|
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: German Literature (12373 words) |
 | Literature as an art suffered by being pressed into the service of religious controversy; it became polemic or didactic, and its prevailing form was prose. |
| Its effect on the German language was enormous; the dialect in which it is written, a Middle German dialect used in the chancery of Upper Saxony, became gradually the norm for both Protestant and Catholic writers, and is thus the basis of the modern literary German. |
| Literature was devoid of originality and substance; the formal side absorbed the chief attention of the writers. |
| AllRefer.com - James Thomson, 1700–1748, Scottish poet (English Literature, 1500 To 1799, Biography) - Encyclopedia (360 words) |
| Educated at Edinburgh, he went to London, took a post as tutor, and became acquainted with such literary celebrities as Gay, Arbuthnot, and Pope. |
| In The Seasons, Thomson's faithful, sensitive descriptions of external nature were a direct challenge to the urban and artificial school of Pope and influenced the forerunners of romanticism, such as Gray and Cowper. |
| His other important poems are Liberty (1735–36), a tribute to Britain, and The Castle of Indolence (1748), written in imitation of Spenser and reflecting the poet's delight in idleness. |
Feeds |
Contact