Romanticism: Introduction
The Englishmen William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge together
generated a revolution in poetry. Their combined volume, the Lyrical Ballads of
1798, marked a significant turning away from the restraints of the classical
tradition in poetry and a turning toward a freer, more experimental, and more
emotionally charged lyricism. Everything written before seemed suddenly
old-fashioned or stale.
The reading public's taste in poetry was shaped for the rest of the
century by the ideas of "what poetry really is," as stated by Wordsworth and
Coleridge. The images and phrases of their poems passed into the common
poetic discourse of the 19th century, bringing about such a change in taste that
earlier poets were largely ignored or devalued.
During the romantic period poets and prose writers tended to share the
assumption that all literature was basically about feelings and that the role of the
writer was to recreate and explore feelings. They felt that mutually sympathetic
feelings made people more morally sensitive and at the same time gave
pleasure.
Joy and the loss of joy were popular topics. As the reading public grew
in number and in sophistication, a variety of journals, reviews, and
magazines--different kinds of periodicals--created outlets for poets and essayists
to develop and mold public taste. Carrying out Wordsworth's proposal in the
preface to Lyrical Ballads, they wrote familiarly, even intimately, of their own
memories, dreams, and emotional histories.
With few exceptions, they found the self an inexhaustible source of
material. Personal history and observation were assumed to be universally
interesting, relevant, and full of meaning.
Romanticism coincided, especially in England and North America, with
the coming of industrialism, and was in many ways a reaction against the ugly
realities of cities and the assaults on nature that industrialism caused. But
industrialism also produced the means by which authors could earn a living
through the sale of hundreds or even thousands of copies of a single work.
Technological developments in printing and reproducing pictures gave impetus
to newspapers and illustrated magazines, which provided outlets for short works
of many kinds—essays, reviews, articles, poems, and short stories. The
combination of increased education and literacy, a ready commercial market,
and the need for professional authors to make money, and the aesthetic
possibilities offered by producing short works of tight narrative and emotional
unity produced the new genre we now call the short story.
New “delivery systems” changed not only the content but also the
cultural function of literature. Oral tales reflected communal values, but
magazines supported by advertising were likely to reflect the social, political, and
ethical ideas or preferences of those who wrote, edited, and distributed them.
With the emergence of the Romantic period, the possibility existed for fiction to
become a means of social control and critique.
Romanticism: Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth both proclaimed and embodied the newness of the
Romantic Movement. Like other revolutionaries, Wordsworth and Coleridge
created their identities by rebelling against their predecessors. Now no longer
would poets write in "dead" forms; now they had discovered a "new" direction,
"new" subject matter; now poetry could at last serve as an important form of
human communication. Reading Wordsworth's poems with the excitement of
that revolution long past, we can still feel the power of his desire to
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communicate. The human heart is his subject; he writes, in particular, of growth
and of memory and of the perplexities inherent in the human condition.
Although it had a mixed critical reception, the first edition of Lyrical
Ballads was a "sellout." Two years later, in 1800, Wordsworth and Coleridge
prepared a new, two-volume edition with additional poems, including the long
narrative poem "Michael." Wordsworth also added an explanatory preface in
which he defended the new type of poetry that he and Coleridge had put forth. It
was this, Wordsworth's “Preface” of 1800 and, later, Coleridge's Biographia
Literaria that were the manifestoes of the new aesthetic sense.
From Wordsworth's “Preface” to 2nd Edition of Lyrical Ballads, 1800
“Taking up the subject, then, upon general
grounds, let me ask, what is meant by the word poet?
What is a poet? To whom does he address himself? And
what language is to be expected from him?--He is a man
speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more
lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who
has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more
comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common
among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions
and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in
the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate
similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goingson of the universe, and habitually impelled to create them
where he does not find them. To these qualities he has
adds a disposition to be affected more than other men by
absent things as if they were present; an ability of
conjuring up in himself passions which are indeed far
from being the same as those produced by real events, yet
(especially in those parts of the general sympathy which
are pleasing and delightful) do more nearly resemble the
passions produced by real events than anything which,
from the motions of their own minds merely, other men
are accustomed to feel in themselves—whence, and from
practice, he has acquired a greater readiness and power in
expressing what he thinks and feels, and especially those
thoughts and feelings which, by his own choice, or from
the structure of his own mind, arise in him without
immediate external excitement.
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----“I have said that [Romantic] poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its
origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the
emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the
tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred
to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is
gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the
mind. In this mood successful composition generally
begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried out….”
Analysis: Wordsworth's “Preface” to 2nd Edition of Lyrical Ballads, 1800
Definition:
"[Romantic] ... poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it
takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is
contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually
disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the
subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually
exist in the mind."
A New Poetic Standard:
The preface argues for a new poetic standard. Wordsworth rejected the
neoclassical theory of poetry, which arranged the different kinds of
literature in a hierarchy, each with its own appropriate subject matter
and level of diction. Wordsworth particularly rejected the elevated
poetic diction of the 18th century poets such as Thomas Gray, whose
language was artificial and whose style was unnatural, based on
reading rather than speech. Wordsworth proposed making poetry
through the selection and arrangement of the sincere and simple
language of the ordinary individual, adapting prose language to poetic
uses. Thus Wordsworth undermined the dignity of poetry, but he also
gave it a newer, broader scope that included a range of persons and
situations never written about before--the humble and rustic life taken
seriously.
A New Role for the Poet:
Wordsworth also redefined the role of the poet. The poet is merely "a
man speaking to men," albeit one who has a greater than average
sensibility and "knowledge of human nature." The poet's main
qualifications are not in matters of craft or technique; he is a poet
because his feelings allow him to enter sympathetically into the lives of
others and to translate passions into words that please. "The poet
thinks and feels in the spirit of the passions of men." It follows that
poets must use the language of other men.
A New Definition of Poetry:
Poetry itself is redefined as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feeling: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." That
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is, poetry is the outcome of a creative process. The poet thinks about
an emotional experience "in tranquility," after the original moment of
feeling has passed. But as he thinks, the emotion returns, and while
under the influence of this renewed feeling, the poet begins to write the
poem. Pleasure is the state in which the poetic composition is written,
and pleasure is also found in the result. Wordsworth assumes that the
reader of such poetry will share the poet's pleasure. At least, said
Wordsworth, that is what he aims for in his poetry.
Summary
1. The needs and rights of the individual transcend those of society at
large. The individual is a law unto him or herself. The person of
genius (particularly the artist) is above ordinary mortals; and
unrestrained self-expression is the right of everyone, particularly the
artist.
2. Emotion, not reason, is the path to true understanding and wisdom.
Moreover, strong emotions, especially feelings of the sublime and
eternal, are good to seek and cultivate for their own sake.
Experience is best understood subjectively, not objectively.
3. Communion with nature—especially nature unspoiled by humans—
is a source of true feeling, a guide to moral conduct, and a vehicle
for encountering the transcendent or divine. Moreover, a life close
to Nature is preferable to one in the “artificial” city.
4. People are by nature good, and evil results from social influences
and repressions—hence, the idea of the noble savage, unspoiled by
civilization, and a fascination with “primitive” people.
5. Imagination and originality, not restraint and tradition, are the key
ingredients in any work of art.
6. The remote, the exotic, the medieval, the strange (including
strange, warped, or dreamlike emotional or psychological states)
are valued over the ordinary realities of daily life.
7. Stylistically, Romanticism prefers lush exuberance to decorum,
restraint, and simplicity. Romantic prose is often rich with
description; it tends toward abstract words like “tremendous” and
“gorgeous”; it chooses and uses words for their maximum
emotional effect.
8. The ideal, imaginary, and visionary are more important and more
“real” than the mundane facts of daily life; by creating the ideal,
artists become, as Shelley said, “the unacknowledged legislators of
the world.”
9. There is a new concept of poetry: "the spontaneous overflowing of
powerful feelings...recollected in tranquility."
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