of will. The individual was still a part of the universe, but the creativity an individual possessed could propel him / her to great heights. What made the individual unique was his / her ability to use imagination as a creative force. One poet who wrote during the age of Romanticism expressed pity for people with no spark of imagination in them.

It may seems strange that the greatest example of individual power during this period is not one of the many artists and authors working during the Romantic period, but Napoleon Bonaparte. The name of Bonaparte may not be popular today, but he started out as a lowly soldier and rose to become an Emperor through his own abilities. This feat makes him the perfect example of the self-made man that the Romanticism movement idealized. Certainly, the victories Napoleon managed to achieve required a special type of strategic creativity.

The authors and artists also broke with the Neoclassicism school by changing the way nature was viewed in works of art. Only one single unifying philosophy connected how every author and artist of the Romantic period viewed at nature. Rather than being considered as something to be harnessed and controlled, nature was viewed a good thing that served as a source of inspiration.

Modern schools of Literature and Art have demoted the individual from the supreme place he enjoyed in the Romanticism school, suggesting instead that an artist cannot help but be influenced by his surrounding environment. This web of influence includes other artists, painters and writers with whom a person producing any work of art is familiar. It holds true for the Romantic writers as well. Since Romanticism was a rebellion against the artistic school that preceded it; it could not help but be influenced by the rejection of the ideals of neoclassicism. Romantic period authors interpreted their ideals in such a way that strange dichotomy developed in the writings of the period. Many authors chose real settings and real characters, but others chose fantastic backgrounds or unbelievable events that their protagonists needed to overcome. A few writers skillfully interwove elements of the fantastic and the believable.

Poe’s tale, The Tell-tale Heart might be the best example of this, while at the same time the fantastic elements of the tale simply might be the work of a guilty conscious. The reader is never informed whether or not anyone else in the room other than the murderer heard the beating heart of the victim. Other works, such as Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner clearly spell out events that cannot happen, but instead play on another theme during the period.

Neoclassicism, which started during the Age of Enlightenment, was marked with a ‘turn away’ from superstition. Applying the principles of rational thought was the beginning to solving all of mankind’s problems. Emotion was not eliminated by Neoclassical artists, but emotion was often viewed as a hindrance. Further, turning away from the previous school, the artists of the Romantic period felt that emotion was a necessary and vital part of life and that emotion and imagination often came up with solutions that reasoning alone could not achieve. In the worlds that the Romantic authors created, a single person could change the world, but he did so through utilizing his creative power, imagination and understanding his emotions rather than regarding them as a hindrance.

Although Romanticism ended nearly two centuries ago, many of its ideals still live on. The individual may see less importance in the artwork of today where the voice of an author is believed to be controlled by his surroundings, but the idea of a person being able to change the world through his abilities and ideas lives on.

The Age of Enlightenment had weakened the hold of religion on the people of Europe, and now many authors feel no problem / hesitation with including God, Satan and other figures in their play simply as characters, rather than showing the respect previous authors had given them. The key figures of Christianity could now be portrayed in the same way that previous artists had portrayed the Gods of Greece and Ancient Rome in. Romanticism may no longer be the school of prevailing literature and artistic thought, but its effects are alive and prevalent. Perhaps, this is because it started as a grass roots movement and the authors and artists did not view themselves as innately superior to the common man, and many of the movements’ ideals survive in both modern art and society.

William Wordsworth- A Romantic Poet’s Autobiography and Works

William Wordsworth was a famous Romantic poet. His work became a source to spread the Romantic Movement, which emphasized the role of emotions and the beauty of Nature.

Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland on 7 April 1770. His parents were John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson. He was a second child to his parents amongst five children. His father was Sir James Lowther’s attorney, the 1st Earl of Lonsdale. His mother died when he was 8, and five years later, his father died too.

He was very close to his younger sister Dorothy Wordsworth, who too became a famous poetess and diarist. His elder brother Richard Wordsworth became a lawyer, John, younger than Dorothy died in a ship wreck in 1805. The youngest one, Christopher became a scholar. William Wordsworth was very close to his sister, but he couldn’t stay in her company for long due to domestic problems after his father’s death.

His early education was at a low level school at Cockermouth and was taught by his mother. He was taught poetry by his father. He taught him works of famous poets like Milton, Shakespeare, and Spenser. He was influenced from his child hood by his surroundings, which were picturesque. His father also allowed him to take benefit from his library. He also spent a lot of his time at his mother’s paternal home in Penrith.

At Penrith, after his mother’s death he was sent to a school meant for the children of upper class. There he was taught by a lady Ann Birkett who used to teach her students the traditional and classical aspects of literature. This proved to be an important influence on his literary work.

In 1787, he published his first sonnet in “The European Magazine”, starting his journey as a poet. In 1791, he went on summer vacations, visiting places famous for their picturesque beauty. These included Switzerland, France, Europe and Italy. In France he fell in love with a French girl named Annette Vallon, who bore him a baby girl in 1792. Due to critical circumstances he didn’t marry her, but kept on supporting her and her daughter throughout his life.

French Revolution proved influential for his ideas and mental growth. He started understanding politics and its influences on common people, evoking sympathy for common people. After getting these experiences he composed his most remarkable poem “Descriptive Sketches”. Though, he calls his early work as “experimental”. His renowned poems include “An Evening Walk”, “Guilt And Sorrow”, “Lyrical Ballads” and “Tintern Abbey”. “Lyrical Ballads” was a joint venture of Wordsworth and S.T Coleridge, which was a result of their close friendship.

Most of Wordsworth’s work emphasizes on depth and sensitivity of human nature. His “Lyrical Ballads” were regarded as “the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers”. His diction in all his poems is simple, and he dealt the subject with realism. His other famous poems are: “To The Cuckoo”, “The Rainbow”; “To a Butterfly”, “Ecclesiastical Sonnets”, and “The Prelude”. His poems in “Lyrical ballads Vein” project “the still, sad music of humanity”.

In his later life, Wordsworth developed an estrangement with Coleridge. This deprived him of his powerful imaginative and mental sharpness, leaving him alone. In 1843 he got appointed as England’s poet laureate, and he died on April 23, 1850.