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Example research essay topic: The Romantic Poets And Role Of Nature - 1,492 words

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... Christianity. Here, however, he definately expresses the typical Romantic view of the natural world. Some critics have assumed that: " The Ode is 'Wordsworth's conscious farewell to his art, a dirge sung over his departing powers'" (Trilling, 123). Other writers disagree, but none the less, the significance still remains. If Wordsworth has decided to describe his growing fertility, and loss of " the glory and the dream... ", than nature has certainly been given a very important role to play (53).

He chooses creatures from the physical world to relay his suffering and his intense hope. The flowers, fields and trees all ask him what has happened, where has his poetry gone too. Why can he no longer see the celestial light on the world? He has really given nature the highest role in his writing.

As we turn now to the second poem by Wordsworth, we will find many of the same themes throughout. The second pm, My Heart Leaps Up, follows many of the same conventions: My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So it shall be when I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The child is father of the man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. (53). Here we have Wordsworth declaring his appreciation for beauty in the natural world, perhaps partly for the same reasons that he does so in the previous poem: "Wordsworth not only confirms his senses but also confirms his ability to perceive beauty" (Trilling, 126). Additional, it is clear that Wordsworth had a great admiration for natural beauty as a youth, and claims that he still has it and if he ever looses it, he wishes to die.

He, once again, places a great deal of weight on his perception of nature and the physical world's importance on human life. Another item that we can draw from the text is his statement that "The child is father of the man" (53). This is typical of Wordsworth, who often regard the child to posses greater wisdom than the adult. Children are closer to God, and they have an innate appreciation for the world's beauty, that their aged counterparts often do not possess. Many of the same kinds of ideas can be witnessed in the next writer that will be discussed. Percy Bysshe Shelley, was the other major early romantic writer, besides Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Shelley was " an idealist who believed in the essential goodness of human nature" (Francis, 82). Shelley was more preoccupied with visions of the "abstract, misty and ethereal" (ibid). Certainly not the everyday, physical world that Wordsworth largely concerned himself with. The poem we will look at by this writer is Ode To The West Wind.

Stanza's one and five. O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence stricken multitudes: O thou Who chariots to their The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) With living hues Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou Me impetuous one! Drive my dead thoughts over the universe Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse, Scatter, as from an unextinguesed hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? (83, 85). Like Wordsworth, Shelley appeals to nature, as a higher power, to rescue him from the "thorns of life" (84). In the first stanza, Shelley writes of autumn, vivid images of the dead leaves, and winged seeds that cover the earth. Anyone who has ever seen fall, can clearly picture all the beautiful colours of "hectic red", covering the trees (83).

All soon to be replace by only the death that comes with winter, until the Spring "shall blow Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth" (ibid). He personifies the Spring, as if it has some kind of power to wake up the sleeping world, and usher in an era of new life. Spring can fill the world with "living hues" and preserve and destroy all things (ibid). The fourth stanza (not hitherto quoted), contains images again of the wind lifting the dead leaves up, and seemingly giving them life.

He compares the freedom of the leaves, to the freedom he has experienced as a boy, and his longing to return to such a carefree state. Then comes his most concise pleading for nature's help "Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! (84). The final stanza, quoted in its entirety above, finally completes the metaphor of his "dead thoughts", as leaves (85).

He is imploring the wind to spread his thoughts over the earth so that they might somehow become part of a new awakening. He also uses the metaphor of "Ashes and sparks" being driven across the land, infighting the world on fire (ibid). Finally he states that the wind is like a trumpet of prophecy declaring the arrival of the Spring. Now we come to the last poet, and consequently, the last poem that we will be discussing.

It is Bright Star by John Keats: Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou are -- Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night, And Watching, with eternal lids apart, Like Nature's patient sleepless eremite, The moving waters at their preistlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moon: No -- yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast, Awake forever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender- taken breath, And so live ever -- or else swoon to death. (110). Keats compares himself to the stars and measures his own stability by its. He wants to be like nature's "patient sleepless eremite" (110). Unchangeable, immutable and steadfast, not being subject to the whims of a moment or the fleeting emotions that he was subject to. He also brings in images of a "soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moon" (ibid). He also imagines the snow being on his lover's breast, it seems almost that he is refering to the mountains or the moon.

It is also interesting how he refers to the "The moving waters at their preistlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores" (ibid). In keeping with common Romantic style, Keats has incorporated an image of the spiritual into his work, similarly to what Wordsworth accomplishes in his Ode. Like Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley John Keats is definately under the impression of nature being a great and benign force: Almost divine. However: Interestingly, this godlike nature beyond nature is becoming, as it now emerges, increasingly humanized. It loves, suffers loss, and mourns; and its essence thereby defines itself as something other than mere being or thoughtless life -- something like a type of mind (Hodgson, 81). This becomes apparent in the later Romantic works, but even in these, the poets are calling for compassion from nature.

They want nature to look down upon them and to suffer with them and truly, to rejoice with them. To restore them to their health and defend them against their critics and naysayers. The Romantic poets were rather preoccupied with the natural world, as is probably pretty obvious by now. So much of their ideas came from the very fact that most of them lived in the Lakeside district, a very beautiful place. They grew up with a great admiration for the physical world, and came to almost adopt a pantheistic outlook on life, especially Wordsworth. Shelley and Keats were less focussed on the spiritual realm, but as both of their writings clearly show, nature was still highly regarded if not destined.

The Romantic Poets: and the role of Nature Bibliography: Bibliography of works cited: Camilla, Sister Francis S. L, The Romantics and Victorians. , The MacMillan company, New York: 1961. Frost, William, Romantic And Victorian Poetry. , Prentice- Hall. Inc, Englewood Cliffs: 1961. Trilling, Lionel. The Liberal Imagination. , Viking Press, New York: 1942.

Consulted: Hodgson, A. John. Wordsworth's Philosophical Poetry 1797 - 1814. UNP press. , 1976.


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Research essay sample on The Romantic Poets And Role Of Nature

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