ROMANTIC POETRY
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC – Romantic period was a reaction to Kant’s Enlightenment Theory of the eighteenth century. The classical stressed on reason, and order and the head. But the Romantic prefers intuition, emotion and the heart. To an Augustan writer, a child would be a civilized adult. But to the Romantic, a child is pure and holy. Wordsworth in the poem “My Heart Leaps Up” writes, ‘the Child is father of the Man’. But exceptionally, the poets like Gray, Collins and Cowper wrote with Romantic sensibility. Similarly, Byron was inspired by the classical poets.
BLAKE – Blake illustrated his poems that can be read both visually and verbally. He wrote in terms of opposite. In his poem “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, Blake writes, “Without contraries is no progression”. Symbolism abounds in his poetry. He uses images of childhood in Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794). He has published Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1793 differently. His “The Tyger”, “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” are three most famous poems.
WORDSWORTH –Blake’s vision is social, where Wordsworth’s is personal. In his “Sonnet Composed Upon Westminster Bridge” (1802) Wordsworth expresses elation at the majesty of London, contrary to Blake’s “London”. In his poems “The Old Cumberland Beggar” and “The Leech Gatherer”, he posits characters of low social position. His “The Prelude” (1805) is a long autobiographical poem. His “Tintern Abbey” and “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” record a personal search for insight. His “Daffodils” was first titled “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. Both Wordsworth and Coleridge contributed to Lyrical Ballads, though Wordsworth alone wrote the “Preface”.
COLERIDGE – While Wordsworth supernaturalized the natural, Coleridge naturalized the supernatural. His “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of the four poems in Lyrical Ballads. It is written in the form of a medieval ballad: “Water, water everywhere / And all the boards did shrink / Water, water everywhere / Nor any drop to drink”. Both of his poems “Christabel” and “Kubla Khan” are unfinished. They represent an unfinished quest for the impossible. The poems like “Dejection: An Ode”, “Frost at Midnight”, “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” are based on everyday observation. Southey was a friend of Coleridge and they along with Wordsworth formed the group ‘Lake Poets’.
KEATS – Like Coleridge, Keats was attracted to exotic settings and medieval contexts. His poems “Isabella”, “Lamia”, “The Eve of St Agnes”, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, etc. explore the Romantic themes of emotion, love and beauty. His “Ode to Autumn” is like James Thomson’s The Seasons. His famous words, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”, occur in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. The feature of synaesthesia is present in his “Ode to a Nightingale”. Two twentieth century famous poets, Wilfred Owen and Dylan Thomas, are influenced by Keats to use it. His “Endymion” (1818) and “The Fall of Hyperion” (1819) are two well-known long poems.
SHELLEY – Shelley’s revolutionary tone throbs in “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819), “England in 1819”, and Prometheus Unbound (1820). They all are reactions to the infamous Peterloo Massacre of August, 1819. One of his first major poems is “Queen Mab” (1813). “Julian and Maddalo” (1824) and “Ozymandias” are central texts of Romanticism. His short lyrics like “A Widow Bird”, “To a Skylark”, “The Cloud”, “With a Guitar to Jane”, “The Indian Serenade” are equally famous. In “Ode to the West Wind”, he poignantly proclaims, “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”
BYRON – Byron is known for his verse satires. His long poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812) made him famous overnight. His dramatic poem “Manfred” (1817) anticipates Heathcliff in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847). His semi-autobiographical “Don Juan” is inspired by the mock heroic style of Pope and Dryden. Like Laurence Sterne, Byron plays with the readers by amusing and trivial digressions. His incest with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, led him to leave England in 1816. Thus he remains synonymous with his concept of ‘Byronic Hero’.
By Dipanjan Kundu
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC – Romantic period was a reaction to Kant’s Enlightenment Theory of the eighteenth century. The classical stressed on reason, and order and the head. But the Romantic prefers intuition, emotion and the heart. To an Augustan writer, a child would be a civilized adult. But to the Romantic, a child is pure and holy. Wordsworth in the poem “My Heart Leaps Up” writes, ‘the Child is father of the Man’. But exceptionally, the poets like Gray, Collins and Cowper wrote with Romantic sensibility. Similarly, Byron was inspired by the classical poets.
BLAKE – Blake illustrated his poems that can be read both visually and verbally. He wrote in terms of opposite. In his poem “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, Blake writes, “Without contraries is no progression”. Symbolism abounds in his poetry. He uses images of childhood in Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794). He has published Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1793 differently. His “The Tyger”, “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” are three most famous poems.
WORDSWORTH –Blake’s vision is social, where Wordsworth’s is personal. In his “Sonnet Composed Upon Westminster Bridge” (1802) Wordsworth expresses elation at the majesty of London, contrary to Blake’s “London”. In his poems “The Old Cumberland Beggar” and “The Leech Gatherer”, he posits characters of low social position. His “The Prelude” (1805) is a long autobiographical poem. His “Tintern Abbey” and “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” record a personal search for insight. His “Daffodils” was first titled “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. Both Wordsworth and Coleridge contributed to Lyrical Ballads, though Wordsworth alone wrote the “Preface”.
COLERIDGE – While Wordsworth supernaturalized the natural, Coleridge naturalized the supernatural. His “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of the four poems in Lyrical Ballads. It is written in the form of a medieval ballad: “Water, water everywhere / And all the boards did shrink / Water, water everywhere / Nor any drop to drink”. Both of his poems “Christabel” and “Kubla Khan” are unfinished. They represent an unfinished quest for the impossible. The poems like “Dejection: An Ode”, “Frost at Midnight”, “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” are based on everyday observation. Southey was a friend of Coleridge and they along with Wordsworth formed the group ‘Lake Poets’.
KEATS – Like Coleridge, Keats was attracted to exotic settings and medieval contexts. His poems “Isabella”, “Lamia”, “The Eve of St Agnes”, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, etc. explore the Romantic themes of emotion, love and beauty. His “Ode to Autumn” is like James Thomson’s The Seasons. His famous words, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”, occur in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. The feature of synaesthesia is present in his “Ode to a Nightingale”. Two twentieth century famous poets, Wilfred Owen and Dylan Thomas, are influenced by Keats to use it. His “Endymion” (1818) and “The Fall of Hyperion” (1819) are two well-known long poems.
SHELLEY – Shelley’s revolutionary tone throbs in “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819), “England in 1819”, and Prometheus Unbound (1820). They all are reactions to the infamous Peterloo Massacre of August, 1819. One of his first major poems is “Queen Mab” (1813). “Julian and Maddalo” (1824) and “Ozymandias” are central texts of Romanticism. His short lyrics like “A Widow Bird”, “To a Skylark”, “The Cloud”, “With a Guitar to Jane”, “The Indian Serenade” are equally famous. In “Ode to the West Wind”, he poignantly proclaims, “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”
BYRON – Byron is known for his verse satires. His long poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812) made him famous overnight. His dramatic poem “Manfred” (1817) anticipates Heathcliff in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847). His semi-autobiographical “Don Juan” is inspired by the mock heroic style of Pope and Dryden. Like Laurence Sterne, Byron plays with the readers by amusing and trivial digressions. His incest with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, led him to leave England in 1816. Thus he remains synonymous with his concept of ‘Byronic Hero’.
By Dipanjan Kundu
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