Romantics Poetry

A variety of differences were represented and can be studied in early 18th century Romantic poetry. The neoclassical era was characterized by formality and order. During this period, neoclassical literature appeared, with dynamic literary skills following. Romantics are distinct authors who were proficient in literary skills during this period, hence the Romantic Movement. A poet or romantic was seen as an important figure in conveying critical messages in society at the time. Personal thoughts and independent thinking were central to poetry during this time period. Being a spokesman of the society, the romantics always addressed homogenous and cultivated audience about key societal issues that were based on truth using varied skills (Blake 23).

This essay aims at examining a number of aspects of romantics, these are the inheritance of the 18th Century poetic skills and general attitude which considers both neoclassicism and sensibility. Also, the essay delves on the nature and characterization of romantic poets during this period.

Analysis of Poetry during Romanticism

Analysis of Part 1 of the Question

The analysis of the poetic skills displayed by the romantics is key for the growth and transmission of poetic types. These types which analyzed as loco-descriptive poem, evening poem, and satire during the late 18th Century (Blake 33). There are a number of ways in which the romantics use to carry forward and transform these types of the late 18th Century poetic categories in their art of writing.

To begin with, the romantics have developed and exercised a number of mechanism, plots, and devices. For instance, the conveyance of poems using emphasis on feelings is one of the method used to carry forward the poetic types. This is applied in all the three 18th Century types by stressing on individuals, group, and society feelings. In satire, feelings are used to ensure this type of poetry is focused on relaying a message to the audience tactfully and with a lot of humor. As such, the message based on feelings of the individuals is finally accepted in truth and in faith without charging the author. The message in most of the poems published by romantics were displayed in feelings that depicted irony, sarcasm, and ridicule to members of the society whose actions did not match the expected norms by then. In this regard, the spontaneous flow of feelings gave a real definition, transformation, and forward thrust in this type of poem. This is exhibited by Language of the Heart, a poem by Robert Burn, which clearly indicates how obsession of feelings acted as an avenue of growth in satire as a type of poem. Furthermore, the evening poem is a genre of poems that has had time to move forward in the romanticism period. This was done through personal feelings based on the beauty of moments and times. It was at such times that families got a collective message through the poems on a number of aspects on family, war, marriage, morality, and life in general. Also, loco descriptive poems were transformed and made to move forward using the intensity of the feelings approach. These descriptive poems that focused on describing landscape and beauty of places had its genesis from feelings of adventure and environmental conservation.

In addition to that, the use and application of imagination as a method is a basic platform for growth of satire, evening poems, and loco descriptive poems. This is a vital quality of romantic writing that brought a mega shift from mimetic and imitative assumptions of the neoclassical age to a new level of imagination (Blake 19). Therefore, imagination being the supreme poetic quality unravel new poetic devices and innovations that made romantics god-like being. Romantics used imagination to satirize the event and times in poetry. Imagination gave romantics skills on how to practice proper approach in satire so that a culm but hard message in the poem is relayed to the audience in context. On the other side, imagination is used to enhance the livelihood of the evening poem. This is through application of problem solving techniques and critical thinking in such poems to beautify the poem. Finally, imagination sparks thoughts on the loco-descriptive poems so that the beauty of nature, landscape, and places remained cherished and upheld by poets.

Considering Neoclassicism and Sensibility, the Romantics have held several thoughts and attitudes on the 18th Century poetic inheritance. (Ward 26) There was a change in the way poetry the romantics viewed poetry and this called for a new era in the writing, singing, and performance. They considered the neoclassical methods as stale and had lost taste in the growth of poetry as an art. The attitude was diverted from the sense of imagination and feelings to the conviction of logic and reason which act as the new center of poetry (Wordsworth 30-35). Therefore, the inheritance of 18th Century poetic skills and philosophies was shut and a new dawn emerged. As such, the sensibility of poetry was not inherited due to conflict and innovation in better ways and philosophies of writing which is coupled with proper understanding (Parry 63). Furthermore, the attitude based on neoclassical theory was sided towards the social customs and etiquette imposed on people so they moved in all ways of the society. The attitude was also in line with the renaissance period that dictated on the move against the old methods of writing poems. Therefore, they divided the attention on both classical and the neo period with vast attitudes on it (Blake 22).

Analysis of Part 2 of the Question

The romantics are regarded as the poets of nature to an unprecedented degree. This is designed by the themes in which the 18th Century addressed. In this regard, the analysis of the romantic on a myriad themes is what attributes to the unprecedented degree. There are termed as poets of nature due to the focus they put on the different aspects of the natural environment (Wordsworth 42). These aspects are the beauty of the surrounding of man which the romantics believed affected the society and the human life in general. This is an accurate characterization of the romantics due to the themes, imagery, and above all the loco-descriptive style of poems they treasure. They focused on the nature which constituted their environment, geological features, and places. Additionally, they focused on the adventure and the love for conservation of the environment. This is reveled in the belief or love the romantics poses in displaying the wholesomeness of the theme and the style of setting the uniqueness of topographical poem (Ward 36). The topographical poetry which has a traditional origin and classical in nature plays a role in displaying the resources such nations have, these include; rivers, mountains, trees, oceans, hills, places, and all other geological aspects of nature. For instance, a poem by Auden entitled, In Praise of Limestone, which clearly show the unprecedented degree. Hence, lessons on violation of rules that govern the beauty of the environment are learnt by individuals in the society so that no one is found as a victim. Before the 18th Century, the poetic and literary skills of that were used that time had their genesis from the romantics. It’s through this that the genesis of the romantics being regarded as poets of nature (Parry 69).

In addition to that, the poet nature of the romantics remains unprecedented fact to an extent of rising elements of the Greek writing which was not define by then to explain the innovations in poetry. As such, it was unknown how the organization of the literary skills got transformed into new and modern skills due to neoclassicism and sensibility of the period of the poem. For instance, the changes and the adaption of the key literary skills to challenge the Greek philosophers and stimulate the rise and renaissance is a key aspect that remained latent. However, the romantics used this to unleash their potential in vital natural poetic philosophies. In this view, despite the skills being translated to the public, the fate for the romantic’s precedence in nature over other aspects of life remains a riddle that no one knew (Parry 62).

However, this misleads the characterization since it created boredom on writing about nature and forget social, economic, and cognitive aspects which make a person fit well in the society. Also, research on the characterization indicated that, the dominant Hellenic understanding was a huge debt for the culture of classicism. In this view, this was misleading since the results were contrary to the expectations. The results shed light on a number of aspects which included political changes which included expansion of political franchise, increase in mass democracy, and spread of empires that reigned in Roman Empire (Rothstein 82).

Also, this misled in the way, romantics handled modern and hi-tech innovations in poetry. This is translated in the difficulty in distinguishing between pre- and postregicide revolutionary principle that delved on the political atmosphere, as Wordsworth says in his book, It would take a long time for Wordsworth himself to distinguish between pre- and postregicide (1792) revolutionary principles (in his political writings, not until the 1809 Convention of Cintra) (Jones 704). This indicated the mixture in systems that failed to satisfactorily explain the transition in the times that marked the peculiar changes in the history of romanticism in the poetic world (Nicolson 40).

The envisioned ability to see the changes in the nature of poetry and literary skills according to Blake was a challenge since it did not earn full modern adherence. This was however enlightened after the 18th Century or the period of neoclassicism that brought change after a myriad shortcomings. On the other hand, the characterization is the essence of its simplicity but to a less extent emanating from high level of misleading (Jones 710). This was due to a critique on the nature of the imagination theory as termed as Romantic Imagination as the author says, English Romanticism’s greatest theorist of the imagination, S. T. Coleridge, saw the faculty as a fundamentally synthetic force, an ‘‘esemplastic’’ and ‘‘coadunating’’ power (Blake 33). This had the ability to unify and idealize with potential emancipatory impacts. In this regard, the counterrevolutionary ideas have since then been elevated in bid to get out of the controversial and misleading characterization of the romantic poets (Wordsworth 49). Also, power and politics in the romantic’s period is another aspect that dominated the Empires and kingdoms during the neoclassical era. Since the desire for power is a bone of contention in today and the past era. Most leaders strive to have dominion over others regardless of the method they use to be in power. The romantics dwelt in the poetry of the nature and left such vital aspects of the society in most of their poetry writing despite the period clearly spelling out the struggle to have power as exhibited by the characters. This was therefore misleading since not all aspects of the society were addressed to give a whole defined society in its demands.

Conclusion

The 18th Century poetic skills are the focus and the genesis of classical and neoclassic poetic virtues that are cherished today. In this regard, the romantics through a myriad ways ensured the growth of these skills in satire, evening poems, and loco-descriptive poems. Also, they held varied attitudes on the inheritance of the poetic skills basing on the Neoclassicism and Sensibility that determined their level of transformation of the poetic skills.

Work Cited

Blake, William. The Poetry of William Blake. eBookIt. com, 2013.

Jones, Barry. “R.” Dictionary of World Biography, NED - New edition, 4 ed., ANU Press, Australia, 2017, pp. 701–744. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1rfsrst.22.

Nicolson, Marjorie Hope. Newton Demands the Muse: Newton’s Opticks and the 18th Century Poets. Princeton University Press, 2015.

Rothstein, Eric. Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Poetry 1660-1780 (Routledge Revivals). Routledge, 2014.

Parry, Graham. ”Literary Baroque and Literary Neoclassicism.“ A New Companion to Milton (2015): 55-70.

Ward, David. Coleridge and the Nature of Imagination: Evolution, Engagement with the World, and Poetry. Springer, 2013.

Wordsworth, William. Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. B&R Samizdat Express, 2015.