- ” Romanticism has been defined as the addition of strangeness to beauty” – Discuss with reference to two major poets of the Romantic period.
= Walter Peter, the romantic critic defined romanticism as the addition of strange concepts in the ordinary themes of beauty, curiosity, and the desire of the beauty, have their place in art. When one’s curiosity is deficient, when one is not eager enough for new impression and new pleasure one is loi8able to value mere academical properties too highly. The romantics were unlike the followers of academic properties as they believed more in imaginations and the strangeness and the beauty of the natural world. Two of the romantic poets who believed in this ideology were William Words Worth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH : – As a poet, Wordsworth exemplified the Romantic ideal of writing about individual, subjective, emotional experiences and these often deal with connection to Nature. Wordsworth’s Nature comforts man in sorrow, it is a source of pleasure and joy, it teaches man to love and act in a moral way, it is the set of the mighty spirit of the universe Nature according to Wordsworth means also the world of sense perceptions. William Wordsworth is the strong voice in literature who declared as a new movement in creative art especially in poetry. Wordsworth’s literary theories explained in The Preface to Lyrical Ballads are reflected in most of his writings especially in the poetry collection in Lyrical Ballads. ‘The Prelude’; ‘Tintern Abbey’; ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’; ‘Michale’; ‘The Solitary Reaper’ ‘The Daffodils’ etc can be mentioned as some of his examples of romantic poetry. The Basic traits of romanticism such as the love of Nature, the belief in humanity, mysticism, revolutionary spirit etc were developed in his poetry. Wordsworth stands apart as the pioneer of Romantic movement by his great contribution in English literature.
SAMUEL TALYOR COLERIDGE: – Coleridge’s contribution to romantic poetry reached its apex though his treatment of the supernatural. He attempts to draw the super nature in a convincing way, where the reader is compelled to take it for real or natural by willingly suspending disbeliefs. Coleridge’s initial attitude towards nature was pantheistic. He treated nature as a moral teacher. Later on he changed his attitude towards nature. He believed that it depends on our mood and temperament how we would interpret nature. Coleridge has the most imaginative mind amongst the romantic poet. His one of the most important works is ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ where he creates a mysterious character by portraying him as a man of glittering eyes and long grey beard. His other important work is ‘Kubla khan’ where he is proved essentially good at portraying vivid imagery. Coleridge’s one of the major poems in Christabel’ that is an unfinished gothic ballad. His poems are far removed from the gravity and high seriousness of Spenser, Milton.
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