The Humble Bee Individualism

The musings of Keats and Charlotte Smith identify with the British Romantic movement. This movement emerged as the political and social movements of that time were shifting into a new phase. With revolutions occurring, Britain ushered in the Romantic era during the late seventeen hundreds, gaining momentum until the start of the twentieth century. Romanticism reevaluated traditional Medieval characteristics of chivalry, love, and adventure, while the poets of the time idealized visionary imagination. They believed these characteristics should be present in politics and literature alike. What is now proved was once only imagined. The Romanticists meant to guide the people into an age of philosophical change; for the better. Their idealized

world revolved around the natural, where nature was praised. Also there was hope that the spread of Romantic literature would promote their ideas across the world. “The most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution is poetry- Shelly(British Anthology). They sought a foundation in which social institutions might be placed on, to explain to the masses: human nature must everywhere be the same because everyone shared the same sensory experiences of an external world that could be defined objectively. The Romantic poem by Keats, To Autumn, exhibits the beauty and characteristics of the fall season. Also a Romantic poem, The Caterpillar by Charlotte Smith, questions the ethics and morality of humans while The Caterpillar is indicative of innocence. There two poems are part of the essence of the Romantic movement.
Halfway through the Romantic era, the Transcendentalism movement in the United States was beginning to take place.

This movement was heavily inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This man actually lead the transcendental brigade during the late 1820s characterized by spiritual association with nature and individualism. One core belief of this movement: nature is inherently good, separating from man made institutions; thus harboring the idea of self-reliance and individualism. Being close to nature was akin to becoming closer to God or the higher-self. The path to spiritual enlightenment should be discovered in nature; in the self. The Humble Bee , by Emerson, praises the honey bee in which attention is also directed towards learning its wisdom. Emerson writes here with a joyous account of loving the bee. The content of this essay will address the ideas,themes, devices and techniques of the three poems. The similarities of these poems incorporate a respect towards nature and its offerings. However, they exhibit their conclusions differently through divergent poetic devices. Also, each branches off into abstract ideas of either ethics or

admiration.
The Caterpillar, written in 1825, exhibits a theme of ethics in order to educate.

Regarding the stereotypical power humans have over smaller beings, the speaker practices moral judgment: she cannot harm the defenseless creature. In the first line she states this, committing to her discernment, “No, helpless thing, I cannot harm thee now”(1). This refers to the human responsibility, having a conscious mind that leads to better judgment. Curiously, she holds and inspects the caterpillar, as it pleads for protection in a silent yet demonstrative manner(13-14). The speaker chooses not to be violent but compassionately willing to care for this animal as she “swears perdition to thy race”(14). The speakers ethical code is not entirely pure however, as she has previously “swept them from the tree/And crushed whole families beneath my foot” at some point in the past(19-20). The then seemingly positive enforcement of the moral implications turns darker as the dialogue of the caterpillar begins, “So the storm Of horrid war, o'erwhelming cities, fields.. And urges, by no soft relenting s stopped, The work of death and carnage”(20-35). As seen, the poem applies ethics to change the readers perspective in order to practice

compassion.
Both the speaker and caterpillar announce the hypocrisy of humanity. This is witnessed even further as the caterpillar points out the feeble minded “ hero weeps” for he “ is a grown human”(39).