Romantic Expressions of Mutability and Mortality

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Romantic expressions of Mutability and Mortality

The Romantic movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was a direct reaction to the established cultural ideals of the European Enlightenment. The values of the Enlightenment were based upon scientific rationality, but eventually this movement culminated in the bloodthirsty French Revolution, which, in turn, spawned violent upheaval throughout Europe. Many of the Romantic poets were greatly disenchanted by the barbarity displayed by their fellow man, and as a result, began to reject the logic-based, `enlightened' mindset of the times, aspiring instead to emotional ideals. Dissatisfied with humanity's progress and disgusted with constant pain and suffering in society, the Romantics often focused on beauty and emotion, including themes such as love, nature, and the supernatural. This style, though full of beauty and delight, often serves to remind us exactly of the things it rejects: man's fated mortality and the constant change of the world we live in. Two such Romantic poets who exemplified these ideals were John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Both of these poets, through reflecting on mutability and human mortality, employ equally powerful styles in their poetry that, although inherently different, also share many similar aspects.

John Keats addresses the issues of mortality and mutability in Ode on a Grecian Urn. Keats views the urn and its depictions as symbols of permanence. The urn itself he calls a "historian," for it survives each generation to tell its tale to the next, for he states, "When old age shall this generation waste, / Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe." Likewise, the depictions themselves go forever unchanged, a truth which Keats ...

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...ly realize that both of these ideas are laws of nature and inevitable, and mankind is powerless to halt their continuation. However, Shelley directly addresses these themes, while Keats portrays them by focusing on permanence and immortality, which, though they are opposite ideas, serve as a reality check to the reader. Additionally, both poets embrace the notion that man can, through art, fight these otherwise unyielding principles: Keats, through the beauty and immortality of the urn; and Shelley, through the survival of an ancient artist's portrayal of an arrogant tyrant. However, while Shelley gives no other remedy, Keats's final assumptions of truth and beauty serve to slightly alleviate the futility of mankind's trivial existence, and, overall, his outlook seems to be more optimistic and idealistic, while Shelley is resigned to hopelessly accept our fate.

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