THE BOOK OF BLOODY
BRITS
OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE BOOK OF THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN
The romantics try to invent emotion
Chapter 41
The romantics were Brits who thought that it might be possible to feel emotions,
2jEven if you’d had a gentleman’s education,
3kWhich wasn’t easy,
4And therefore resulted in a huge number of Brit romantic poets,
5Who invented lots of new Brit emotions,
6Such as romantic melancholy,
7lWhich is the feeling you get if you’re a Brit trying to experience a genuine emotion.
8For example, there was mKeats,
9Who wanted to love a nnightingale and also possibly an urn of some sort,
10And oShelley,
11Who wanted to love a pstone statue buried in the desert,
12And qByron,
13Who wanted to love rwomen,
14And sWordsworth,
15Who wanted to love tEngland,
16And uColeridge,
17Who wanted to love vGod and His creations.
18wThrough prodigious effort, the romantic poets succeeded in working themselves up to an emotional state that was something like mild yearning,
19xOnly tinged with a vague sadness,
20Which is a pretty passionate way to feel,
21If you’re a Brit.
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Chapter 41 / 59