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¶ … Romantic Period, writers shared an appreciation for nature. Capturing the essence of enjoying nature in writing became of utmost importance for these writers as they focused on emotion and imagination to help them create pleasing literature. We can see these characteristics in Percy Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," and William Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey." These poets capture the essence of the Romantic era because they bring attention to nature, pointing toward exploration of human emotion. This combination allowed them to raise awareness of the mind through literature and while literature became the vehicle through which they explored.
In "Ode to a Nightingale," the poet uses his imagination as he begins to dwell on the nightingale's song. He experiences powerful emotions as he considers the bird's song and he feels as though he is losing his identity as he continues to listen. The song stimulates his mind and it makes him consider things otherworldly. The poet says the song makes his heart "ache" (Keats 1) and...
These things bring the poet into a sublime experience as he sees the pain in beauty through this simple song. The song exists above the trees while men sit beneath such trees only to "hear each other moan" (24). He considers how his own imagination might "cheat" (73) him as loses sense of all time and space listening to the song. This kind of thinking show us the personal emotion the poet brings to the table because it causes him to ponder an "easeful death" (52) to avoid worldly the suffering. He thinks of escaping the world "unseen" (19-20), telling the bird he "will fly to thee" (31) on the light and airy wings of poetry. Here we see how something simple like a bird's song can capture the imagination and inspire verse.
In "Ode to the West Wind," Percy Shelley demonstrates characteristics of the Romantic Period because he, too, is reaching for an otherworldly experience. The poet begins with personifying autumn by becoming aware of its "being" (Shelley 1). This being brings forth change and opens the door for a new season. The poet appreciates nature as he verifies the existence of the winds, saying they "Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing" (4). He claims he thoughts resemble "winged seeds" (7) seen through each passing season. The winds symbolize change in our lives and our inability to do much about that change. The West wind might be a fragment of the poet's imagination as he waits in winter but he knows spring will come and it only takes a piece of his imagination to bring it back to him. It is…
Work Cited
Wordsworth, William. "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey." The Norton
Anthology of English Literature. Vol I.M.H. Abrams, ed. New York W.W. Norton
and Company. 1986. Print.
Keats, John. "Ode to a Nightingale." English Romantic Writers. New York: Harcourt Brace
Nature is the vehicle that leads him to awareness on a physical and emotional plane, expressed when he realizes that "each faculty of sense... keep[s] the heart/Awake to Love and Beauty" (62-3). Here we see that the poet is open to whatever his experience with nature will teach him. Another poet that demonstrates the mood and tone of the Romantic era is Percy Shelley. In "Ode to the West Wind,"
The winds are "driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing" (4) and the poet's thoughts are like "winged seeds" (7) of each passing season. The poet writes, "Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; / Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!" (13-4). Critic Jeanine Johnson notes that "Ode to the West Wind" "returns to the idea that human development and nature follow parallel cycles. If the seasons correspond to the
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As Jeffrey Stout has it, following James' "Will-to-Believe," "We need not agree on all matters of moral importance to agree on many, and where our judgments happen to coincide we need not reach them for the same reasons." (Fackre, 2003) Fackre states that there are five pluralist views as follows: View 1: Common Core. At the center of all the great religions of humankind is found a common core of divine
All of the styles inspired by the Romantic current can be clearly traced from the Formalist point-of-view, as they had in common the use of image itself, leaving meaning and content to a secondary design. In the poetry and literature world, the Romantic period was a chance to explore the inner feelings of the artist, the development of his own soul and thoughts, where the author is the hero of the
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