Friday, February 3, 2012
Romantic Poets
As I mentioned by way of introduction as we began our study of the Romantic poets, scholars singled out six poets (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats), of which we have read five, and "constructed a unified Romanticism based on their works." Based only on the limited works we have studied, what would you argue "unites" these poets and poetry? In class we have discussed the repeated theme or motif of childhood v. adulthood, innocence v. experience, so in addition to that, what similarities do you see?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Romantic poets we have read have many various elements in common. The similarity most obvious and apparent is the idea of innocence and experience which coincides with concept of childhood vs. adulthood. Although these motifs seem the most obvious there are other unifying traits. The one that seems to me the strongest is the idea of establishing a different literary style. Romanticism aimed to redefine art and this fact is apparent in many of the works of the Romantic Poets. Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” for instance plays a great deal with meter and rhythm. Most of the poem is written in the traditional ballad stanza but Coleridge abandons the traditional ballad to include other diverse stanzas. Shelley also alters the traditional in some of his poetry. “Sonnet: England in 1819” is not a traditional Italian sonnet. Shelley chooses to modify the traditional Italian sonnet by flipping the order of the customary octave sestet arrangement. Shelley clearly establishes that he is familiar with the conventional form of poetry but makes a conscious decision to go a different route. I think that the idea of poetic “spontaneity” is also a concept shared by the Romantic poets. The poets felt that the creation of poetry should come spontaneously-- freely occurring after an experience or encounter. An example of this concept comes from Wordsworth’s “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1802” and Coleridge’s “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” both poems are intended to be read as poems that have occurred with great naturalness and freedom as though the simple circumstances have generated enough inspiration for the poets to create the work with ease. Nature and the discontent of the materialistic world is also very uniform in the works of the poets. Many of the poems are heavily fixed on the idea of nature. “Ah! Sun-Flower”, “Nutting”, “The Lime-Tree Bower My Prison”, “Ode to the West Wind” and “Ode to a Nightingale” all have a fundamental element of Nature. Discontent with materialistic urban society is also a uniting element present in the poets works. Blake’s and Wordsworth’s London poems as well as Shelley’s England Sonnet all account for the poets dissatisfaction with city life and what it says about humanity.
ReplyDeleteJunita,
DeleteThat is a very interesting point. Each poet attempts to and achieves their own poetic style. Each manipulates the themes in thier own way. For instance, Blake's poems (those that allude to innocence)are very short and sweet;however, his poems that allude more to the experience are longer and far more descriptive. Next, Wordsworth I would agree believes fully in the soul. He again makes the poems of innocence short and sweet while his poems of experience are much longer. I would also agree and say that next to individualistic style nature is their biggest unifying element. Colerdige's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is written in ballad stanza. Here, Coleridge is at his best. The poem is more like a short story and well detailed throughout. Further, Shelly and Keats also make strong allusions to nature. Nature is the basis of thier poems. As I said earlier, I strongly believe that each of the Romantic poets finds a way to manipulate nature and make it in to their own poetic style.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry, the blog will not let me make any changes unless I delete and repost.
DeleteThe Romantic poets are defenitely united by the idea of innocence vs. experience, and the idea of childhood vs. adulthood. The Romantics are further fascinated by nature, and its powerful role in the lives of all humans. For instance, Blake (who is my favorite out of the six)illustrates nature first from a child's point of view and then from an adult's point of view. Several of his poems illustrate that. For instance, " The Lamb" and "The Tyger" both illustrate the change between the innocence of childhood and the unfortunate expereinces of adulthood. As children, we belive in dreams and as adults we begin to see the reality. We in a way loose the belief in ourslves and fall victim to the societal opinions of our views. During our childhood, we are individual people while in our adulthood we are sadly assimilated into well the everyday life. Wordsworth and Colerdige had much to say about nature in different ways. Wordsworth, for instance, adds his own element to the Romatics. For Wordsworth, memory became the basis of his poetic style. He looked to nature for insperation and many of his poems illustrate that such as "Lines." To write this poem, Wordsworth revisits a place he has not seen for a while seeing now for the first time its true beauty. Wordsworth added yet another element to the Romantics poetry and that was the element of soul. He strongly beleived that our soul always has the answer. A storng example of this belief would be the "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood." Thus far, both Blake and Wordsworth are united by innocence vs. experince as well as the powerful impact of nature within our lives. Both poets illustarte that nature is inevitable, and we are a part of it for a short time. Wordsworth and Blake were a bit more optamistic that Coleridge. Colerdige had a sad life due to his addiction to oppium and as such some of his poems start out as pitty parties. In "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" Colerdige sees something but feels nothing. He simply could not find anything he deemed beautiful within. However in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Coleridge provides a moral. His moral is that one should not interfere with (nature hence the killing of the Albatross). Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge warn us that nature is inevitable, and we are just one small part of its beauties and offerings. Shelly as we know was very philosphical and saw the world in two ways for the good and the bad. Shelly tells us that we never percieve the perfect or the ideal form;unfortuantely, we are the mere shadows of them. In his poem, "Ode to the Westwind" Shelly gives us the element of optimism. To do that, he aludes to seasons and henceforth nature. Here, he shows us the powerful effect of nature in our lives. Like the seasons, we change. Lastly, Keats manipulates nature as an important factor throughout his poetry. In the "Happy is England..." Keats sees the change of a city;however, one thing is conistant throughout - nature. The five poets I have somewhat elaborted on are most defenitely united by nature. Each see nature in their own way, and it becomes the basis for their poetry.In this sense, the repeated themes we have seen are illustrated. The main theme is innocence vs. experience. Through both we experince the unity of nature.
ReplyDeleteI agree they also had a lot to say about nature, which sometimes tied in with their innocence vs reality motif. I think they all saw the world in different ways and the ways in which they expressed it came out differently, but they still talked about the same things. Each poet had their own view; therefore, their expression was completely new and different from the last. I believe they could write on the same topic and have completely different outcomes because their writing was reflective of their personal lives and feelings.
DeleteFor me, the poets are united by their ability to express beauty and contrast it with destruction. The language they use is so similar. It always seems that they begin with something beautiful and go on to speak about how it is compared with something destructive, or how the thing that was once wonderful is no longer beautiful and has turned to wither. The way they express these things is different, but it seems that each poem has some element of beauty vs demolition in it, and it is very simple to find.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Sammi. The Romantic poets are definitely united by something strong. We have discussed in depth that it is nature. Well, we have storngly hinted toward that. Anyway, your comment is so very true. First, most of the poems begin with description of beauty then with experience it turns into something depressive.
DeleteSam, you have a totally valid point when you say that "the thing that was once wonderful is no longer beautiful and has turned to wither." Sometimes these poets even go back to beauty once more after they realize their poets and can do that!
DeleteThe Romantic poets and their poetry rely heavily on the sensation of absolute *feeling*. They seemingly intended to write spontaneously based on these immediate and/or fleeting sensations that they experienced based on observation or subjectivity: they wanted to construct a conveyable and artistic (literary), personal meaning behind observable situations or settings.
ReplyDeleteWhomever derives the most intense feelings from the most trivial moments can possibly be considered the most Romantic, providing they can portray their feelings wonderfully enough. I don't say this to delegitimize their work, but internal drama is the essence of the Romantic as they struggle to define themselves artistically. They wasted no time proving how much they could feel and performed quite beautifully.
I shall post more of my *feelings* about this later . . .
Jared,
DeleteYou brought up a very interesting point. The Romantic poets are one hundred percent all about feelings. As I mentioned in my post I agree that a unifying characteristic of the poets is that they do construct their work spontaneously. The Romantics aim to deliver their emotions (feelings) about a particular experience or observation in an almost instant artistic fashion. I also agree that their poetry can come off a bit dramatic. I love your take on the romantic, “Whomever derives the most intense feelings from the most trivial moments can possibly be considered the most Romantic”. In essence encounters with the nature are simple ordinary things but the level that the Romantics take these observations to is what defines them. Only the Romantics could create poems like “Ode to the West Wind”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, and “A Poison Tree” based on simple ordinary encounters.
Wow! This is very interesting. I did not think of it this way.
ReplyDeleteUnquestionably, all 6 poets have many similarities, keynotes already mentioned by Dr. Battles at the top: childhood vs. adulthood, and innocence vs. experience. Although their is no proof in the works we've read so far, the fact that all are white males living in the same time period already put them in a type of classification. Many of the poems we read were written in iambic pentameter,and many were sonnets, which makes a lot more sense now. Dr. Battles explained in class how Shakespeare wrote poetry in iambic pentameter because that is the way conversation (speech) generally goes. I was somewhat enlightened by this new found reasoning for poetry being written in iambic form.
ReplyDeleteAll the poets really put a heavy emphasis on how sinful things were during the time: Shelly paints a dismal scene, in the Sonnet, England in 1819, using words like "Religion Christless, Godless."
Wordsworth is similar in his writng about London September 1803. "Delights us. Rapine. avarice, expensive./ This is idolatry and these we adore."
All the poets seemed very emotional in their writing; a classic would be Ode to a Nightingale. The narrator paints a bleak scene: "I have been half in love with easeful Death,/ Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,/ To take into the air my quiet breath;/Now more than ever seems it rich to die."
All in all, the poems followed each other, especially when love was involved.