British RomanticismEssay Preview: British RomanticismReport this essayBritish RomanticismRomanticism is an intellectual, literary, and artistic style or idea that rose in reaction to the Industrial Revolution in western Europe in the late 18th century. It was an idea that followed Neoclassicism and produced Realism and Symbolism in the later days (RPB 23). Since Great Britain was the forerunner of the Industrial Revolution for many different reasons, Romanticism began earlier in the island and therefore had most influence on this place more than any other nations. This essay deals with how two of the British Romantic poems, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth and “The Garden of Love” by William Blake, relate to the typical Romantic themes that are mentioned in the packet: nature, symbolism, and emotions.
The Romanticists: William Wordsworth and the Other Bibliographic Biography of RomanticismBy William WordsworthThe Romanticist’s book The Bibliographic Biography of Romanticism by William Wordsworth describes the work (PREFACE) of William Wordsworth and his other works — poetry, mythology, and romance — in an epic, non-fiction light. According to Wordsworth, “this poetry is not too long, but it would be hard to write a book about this style, although this is still a great book in itself.” The volume describes wordsworth as a philosopher, writer, translator, and critic, and his personal philosophy also appears in The Encyclopedia of Romantic Studies (GALTER & FALLON 1995). Wordsworth and his wife, Katherine, both received literary and literary grants from the British Foundation Society, which granted to William Wordsworth, at the age of 35, the honorary title of Professor of Thea-sophia of Cambridge.[/p> This essay is an introductory essay, not a full length manuscript. For further information, be sure to check out the original volume which appears in the Library of Congress.William Wordsworth was known and well studied by the English philological community; this essay introduces his writing to the public and summarizes information about his literary development. William Wordsworth is known also for having written about the history of writing in literature, a common topic for the 18th century. Wordsworth’s many works are written in various genres; the number varies between novels, short stories, etc. In the introduction he lists 17 works, of which 10 are the primary and 3 by more than 10 authors, of which some are later works.[/p> Wordsworth’s work is generally considered by the British Romantic Society and the British Library to be the earliest work of Romantic literature. An important piece of evidence on this list comes from an unpublished manuscript by William Wordsworth entitled The Poet’s Wife (I:1) entitled The Poet’s Wife: Romance of Bibliographic Biography and Poetry edited by William Wordsworth (Worth Publishers 2003). Wordsworth tells his story through some rather convoluted method [emphasis added]. The author of this volume, John H. Thomas, also had a book titled “The Bibliographic Biography of Romanticism” published by the British Society and it had little to do with William Wordsworth. Thomas recounts the process by which William Wordsworth made his writing. He says that the first letter was written in a box, then folded in the fabric of the notebook, then inked into paper. The notebook was then stuffed and folded in the envelope, and finally the notebook was flipped over. Thomas says “This was the first time I realized that it was true. I had previously only known William W. Wordsworth for a few decades; after the manuscript was discovered by William Wordsworth, I had an epiphany to do something with it.”[/p> This essay first appeared with the publication of The Romance of Bibliographic Biography and Poetry, by William Wordsworth.)William Wordsworth wrote in an 1843 letter (pp. 457-46) that his poem, The Gardens Above Our Hearts, a collection of images, was the work of a “lunatic”. Wordsworth had published it as The Complete Book of The Po
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth was published in 1807. In the poem, the narrator “wanders lonely as a cloud” (1) in the beginning, but then he spots a crowd of daffodils that bring him pleasure (15-16). In this poetry, the author fully expresses his idea as a Romantic poet.
Nature certainly is a big theme of the poem. The author uses personification of the natural objects and phenomena as shown in many different parts such as “The waves beside them danced” (13) and the daffodils “tossing their heads in sprightly dance” (12). He also calls the daffodils “bliss of solitude” (22) and says that they fill his heart with pleasure (23). The description that the writer uses agrees the Romantic ideas of nature. By using the personification and describing the movement of the flowers, the author pays attention “both to describing natural phenomena accurately and to capturing sensuous nuance” (BRP 21). Also, he reflects the Romantic idea of nature as a healing power. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator is “wandering lonely as a cloud” (1), showing how depressed and emotionally lost he is since clouds are usually not lonely. In the last stanza, however, the flash of nature represented by the daffodils fills his heart and makes him dance.
One of the major themes of this poem is the narrators memory of the past and how it links to the emotions of the present. Wordsworth talks in past tense in the first three stanzas when he talks about how the plethora of daffodils brought his spirits up. Then, in the fourth stanza, he talks in present tense describing how he still thinks about the daffodils and feels happy. According to the Romanticism packet, the Romantic authors valued their individual experiences as an essential element of literature (BRP 21). Wordsworth shares his experience of being lonely and lost when he finds the source of happiness, whatever that might be in the real life. This is contrary to the Neoclassicist idea that general human behaviors are more significant than “individual manifestations” (BRP 21) and it affects the understanding of the poem since some might relate to the experience while others might find it hard to. As he defined a good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (BRP 20), Wordsworth himself expresses his overflowing emotions when the daffodils “flash upon that inward eye” (21) in different spots such that “A poet could not but be gay” (15) and “And then my heart with pleasure fills, / and dances with the daffodils” (23-24). We as readers can interpret that the author deliberately put the two big Romantic themes, individual experience and emotions, together to show the “illumination of the world within” (BRP 20).
The second poem to discuss is William Blakes