Historical influence on Romantic Movement

Historical influence on Romantic Movement were two
One was Germany, other being French Revolution…

During second half of eighteenth century
almost after an eclipse of nearly two centuries!
Poetry and drama under Goethe and Schiller…
 great strides, did they take!

Transcendental philosophy under Kant and Schelling
fascinated Coleridge and De Quincey…
Philosophy that rejected
materialistic interpretation of the Universe
and held that Reality was a spiritual essence...
transcending or that which lies beyond the sense experience!

French Revolution on the other hand,
began with the fall of Bastille in 1789!
Thomson’s “Seasons”(1726-30), first shot
of romantic revolution against Pope!

Ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity
being infectious…
Mightiest upheaval
influencing civilized thoughts!

 

Revolution against entire established
order of things…
Not lasting long though, due to
its horror and cruelties!

Wordsworth words, leaving a mark in history:

Three impulses of Romantic then is three:
Imagination being the first impulse,
Passion for Nature, the second
Yearning for the Past being third
elaboration, in little might be required then!

An escape from monotonous routine and custom
being the trait of imagination…

Passion for Nature, manifests in Romantic Spirit
picnic in the countryside at times,
boating in the moonlight…exploring mountain peak,
  colorful dress or girls pigtail…
A runaway marriage it could be
or, one hanging behind the other in front!

 

Yearning for the past being third
separated from us by distance,
either of time and space…
Remoteness fascinating “the being,”
distance leading enhancement to the view!

Romantic Movement in Literature
began with publication of “Lyrical Ballads”
by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798…
The period extending from 1798 to 1837, then!

First Generation, or Older Generation of Poets being:
William Words-worth, Samuel Tay-lor Coleridge
Walter S-cott and Robert South-ey!

Second, the younger generation,
of Revolutionary poets being:
Lord By-ron, Percy Bysshe Shelley
and JohnKeats!

Romantic Movement, popularly categorized
in two terms…
One being, The Romantic Revival
Other being, The Romantic Revolt!

While, the Romantic Revival, revived
the poetic ideals of The Elizabethan Age!
Love, beauty, emotion, imagination,
romance and beauty of Nature
being the trait of the age!

Romantic Revolt, on the other hand
revolted against, matter and manner
of Neo-Classical Poets, Poets:
rational, didactic, argumentative
and satirical in nature…

 Romantic Movement is then nothing
but, an extension to the field of literature…
Combination of strangeness and beauty
reveling in strangeness, extraordinary and remote!

Pic Courtesy: Google

Plato and Campbell: Ideas and Function!

When God thought of Universe,
didn’t the conception of it
come to him as an Idea…
Thus, the “Idea,” the original or first reality!

When that Idea found concreteness as a vision
all came alive and true to mankind!
Oceans, mountains, rivers, plants, et al
a reflection of that Divinity
Thus, removed once from its Originality!

We, reflection a part of that Divine Idea
imitated it in form of art!
Art, architecture or literature
whatever you want to call!
Thus, “twice removed from reality,”
is what Plato conveys in his “Theory of Mimesis!”

Ah! The grace of divinity
that what we see, we reflect!
The seed, the soul, in us thus lie
when in harmony, wider view one gets…

“Mythology,” then what it is
The heart asked…
"A set of stories, of ideas,
that makes the sense of World
And, our place in it," is what Campbell called!

Camp-bell: ringing myth,
experience and adventure of soul
Universally, showing similarity, not differences but!
Experience of life that counts,
In function four he explains thus …

 
First function of myth,
“Mystical or Metaphysical,” he said
Awakening a sense of wonder and awe
Reconciling consciousness of everything around!
Behind all the mystery, is a picture holy to be perceived!

Cosmological function, the second he says
Image of the Cosmos, according to Science…
An image of cosmos through our inner being
In relation to everything, that soul is harmony with!

“Sociological function,” third he says
customary life, law or social roles.
Keeps evolving with changing time
Yet, on which our whole existence thrives!

Fourth function emphasizing it, “Psychological”
Various stages of struggling individual: a monomyth!
Journey through inner psyche though
initiation and enrichment of larger whole!

Second and third function,
 taken over by secular world!
What we are left with then
is first and third!

“Myth,” as a guide, then to our inner realm
Set of stories, bigger in idea, a call…
Helping us to make sense of a larger whole
Believe in your inner call,
ideas that you might have found!

Pic Courtesy: Google, save the second one!
Reference:

Plato's Theory of Mimesis and Aristotle's Defence - Literary Theory and ...

https://sites.google.com/site/.../home/plato-s-theory-of-mimesis-and-aristotle-s-defence

Joseph Campbell - A Scholar's Life - Center for Story and Symbol

www.folkstory.com/campbell/scholars_life.html

Joseph Campbell's “Four Functions of Myth” - Trinity University

www.trinity.edu/cspinks/myth/campbell_4_functions_myth.pdf

Aristotle’ Observation on Poetry:

Man’s love for imitation and melody is instinctive
resulting in poesy, Aristotle said!
Poet, thus, an imitator is,
instinctively imitating three…

“Things as they were or are
Things as they are said or thought to be, or
Things as they are ought to be!”
Thus, imitating, past or present
is considered as an ideal event!

Deeper implication, the poet has
for not only he imitates
but, recreates and is a creator, too!

Poetry then is just not
mere reproduction of facts and truths
that apply to all places and times…
But, is more philosophical and
a nobler creation than history itself!

Poet’s aesthetic pleasure then
is pleasure for both poet and reader alike!
A combination of philosophy and morality, all intact!

Immediate emotional appeal, poetry has to the soul
purifying and ennobling our feelings and sensibilities
elevating and humanizing the reader gradually, as it reads on! 

Pic Courtesy: Google

Rhetoric and Prosody: Poesy!

Language effectively and impressively was used
art of rhetoric, the souls called it!
Prosody, on the other hand
was known as Science of verse, metres and stanzas
in three forms…

I-am-bic Pentameter: I am
unstressed followed by stress, it was!
I think in five meter it is
“I am,” five times you sing!

Two line stanza having two lines in Iambic Pentameter
was known as Heroic Couplet, in dance!

Whereas, the couplet, in which
the sense runs from one to another,
without any break in punctuation
is known as En-jam-bed couplet, did you know!
A six iambic feet occasionally used in a Heroic Couplet
is called as Alexandrine!

Terza rima, first used by Dante Alighieri
is run-on three line stanza with a fixed rhyme scheme
reminding soul of Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind!”

First used by Geoffrey Chaucer in fourteenth Century
in Troilus and Criseyde and The Pariament of Foules
is Rhyme Royal, a seven line stanza, in iambic pentameter
with rhyme scheme (a-b-a, b-b, c-c) …

Ottava Rima, Italian in origin,
is an eight line stanza in iambic pentameter
with fixed rhyme scheme of ab-ab-ab-cc…

A nine line stanza, with two quatrains (four lines each)
in iambic pentameter, with last line rounded of as Alexandrine
in rhyme scheme: abab bcbc c
is known as Spenserian Stanza, a fixed verse form
used by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem,
The Faerie Queen (1590-96)...

Blank verse is poetry with a metre but no rhyme
almost always in iambic pentameter
did it remind you of Julius Ceaser then!

Free verse, on the other hand,
neither has metre nor rhyme!

                                             Pic Courtesy: Google