The Romantic poets celebrated nature as a refuge from industrial society. Their twentieth-century descendants, however, saw little romance in nature: poets like Robinson Jeffers depicted the natural world as indifferent and even hostile to human concerns, a view shaped less by industrial alienation than by the era's scientific materialism.
Which choice best describes the function of the second sentence in the text?
- A
It defines what it means to be a Romantic poet.
- B
It dismisses the Romantic view as historically inaccurate.
- Ccheck_circle
It contrasts twentieth-century poets with the Romantics and identifies a different cause.
- D
It extends the Romantic view to a new generation of poets.
Explanation
The second sentence draws a contrast ("however") and attributes the new view to scientific materialism rather than industrialism. B captures both moves.