Personal Information :-
Name : Aarti Bhupatbhai Sarvaiya
Batch : M.A. Sem. 1 (2022-2024)
Enrollment N/o. : 4069206420220027
Roll N/o. : 01
Subject Code & Paper N/o. : 22394 - Paper 103: Literature of Romantics
Email Address : aartisarvaiya7010@gmail.com
Submitted to : Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English – Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University – Bhavnagar – 364001
Date of Online Submission : 03rd November, 2022
Date of Offline Submission : 07th November, 2022
Nature and The Romantic Poets :-
Romanticism was a literary movement that began in the late 18th century, ending around the middle of the 19th century—although its influence continues to this day.Romanticism focused on emotions and the inner life of the writer, and often used autobiographical material to inform the work or even provide a template for it, unlike traditional literature at the time. (Somers)
'Romantic writers saw nature as a teacher and a source of infinite beauty. One of the most famous works of Romanticism is John Keats’ To Autumn (1820):' (Somers)
Subtitles of the Assignment :-
Introduction
What is the connection between Romanticism and Nature
The Romantic Ideology in the View of Nature Concept
Nature and the Romantic Mind : Egotism, Empathy,Irony
Nature in Romantic Poetry
Conclusion
References
Introduction:-
In this assignment I'm going to discuss Nature and Romantic Poets. The Romantic Poets include Wordsworth, Coleridge,Keats,Shelly and Byron. I also discuss their connection with nature and also discuss the above topics.
What is the connection between Romanticism and Nature :-
Romanticism and nature are connected because the artists and philosophers of the romantic period emphasized the glory and beauty of nature, and the power of the natural world. Some scholars of romanticism believe that the romanticists treated nature in an almost religious way. Reasons for the development of this strong connection between nature and romanticism include the Industrial Revolution, which led many people to leave rural areas and live in cities, separated from the natural world. In addition, during the 18th and 19th centuries when romanticism was popular, large areas of European and North American wilderness had been tamed, so that it had become generally much safer for people to travel into these areas and observe their natural wonders. The connection between romanticism and nature may have also risen in part as a backlash against the scientific emphasis of enlightenment philosophy, and against the cultural norms of that period.(Source )
Many romanticist artists, writers, and philosophers believe in the natural world as a source of healthy emotions and ideas. By contrast, the emerging urban, industrialized world was often portrayed as a source of unhealthy emotions, morals, and thoughts. Romanticists such as Henry David Thoreau believed that humans were meant to live in the world of nature, rather than the urban world. The connection between Romanticism and nature was largely formed with this core concept that man's true self can be found in the wilderness, rather than in the city.(Source )
The connection between romanticism and nature strengthened with the idealization of folk cultures and customs. Improvisation and spontaneity in art, music, and literature became more widely acceptable. Many works of the romantic period emphasised the oneness of humanity with the natural world, as opposed to many earlier schools of art and philosophy. These earlier schools of thought typically held humanity to be separate from and often aloof from the natural world. While romanticism elevated the connection with nature to an almost religious level, giving it morally edifying and desirable attributes, earlier schools of philosophical thought often ascribed base, evil qualities to the natural world. (Source )
The Romantic Ideology in the View of Nature Concept :-
“The poetry of earth is never dead”, that is what John Keats wrote in the first line of his sonnet “On the Grasshopper and Cricket”. Until now, one could say that his statement from 1884 is true. Poetry still exists and has a significant impact on our present society. Contemporary authors as Kathleen Jamie are modern writers who deal with themes about our lives on earth.(Gribbohm)
Nature was one of the central topics during the romantic era and is still a persistent theme due to environmental debates such as climate change or the pollution of our planet. It is a well-known fact that the consciousness of nature, during these years, had possibly changed, but some thoughts and ideas of the romantics might still wield influence on contemporary poetry.(Gribbohm)
A persistent theme in the romantic period, dated from 1785 to 1830, is nature. Not only John Keats but also other relevant poets made nature an important topic in their poems. This involves various perspectives explained below.(Gribbohm)
The concept of nature is tremendously complex. In this context, we speak particularly of the living non-human nature, which includes uncultivated land, wild sceneries, flora and animals. Moreover, nature is frequently associated with spontaneity, independence and unspoilt ness.(Gribbohm)
Stillinger and Lynch argue that nature, therefore, stands in contrast to all things which are produced by humans and which are by implication, artificial. Thus, one could argue that romanticism during the second half of the 18th century was a “response against the scientific rationalism of nature during the Enlightenment” and moreover “against the material changes in society, which accompanied the emerging and expanding industrial capitalism”. (Gribbohm)
Peter Kitson said that nature is often understood as the basis and origin of all life and deeds. Therefore, nature demonstrates a religious aspect and is an expression of the divine, in the broader sense. As a result, our world, which includes nature as well, is worth protecting, for the reason that we were and are part of it.(Gribbohm)
Poets of the second generation often debate the fact that a combination with nature could accomplish transcendence. Transcendence defines the transition from reality to a conceptual world. The most frequent transition in poetry might be the end of life, which connotes the way into the world of death. However, there are other transitions, during the romantic period, which play an important role. For instance, the alternation from reality to dream, spirit worlds or to art, and from human society to nature .(Gribbohm)
Nature creates a range, which provides protection and salvation for those who failed in society. Moreover, another fact cannot be ignored, namely that nature is not always seen positively. One could as well argue that nature is threatening because it often turns directly against humans, destroys their possessions or even their lives. (Gribbohm)
Nature and the Romantic Mind: Egotism, Empathy, Irony
The Romantics were constantly occupied with testing the degree to which the mind and the world were commensurate with each other. The possibilities of such commensurateness were seen to be broad and flexible: there were a myriad of ways in which consciousness and nature could learn to fit together in fruitful struggle. (JSTOR)
Wordsworth's metaphor of a marriage, with its attendant consummation and creation, is perhaps the best known image for this exquisite fitting. But Wordsworth's was a middle way, giving equivalent weight to each partner in the relationship. The high argument in the "Preface" to The Excursion is an exercise in parity, its main point the creative efficiency that comes from interlocking the powers of mind and world. (JSTOR)
Blake, Wordsworth's most active antagonist in these matters, insisted that the outward creation was a hindrance to the mind as it ascended to its encompassing vision of eternity. Yet Blake, on his way to a fourfold vision, could still look at a thistle and see it both as a thistle and as a gray old man, finding analogies in the minutely. (JSTOR)
Thus, though he usually found nature to be an impediment to the fullest perception, there were times when Blake could make use of the world in order to transcend it, beginning with a wild flower and ending with heaven.(JSTOR)
Nature in Romantic Poetry :-
Treatment is the way in which someone behaves towards or deals with someone or something. Preferential treatment denotes a special treatment. Nature is the occurrences of the physical world mutually,including plants, animals, and the landscape, and other features and yields of the earth. Nature in poets ignites imagination that draws on our understandings and information of the world around us and joins them with the entirely unacquainted entities to make something new. Romantic poets commonly treat nature as a source of pleasure and poetic creation despite their other alterations in their understanding of nature.
Nature in Wordsworth’s Poetry
Wordsworth, a priest of nature, interprets beauty in spiritual terms. He makes a spiritual interpretation of nature. He perceives God in Nature, and Nature in God.
He reveals his great love and honor for nature. He desires to spend his remaining life by being close to nature. Nature for him is a divine spirit capable of inspiring and delighting human beings. (Sharma )
The following verse lines :-
suggest his will to worship nature to make his life meaningful and blithe:
And I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety.
(My Heart Leaps Up when I Behold: lines 8-9)
The poet considers nature as a living being or spirit with the capability of teaching human beings. He, arguing with his friend, asserts that one portion of spring wood may teach us more about man and morality than all the sages can. It means the books written by wise men can’t teach us as much as nature does:
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Then all the sages can.
(The Tables Turned: lines 21-24)
Nature in Coleridge’s Poetry :-
Coleridge assumes that nature is an expression of divine power, but it isn’t God itself. It is extraordinary and mysterious, and through his mind or imagination he turned those mysteries into ordinary, relatable subjects. It is difficult to understand because its various phenomena are not crystal clear and we cannot explain everything with the help of rationality. (Sharma )
Coleridge is a brilliant craftsman for blending the natural and supernatural entities. His description of the place, waning moon, and a woman waiting for a demon-lover is really magnificent:
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By a woman wailing for her demon-lover!
(Kubla Khan, lines 14-16)
Geraldine, an utterly beautiful girl, puts a spell on poor innocent Christabel while they are sleeping naked and it becomes impossible for Christabel to tell anyone about what she and Geraldine do in that bed. The spell works so well that even the speaker does not know exactly what happened. What we know is that they are both naked and there is a lot of talk about bosoms. It is the expression of supernaturalism and mystery:
In the touch of this bosom there worketh a spell,
This is the lord of thy utterance, Christabel!
(Christabel , lines 267-268)
Nature in Byron’s Poetry :-
Byron does not have a pantheistic view of nature. Natural elements are projections of the poet's feelings. The things of nature are described to reflect human features and emotions in his poetry. (Sharma )
The poet associates a gorgeous woman who is walking with a clear night sky full of bright stars. The finest light and darkness comes together in harmony in this woman's appearance, particularly within her eyes. This gentle and delicate show of light is heavenly—undeniably, heaven usually refuses to grant this supernatural light to the snowy day time:
She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes
(She Walks in Beauty: lines 1-4)
The poet warns against the growing inequality in his time and makes a prediction for what will take place on the planet if human beings do not change this condition. He says that bright sun has been put out, and the stars in the night sky are wandering without light, as they too have been extinguished. There is nothing to guide them, just as mankind has lost its way.The state of the earth is icy and due to the lack of light from the stars and sun, it is swinging blind and darkening in the moonless air. (Sharma )
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;.
(Deakness: lines 1-5)
Nature in Shelly’s Poetry :-
Shelley considers nature as a solace provider. He trusts that nature exercises a healing influence on man's personality. He accepts that natural things are the sources of happiness and consolation. (Sharma )
The poet affirms that the song of a skylark is more joyous, clearer and fresher than the sound of spring showers on shining grass and on fresh flowers:
Sound of vernal showers
On the twinkling grass,
Rain-awakened flowers,
All that ever was
Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass
(To a Skylark, lines 56-60)
The poet attains consolation from nature in the condition of separation or impermanence. When things die or disappear, they are used for special work or they remain live in our memory:
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heap'd for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
(Music, When Soft Voices Die: lines 5-8)
Nature in Keats’s Poetry :-
Keats delights with a frank joy in the landscape. He affirms that natural elements are projections of the poet's feelings. Nature provides him with sensuous pleasures.(Sharma )
The poet receives sensual pleasure by describing a lady, whom the knight met in the meadows, with long hair, light foot and carefree eyes :
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
(La Belle Dame Sans Merci, lines 13-16)
The poet mentions the sweetness of Spenser’s poetry. He is greatly influenced and delighted by his poetry. The lines below appeal to the sense of hearing. He glorifies the favorite Elizabethan virtue of chastity in female characters (Sharma ):
A silver trumpet Spenser blows,
And, as its martial notes to silence flee,
From a virgin chorus flows
A hymn in praise of spotless Chastity.
(Ode to Apollo: lines 30-33)
- Conclusion :-
William Words Worth, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats are priests of nature, true lover of nature, lover and admirer of nature. They state nature has bestowed, unwearied joy to mankind. Nature works as a source of inspiration. Nature works as a source of generating happiness and is a best guide for human beings to live a
happy life. William Wordsworth approaches nature as a power of beauty and balm for happiness, peace and calm. It is to say where William WordsWorth's imagination isolates and focuses and John Keats fills in and enriches, Percy Bysshe Shelley's dissolves and transcends. (Sofi)
These three romantic poets have tried their best to bring
happiness to humanity and shake all their sorrows through natural beauty and rural setting in their poems. They believed that nature has answers for all unanswered questions. They celebrate the beauty of nature in its various dimensions. To conclude, nature is our best guide, source of inspiration to lead a happy and prosperous life. (Sofi)
- References :-
Byron, G. G. (1813). She walks in beauty. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43844/she-walks-in-beauty
Byron, G. G. (1816). Deakness. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43844/she-walks-in-beauty
Coleridge, S. T. (1797). Kubla Khan. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43991/kubla-khan
Coleridge, S. T. (1816). Christabel. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43971/christabel
Wordsworth, W. (1887). The tables turned. Retrieved January 18, 2021, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45557/the-tables-turned.
Gribbohm, Lisa. “Representations of Nature in Romantic and Contemporary Poetry. A Comparison of John Keats and Kathleen Jamie .” GRIN, 28 Aug. 2018, www.grin.com/document/439024.
Keats, J. (1819). La belle dame sans merci. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44475/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-a-ballad
Keats, J. (1819). Ode to Apollo. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://everything2.com/title/Ode+to+Apollo
McAtee ,Marjorie. “What Is the Connection between Romanticism and Nature?” Language Humanities, 17 Oct. 2022, www.languagehumanities.org/.
Sharma , Lok Raj. “PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT OF NATURE IN ROMANTIC POETRY.” International Journal of Advanced Research, 5 June 2020, www.journalijar.com/article/39909/preferential-treatment-of-nature-in-romantic-poetry/.
Shelley, P. B. (1820). To a skylark. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45146/to-a-skylark
Shelley, P. B. (1824). Music, when soft voices die. January 18, 2022, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/music-when-soft-voices-die-to
Sofi, Naseer ud din. “Treatment of Nature by Romantic Poets.” IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 2013, www.iosrjournals.org.
Somers, Jeffrey. “Romanticism in Literature: Definition and Examples.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 18 Dec. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/romanticism-definition-4777449.
Wordsworth, W. (1807). My heart leaps up when I behold. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from
https://poets.org/poem/my-heart-leaps
Wordsworth, W. (1887). The tables turned. Retrieved January 18, 2021, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45557/the-tables-turned.
Word Count :-2855
Images :- 07
References :- 16
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