Fire.
Fire
all around.
Burning
out of control.
Riots
and revolutions began in Europe once again.
Some
feared the French Revolution,
Beheadings,
Napoleon.
The
poets and artists wanted people to strive for the best.
To
be the best.
Mill
wanted freedom and liberty.
They
needed equality.
The
passionate, romantic, fiery wish to bring back the old ways.
The
days of the noble savage.
The
days of dreaming with the Greeks in groves of olive trees.
The
puffy shirts of Shakespeare.
Selling
souls with Faust in goblin markets.
No
more of this revolution.
No
more of this industry.
We
should look back and push forward
Like
Janus on the Roman coin.
Always
looking to the future.
Always
looking to the past.
Never
in the present.
The
present is too terrible.
What
good can come of it?
So
two forces push and pull
Like
that steam train trying to get started.
Intellectual
horizons slowly widened.
Humans
became important with rediscoveries of the old Greek writings.
Information
exploded with the printing press.
Books
became more available.
Dante
wrote his great work.
Shakespeare
wrote his plays.
The
Globe was founded.
The
structure of the universe was changed and challenged.
Copernicus
developed the sun-centered solar system.
Galileo
agreed
Was
sentenced to house arrest.
Artists
learned new tricks.
Realistic
images with color and brush were made.
Perspective
expanded.
No
longer were pictures flat and lifeless.
No
longer were statues trapped in their dais.
They
were free to walk about
They
were free to be experienced.
New
nobles emerged.
To
make their way in the world of trade and banking.
The
Medici became rich.
They
commissioned paintings.
Lived
like royalty.
Italy
broke into republics.
Burgundy
expanded.
Civil
war broke out in England.
Isabella
and Ferdinand ended division in Spain.
France
was not well after the war of a hundred years
But
managed to slowly dress their wounds.
The
horizons of the known world started to expand.
