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Towards the late 17th century and 18th century, a shift in thinking occurred. This shift known as the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason was an intellectual and cultural movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith. Centered on the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy, this movement advocated such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. Thus was a sharp turn away from the prevailing idea that people needed to rely on scripture or church authorities for knowledge. The freethinking writers of the period sought to evaluate and understand life by way of scientific observation and critical reasoning rather than through uncritically accepting religion, tradition, and social conventions. There is little consensus on the precise beginning of the Age of Enlightenment , with the beginning of the 18th century or the middle of the 17...

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Romantic revival in English literature witnessed an exceptional period of artistic and literary creativity. This movement was characterized by a renewed interest in the natural world, emotion, and imagination, as well as a rejection of the Enlightenment era's rationalism and scientific progress.  William Wordsworth One of the most prominent figures of the Romantic revival was William Wordsworth, whose poetry celebrated the beauty of the natural world and the power of the human imagination. His famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is a classic example of Romantic literature, with its vivid descriptions of the natural landscape and its celebration of the beauty of the world around us. Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge, another significant figure of the Romantic revival, explored themes of love, nature, and the supernatural in his work. His most famous poem, "Kubla Khan," is a dreamlike meditati...

"The Rape of the Lock" was first published in 1712 and later expanded in 1714. The occasion for this elegant comic piece was the forceful cutting by Lord Petre of a lock of hair from Lady Arabella Fermor's head. This trivial event caused dissension between their two aristocratic families. Alexander Pope composed the poem on the suggestion o John Caryll, a common friend of the families to compromise them. Pope intended his verse to cool hot tempers and to encourage his friends to laugh at their own folly. "The Rape of the Lock" stands as the most exquisite example in the English Language of ludicrous poetry or mock epic. The poem has a large number of epic features and is divided into five cantos. A mock-epic poem is a parody of the serious and comic style of classical epics. In such a poem, a common or trivial subject is treated in a sublime and lofty manner, but its foremost purpose is to ridicule both the subject and theme and to poke fun at human follies. Th...