The romantic poets rebelled against the rationalism of their time by espousing imagination over logic and reason.
choose two focus poems from the unit and explain how each poem treats the power and virtue of the human imagination. cite specific evidence from each poem to support your observations. in addition, explain how each of the two poems exemplifies the characteristics of the romantic period ideals.

needs to be at least four paragraphs

have to choose 2 poems from the following list below:
i wandered lonely as a cloud woodsworth
lines written in early spring william woodsworth
kubla khan samuel taylor coleridge
when we two parted george gordon, lord byron
gordon, lord byron
ode to the west wind percy bysshe shelley
la belle dame sans merci: a ballad john keats
ode on melancholy john keats

Kubla Khan By Colleridge seems to be a dream with the kind of ending dreams have, incomplete.Ironically as it seems this is a characteristic of authors of the period as they wanted thier audiences to find out or interpret what could happen next in those crazy dreams with supernatural heroes and villains"caverns measurless to man..."This phrase calls for the imagination of the reader.Are the caverns too big to figure out or are they trapping , infinite a sort of laberynth?"... a savage place ..holy and encahnted..was haunted ..by woman wailing for her demon lover..."A sacred beautiful, green spot, full of a spring atmosphere seems to be attacked by a female figure who is crying for an evil , corrupted lover?It sounds like a passage from the Bible where Eve tempts Adan to try the forbidden fruit , changing purity  to hell.Coleridge himself described his writings and the characteristics of the period by saying he felt the authors were similar to God with the power for creation .

La belle Dame sans Mercy there is also a lady who enchants a knight and as a result there is death in a valley that was full of beauty and life"...the sedge has withered from the lake and no birds sing...". A  lady uses her charms to put an end to a beautiful scene of love and seduction.Again this idea of paradise lost by corruption is repeated in a romantic poem.The authors seem to be focusing on demonstrating thath there was more to it, more than the power of the intellect and  And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!— .The enemy the authors refer to is exactly reason.Imagination is more powerful as it seeks not to invent things but to enjoy life as it is.