"An Age of Melancholy Musings" A Comprative/Contrast essay focusing on the American writers of the Neo-Classic period and the Romantic period in literature.

Modern Romanticism is a literary and artistic movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that placed value on emotion over reason, on the imagination over society. Some sources say Romanticism started in reaction to neo-classicism (or the Enlightenment). Neo-Classicism's duration was until around 1800, which directly precedes the popularization of Romanticism. The focus of Neo-Classicism is essentially reason, balance, clarity, and tradition; the most important result of romanticism was the emphasis laid upon the feeling, passion, …

…or even from rationalism appears, one aspect of romanticism speaks. People of the Neo-Classic period were convinced that human reason could discover the natural laws of the universe and determine the natural rights of mankind; thereby eternal progress in knowledge, technical achievement, and moral values would be realized. With the ambitious goals of Classicists and the interminable passion of Romantics, potential for advancement is unparalleled. Romantics yearn for the infinite; classicists seek universal truth .sensibility