Analysis of Poetry of the Romantic Genre Romanticism was a movement led by a group of 'rebels' in the eighteenth century who reacted against industrialisation. The main characteristics of the romantic era were pantheism, the expression of the beauty of nature, the purity of the people living in the country living amongst nature, interest in remote lands and the strong feeling that industrialisation is corrupting nature. The first poem I shall discuss is 'London' By William Blake. This poem has a very pessimistic tone about London as he talks about pollution, how the church is to blame for the injustice to poor people and babies being born to young prostitutes, 'The youthful harlot's curse blasts the new-born infants tear'. Blake uses a lot of repetition to create emphasis and the feeling that there is no escape from the negativity of London, 'In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice in every ban'. He also uses an oxymoron 'marriage-hearse' to create the image that to every good thing in London, there is an equally bad, if not worse side to it. Blake uses imagery of blood of a soldier on the walls of the palace to create the picture that the palace and government are to blame for the death of the soldier by sending him to war, 'And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace walls'. The message in this poem is very negative and pessimistic and that industrialisation has corrupted everyone and there is no escape from it. He does this by repeating the words 'every' and 'cry'. The rhyming pattern is ABAB and the rhythm is irregular with 8887 syllables in the first verse, 8888 in the second, 7777 in the third and 8778 in the last verse. This poem is similar to the romantic genre because it criticises people living in the city and shows strong feelings against industrialisation, however, there is no nature mentioned in this poem which differs from the usual trend of the romantic era.
One poet who was found immense success in the last twenty years in Elizabeth Alexander.An African American woman, Alexander published her first collection of poetry in 1995 and has continued to produce outstanding works since then. Elizabeth Alexander is well known for her poems because of the skillful use of techniques such as diction, enjambment, and asyndeton. In addition, Alexander has garnered attention by adhering to traditional topics such as family, motherhood, and love. Yet, her work does not fit all of the conventional expectations of poetry. Alexander defies expectations by the lack of rhyme or consistent structure in her poems. Nevertheless, I personally find Elizabeth Alexander’s poems of witnessing and stream of consciousness
The best romantic stories are those with happy endings such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and many other similar stories. In these stories, the ending is so romantic and so content that they even state, “and the prince and the princess lived happily ever after.” Unfortunately, in reality, these ‘happily ever after’ stories do not exist, in contrary, many end up in distress. Some more realistic and mature are the stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: “A New England Nun,” and Edith Wharton: “Roman Fever.” These stories are written in a very romantic way that they may appear similar to those with happy endings but at the end reality hits in its very cruel nature way of life.
Sylvia Plath was known as an American Poet, Novelist and Shorty story writer. However, Plath lived a melancholic life. After Plath graduated from Smith College, Plath moved to Cambridge, England on a full scholarship. While Plath was Studying in England, she married Ted Hughes, an English poet. Shortly after, Plath returned to Massachusetts and began her first collection of poems, “Colossus”, which was published first in England and later the United States. Due to depression built up inside, Plath committed suicide leaving her family behind. Sylvia Plath was a gifted and troubled poet, known for the confessional style of her work, which is how “Mirror” came to be. Although this poem may seem like the reader is reading from first person point of view, there is a much deeper meaning behind Plath’s message throughout the poem. Plath uses several elements of terror and darkness to show change to the minds of the readers.
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” begins with three men walking to attend a wedding. One of the wedding guests’ hand gets grabbed by and old man, the mariner. After the mariner lets go, the wedding guest “listens like a three years child” to the story the mariner is about to tell. The story begins with the mariner and he crew out at sea. The mariner explains it suddenly got dark and they unexpectedly encountered a giant sea bird, called the Albatross. The Albatross was a symbol of good luck, but the mariner felt the need to kill it. The mariner did just that. Once the Albatross was slain the weather got clearer and the crew congratulated him for his...
Blake had an uncanny ability to use his work to illustrate the unpleasant and often painful realities around him. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of revolt against the abuse of class and power that appears guided by a unique brand of spirituality. His spiritual beliefs reached outside the boundaries of religious elites loyal to the monarchy. “He was inspired by dissident religious ideas rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the English Civil War “(E. P. Thompson). Concern with war and the blighting effects of the industrial revolution were displayed in much of his work.
Blake was angered by what he saw in his homeland as other countries started fighting for their independence and equality whilst his country stayed dormant, even though he felt that there was a serious need for serious action. Even though Blake wasn't a typical romantic writer, he too possessed the same. beliefs of fighting for what one believes in, and the urge to be. liberated from the oppression of society. So, by being a writer of the romantic period, watching a controlled and restricted society not showing an intent to break free and fight against the monarchy.
We often come to think that when we hear the term “romantic poetry” our thoughts immediately jump to the images of a candle light dinner, a stroll on the beach, a rose pedal covered bed and so on. However, the definition of the romantic poetry isn’t about the love we know about, but in fact a time period. This period dating in the early eighteen hundreds relieved to us many famous romantic poets including Wordsworth, Burns and Blake. These poets contributed greatly to this time period including their many works, the most lengthy and famous being Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey.” However, if romantic poetry isn’t about love and sex, then what is it about? What makes romantic poetry different than other poetry? The answer to these questions can be answered with the three elements that make up romantic poetry. The three elements of romantic poetry include that we can learn important things from Nature, imagination and emotion are more important than reason and finally that simple ideas can help you understand complex ideas.
The sense of uncertainty appears in Blake's painting because at first glance it is not obvious what the painting is portraying along with the characteristics and body language of each figure. This painting is originating from Blake's imagination and visions. It is not known if the vision was stimulated by Blake reading Shakespeare’s play Act I, Scene 7 of Macbeth:
The philosophical, literary, cultural, and artistic era of Romanticism was developed in the mid-18th century as a reaction to the prevailing enlightenment ideals of that time. This happened as more emotional, natural, and artistic themes were favored by Romantics. This influenced poetry in a great deal. A new form of poetry stressing on intuition over reason was actively being created. Proponents of this kind of poetry preferred the pastoral over the urban life. Efforts were made to use more colloquial language by repeatedly eschewing consciously poetic language.
The speaker seems as if he is trying to escape this horrendous beast, the reader can almost feel the panic and terror that the speaker seems to be going through. “Blake creates this effect by drawing on several poetic devices”(Furr).
At the very start of the poem it is clear in what way Blake wishes to
By the end of the eighteenth century, thought gradually moved towards a new trend called Romanticism. If the Age of Enlightenment was a period of reasoning, rational thinking and a study of the material world where natural laws were realized then Romanticism is its opposite. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental (Forsyth, Romanticism). It began in Germany and England in the eighteenth century and by the late 1820s swept through Europe and then swiftly made its way to the Western world. The romantics overthrew the philosophical ways of thinking during the Enlightenment, they felt that reason and rationality were too harsh and instead focused on the imagination. Romantics believed in freedom and spontaneous creativity rather than order and imitation, they believed people should think for themselves instead of being bound to the fixed set of beliefs of the Enlightenment.
“The Spring and the Fall” is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem is about two people, the poet and her significant other that she once had love for. The poem integrates the use of spring and fall to show how the poet stresses her relationship. Of course it starts off briefly by having a happy beginning of love, but the relationship soon took a shift for the worst, and there was foreshadow that there would be an unhappy ending. “I walked the road beside my dear. / The trees were black where the bark was wet” (2-3). After the seasons changed, the poet begins to explain why the relationship was dying, and all of the bad things she endured during the relationship. So, to what extend did the poet’s heart become broken, and did she ever
“Love Poem” is a twenty-four-line poem in six stanzas. The generic tittle is an accurate description of the poem; it is a clue that this may not be a traditional example of love poetry. Both poems have the same rhyme scheme because the second and fourth line of every stanza rhyme. However, “Magic of Love’ speaks of a general love bringing happiness, joy and comfort. While “Love Poem” is much more personal. The speaker talks of memories with his clumsy love. Both poems have a different point of view when it comes to love. In Ferrier’s poem, she describes love as something perfect, that fixes everything. However, in Frederick’s poem, he doesn’t speak about what the love does right but rather he talks
used the same approach to both of the poems. Maybe he wants to make a