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An Overview of Romantic Poetry By

DR. MOHAMMAD SHAUKAT ANSARI

Department of English

MLSM College, Darbhanga

Mobile – 9431467734

WhatsApp – 9801607700

Email – shaukata12@yahoo.com

• The term Romanticism has been variously defined.

• For example –

Walter Pater defines it as “the addition of strangeness to beauty”.

Watts Dunton defines it as “the renaissance of wonder”.

Herford calls it “extra-ordinary development of imaginative sensibility”.

Legouis and Cazamian emphasise both on the emotional and imaginative aspects of romanticism, and call it “an accentuated predominance of emotional life, provoked and directed by the exercise of imaginative vision”.

Romantic Poetry

The Romantic movement at the end of 18th century and the beginning of

19th century was a deliberate and sweeping revolt against the literary

principles of the Age of Reason.

Just as Dryden and Pope had rejected the romantic tradition of the Elizabethans as crude and irregular and had adopted classical or more correctly neo-classical principles of French literature in their writings, so now Wordsworth and Coleridge, in their turn, rejected the neo- classical principles in favour of the romantic.

• Return to Nature and to plain humanity • Democratic notes (talk about toilers, common

men like the solitary reaper) • Packed with the dreams of Golden Age (like

imagination, bravery, heroic deeds, etc.) • Interest in old sagas (legends). • Influence of French Revolution on poetry (Liberty,

Fraternity and Equality) • Flight of imagination • Subjective themes

Ist Phase: • William Wordsworth (1770-1850) • Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) • Robert Burns (1759-1796) • Walter Scott (1771-1832) 2nd Phase: Lord Byron (1788-1824) Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) John Keats (1795-1821) Robert Southley (1774-1843)

• Wordsworth and Coleridge jointly published “Lyrical Ballads” (in 1789) that laid down the fundamentals of Romantic poetry.

• It is a collection of poems composed by both poets.

The Old Cumberland Beggar, Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known, Michael, The Prelude, The Excursion, The Recluse, The Solitary Reaper, Ode on the Intimations of Immortality – some popular

poems of Wordsworth My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So it is now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The child is father of man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. (theme of the love of nature) [The speaker wants his days to be tied together by reverence and

piety toward the natural world]

The Rime of an Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla khan, Dejection, Remorse , The knight’s Tomb – are known poems by Coleridge.

Most conspicuous feature of Coleridge’s poems is their intense imaginative power, superbly controlled and having unerring artistic sense.

His poems superbly exploit the weird, the supernatural, and the obscure, and for the moment he can compel us to believe all this.

• Shelley’s is recognised to be one of the supreme gifts in literature.

• In his visionary poems, we see Shelleyan hero, a rebel against tyranny and a leader in the struggle which is to bring about ultimate happiness of humanity.

• His descriptive power at once strikes the imagination.

O world! O life! O time!

On whose last steps I climb,

Trembling at that where I had stood before;

When will return the glory of your prime?

No more – Oh, never more! (A Lament) A nice lyric, a pessimistic poem,

[The poet is concerned with the thought of death or his own sense of despair or loneliness]

• Keats who was the youngest of the trio of the second generation of romantic poets was also the first to die.

• His poetic career lasted just five years, and yet he produced during that short period poems which are not only as wonderful as Shelley’s but are of more enduring effect and interest.

• Endymion, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, The Ode to a Nightingale – his beautiful poems.

Chief characteristics of Romantic Poetry

• Subjectivity:

All romantic literature is subjective, it is an expression of the inner urges of the soul of the artist.

The poet does not care for rules and regulations, but gives free expression to his emotions.

It is an emancipation of the individual soul from the bondage of customs.

For example, Keats, in Ode to a Nightingale, wishes to escape from this world of harsh realities with the awareness that life and its joys are short-lived.

• Spontaneity:

Romantic poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful and intense passions.

The Romantic poet feels more than there is to feel and sees more than there is to see. Even ordinary objects and incidents excite his imagination and set up in him powerful passions.

• Love for supernatural: The Romantic poetry is specially alive to the

wonder, mystery and beauty of the universe. The poet always feels the presence of unseen

powers in nature. The supernatural has got a special charm for

him. He is always attracted by the stories of fairies, ghosts and witchcraft.

His poetry is an expression of wonder at the magic and mystery of the universe.

• Melancholic note:

A Romantic Poet is a dissatisfied individual. He may be dissatisfied with the circumstances of his own life, with his age, with literary conventions and traditions of the day or with the general fate of humanity.

The Middle Ages have a special fascination for him, for they not only provide him with an escape from the sordid realities of the present but also delight his heart by their colour, pageantry (a colourful show or display) and magic.

Love of Nature:

• Zest for the beauties of Nature always characterises all romantic poets.

• They not only sing of the sensuous beauty of Nature, but also see into the heart of things and reveal the soul that lies behind.

• William Wordsworth was a great worshipper of Nature, high priest of Nature.

• Nature had inspired Cowper, Burns and Blake before Wordsworth and among his own contemporaries Byron, Shelley and Keats were great lovers of Nature.

• The distinction is that Wordsworth takes up Nature not mere physical loveliness, but A REVELATION OF GOD. He sees in all Natural objects the indwelling spirit of the Supreme Being.

Emaphasis on nobility and simplicity of man:

The romantics have an instinct for the elemental simplicities of life.

Their hearts overflow with sympathy for the poor and the

downtrodden. They attempt to glorify the innocence and simplicity of the

common man. They claim equal rights and liberties for the humblest and

plead for their emancipation from all types of bondage. Democratic tone in their utterances.

A revolt against artificiality:

The Romantics raised their voice against the artificial diction of 18th century.

They went against the classical rules of poetry.

Hellenism in Romantic poetry:

• “Hellenism” comes from “Hellenes” meaning inhabitants of Hellas or ancient Greece. Hellenism thus implies a love of Greek way of life, of Greek art, culture, literature and mythodology.

• Keats’s Endymion, Lamia, Grecian Urn – all have themes borrowed form the Greeks.

Medieval notes in Romantic poetry:

• Love of the past, specially of the remote and mysterious Middle Ages, is an important feature of romanticism.

• The romantics turned back to the Middle Ages in search of inspiration and themes.

• The Ancient Mariner (by Coleridge), for example, is wrought with the colour and glamour of the Middle Ages.

Thanks

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