Solitude, Sadness and Anxiety: On the Sentimental Traits of 18th Century British Poetry

The 18th century Poetry is not only associated with sentimentality, but also with ruins, relics, cemetry and dark nights. However, these associations are only the superficial traits of the 18th century poetry. Read positively, the 18th century poetry expresses lovely passions, but between the lines there are still traces of negative sentimets which stir up the reader's sentimentality. The present author argues that the reason why the mainstream of the 18th century is regarded as sentimental is that it is imbued with sentimental traits that can touch the innermost part of the reader's soul, that is, the solitude, sadness and anxiety a person experiences when he is trapped in a particular situation.