What Is Fanaticism?

Sentimentalism is also known as "principalism" and "pre-romanticism". It is a modern western literary school. In the middle and late 18th century, it originated in Britain and spread to France, Germany, and Russia. On behalf of the writer Stern, his two well-known novels "Biography of Xiang Di" and "Sentimental Travel in France and Italy" are written in extremely strange structures and extremely trivial plots. Later, it was extended to European countries, such as Rousseau's "New Arloise" and Goethe's "Troubles of Young Witt", which reflected a strong sentimental color. British Thomson, Younger, Russia's Kalamsin and so on belong to this genre. The social background is a product of the bourgeoisie's development after the British Industrial Revolution, the increasingly sharp social contradictions, and the feudal forces' intensified counterattack. With the constant development of the bourgeoisie, sentimentalism was gradually replaced by romanticism. Sentimentalism respects emotions, ignores reason, advocates to restrict and replace reason with emotions, focuses on describing the inner activities of the weak middle and small bourgeoisie, expresses their personal emotions, expresses their personality, mental outlook and their dissatisfaction and disappointment with reality. The sympathy and pity that aroused readers this time was a revolt against the aboriginal rationalism and rigid classicism of the aristocracy. Its form is mainly memoir novels, mostly in the first person, using genres such as diary, autobiography, correspondence, and travel notes. ^[1]

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism is also known as "principalism" and "pre-romanticism". It is a modern western literary school. In the middle and late 18th century, it originated in Britain and spread to France, Germany, and Russia. On behalf of the writer Stern, his two well-known novels "Biography of Xiang Di" and "Sentimental Travel in France and Italy" are written in extremely strange structures and extremely trivial plots. Later, it was extended to European countries, such as Rousseau's "New Arloise" and Goethe's "Troubles of Young Witt", which reflected a strong sentimental color. British Thomson, Younger, Russia's Kalamsin and so on belong to this genre. The social background is a product of the bourgeoisie's development after the British Industrial Revolution, the increasingly sharp social contradictions, and the feudal forces' intensified counterattack. With the constant development of the bourgeoisie, sentimentalism was gradually replaced by romanticism. Sentimentalism respects emotions, ignores reason, advocates to restrict and replace reason with emotions, focuses on describing the inner activities of the weak middle and small bourgeoisie, expresses their personal emotions, expresses their personality, mental outlook and their dissatisfaction and disappointment with reality. The sympathy and pity that aroused readers this time was a revolt against the aboriginal rationalism and rigid classicism of the aristocracy. Its form is mainly memoir novels, mostly in the first person, using genres such as diary, autobiography, correspondence, and travel notes. ^[1]

Sentimental literature is a literary trend that occurred in Britain from the 1860s to the late 1980s.

Stein

Sentimental poems first appeared in the UK as early as the late 1820s, but it was nt until Stein s novel Sentimental Travel came out in 1768 that people were inspired by the topic that sent the name sentimental Doctrine ". The sentimental poets abandoned the classical style of poetry, opposed the concoction of classical poetry, and denied the supremacy of reason. Instead, respect human rich emotions. It is advocated that poetry creation should be close to nature and real life, and the main content of poetry should be depicting nature and expressing emotions. The reason why Thomson's "Four Seasons" became the founding work of British sentimental poetry is precisely because it was the first to shift from "smog city hustle and bustle" to "pleasant rural scenery", from depicting abstract human nature to portraying the peasant masses Simple life and daily labor. In addition to Thomson's representative poets of sentimentalism, there are also Gray, Goldsmith, Cooper, Younger, Kleb, Collins and so on. Touching scenes of life, contemplation, sorrow, sentimentalism, or depicting the beautiful scenery of nature and the tranquility and fullness of peasant life (such as Thomson's "Four Seasons"); "Wandering arias and romance (such as Gray's" Elegy of the Graveyard "); or telling simple feelings through narrative household chores (such as" Cooper's "My Mary").

Sentimental poetry is like a bridge that spans between the classical poetry of the 18th century and the romantic poetry of the 19th century. It plays a role of connection and transition from the beginning to the end. Although the poetry of this genre has not completely shaken off the constraints of classicism in form, it has broken some of the limitations of classical poetry in terms of content, so that it is not only the classicism of the early 18th century in the development of English poetry. The poem sings an elegy, and also sounds the horn for another climax of poetry, the arrival of romantic poetry in the early 19th century. Its "abandoning the old and welcoming the new" feature can be summarized as follows:

Get out of the city and return to nature

The creative materials of classical poets such as Drayton and Pope are often limited to urban life. They mostly use the background of cafes, clubs and living rooms in large cities such as London to describe the life of the upper class. The sentimental poet has turned his sights to the countryside and nature, to the working masses and his simple human nature, and to advocate returning to nature. They use nature and farmers as the object of description and praise, or blend the natural scenery with the feelings of people, or compare the "beauty" of nature with the "ugly" society, so as to express their feelings. . Thomson pointed out the significance of such subjects in the preface of his "Winter": "I don't know what subject matter is more pleasing than the performance of nature, and it can cause poetic passion, philosophical thinking and moral emotions. Where can I find such richness, beauty, and boldness? All this can expand and excite people's souls! "In his long poem" Four Seasons ", the poet sang the pleasant scenery of nature and harvesting, fishing, and shearing Wait for the ordinary and simple peasant life. In describing the unfortunate events caused by natural disasters, the poet expressed deep sympathy for farmers.

Skeptical reason, advocating emotion

The sentimental poets who originated within the Enlightenment appealed to spiritually get rid of feudal thoughts, and at the same time realized the contradictions existing in the development of capitalism. Facing the cruel social reality, they began to feel dissatisfied and desperate about the reason that the classical poets respected, and turned their interest to "human emotions", and advocated the emotions in people's hearts as the "soul" of poetry. They demand emancipation of personality, emphasizing the supremacy of emotions. This is both an overkill for rationalism and a deepening of the humanitarianism proclaimed in the Enlightenment. They advocate emotions and focus on engraving people's inner world, so their works often have strong subjectivity and strong lyricism. For example, in his representative poem "Evening Thoughts", Yang Ge depicts the natural scenery from the sorrow of his bereaved wife and daughter, and uses the cemetery as the background to reveal the deep sorrow of the poet's heart.

Facing the lower levels and sympathizing with the public

The writings of classical poets such as Drayton and Pope are mostly inspired by middle-class intellectuals and cater to the spiritual needs of the upper class. Therefore, there are no lower working people, especially poor farmers, in their works. The sentimental poets, however, face the lower classes, praising the "simplicity" of the peasants, and sympathizing with their tragic fate. Their poetry may not have completely escaped the influence of classicism in form and style, but their poems constitute a history book that records the lives of working people. A poem from Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village" is a good example. In this poem, the poet depicts the tragic picture of the enclosure movement that has left the countryside in extreme desolation: large tracts of rural arable land are enclosed as sheep pastures, farmers who have lost their land are forced to leave their homes and become homeless Han ... The poet was deeply grieved by these misfortunes of the peasants. When talking about the landlords and businessmen in the UK driving the peasants from the land for their own profits, he wrote: "A happy day! Never return! The greedy hands keep the peasants away from the hut in their hometown! / ... / There is only predatory power there // everything is buried in the pile of wealth. "

Diverse topics and rich genres

When reading the works of Poe, a representative poet of classicism, although he admired the poet's superb skills in controlling language, at the same time, he felt that his refined and elegant poetry styles were the same, so reading more would inevitably produce a feeling of boredom. When reading sentimental poetry, we will be amazed by the diversity of poetry content and form, and from time to time we will feel a kind of romanticism lacking in classicism. The sentimental poet emphasizes that the poet's own personality and characteristics should be reflected in the poetry creation, instead of following the established classicism patterns or rules uniformly. Their works have different atmospheres due to the different personality and mood of the poet, expressing the different emotions of the poet's inner world, and expressing various themes. Natural scenery and human emotions, the two themes that have been left out of the classical poets for nearly a century, "revived" in the works of sentimental poets, received a lot of display and propaganda, once again exuding their unique charm. At the same time, they broke the stale content and monotonous form of classical poetry, fueling the advent of romantic poetry. In the mood created by sentimental poets, readers' thoughts are ups and downs with little boring feeling. The themes of sentimental poetry are diverse. Something about history, such as Gray's Bard, describes the killing of Welsh poets and singers by King Edward I; some about death, such as Younger's "Evening Thoughts"; some about friendship, such as Cooper's "My Mary" praises Mary's meticulous care for herself, like her "second mother": those who praise the natural landscape, such as Collins's "Dusk of Twilight". Sentimental poetry is not only diverse in subject matter, but also rich in genre. Gray's "Elegy to the Graveyard" and Collins's "The Death of Wing Tom" both adopted the genre of lamentations: Gray wrote two songs about Norway during the collection of the rustic and enthusiastic primitive romantic poetry of the ancient Nordic people. The legendary poems "Unfortunate Sisters" and "The Decline of Odin"; Gray used classical "Ode" in "The Bard" and "Poem's Progress"; Thomson's "Lazy Witch Castle" is a "Romantic Fable" poems, etc. Sentimental poetry ranges from descriptions of common objects (such as Cooper's "Sofa" in his Quest) to serious topics such as "Poetic History" or "National Poetry" (such as Gray s "Poetry "The Process" and Thomson's British national poem "Govern it, Britain") are involved in sentimental poetry. Sentimental poetry is mainly about expressing hurtful feelings, but there is also a lot of humorous works, such as Cooper's "History of John Gilpin" is a humorous poem.

Lively rhythm and fresh language

Some sentimental poets continue to use the classic "heroic" pattern in their works. However, most sentimental poets gradually felt that the "heroic duo" had too strong artificial carving, lacking a certain detour, and often inhibiting the natural expression of feelings. So they began to try their best to get rid of the heroic doubles of Bourbon's "straight-backed, strutting", or to reform the "doubles" based on the original, or to compete to emulate the previous Spencer, Shakespeare, Milton The masters' creative styles even "choose chapters and sentences" from their works. Therefore, the ancient folk ballad gradually gained the upper hand, and the white-body non-rhyme poems began to lead the way. Younger called it "the poem that has never fallen, no one cursed, and now it has been recognized again and incorporated into the true language of godlessness". Lins's "Evening Twilight" is a poem without rhyme. This poem is neat and beautiful. If you use rhyme to enhance its rhythm, it is undoubtedly a failure. In addition, Spencer's Festival was revived in Thomson's "Infernal Witch Castle", and "Four Sonnets" was used by Cooper in "To Mary Unwin".

Thomson

Most sentimental poets believe that poetry should have its own unique language, elegant but not sculpted, smooth but not loose, clear but with aftertaste, harmonious but not monotonous. In this respect, Cooper is closer to the style of romantic poetry. He advocates that the language of poetry should be simple and straightforward, close to spoken language. However, since sentimentalism was born out of classicism, in the works of a few sentimental poets, there are still a large number of precise verses and over-retouched by classicism, and they have not been able to shake off the abstract influence of classical poetry. For example, in Gray's "Agrave of the Cemetery", there have been many times the phenomenon of personifying abstract nouns.

It is precisely because of the above characteristics of sentimental poetry that it can stand on its own in the history of English poetry, thus establishing its unshakable literary status. Sentimental poetry originates from classical poetry and composes a prelude to romantic poetry. So sentimental poets are sometimes also called romantics in classical coats. Their creative gist of returning to nature and advocating emotions foreshadows the definition of 19th century romantic poetry by Wordsworth All good poetry is It is a natural manifestation of strong feelings. "It can be seen from this that sentimental poetry is a branch that cannot be ignored in the long history of English poetry. It can be said that it has provided" khan credit "for the natural transition from classicism to romanticism. It should be It has an unquestionable place in the history of English poetry. Although some sentimental poems show a pathological self-complaint and sentimental decadence, there are still a lot of handed down works. For example, Gray's "Elegy of the Graveyard" is often praised as the best of British poetry in the 18th century and even in Britain. It can be called "eternal singing".