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“Poetry
lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects
be as if they were not familiar.”
~Percy Bysshe Shelley~
Literature, during the Modern-Romantic
Period, was engulfed in imagination, along with grasping an emotional sense of
nature. Poets embarked on spiritual journeys within their minds, as they
perceived the world around them. L.P. Smith, in Words and Idioms, states the
meaning of “romantic” as, “false and fictitious beings and feelings, without
real existence in fact or in human nature…old castles, mountains and forests,
pastoral plains, waste and solitary places and a love for wild nature, for
mountains and moors.” The concept of reason in earlier literature had moved on
to spiritual, individual freedom of expression. Three poets who emerged
themselves in nature and beautifully expressed their imagination on paper were:
William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
William Wordsworth, who was born in 1770,
grew up in the world of literature and poetry which was used for instruction
and information. Wordsworth did not reject traditional writing, but began
writing poetry with simplicity and emotional feeling. He had a great love for
nature and found harmony within the setting of suns, oceans and blue skies. In
his lyrical, meditative poem “Tintern Abby,” he paints a picture with his words
which brings him great joy and serenity. Wordsworth returns five years later
after his first visit to Tintern Abby, and writes of the majestic simplicity of
the scene:
Five years have past; five summers, with
the length/ of five long winters! And again I hear/ these waters, rolling from
the mountain-springs/ with a soft inland murmur. –Once again/ do I behold these
steep and lofty cliffs/ that on a wild secluded scene impress/ thoughts of more
deep seclusion; and connect/ the landscape with the quiet sky/ The day is come
when I again repose.
Wordsworth found joy and peace in nature,
within the midst of hope of social change in England. He was at rest and found
tranquility during disagreeable politics, religious practices and social
injustice. His approach to life’s turmoil, written in a serene fashion,
differed from the Early Age Modern poetry writers. For example, Vittoria Colonna
wrote in her poem, “Between harsh rocks and violent wind,” of life’s struggles
in a more violent state found in nature. Colonna writes,
Between harsh rocks and violent wind I
feel/ the waves of life striking my fragile bark/ which I have neither wit nor
art to steer/ All help will come too late to save me now/ In one brief moment
bitter death extinguished/ the lodestar of my life, my constant guide/ I have
no help against the turbulent sea/ And threatening clouds, Now ever more I
fear/ Not the sweet singing of the cruel sirens/ Nor shipwreck here between
these lofty cliffs/ nor sinking helplessly in shifting sands/ but to sail on
forever in rough waters/ cutting my furrow with no gleam of hope/ for death
conceals from me my sheltering pot.
Colonna finds herself shipwrecked between
“lofty cliffs,” where Wordsworth beholds, with a deep connection, the “steep
and lofty cliffs” found in nature. Through his imaginative philosophical mind,
the cliffs that he observes brings elevated thought of grandeur, while Colonna
analyzes the lofty cliffs as a life struggle too hard to overcome, bringing no
hope and pending death. A similar use of
words, as Vittoria Colonna, is found in John Keats’ poetry.
John Keats, born in 1795, is also a writer
in the Modern-Romantic age. In Keats’ poem “Ode to a Nightingale,” the reader
experiences great emotional distress of a man. This distress is found in the
evaluation of Keats’ life throughout his poem. Like Wordsworth, Keats uses the
power of his imagination and the power of poetry through the struggles of his
life:
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet/
nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs/ but, in embalmed darkness, guess
each sweet/ wherewith the seasonable month endows/ the grass, the thicket, and
the fruit-tree wild/ white hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine/ fast fading
violets cover’d up in leaves/ and mid-May’s eldest child/ the coming musk-rose,
full of dewy wine/ the murmurous haunt of flies on summer’s eve.
Keats’ poetry and his very imaginative
scenes in the “Ode to a Nightingale,” is a great example of traditional,
classic writing of early periods of literature. Along with Keats’ use of
traditional, classic writing, Johann Wolfgang Goethe also has a wide range of
writing style in his poem, “Faust.”
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, born in 1749, was
also a writer in the Modern-Romantic age. He became a famous writer in Germany.
He used a wide range of style in “Faust.” This various use of style included:
The Bible, Greek tragedy and comedy, Dante, Shakespeare, sixteenth century
German comedy; to name a few. Along with his use of various literature style,
he uses the same concept of painting a picture of society through nature.
When a fragrance has descended/ all about
the green-girt plain/ richer air with mist-clouds blended/ evening dusk comes
down again/ lulls to infant-sweet reposing/ rocks the heart with whispering
sighs/ and this wanderer feels it closing/ on his daylight-weary eyes/ Now to
night the world surrenders/ sacred love joins star to star/ little sparkles,
greater splendors/ glitter in the lake reflecting/ gleam against the clear
night sky/ deepest seals of rest protecting/ glows the full moon strong and
high.
Goethe places the reader in the midst nature,
the cosmos and the essence of mankind. Like Wordsworth and Keats, he brings the
power of nature through his words, along with the traditional classic style of
writing of many earlier writers.
In the Modern-Romantic age, there was a
growing emphasis on an individual’s connection to nature. This emphasis is seen
through the writings of William Wordsworth, John Keats and Johann Wolfgang
Goethe. Though all three writers had various influences of previous literary
periods, the concept of the imagination and spiritual connection to nature is
apparent in their work. These concepts are found in the words of Johann
Wolfgang Goethe,
“And thus, when
with our heart’s whole hope for guide
Towards our goal,
we have struggled on unthinking
And find
fulfillment’s portals open wide
From those
unfathomed depths, a sudden mass.”
Please take time and enjoy the talent Our
Poetry Archive has added to the January 2017 General Edition. Those who would
like to participate in our upcoming editions, please send three poems and a profile
picture, along with the explicit confirmation, of your permission, for
publication in OPA well before the 21st of every month. We are also extending
an open invitation for our next Continental Edition, which will feature poets
from Africa. Please send 3 poems, both in English and your native language. As
with the General Editions, please send a profile picture and the explicit
confirmation, of your permission, to publish your copyrighted materials to Our
Poetry Archive. Please specify, in the subject line of your email, which
edition you are submitting to, to avoid any confusion, and to assure your poems
are published in the correct edition. Those who are submitting to the Special
Continental Edition, please state your country of origin, mother language,
nationality, and where you reside. Thank you! Our Poetry Archive’s email
address is: ourpoetryarchive@gmail.com
Author Stacia Lynn Reynolds, editor,
sincerely thanks each poet, poetess and reader who is actively involved in this
wonderful blog and continued support of Our Poetry Archive. Happy New Year!
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