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Classicism Definition | What is Classicism? - PoetrySoup

Definition

[n] a movement in literature and art during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe that favored rationality and restraint and strict forms; "classicism often derived its models from the ancient Greeks and Romans"

Poetry which holds the principles and ideals of beauty that are characteristic of Greek and Roman art, architecture, and literature.

Example

Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope

In these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing melancholy reigns;
What means this tumult in a vestal's veins?
Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?
Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?

Antonyms

romanticism

See Also...

artistic style, arts, humanistic discipline, humanities, idiom, liberal arts, neoclassicism

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