"
In the early part of this period, Wordsworth and Shelley were both making
these harmonies of nature audible to ears which had hitherto not heard
them. KEATS (1795-1821) is the poet of beauty, and he makes more of an
appeal to the senses than Shelley. The favorite creed of Keats was:--
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
His influence will gradually extend to later American verse.
SIR WALTER SCOTT was the great prose writer of the age preceding the
Victorian. The first of his series of _Waverley_ novels was published in
1814, and he continued until his death in 1832 to delight the world with
his genius as a writer of romances. His influence may be traced in Cooper's
work, although the American author occupies an original field. Readers are
still charmed with the exquisite flavor and humor in the essays of CHARLES
LAMB (1775-1834). The essays of DE QUINCEY (1785-1859) are remarkable for
precision, stateliness, and harmony.
LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS, 1809-1849.
During these forty years, the facts most important for the student of
literature are connected with the expansion and social ideals of the
country. Progress was specially manifest in two ways: in "the manufacture
of farms" and in the introduction and use of steam.
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