revelation

Last night in my Romantic Lit class I came upon 2 realizations.
1. Just how inter-connected we all are. To learn the Romantic writers, I must study elements of history and philosophy and governement to fully understand the writing of that time. First I must learn about the French Revolution and what was going on during that time in Britain. I must learn about Rosseau, a philosopher. I must learn about government and hierarchy and monarchy religion. This is all for an English class. To study history, you need language, you study influential authors, the same language and authors I study. We are all connected.
2. To be remembered and considered great, you don't have to be original. We were reading Alexander Pope's "Windsor Forest" and all he did was mimic and suck up. He was completely unoriginal in his work. He didn't write for himself, he wrote to please Queen Ann and make money. Why am I studying someone who was completely unoriginal in his thought and work? That is a question to which there is no answer.