Romantic Poets and Their Problems

While doing research for this massive project that Mr. Mullins has so graciously assigned us, I have noticed a pattern in the poets lives. Most of them go crazy before they reach 40. So this got me wondering, why do poets who write about life, nature, and dramatic details, can die before they even lived? It saddens me to know they didn't really get to experience what life really has to offer to them. 

John Keats, one of the most famous poets during the Romantic period, died at the age 25. That is incredibly young for someone who made such an impact on this time period. All of his works were done in a 6 year time frame while he was dying of tuberculosis. What I don't really understand is why someone of this intelligence and influence be taken away from the world in his twenties. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley is another Romantic poet who died before he reached his 30th birthday. Shelley drowned on boat while sailing back from Leghorn. He had a lot of darkness in his life, but still found it in his ability to write poetry. Being apart of the Big Six makes Shelley an influential poet during this era. It's very tragic what happened to these poets. 

It's not fair that they were taken from the world too soon; however, if they had lived, would they have been as great and popular as they are today? We will never find out the answer, but it would have been nice to see what else they would have come up with. 

The Road Not Taken

As of late, I have been reading different variations of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. These novels take the "what if" questions and turn them into reality for the main characters. These novels made me think deeper than they were probably meant to. In my head, I began asking myself, "Do people have a single path they follow? Is it decided for them? Does it matter where they go? Will they end up in the same places no matter which road they follow?" Those questions run through my head when I read the different variations of this classic novel. No matter what path Darcy and Elizabeth choose, they both end up in the same place.  So why do we always stress about what choices we make? Do they matter in the end? I have yet to discover this answer, and to be honest, I am not brave enough to gamble with my own life decisions considering the fact that there isn't a "what if" machine that shows us the road not taken. These thoughts are strong right now anyways, since now is the time to choose where you will be for the next four years of your life. It's hard not to wonder about the "what if" questions, but if we wonder about them too much then it will be almost impossible to accept the road that was chosen. So as of tonight, I have concluded that maybe it is best to not ask "what if" but just go with the flow of the road that seemed best for you.