by Marshall Chisholm

Created on: April 24, 2009   Last Updated: April 25, 2009

George Gordon's "Apostrophe to the Ocean" was born in the cradle of the romantic period, conveying emotional writing previously considered taboo. The romantic period in itself was a revolution that exceeded literature. While the Classical era was based on order, rules, and logic, the romantic period was based on another foundations. The romantic period was inspired and run by emotions and passion, nova art and wild feelings. Prior, conveying so much vigor in literature was considered heresy of literature. Music, art, and poetry were the largest areas effected by the revolution.

Unlike before, musicians composed their own works, free to create whatever they desired, instead of following strict rules, guidelines, and forms of a wealthy employer. The freedom to create music how they wanted was the fire that set music into a popular frenzy. Musical methods that grew in popularity were operas and private plays. In turn for new innovative thinking, musicians were starting to become rich off their passion.

Poetry was the highlight of this period. Several writers used rhyming schemes similar to William Shakespeare, in sense of iambic pentameter with repetitive rhyme methods. Romantics used poetry as means to idolize their loves, most commonly a woman in their life or imaginative. The writing methods often involved metaphors, above other literary devices ( Sprague, p. 46). Allusion, alliteration, symbols, personification, irony, satire, metonymy, similes, hyperboles, these were other highly adopted literary devices. In poetry, writers would focus on a person, dream, or goal. A passion that they could amplify through their writings, a target that could have an entire satirical story build around.

The romantic period also gave birth to a different form of art. Romantics sought to find a niche that they could label as their own, so in efforts to do so they went in the complete opposite direct from normal, culturally accepted topics. Gothic style works emerged, as romantics' direct opposition to the Enlightenment. Topics of horror, violence, and dark artistry were the resulting contrast to the Enlightenment's orderly and pristine techniques ( Sprague, p. 48). These radical ideas are testimony to a romantic's need to be new and creative, regardless of what cultural norms had to say. Leonardo De Vinci was such an artist that saw a more morbid shadow in art.

Romantics (artist contributing to the romantic era), were not without shortcomings in their ideals however. The main clash

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