Development of Poetry in Romantic Age

                 Development of Poetry in Romantic Age

Name                  :        Bhumi  Vajani

Std                       :        M.A. I        Sem :         II

Roll No.              :        04

Paper                  : The Romantic Age

Topic                    : Development of Poetry in Romantic Age

Year                     : 2013

Submitted To     :        Dr.Dilip Barad

                                      Department of English M.K. Bhavnagar

University

v    Development of Poetry in Romantic Age :

The term Romantic when it is used in literary criticism is quite different from the sense in which it is popularly used. If we says that a sense or a story is 'romantic' we probably mean that it is a love-scene or a love-story which is touching. But that is not at all what we mean when we use the term with reference to literature or when we speak of 'romanticism' or the Romantic Age or the Romantic poets. Basically 'Romantic' stands for which goes beyond reason beyond the practical and the empirical. A deeper understanding of the term will emerge from the description of the poets of Romantic Age.

       "Write are products, of the age in which they live.”

Rousseau and the French Revolution itself deeply influenced the Romantics. The idea of Liberty, equality and Fraternity were a perennial source of inspiration to these writers. Wordsworth was in French when the Revolution broke out and hailed it as a 'dawn' of freedom for all mankind. Later the violence and bloodshed and the Napoleonic tyranny made him disillusioned of the younger group of Romantic poets, Shelley and Byron were inspired by the spirit of the revolution though Shelley did not take direct part in any revolution, his revolutionary ardors and his hope for a new future for mankind.

One of the major influences on the minds of the Romantics was the industrial Revolution. Romantic poets rejected contemporary urban life and sought solace and refugee elsewhere. The city was no longer a community in which men felt at home. One of the major sources of refuge form was Nature. Wordsworth and Coleridge become intimates and decided to change the classical bent towards the Nature. They were not happy with the diction of the classical as common people could not relate themselves with the classical work

The love of nature is a common characteristic of the group. There are a far tagger number of poems describing natural scenes or is there some difference in the attitude to nature the involvement with nature, the manner in which natural phenomena are described. The fact is that many poems on this subject shows that nature meant more to these poets than writers in other times man's life in society and his relations with other men were no longer of interest to the poets.

English Literary History begins the Romantic period officially in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge and ends in 1832 with Keats work. This age was the age of Revolution. Imagination of the poets celebrated Nature's beauty symbolism and myth were considered important. Art was valued best. This Age was contrast to Neo-classicism. The Romantic heroes were artists and striving beyond the moral restrictions of society, classical heroes influenced the poets of this Age.

v    Major Poets  :

- The famous poets of this Age -

1)                Wordsworth:

§   Life: He was born at Cockermouth, a town outside the lake District.

"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive

But to be young was very heaven!

v    Poetry :

§   Some of the noteworthy works of Wordsworth are  -

·        Michael

·        The old Cumberland Beggar.

·        She dwelt among the untrodden ways.

·        Strange fits of passion, have I know.

·        Nutting are included in Lyrical Ballads

·        The prelude

·        The excursion

·        The white Doe of Rylstone

·        The Waggoner

·        The solitary Reaper

·        The Green linnet .

·        I wondered lonely as a could

·        Ode on the Intimations of Immortality.

·        Resolution and Independence

·        Ode to Duty.

·        Peter Bell

·        Yarrow Revisited

·        The Borders (a drama)

v    Theory :

He brings out his theory of poetry in the preface to the second edition of the lyrical Ballads (1800). His work can be divided into subject and style. Wordsworth's subjects depend on 'incidents and situations from common life! He chooses humble and rustic life. His style was revolutionary. He says -

"Their neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition."

v    Features  :

His poetry was full of inequality. There was egoism but it lyrically pure. His mood varied. The following lyric illustrates the mood of perfection.

          "My heart leaps up when I behold

          A rainbow in the sky;

          So was it when my life began;

          So is it now I am a man;

          So be it when I shall grow old,

          or let me die !

          The child is father of the man;

          And I could wish my days to be

          Bound each to each by natural piety.

2)                Samuel Taylor Coleridge : [1772 - 1834]

§   Life :

Coleridge was born in Devonshire.

                   "I never thought as a child". He says,

                   "Never had the language of a child"

                   The year 1811 saw his finest lectures on

                   Shakespeare and other poets, it continued in 1812-13 too.

v    Poetry:

The period of his good poetical genius was short. But the poetries were marvelous. The best poetries of Coleridge were produced in 1797-1798. The Rime of the Ancient mariner is remarkable poem. Wordsworth and Coleridge discussed the subject of

'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'

Together but later on Wardsworth gave up and Coleridge gave us an incomparable master piece. He also wrote Charitable and Kubla Khan but was not so wonderful and magical as 'The Rime of Ancient Mariner' some of his famous poetries are -

·        The Rime of Ancient mariner

·        Kubla Khan

·        Christabel

·        Frost at midnight

·        Ode to Dejection

·        The knight's Tome

·        France: An ode

When he had shaken himself from opium he published Biographia Literaria and sibylline Leaves.

v    Features :

He had limits, his work was limited. His personal life was scattered yet his poetical work was of highest degree. His imaginative power was superb that exploits the weird, the supernatural and the obscure. No poet could reach the witchery of his language. His song is that the sirens sang, For example; His song is that the sirens sang, For example;

          "It ceased; yet still the sails made on

          A pleasant noise till noon,

          A noise like of a hidden brook

          In the leafy month of June,”

That to the sleeping woods all night singeth a quite tune "

He also had simplicity of diction. He appeals directly to the readers mind. His style of writing poetry was batter but he also was good at prose, He wrote a critical essay and some articles too.

3)                Percy Bysshe Shelley  : [1792 - 1822]

§   Life :

P.B. Shelley was born in Sussex at university he developed extreme notions on religion politics and morality. The intoxication of Rome's blue sky blossomed him into the rarest beauty.

§   Poetry :

His poems were extra ordinary in their number and quality. He could Marvell long and short poems.

- Some of his poems are

·              Queen Mab

·        The spirit of solitude

·              Cythnd (The Revolt of Islam)

·        Prometheus unbound

·              The witch of Atlas

·        To a Skylark

·              The cloud

·        On a Faded Violet

·              Ode to the west wind.

§   Prose:

Shelley began his literary career writer two boyish remains.

1.       Zastrozzi

2.       St Irvyne.

Then he wrote 'The Defense of Poetry'. His prose style is a bit heavy, but always clear and readable.

§   Features:

His poetry had lyrical power. He could express a mood of blessed cheerfulness a sane and delectable joy -

"I love Love, though he has wings

And like light flee,

But above all other things,

Spirit, I love thee.

Thou art love and life! O come,

Make once more my heart thy home.

He wrote in two ways

ü    He wrote visionary prophetic works.

ü    He wrote shorter lyrics.

In his work hero of Shelley, a rebel against tyranny and a leader in the struggle for humanity can be traced. He rejoices in nature in different way.

"In love snow, and all the forms

Of the radiant frost;

I love waves, and winds, and storms,

Everything almost

Which is nature's, and may be

Untainted by mans misery"

He is concerned with the thought of death or his own sense of despair or sloneliness:

"O world! O life! O time!

On whose last steps I climb,

Thembling at that where, I had stood before!

When will return - the glory of your prime?

No more - oh, never more!”

4)                Lord Byron  : [1788 - 1824]

§   Life :

George Gordon Byron, Sixth Lord Byron, was as proud of his ancestry as he was of his poetry. He was born in London. He had previously been member of the House of Lords but did not make any name. He was loved by society. His youth, title, physical beauty, his wit, his picturesque and romantic melancholy made him a marvel and a delight.

§   Poetry :

Some of his poems show his immaturity, often crudely expressed and it throws bad image on same good or bad writers. In the handling of the couplet Byronic force can be seen.

          "And thinks’ thou, Scott! By vain conceit perchance,

          On public taste to foist thy stale romance,

          Though Murray with his miller may combine

          To yield thy muse just half-a-crown per line?”

Byron appreciated nature and handled meter efficiently -

          "On, on the vessel files, the land is gone,

          And winds are rude in Biscay's sleepless bay.

          Four days are sped but with the fifty, anon,

          New shores descried make every bosom gay;

          And contra’s mountain greets them on their way

          And Tagus dashing onward to the deep;

          His fabled golden tribute Bert to pay;

          And soon on board the Lucian pilots leap,

          And steer, twixt fertile shores where yet few rustics reap"

         

§   Some of his poems are......

·        Hours of Idleness

·        Childe Harold's pilgrimage

·        The siege of Corinth and Parisian

·        The prisoner of Chillan

·        The vision of Judgments

·        Done Juan

·        She walks in Beauty

§   Drama:

·        His chief dramas are

·        Manfred

·        Marino Faliero

·        The two Foscari and Cain

·        The Deformed Transformed

§   Features :

His lyrics were tuneful. He possessed satirical power yet he latched the deep vision to satirize like Cervantes his style was distinct from others poets of his time. He adamant Pope. He gave non-English readers a clear and forcible vision of English language.

5)                John Keats :(1795-1821)

"A thing of beauty is joy forever"

§   Life :

He was born in London. He was a medical student but the call of poetry was so severe that he left medicine and took up writing poetries.

§   Poetry :

At the age of seventeen he was acquainted with the works of Spenser, mannerisms of the Elizabethan captivated him and he resolved to imitate them.

ü His famous works are -

·        On first looking into Chapman’s Homer.

·        Isabella, or the pot of Basil

·        Hyperion

·        The Eve of st Agnes

·        Ode to Nightingale

·        Ode on a Grecian Urn.

·        Ode to Psyche

·        Ode to Autumn

·        Endymion

·        The Fall of Hyperion

·        La Belle Dame sans merci

Keats is incomparable. He stood distinct from his fellow romantic poets. As a sonneteer Keats ranks with the greatest English poets. He wrote without effort -

"When I have fears that

I may cease to be

Before my pen has glean'd

          My teeming brain,

Before high-piled books,

          In charactery,

Hold like rich garners

          the full ripen'd grain,

When I behold, upon the

          night’s starr'd face,

Huge cloudy smols of

          a higher romance."

§   Features:

Keats subject differs from other romantic poets. He loved nature intensely and is constantly to be seemed in the imagery of his poem. He has none of the satirical bent of Byron, and little of the prophetic vein in Shelley. He is the poet of legend and myth, of romance and chivalric tale-

"What little town by river or sea-share,

Or mountain-built winter peaceful citadel,

Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?

And, little town, thy streets for evermore

Will silent be; and not a soul to tell

Why thou art desolate, can e'er return"

His had no systemic style of writing prose but he wrote many letters. He died at an early age in his twenties.

§   Other Minor Poets :

1)          Robert Southey : [1774 - 1843]

He was born at Bristol. He was man of letters. Hi poems.....

·        Joan of Arc (1798)

·        Thalaba the Destroyer(1801)

·        The curse of Kehama (1810)

·        Roderic, the hast of the Goths (1814)

ü His prose works includes

·        The History of Brazil (1810 - 19)

·        The History of Peninsular war (1823 - 32)

·        The Life of Nelson (1813)

2)          Thomas  Moore  : [1779 - 1852]

He was born in Dublin. His poems were famous during his life time. His poems are.....

·        Lalla Rookh (1817)

·        The Twopenny postbag (1813)

·        The Fudge Family in Paris (1818)

·        Fables for the holy Alliance (1823)

ü His prose include the biography of Byron -

·        Life of Byron (1830)

3)          Thomas Campbell : [1777 - 1844]

He was born in Glasgow. He edited 'The New Monthly Magazine' from 1820 to 1830. Some of his poems are....

·        Pleasure of Hope

·        Gertrude of Wyoming (1809)

·        The pilgrim of Glencoe (1842)

·        Ye mariners of England (song)

·        The Battle of the Baltic (song)

He has written many long poems consisting of a series of descriptions of nature in heroic couplets.

4)          Samuel Rogers : [1763 - 1855]

Rogers was born at stoke Newington. He could compose polished verses. His works are....

·        The pleasures of memory (1792)

·        Columbus (1812)

·        Jacqueline (1814)

·        Italy (1822)

Rogers was careful and quick writer. He succeeded in making his name.

5)          Leigh Hunt  [1763 - 1855]

He was born in Middlesex. He becomes journalist when he was in his teens. His Radical journal was -

·        The examiner (1808)

·        The indicator (1819)

Hunt had powerful influence on Keats. He is not very good poet some of his poetries are

·        Men, women and Books (1847)

·        His Autobiography (1850)

ü His Novels are.....

·        Sir Rulph Esher. (1832)

·        The Town (1848)

6)          James Hogg  [1770 - 1835]

He was known to the world as Ettrick shepherd. He was born Selkirkshire. He had natural ability. He wrote....

·        Bonny kilmeny

·        When the Kye comes hame

·        The Queen's wake (1813)

·        The Forest Minstrel (1810)

The Brownie of Bodsbeck (1818)

7)          Ebenezer Elliott  [1781 - 1849]

Elliott was born at Masborough in Yorkshire. He devoted himself to the cause of the poor His best book in "corn Law Rhymes"

8)          Felicia Hemans  [1793 - 1835]

She was born at Liverpool. She was an esteemed poetess. She's poems are.....

·        The Homes of England.

·        The Graves of a Household

·        The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England

9)          Thomas Hood :   [1799 - 1845]

Thomas Hood is a native of London. He wrote in periodicals. He wrote poems like -

·        Hero and Leander

·        The Two Swans

·        The Plea of the midsummer Fairies (1827)

·        Whims and Oddities (1826 & 1827)

·        The Comic Annual (1830)

·        Up the Rhine (1840)

·        Whimsicalities (1844)

ü He also wrote tragic plays like,

·        The Death - bad

·        The Bridge of sighs (1846)

10)     John Clare  [1793 - 1864]

He was born near Peterborough. He was popular in is time. His works included -

·        The Village minstrel (1821)

·        The Shepherd's calendar (1827)

·        The Rural Muse (1835)

Clare's poems are seen at their best when they deal with simple rustic themes and they are quite charming.

The Nature poetry developed at its best during the Romantic Age. Man and Nature were focused most of the poets preferred to write about ordinary life. This Age can be considered to be the best one. The poetry at its best taking imaginative ideas.