Conjectures on Origin Composition

     Conjectures on Original Composition primarily attack the subject. Young distinguishes' originals' from 'imitations' the former far better than the latter despite the former is fewer in number.

     The ancient could not choose because since they are the first, they have no prior models to follow but be original whereas the moderns have the choice to make which models to follow.If they choose the right, they can raise to the level of their ancestors. The less we copy the renowned ancients; we shall resemble them the more because we tend to be more authentic. It is within human reach to match and even surpass our predecessors.

     Young makes a distinction between ' genius' and 'learning'. "A genius differs from a good understanding, as a magician from a good architect: that makes his structure by means invisible; this by the skilful use of common toils".

     Learning without genius follow rules and models: it condemns the natural unaffected graces and nontoxic inaccuracies and shackles the liberty, which is the supreme glory of genius.Genius is characterized by “unperceived beauties, and unexampled excellencies", which are outside the "pale of learning's authorities and laws".Young further distinguishes between 'adult and infantine' genius. But the suppression of genius deprives of the liberal arts of the advantage the 'mechanic' arts enjoy and of progressing beyond their predecessors.

     Moreover it fails to cooperate with Nature, which makes us all originals, declines productivity in quality while increasing it in quality.Young says that the powers of the moderns are equal to those of the ancients, but they are not properly extended. We cannot underestimate modern poet's potentialities. There is no reason for us to surrender ourselves in thoughtless praise before assumed superiority. “Imitators and translators" go in for that kind of thing.

     Young cites Shakespeare as a genius equaling the greatness of the ancients, but repudiates Johnson for being overloaded with learning. He says that Johnson was a stranger to the pathos, numbers, expression, sentiment and every other dramatic cheat, strove to make amends for it; as if a saint could make amends for the want of conscience ; a soldier for want of velour.

William Wordsworth      William Wordsworth's preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads" is a major expression of the spirit of English Romanticism. This present essay simply shifts emphasis from the relationship between poem and reader to that between poet and poem. But it does not mean that Wordsworth gives up the concern for his reader. He is deep interested in speaking to the reader by the moral effect of his work. Nevertheless, he defines the poem primarily in term of its author's creative activity. He approaches the idea of poem after discussing the idea of poet. In this sense, a poet is a man who speaks to men; he has great knowledge of human nature, and a mass comprehensive soul.It is true that a poet is endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness. Read More...

Samuel T. Coleridge     The essay is a tribute to Shakespeare who possesses all the qualities and conditions of a true poet. Coleridge tries to unveil some misconceptions popular about Shakespeare by formulating some romantic conceptions. He is a genius who well expressed himself in his dramas and poems. The ideas that he was immoral are totally groundless.The organic form he exposes is true to his genius for it is innate that shapes, as it develops, itself from within, and the fullness of its devolvement is one and the some with the perfection of its outward form.Shakespeare himself is nature... Read More...

P.B. Shelley      P. B. Shelley, a great Romantic poet and critic, defends poetry by claiming that the poet creates human values and imagines the forms that shape the social and cultural order. Read More...

Charles Baudelaire      Baudelaire is a French Romanticist and the precursor of symbolic movement in European literature. He considers imagination as the “queen of faculties”, truly creative power. The imagination must shape what nature makes.... Read More...

John Keats      Last Poet of a Romantic period, John Keats' critical speculation is found in his letters, which he wrote to different persons in different walks of life. He believes in sensation rather than thought. Later he is also known as sensuous poet. He is sensuous poet because he makes use of that poetic image, which directly affects... Read More...

Friedrich Schlegel     Schlegel is the leading German Romantic theorist. He was the editor of the periodical Anthenaeum(1798-1800). They published a variety of thoughts literary, morals philosophical, political and other critical fragments. In Schlegel's critical essays, we find a sense of Romantic ideas. These ideas are the initial expression of Romanticism. Read More...

Friedrich Von Schelling     Schelling is a German-Idealist, in the post Kantian development in German philosophy. He rejects Kant’s idea that' things in themselves' are unknown. Instead he posited a subject and object that are joined in aesthetic activity. This joining is a creative act. Man's creativity is analogous to the unconscious creativity of nature. Read More...