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ROMANTIC POETRY

Fahmida Chowdhury (1720729)

THESIS PAPER
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Fahmida Chowdhury
Andaleeb Choudhury
Romantic Literature (ENG 306)
Date: 14th March, 2019

Abstract
Romantic Literature has always given great importance to the idea and concept of Nature.
The Romantic poets saw Nature as their source of inspiration, and would offer reverence and
seek understanding through it, while rejecting the domination of the growing industrialization of
Britain. In many ways, Nature provided them a “sanctuary”, through which they acquired peace
and tranquility, and allowed them to transcend their everyday life by connecting with the
spiritual essence, and letting their imagination roam free. However, since the Romantics were
sensitive to their surroundings, they also got a glimpse of how the reality of Nature can bring
forth hardship and a sense of melancholy. Romantic poets would often express their reaction to
this duality of nature, through their poems. By discussing William Blake’s “The Echoing Green”,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, William Wordsworth’s “Lines
Written in Early Spring”, and John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale”, this paper shall analyze how
nature brought both happiness and misery into the lives of the Romantics.
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For the Romantics, Nature was everything. They sought to acquire transience, and a sense
of spirituality through Nature. As they surrounded themselves with lush sceneries, brimming
with life, they couldn’t help but notice the contrast between Nature’s innocence, and timeless
vibrancy, with mankind’s mortality, and their slow decay of morality. They would appreciate the
beauty of the natural world, and ponder about old age, sickness, man’s inhumanity to man, and
their transgressions against Nature. For William Blake, such thoughts were nothing new to him.
Throughout his time, he’s experienced the wonder of the natural world, and witnessed death
before his own eyes. Being a Romantic poet, he uses his imagination to depict Nature, and
associate it with different elements. In The Echoing Green, from Songs of Innocence, he uses the
visual imagery of sunrise and sunset to depict the beginning and the end of human life. He
structures the poem in a way, so that the beginning of the poem represents life, and the end
represents death. At first he sets up the poem by creating a pastoral image of children playing in
the natural setting:

The sun does arise,

And make happy the skies;
The merry bells ring
To welcome the Spring; (Blake 1-4)

Spring has always been used by poets to symbolize happiness, innocence, and renewal. In
this case, it is being used to symbolize youth that represents early childhood. As the sun rises and
the birds sing, they welcome the arrival of Spring. The singing and playing of the children “On
the echoing green” (10), shows the innocence of youth. Later, the older people watch the
children play, as they remember the time when they were young:

‘Such, such were the joys

When we all—girls and boys—
In our youth-time were seen
On the echoing green.’ (17-20)
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Children are happily playing around in Nature, enjoying their youth, while the old people
gaze and reminisce. They can only, “watch them and remember when they used to enjoy it in the
same way, knowing that they cannot go back to these happy days.” (Almodóvar 8). In the final
stanza, the sun sets, and the children stop playing as darkness settles down:

Till the little ones, weary,

No more can be merry:
The sun does descend,
And our sports have an end. (21-24)
................................
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest,
And sport no more seen
On the darkening green. (27-30)

In the last stanza, a sense of melancholy affects the poem. The “echoing green” at first,
now becomes the “darkening green”, in a sense that, “Whilst the light of day is linked to life, the
dark is related to death” (Almodóvar 8). During the day, there was energy, laughter, and
happiness. By the time dusk falls, the children are weary, the birds have stopped singing, and
there is no more color. Blake shows the contrast between youth and old age, life and death, by
associating it with Nature. Just like how Spring brings the innocence and the joys of the season,
and will ultimately end when Autumn begins; youth and innocence will flourish in the early
stages of life, and will ultimately end when old age begins.

Many Romantic poets were enlightened, and acquired wisdom through the lessons
learned from the simple beauty of Nature; however some acquired wisdom through the harshness
of it. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in his longest poem, shows
how the wrath of Nature befalls due to mankind’s transgressions. Throughout the poem, he uses
several elements of the story and relates it with Nature. The poem starts with the Mariner
explaining his tale to a wedding guest. The Mariner and his crew get aboard a ship and sail
southward, as a storm strikes them. He compares the storm to a huge flying creature which:
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Was tyrannous and strong:

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along. (42-44)

The sailors find themselves deep into the lifeless, foggy Antarctic, where they get
surrounded by giant glaciers that, “cracked and growled, and roared and howled” (61). At that
moment, an Albatross breaks through the fog, which the crew took it as a sign of good omen.
They take care of the bird while they were stranded, and after some time the wind picks up and
the crew were able to break through the ice and start sailing again. As the, “….good south wind
sprung up behind” (71), they ventured on their journey, and all the while they faced no troubles
since, “The Albatross did follow” (72). However, the Mariner shows his transgression to Nature
when he unnecessarily kills the Albatross.
Soon after, the consequences of his actions starts to take over. The forces of Nature begin
to work against the crew as the wind stops blowing again, leaving them stranded in sea.
Coleridge uses visual imagery to highlight the severity of Nature in that situation. The sun was
blood-red, and stayed far away in the distance. There was water everywhere, however they
couldn’t get a drop to drink. As the ocean starts to rot, “…slimy things did crawl with legs /
Upon the slimy sea” (125-126), and when night fell, “The water, like a witch's oils / Burnt
green, and blue and white” (129-130). The crew were dying of thirst and cursed the Mariner for
his actions. The Mariner has to suffer through isolation while wearing the corpse of the bird
around his neck: “Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung” (141-142). The
hanging of the dead bird around the Mariner's neck served as a constant reminder of his
inhumane act towards Nature. After the crew’s encounter with Death and Life-in-Death, the
sailors die. The Mariner, now completely alone, realizes the power of Nature:

“The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.” (236-239)
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“This not only stresses the survival of the mariner but also compares him to the lowly
beings of the deep highlighting his guilt for living while nature too carries on in the world.”
(Celeste 5). No matter how many times mankind think themselves as superior, they’re quite
insignificant and powerless when faced against the might of Nature. Stranded alone, the Mariner
then come across a few water snakes, and admired their “…rich attire / Blue, glossy green, and
velvet black” (278-279). Humbled by his experience, he was overwhelmed by Nature’s beauty
and its work of art that, “A spring of love gushed from my heart, / And I blessèd them unaware”
(284-285). His feeling of love, and reverence, and his act of prayer, allowed the dead Albatross
to, “….fell off, and sank / Like lead into the sea.” (290-291). As his curse gets lifted, Nature
shows mercy on him. He dreams of rain and then wakes up to see that it’s raining: “I dreamt that
they were filled with dew / And when I awoke, it rained” (299-300). The wind is on his side and
he starts to sail again. After his encounter with the hermit, and facing a few other dire situations,
he finally makes it back to the shore. He has fulfilled his penance and now he may move on. At
the end, he presents the moral of the story:

“….He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.” (612-617)

These lines give a powerful message, and shows the importance of Nature: All living
creatures deserve to be loved and revered. “…man cannot divide God and nature and therefore,
whatever man has done to harm nature also harms the Supreme Being.” (Celeste 7). Nature
exists to serve mankind, and if it is abused in anyway, then tragic consequences will occur.
Coleridge beautifully portrays the importance, and the duality of nature in this poem. During the
time the Albatross stayed with the crew, they barely faced any obstacles in their journey, and
were happy, but when the Mariner committed the unnecessary act of killing the bird, they faced
Nature’s wrath. The peaceful setting during the time the bird stayed alive, is contrasted heavily
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with the terrifying shift of scenery when the bird gets killed. The moral of the story resonated
strongly with the wedding guest, as well as the readers, because mankind tend to take Nature for
granted and overlook the various favors Nature provides. Through the Mariner’s story, the
wedding guest is enlightened and wakes up the next day as “A sadder and a wiser man” (624).

The concept of finding both peace and misery through Nature can be seen in William
Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Written in Early Spring”. He wrote the poem at a time when the
French Revolution was raging across France, and sent ripples through Britain. In his poem, he
shows how the beauty of Nature, makes him ponder about man’s inhumanity to man. In the first
stanza, as he sits in a grove, the serenity of the environment triggers, “sad thoughts to the mind”
(4). In the second stanza, he establishes the fact that Nature is linked with humanity and how
mankind seems to overlook that:
“To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.” (5-8)

This stanza shows a contrast, “One the one hand is the poem’s speaker, full of pleasant
thoughts because he is creatively and harmoniously linked to his world, and on the other hand
are those who now suffer “what man has made of man”.” (Moritz 7). Wordsworth takes a
moment to state how Nature is connected with the soul of man, and how it pains him to see
mankind sever the relationship of peace and love with Nature, and choose a path of violence and
destruction. In the next three stanzas, Wordsworth provides more details about the grove. He sets
up a pastoral scenery of the natural world around him.

“The birds around me hopped and played,

Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.” (13-16)
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Wordsworth shows another contrast here, one of activity: The birds moved vibrantly,
while he sat there admiring the scene, as if he’s watching an elaborate performance dedicated
solely to him. However, this feeling of happiness is short-lived as he explains it in the final
stanza:

“If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?” (21-24)

It seems that regardless of Nature’s best attempts at shooing away his melancholy, it fails.
Wordsworth can’t help but look at the beauty of Nature, and grieve for mankind. Even though
Nature connects with the human soul, and is always happy and joyous, mankind still seem to be
unhappy and corrupted. He ends the poem on a sad note: Nature, untouched by misery, will live
on, while the human soul, trapped within the confines of mortality, will be left behind to the
misery of human world. To Wordsworth, heaven and Nature wanted beings to live life in
harmony and enjoy the pleasure of their surroundings, but mankind ruined it, and destroyed this
belief in other men.

Aside from Wordsworth’s poem, another poem touches on the concept of peace and
misery through Nature. John Keats’s famous poem Ode to a Nightingale explores the contrast
between man’s misery and mortality, with Nature’s lightness and its immortality. After losing
most of his family to tuberculosis followed by his own diagnosis, he’s familiar with death and
tries to find some semblance of peace through Nature. Throughout the poem, he wishes to break
free from the confines of the human world, and become one with the Nightingale. In the first
stanza, he expresses his heartache, and is disoriented, as if he’s, “…emptied some dull opiate to
the drains.” (3). He then hears the Nightingale singing, and addresses it:
“Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,--
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
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Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.”(5-10)

He listens to the melodious tune of the Nightingale, who sings the music of summer
while hiding amidst the green trees. He admires the Nightingale’s carefree demeanor, and its
ability to sing with such ease that he feels a sort of bittersweet appreciation towards it.
Bittersweet, in the sense that, “He does not participate in the happiness of the nightingale, nor
does he envy it, but is pained at the contrast between its happiness and his own unhappiness.”
(Crawford 3). He is subjected to the misery of the human world, while the Nightingale is free
from such burdens in its life. In the second stanza, he begins to express his wishes:

“O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been 

Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, (11-12) 
……………………………………………
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, 
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:” (19-20)

He describes in detail about his ideal type of wine, and wishes to drink it so that he can
fade away with the Nightingale into the forest. He desires to intoxicate himself so that he “may
rid himself of his unhappiness and become happy like the bird.” (Crawford 3). He wants to break
free from the cage of human society, responsibility, thoughts of mortality, and lose himself in his
imagination so that his mind may romp free like the bird. In the third stanza, he addresses the
Nightingale again, and laments on the misery and futility of mankind:

“What thou among the leaves hast never known, 

The weariness, the fever, and the fret 
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; 
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, 
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies; 
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow 
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And leaden-eyed despairs, 

Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, 
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.” (22-30) 

Even though he wishes to dive into his world of imagination, he is still unable to leave
behind the human world. He reveals his depression, and talks about the bleakness of human life:
A world where there is illness and pain; where humans are subjected to the changes that comes
with time; where youth fades away; where neither Beauty nor Love can survive for long; and any
kind of thinking leads to worry and anxiety; a world where everything is mortal and nothing lasts
forever. This stanza highlights the way Nature can at times unknowingly drive poets into a state
of melancholy. It shows how much he was affected by the Nightingale’s wonder and beauty, that
it drove him into such depressing thoughts. It was as if he was taking a moment to vent out the
pain, and shoo away the dark thoughts so that he can connect with the Nightingale. In the next
stanza, his tone completely shifts from being depressed, to being excited. He tells the
Nightingale to fly away and that if he can follow, he will follow with the “viewless wings of
Poesy” (33). In this stanza, and in the next two stanzas, he finally leaves behind the human
world, and dives into Nature, where he explores the world of the Nightingale. He uses imagery to
appeal to the senses in order to describe the peaceful scenery around him. He is in a place where,
“tender is the night” (35), and “the Queen-Moon is on her throne / Cluster'd around by all her
starry Fays.” (36-37). He cannot, “see what flowers are at my feet / Nor what soft incense hangs
upon the boughs.” (41-42), but even in the darkness, he can “guess each sweet / Wherewith the
seasonable month endows.” (43-44). Keats’s mood during this spiritual journey with the
Nightingale, was one of rapture and sublimity; a feeling of being free from the shackles of
human life to become one with Nature. He continues on with his journey of exploring the natural
world with the Nightingale, and as he listens to the bird singing in the dark, he says that he was,
“half in love with easeful Death.” (52) and that he wishes to “cease upon the midnight with no
pain,” (56) while the Nightingale pours forth its soul ecstatically. He becomes melancholic again,
and says that if he were to die, the Nightingale would still sing its merry tune, and that he won’t
be able to listen to its beautiful song because he will “have ears in vain” (59).

“Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! 

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No hungry generations tread thee down; 

The voice I hear this passing night was heard 
In ancient days by emperor and clown:” (61-64)

In the seventh stanza, Keats is in awe of the Nightingale, and at the same time envious of
it. Although the Nightingale is mortal, as all living beings are, its song is still being heard after
all this time, making the Nightingale timeless. It represents the beauty of Nature, and highlights
again the power as well as the significance of the natural world, as opposed to human life. Nature
transcends both time and death. “The transcendence of Nature and its beauty, together with the
use of an imaginative escape, helps to create the mysterious figure of the nightingale and its
melody. This nightingale is immortal, and so is Nature.” (Almodóvar 17). In the last stanza, the
Nightingale leaves, and he feels as if he has been abandoned by the bird. He has been brought
back to reality and “back from thee to my sole self!” (72). He regrets that his imagination failed
him. He can’t even remember the Nightingale’s song and wonders whether the whole experience
was a “vision, or a waking dream? / Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?” (79-80).
Keats, in this poem, showed a man’s yearning for permanence. He expressed his desire to
escape reality, and yet realized that such an escape is impossible. Keats, who was suffering from
tuberculosis at that time, found peace and joy by connecting spiritually with Nature, but also
understood that such a connection is only temporary, and that the day will come when he will
wither away, while the Nightingale keeps singing its summer song. He explores the duality of the
bleak world of mankind with the beauty of the natural world, and man’s mortality with the
Nightingale’s immortality exquisitely, which has made this poem one of his most famous works
till date.

The Romantic poets revered Nature and used it as a means to escape from the shackles of
urbanization, and find a sense of transcendence, and peace. However, through their sensibility,
they’ve also realized how Nature can also bring misery and a sense of melancholy into their
lives. In William Blake’s Echoing Green, he sets up a pastoral world where children are happily
playing while the old people reminisce their youth. He used visual imagery of sunrise and sunset
to depict the beginning and the end of life and shows the contrast between youth and old age, life
and death, by associating it with Nature. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient
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Mariner, the poem tells us the story of how the Mariner was stranded at sea and faced intense
trials because he transgressed and acted against Nature with violence, and once he learned to
appreciate the beauty of the natural world, only then did he manage to save himself, and through
his experience, he tells everyone the moral of the story, that all living things deserve to live and
to be loved; that Nature is a powerful force and that we should appreciate it and not try to control
it. In William Wordsworth’s Lines Written in Early Spring, he takes in the beauty of the natural
world around him and wonders why mankind has turned away from the beauty of Nature. The
imagery and scenery in the grove made him ponder about mankind’s lost spiritual connection
with Nature and lament on man’s inhumanity to man. Finally, in John Keats’s Ode to a
Nightingale, he explores the contrast between the bleakness of human life with the vibrancy of
natural world, and the mortality of mankind with the immortality of the Nightingale. He uses his
imagination to escape the shackles of the human world, and feel a sense of rapture and happiness
as he goes on a journey with the Nightingale to explore the beauty of the natural world. But he
realizes that such an escape is impossible as his imagination breaks, and laments at realizing just
how temporary human life is. Mankind will wither away, while the Nightingale’s song will be
heard in ages to come. The Romantics acknowledged Nature in a way that has never been done
before. They appreciated its beauty, its grandeur, and its magnificence, and at the same time they
showed humility and understanding to the lessons they learned through it. They sought an
intense relationship with the natural world, and in doing so, they revolutionized our perception of
life itself.

Works Cited:

Blake, W. “The Echoing Green”. Songs Of Innocence and Songs Of Experience. The Astolat Press. R.
Brimley Johnson (London); A. C. Curtis (Guildford), 1901, pp. 4. Project Gutenberg.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1934/1934-h/1934-h.htm.

Almodóvar, Ignacio González. “The Concept of Nature in Gothic and Romantic Literature”. Academia,
https://www.academia.edu/11608812/The_Concept_of_Nature_in_Gothic_and_Romantic_Literature
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Coleridge, S.T. “Ancient Mariner”. English Romantic Poetry, edited by Stanley Applebaum. Dover
Publications, Inc., 1996, pp. 63.

Celeste, Renee. “The Power of the Albatross: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner"”.
Academia,
https://www.academia.edu/30837333/The_Power_of_the_Albatross_Samuel_Taylor_Coleridges_The_An
cient_Mariner_

Wordsworth, William. "Lines Written in Early Spring". Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems.
Reprinted in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. W.W. Norton & Company, 2012, pp. 280.

Moritz, A.F. “What Man Has Made of Man.” Poetry, vol. 195, no. 2, 2009, pp. 149–159. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/25706760.

Keats, John. “Ode to a Nightingale”. English Romantic Poetry, edited by Stanley Applebaum. Dover
Publications, Inc., 1996, pp. 216.

Crawford, A. W. “Keats's Ode to the Nightingale.” Modern Language Notes, vol. 37, no. 8, 1922, pp.
476–481. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2914866.