The Romantic era was a time during the late 18th century and early 19th century and was a time of great change and emancipation. The era allowed artistic creativity and freedom. Romanticism included gothic romance, medievalism, exoticism, individualism, and many more. Many poets during this time used romanticism style writing. Pick a romantic poet during this time period and discuss how the poets writing style is appropriate for the Romantic time period. Support your answer with examples of their writing style.
Use this website for extra information on Romanticism.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html
Romantic poets used "vivid" language to elevate themes and ideals. However, poets motives and ideals often differed greatly. William Wordsworth was a romantic poet, who rejected formal writing and structure and favored imagination and emotions. He believed poetry should be written for the common man, therefore he uses simple wording. This along with the actual information in his poems makes him a prime example of a romantic poet. For example, In his poem, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," many ideals of romanticism, are displayed. Wordsworth often references nature. In his poem, he references many earthly elements such as clouds, hills, flowers, sky, stars, night, ocean... ect. These elements are to shows that man does not appreciate nature when he seas it. Also, by comparing man to a cloud and placing him above the other elements, Man is able to be considered to be apart of nature. (He was the first poet to use the term "World Soul," meaning that man and nature are one.) This is why his poem is filled with personification... A cloud is a lonely human (line1), the daffodils are a crowd of people (lines 3-4), the daffodils are dancing humans (lines 4,6), the stars are "tossing" their heads (line 12), and the waves and dancing and filled with glee (lines13-14) Also, individualism is a reoccurring theme in his writing. The narrator is wandering "lonely," meaning he is on his own. He is looking down upon a "crowd," which can be interpreted as society. Also, he believes that man should rely on his or her own morals rather than social rules. This is why until he is lying on his "couch," he can not understand the importance of the daffodils. The opinion of the flowers compared to the ocean can only be decided with isolation and individual morals. Romantic poets also attempt to use artsy wording. For example "Lonely as cloud" repeats the letter/ sound "l." That sentence is also a simile. "When all at once I saw a crowd,
ReplyDeleteA host, of golden daffodils" is a metaphor comparing the flowers to the crowd. The poem is in iambic tetrameter, with each stanza ending in a couplet.
Wayne, Tiffany K. "Wordsworth, William." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
ReplyDelete(1804) William Wordsworth
I WANDERED lonely as a cloud 1
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 2
When all at once I saw a crowd, 3
A host, of golden daffodils; 4
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 6
Continuous as the stars that shine 7
And twinkle on the milky way, 8
They stretched in never-ending line 9
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 11
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 12
The waves beside them danced; but they 13
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: 14
A poet could not but be gay, 15
In such a jocund company: 16
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought 17
What wealth the show to me had brought: 18
For oft, when on my couch I lie 19
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye 21
Which is the bliss of solitude; 22
And then my heart with pleasure fills, 23
And dances with the daffodils. 24
To A Skylark
ReplyDeleteUP with me! up with me into the clouds!
For thy song, Lark, is strong;
Up with me, up with me into the clouds!
Singing, singing,
With clouds and sky about thee ringing,
Lift me, guide me till I find
That spot which seems so to thy mind!
I have walked through wildernesses dreary
And to-day my heart is weary;
Had I now the wings of a Faery,
Up to thee would I fly.
There is madness about thee, and joy divine
In that song of thine;
Lift me, guide me high and high
To thy banqueting-place in the sky.
Joyous as morning
Thou art laughing and scorning;
Thou hast a nest for thy love and thy rest,
And, though little troubled with sloth,
Drunken Lark! thou would'st be loth
To be such a traveller as I.
Happy, happy Liver,
With a soul as strong as a mountain river
Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver,
Joy and jollity be with us both!
Alas! my journey, rugged and uneven,
Through prickly moors or dusty ways must wind;
But hearing thee, or others of thy kind,
As full of gladness and as free of heaven,
I, with my fate contented, will plod on,
And hope for higher raptures, when life's day is done.
-William Wordsworth
Romanticism is often associated with individualist motives. Artists of all kinds including poets were allowed to use their individual creativity in the 19th time period because the economy was changing for the better. Now many people, the middle class was rising, and nearly everyone could afford to indulge in the arts and creating them. William Wordsworth is a famous romantic poet who beloved in writing about nature and the pure joy of it and the miracles that take place within nature.
Wordsworth says, "I have walked through wildernesses dreary", he has dealt with troubles and hardships but he wants the skylark or nature's beauty to "Lift [him], guide [him] high and high
To thy banqueting-place in the sky." He turns to nature to "guide him" and take him away to a more beautiful place, in the "sky", maybe heaven? By referring to heaven he creates a more romantic style because romantic writers reference religion. His romanticism is portrayed through nature and how he looks for joy in nature unlike previous time periods when nature was looked to as causing bad events in life and thunderstorms were no miracles but a sign of bad times to come.
"With a soul as strong as a mountain river
Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver,
Joy and jollity be with us both!"
Romantic poets believe that nature is strong, and so Wordsworth equates a Skylark's "soul" to be as strong as a "river" he makes reference to the "Almighty Giver" eluding to religion which is also a huge aspect of romantic art.
-Will Russell
Works Cited
http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/william_wordsworth/library/to_a_skylark/
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html
'WAS brillig, and the slithy toves
ReplyDeleteDid gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Lewis Carrol
ReplyDelete“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman
ReplyDeleteWHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; 5
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Walt Whitman falls into the category of American Romanticism which typically focuses on the beauty of nature and individualism. In “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Whitman is true to the American Romantic movement by explores the themes of the love of nature, individualism, and also the feeling of renewal. The focus on the individual immediately pops out of the poem with the repetition of “I” throughout the poem. In fact, “I” is the only person even noted in the poem with the exception of the brief reference to the astronomer which stands for authority rather than a being. The whole purpose of the poem is to show the journey of the narrator from a strict formalized atmosphere to the free natural world, highlighting Whitman’s spotlight on individualism in his poetry. This journey of the narrator which follows the Romantic theme of freedom over authority is expressed in the narrator’s move from the environment of examining nature by “the proofs, the figures…the charts and the diagram” in the enclosed “lecture-room” rather than by actually experiencing nature first handedly by looking up into the “perfect silence….[of] the stars.” The narrator breaks from the authoritarian atmosphere of a formal learning setting after becoming “tired and sick” of this learning style and instead turns to the freedom of the unspoiled natural world to learn. This same transformation of the narrator also supports the other Romantic theme of renewal. To the Romantic point of view, the narrator was able to renew himself by turning his back on the formalized aspect of society to focus on the natural world. As seen, Whitman exemplifies the Romantic writing style by concentrating on the natural world, the individual, and optimistic feeling of renewal.
A Poison Tree
ReplyDeleteI was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree
-William Blake
One of Blake delves into major themes such as emotion, individualism, and nature. There is such a strong emotion of hatred in "The Poison Tree." He claims his "wrath did grow." Throughout the whole poem, this hatred for his "foe" grows and grows. An innocent apple tree is feed by his hate. Thus he brings in the nature aspect. It can also be argued that the apple tree is linked to religion - Eve ate the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil therefore his enemy suffers. Blake focuses on the individuals loathing towards his enemy, which, as stated earlier, continues to grow. The emotion shines through the other themes because it is the root for all of the others.
“On a Dead Violet” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
ReplyDeleteThe odor from the flower is gone
Which like thy kisses breathed on me;
The color from the flower is flown
Which glowed of thee and only thee!
A shrivelled, lifeless, vacant form,
It lies on my abandoned breast;
And mocks the heart, which yet is warm,
With cold and silent rest.
I weep--my tears revive it not;
I sigh--it breathes no more on me:
Its mute and uncomplaining lot
Is such as mine should be.
Shelley’s poem focuses on the Romantic aspects of nature and raw emotion, as he personifies the violet as an example of a metaphor comparing the death of a flower to the death of a loved one. This personification is apparent, as the violet “kisses” Shelley and “breathed” on him. Shelley is not simply weeping due to the death of a flower; he is mourning the death of his loved one: his “violet”. This theme of unchecked, pure, from-the-heart emotion clearly categorizes this poem as Romantic. Shelly provides a contrast between his current “warm” heart and the dead heart of his loved one, which “mocks” him “with cold and silent rest”. From the poem, we can explore into the emotional psyche of Shelley and clearly understand his mental instability and heartbreak at the loss of his true “violet”. Traces of his loved one are obvious in the violet, as the flower “glowed of thee and only thee”, thus proving this to be an ode to a deceased companion. As Shelley’s “tears revive it not”, we can infer that he is illustrating the inevitability of death. While death is inevitable, it is not without suffering, and the raw emotion throughout the poem is a classic example of Romantic poetry.
I
ReplyDeleteHear the sledges with the bells-
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And an in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III
Hear the loud alarum bells-
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now- now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
Of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIV
ReplyDeleteHear the tolling of the bells-
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people- ah, the people-
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone-
They are neither man nor woman-
They are neither brute nor human-
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells-
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells-
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
Bells, bells, bells-
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
Edgar Allen Poe wasn’t a Romantic “insider” during the peak of this literary style in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. However, his writing was very much Romantic in the way that it focused on the plight of the individual. Poe relied on reactions and emotions to illustrate the personal renewal, often distorted and gruesome, of an individual. “The Bells” does not fit this description directly; however, it does coincide with Poe’s often chaotic and random structure. This style was characteristic of a group of writers including Poe – authors of the Gothic Romance. References to “frantic fire,” “pale-faced moon,” and “shiver with affright” elicit emotionally disturbing, but often intriguing images. Note the opening of the poem to the sound of wedding bells. This opening transforms into violent, “clanging” “iron bells,” dousing the poetic structure with heavy language that contrasts the cheery, “twinkle” of the introduction. Similar patterns can be found in Poe’s other works, including “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Raven.” The focus on personal emotion and distorted imagery represents the rawest form of Romantic writing, making it difficult to pinpoint Poe as a Romantic writer/poet. However, his style did have Romantic merit thanks to a distinguished focus on the individual psyche.
Percy Bysshe Shelly is an example of an early romantic era poet. his poetry often used similes between nature, and some of his verses were very hyperbolic and expressive. Flowers seem to be a big part of his work, he often mentions violets, and a lot of his work refer to night. One of the poems I like by him is "to a skylark" near the end he says "harmonious madness". In his work "Masque of Anarchy" he displays a nonviolent approach to fight, and shows a new political involvement from poems, as he uses it to express himself on the issue of the perterloo massacre.
ReplyDeleteA short poem by him that displays romantic characteristics is "Music, When Soft Voices Die"
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory;
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heap'd for the belovèd's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
Shelley's poems can be a bit dark, morbidly melancholy as it is, he makes references to both violets and roses in this piece. The rose is coupled with the beloved as they are both dead, but memory will live on. The image left is that his beloved is just sleeping, and the little reminders like the scent of a violet will always remind him. It is a short emotion driven poem that express his deepest feelings that even after death his love will continue.
“The World Is Too Much With Us”
ReplyDelete-William Wordsworth (1807)
The world is too much with us
Late and soon
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers
Little we see in Nature that is ours
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune
It moves us not. --Great God!
I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn
This poem roughly follows the traditional sonnet form. It is obviously a Romantic Era poem, because it focus’ on nature, religion, mythology, individualism, and gothic romance.
Source: http://www2.fiu.edu/~harveyb/HI-romanticpoems.pdf
There Be None of eauty's Daughters
ReplyDelete- George Gordon (Lord) Byron
There be none of Beauty's daughters
With a magic like Thee;
And like music on the waters
Is thy sweet voice to me:
When, as if its sound were causing
The charméd ocean's pausing,
The waves lie still and gleaming,
And the lull'd winds seem dreaming:
And the midnight moon is weaving
Her bright chain o'er the deep,
Whose breast is gently heaving
As an infant's asleep:
So the spirit bows before thee
To listen and adore thee;
With a full but soft emotion,
Like the swell of Summer's ocean.
One of the key aspects of poems of the Romantic era is the theme of nature. In this poem, Lord Byron compares the beauty of a certain girl to the beauty of the natural world in lines such as, "The waves lie stilland gleaming and the lull'd winds seem dreaming". The return to the respect of nature during this era is also seen by Byron's personificaton of nature and by how he portray's nature as peaceful but powerful and meaningful. In a way, individualism is a theme here, involving the girl and the importance he places on her. This is demonstrated even by the first couple of lines, "There be none of Beauty's daughters with a magic like Thee"; though not exactly the common use of this individualistic theme where the subject tries to find hs/her own identity, this poem still appreciates the power and importance of the individual. The use of th word "Beauty" turns it into a nominative force, personifying it and making it appear to be some sort of entity, going along with the theme of mythology and folklore. Many ancient religions had a god or goddess of beauty and/or love. For example, the Greeks had Aphrodite, and the Romans had Venus. This use of Beauty in connection with spirituality goes against Christianity to an extent - it treats nature as a dominant power in the world but doesn't say anything that can be seen as anti-Christian. Ultimately, durng te Victoria era, these steps away from previous poetry shows a silent rebellion of societal morals and expectations, and the yearn for natural and individualistic themes ties in with a disdain for the rapidly increasing urban growth and collectivist society at this time.
Sources:
http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/there_be_none_of_beautys_daughters.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html
Josh- I just finished reading Alice in Wonderland, and that poem is the essence of individualism.
ReplyDeleteRalph Waldo Emerson is one of the great American romantic poets. Though often considered a great transcendentalist, Emerson's poems fit in the romantic time period in date, style, and subject matter. Transcendentalists often focused on nature, and had a struggled relationship with religion, which are overlapping characteristics of romanticism. His following poem, Rhodora, published in 1847, shows a personifying relationship with nature, an array of emotions from despair to jealousy to wonder, and an individualistic spirit that places the average rhodora along side a rose
In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals fallen in the pool
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask; I never knew;
But in my simple ignorance suppose
The self-same power that brought me there, brought you.
The Romantic time period seems to have focused a lot on the beauty, and rawness of nature. I enjoyed how Will and Natalie wrote about this relation. Their comments really standed out to me. I liked how Kelly commented on Josh's post, which made me take a second look at his poem. Although he did not write about his poem, I really liked it. The poem seemed to contain many life lessons. After reading a lot, it was great to get to Grants straight to the point answer. Rachel's comment was nice because she described it, wrote the poem, and then commented. This way made the process a lot easier to follow. Thanks for posting on our blog, Kelsey, Clayton, and Kevin.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Maura's poem, it was something that I think we all can relate to because it is so simplistic yet so deep. And the biblical allusion with the apple, (biblical or mythological…Eden or the apple of discord) is another good aspect. I'm also really glad that Shane brought up a poem by Walt Whitman who is an extraordinary composer of words whom I believe doesn't get enough credit. Clayton is right when he says that the Romantic time period focuses on beauty and rawness, but I also believe that (from reading all of your poems) that it has a lot to do with the human psyche and how it captures that beauty and rawness in such an abstract way depending on the person. Thanks for some awesome poems and posting guys!
ReplyDelete