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Tintern abbey summary and analysis
Period of Romanticism in literature
Tintern abbey summary and analysis
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The Romantic Period in England produced some of the most prolific writers in history including William Wordsworth, William Blake, Samuel T. Coleridge and many others. Fueled by new scientific discoveries, revolutions, and an impending Industrial Age these writers happened to share similar themes. One common theme Romantic writers shared was nature or ecology, specifically in the early years of the Romantic Movement. This romantic motif which celebrates nature appears to be an attack on the negative effects caused by the Industrial age. As the Industrial age progressed scientific developments also rendered certain ways of life obsolete. Railroads and factories made rural life less important and cities began to see an influx of people searching for work. In contrast to previous lifestyles where one could live and work off the land many of these Romantic writers saw this change in lifestyle a threat to nature and by extension their writings became a protest to the growing and impending Industrial Age. The Romantic writers Coleridge and Wordsworth provide examples in their works that defend nature and a more simplistic lifestyle in which it provides against the Industrial age. Through his letters, essays and poetry William Wordsworth is perhaps the most ardent Romantic poet whose work speaks out against the destruction of nature in the name of industrialism. Concerning specifically his poetry readers can find multiple …show more content…
It is apparent that Wordsworth and Coleridge acknowledge that these changes were not always positive through their literature. Both “Tintern Abbey” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’s” romantic themes display these negative consequences. While these works of literature did little to halt the industrial age they clearly provide a sense of protest against the destruction of nature and the lifestyle or rural living that the Industrial age
G. Ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. New York: Norton, 2000. Barth, Robert J. Romanticism and transcendence: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003.
Wordsworth and Coleridge seemed to be of a similar opinion to the general population throughout this whole period, they both began full of optimism for this time of change before slowly becoming more against it as shown in some of their poetry. ?Anecdote for Fathers? for example is a rather cynical poem focusing on a negative area of the human condition as a whole.
Romanticism was a literary movement that occurred in the late eighteenth century to the mid nineteenth century which shifted the focus of literature from puritan works, to works which revolved around imagination, the beauty of nature, the individual, and the value of emotion over intellect. The ideas of the movement were quite revolutionary as earlier literature was inhibited by the need to focus on society and the rational world it effected. Romanticism allowed writers to be more creative with there stories and to explore an irrational world which before, would have been at the very least frowned upon if not outright rejected. The short story, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an example of a romantic work because it showcases the individual over society, exalts emotion and intuition over reason, and keeps a strong focus on nature throughout the story.
Despite its name, the Romantic literary period has little to nothing to do with love and romance that often comes with love; instead it focuses on the expression of feelings and imagination. Romanticism originally started in Europe, first seen in Germany in the eighteenth century, and began influencing American writers in the 1800s. The movement lasts for sixty years and is a rejection of a rationalist period of logic and reason. Gary Arpin, author of multiple selections in Elements of Literature: Fifth Course, Literature of The United States, presents the idea that, “To the Romantic sensibility, the imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings and wild nature were of greater value than reason, logic, planning and cultivation” (143). The Romantic author rejects logic and writes wild, spontaneous stories and poems inspired by myths, folk tales, and even the supernatural. Not only do the Romantics reject logic and reasoning, they praise innocence, youthfulness and creativity as well as the beauty and refuge that they so often find in nature.
Stephen Gill, editor. The Oxford Authors: William Wordsworth, pp. 67-80. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
During the industrial revolution of England, humans engaged in monotonous work and lost harmonious unity with nature. In the nineteenth century, when the poet William Wordsworth wrote his sonnet “The world is too much with us,” the aspects of industrialized society had changed a factory worker’s life, leaving no time or the desire to enjoy and take part in nature. In his Petrarchan sonnet, Wordsworth criticizes humans for losing their hearts to materialism and longs for a world where nature is divine.
William Wordsworth existed in a time when society and its functions were beginning to rapidly pick up. The poem that he 'Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye', gave him a chance to reflect upon his quick paced life by taking a moment to slow down and absorb the beauty of nature that allows one to 'see into the life of things'; (line 49). Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'; takes you on a series of emotional states by trying to sway 'readers and himself, that the loss of innocence and intensity over time is compensated by an accumulation of knowledge and insight.'; Wordsworth accomplishes to prove that although time was lost along with his innocence, he in turn was able to gain an appreciation for the aesthetics that consoled him by incorporating all together, the wonders of nature, his past experiences, and his present mature perception of life.
Wordsworth begins the journey into "Tintern Abbey" by taking the reader from the height of a mountain stream down into the valley where the poet sits under a sycamore... ... middle of paper ... ... together even after his death. Over two hundred years after it was written, "Tintern Abbey" continues to uphold the essence of William Wordsworth's beliefs and continues to touch the emotions of its readers. Even though, here in the twenty-first century, the term real-world has a connotation of life in the fast-lane, the real world - the natural world - of Wordsworth's time still holds a place of eminence both in literature and in the hearts of its readers.
One of the powerful forms of writing took full form during the industrial revolution; Romanticism. Romanticism in English literature began in the late 18th century with the publication of Lyrical Ballads of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. During this era poetry was known as the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”. The Industrial Revolution was the biggest economic influence on the 19th century. With the rise of factories prompted more and more people to migrate from the countryside to large cities to work in these factories. This move created a human detachment from nature. People left their simple lives of working on farms and hunting, to that of a fast paced, hectic hard manual labor filled life. Romantics did not appreciate this change in lifestyle. They believed that the industrial revolution brought sadness upon the people. Lyrical Ballads is a great example of authors of this period expressed their emotions towards the Industrial revolution through a series of poems. A recurring theme in Lyrical Ballads is one which envisions factory workers reconnecting with the natural world. One of the poems in lyrical ballads is “Lines Witten in Early Spring”. Here are some lines to that
Nature’s beauty can be seen all around us and has been and will always be there for us to appreciate; yet the way we experience and interpret nature is ever changing. The Romantic Era was a literary movement that gave a new attitude towards nature that was unique and spiritual. The Romantic movement, beginning around 1798, and carrying on well into the mid 1800s, expanded into almost every corner of Europe, into the United States, and Latin America. The ideology of the romantic era, of being completely humanistic, was the opposite of the new ideas of logic and reason of the Enlightenment.
His poem recognizes the ordinary and turns it into a spectacular recollection, whose ordinary characteristics are his principal models for Nature. As Geoffrey H. Hartman notes in his “Wordsworth’s poetry 1787-1814”, “Anything in nature stirs [Wordsworth] and renews in turn his sense of nature” (Hartman 29). “The Poetry of William Wordsworth” recalls a quote from the Prelude to Wordsworth’s 1802 edition of Lyrical ballads where they said “[he] believed his fellow poets should "choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them.in a selection of language really used by men” (Poetry). In the shallowest sense, Wordsworth is using his view of the Tintern Abbey as a platform or recollection, however, this ordinary act of recollection stirs within him a deeper understanding.
During the mid 1800’s was a remarkable era called the Romanticism. Some political and social milestones of this era included The American Revolution, The French Revolution, and The Industrial Revolution. During these events, the “theme” more or less was a type of laissez faire which means, “let the people do as they please.” WIlliam Blake was a famous poet in this time period, as well as Samuel Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and George Gordon. Novels and poems were written in this time to express the ways Romanticism was shown and how melancholy was trending.
Wordsworth is deeply involved with the complexities of nature and human reaction to it. To Wordsworth nature is the revelation of god through viewing everything that is harmonious or beautiful in nature. Man’s true character is then formed and developed through participation in this balance. Wordsworth had the view that people are at their best when they are closest to nature. Being close creates harmony and order. He thought that the people of his time were getting away from that.
...en established, the events of the Romantic Era, such as the French Revolution, the change of the English urban economy, and the divergent religions that came upon the scene influenced the writers of the period. These authors were also affected by the ideology that came to be; the new belief that placed more value on imagination than on science and put more emphasis on emotion than on reason. A newfound freedom gave way to innovations in art and music. These factors all combined to influence authors, playwrights, and poets. The result was a great shift in literature. This shift allowed movement from the calm, structure of classical writing to the imaginative and emotional writing that is still valued today. All these developments led to a new season of writing, the Romantic Period without which we may not have a Mary Shelley, or the modern literature we have today.
In William Wordsworth’s poems, the role of nature plays a more reassuring and pivotal r ole within them. To Wordsworth’s poetry, interacting with nature represents the forces of the natural world. Throughout the three poems, Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey, and Michael, which will be discussed in this essay, nature is seen prominently as an everlasting- individual figure, which gives his audience as well as Wordsworth, himself, a sense of console. In all three poems, Wordsworth views nature and human beings as complementary elements of a sum of a whole, recognizing that humans are a sum of nature. Therefore, looking at the world as a soothing being of which he is a part of, Wordsworth looks at nature and sees the benevolence of the divinity aspects behind them. For Wordsworth, the world itself, in all its glory, can be a place of suffering, which surely occurs within the world; Wordsworth is still comforted with the belief that all things happen by the hands of the divinity and the just and divine order of nature, itself.