Political Views of Romantic Poets - Essay Example

Political Views of Romantic Poets The tendency till recently among the scholars and critics was to associate the Romantic poets with typical words like nature, passion, feeling, or with such expressions thought to be very traditional. But the recent critical studies have been successful in identifying these writers with more political and philosophical ideas and interests. Their works, particularly the poems, reflect a rebellion against oppression, and all kinds of conventions in society, which went against the basic human values. Among these writers, Wordsworth deserves to be singled out in order to examine the extent to which his poems carry the political sentiments. The focus of this paper is a brief analysis of the political poems of Blake, Word worth, and Byron. Wordsworth is taken up first, as he can provide a better thrust to the discussion intended to be done in this paper. Words worth wrote poems for about seventy five years. Most of his poems are autobiographical. Therefore, it becomes easy to peep through his poems to get the sequence of events in his life, which influenced his thoughts and imagination. In 1790, he undertook a tour of Switzerland, France, and Italy. He was, as is already known, very much influenced by the French Revolution. The political and social ideologies of this revolution inspired his poetic imagination. He returned to France in 1791. He found France then “standing on the top of golden hours”. At the same time, Words worth was also passing through the golden moments of his passion, as he had fallen in love not only with the spirit of the French Revolution, but also with a French lady, named Annette Valon. A daughter was born out of this love. What is of interest here is the sudden changes in the life of the poet, which inspired him and reshaped his poetical and political imagination. The aftermath of the French Revolution shattered all his hopes. The sensational rise of Napoleon and the establishment of military dictatorship In Europe went against his cherished values of liberty. He was, therefore, forced to part with his radical views. Equally painful was the termination of his love relationship with Annette. To make things worse, he was in deep financial crisis too. It was his love of nature, his intimate relationship with his sister, Dorothy, and his literary friendship with Coleridge which helped him to regain his mental equilibrium. So, it should be with this background that one makes an attempt to bring Wordsworth’s poems under scrutiny. During Words worth’s stay in Calais, with Annette Valon, how much his beloved could influence his thinking is not very clear to the scholars. But there is no dispute over the fact that his poetic imagination was strongly inflamed during this period. It was here that Words worth sought to redefine his identity. There was an inner change taking place, which showed that he was trying to change his radical and revolutionary stance. A review of his sonnets, the so-called political sonnets, would establish this fact. In the art of writing sonnets, only Words Worth could attain the Miltonic level in English literature. He wrote about twenty five sonnets in 1802, most of them just within a period of August and September. Out of these, many are political sonnets. It can be seen that the disappointment of the revolutionary hopes run throughout these poems, which were drafted at Calais. In “Calais, August, 1802”, he wrote about the extent to which the public perception then had stooped: Lords, lawyers, statesmen, squires of low degree, Men known, and men unknown, sick, lame, and blind, Post forward all, like creatures of one kind, With first-fruit offerings crowd to bend the knee In France, before the new-born Majesty. In the same poem, to the men of this “prostrate mind”, the poet tells: When truth, when sense, when liberty were flown, What hardship had it been to wait an hour? Shame on you, feeble Heads, to slavery prone! Switzerland for Words Worth was a symbol of liberty. Napoleon’s conquest of this country annoyed the poet. Then Napoleon was made the consul for life, and on his birthday many Englishmen secretly visited France. Among them was Charles James Fox, a Whig leader, whom Words Worth had admired. This incident was a cause of great grief for the poet. Based on this event, Words Worth wrote many sonnets of National Independence and Liberty. He was terribly shocked to see men of “prostrate mind” “crowding to bend their knees before Napoleon”. Similar sentiments echo in another sonnet, “There is a Bondage Worse, Far Worse, to Bear”: One of a Nation who, henceforth, must wear Their fetters in their souls. … And know that noble feelings, manly powers, Instead of gathering strength, must droop and pine; The poem “The World is Too Much with Us” is also a political poem. The poet condemns the craze of the English people for material life. They seem to be interested, according to the poet, only in “getting and spending”. He also finds them “out of tune” with nature. He notices this negative quality both in the middle class and in the aristocracy. In poems like this, Words Worth acts like a moral sensor, and he seems to have a keen interest in affecting the public policy. He reminds the people that they are the ones “who speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake”. And he doesn’t forget to remind the French: France, tis strange, Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then. (“Great Men Have Been With Us”). At times, Wordsworth goes back to the past to bring the old glory of England to the present, to create a moral sense and improve the mental set up of the people. Whenever he finds something going wrong in his motherland, he makes an attempt to revoke the past reputation of the country, so that there might be an effort to try to avoid the tarnishing of a noble tradition. All these emotions, found expressed in his sonnets, get a clear and concrete expression in his greatest work, The Prelude. He took several years to complete this poem. It is one of the most outstanding achievements of Romantic Movement. It is a great romantic epic, depicting the spiritual growth of a romantic hero. Wordsworth in this poem tried to recapture the entire range of his experiences. The writing of this poem was completed in 1805. But the entire poem was published only after his death. It was already noted in this paper that Wordsworth was gong through a very turbulent life during this period. A brief going back to this time is crucial to the understanding of the poem. Wordsworth was then gripped with a feeling that the much cherished mystical oneness was lost. The personal and political events of the time greatly disturbed the poet’s mind. He married Mary Hutchinson in 1802. That also means his emotional separation from Annette valon, and his daughter born in that relationship. His disillusion with the French Revolution touched the highest point, when Bonaparte was elected as the first consul for life. A sudden need arose in the poet to redefine his inner self. His friend, Coleridge, gave up writing poetry and decided to embrace opium. The whole literary bunch at Alfoxden broke up and most of them kept away from the political reality of the period. But Wordsworth was left alone to meditate over the sad situation; and he was also compelled to shed his earlier political stance. The old radical attitudes now slowly gave way to a sober conservative outlook. All these have their echo in this spiritual autobiography, The Prelude. This romantic poem is also a kind of reflection of the interaction between his creative imagination and the pressure of political history upon him. In a way, the poem reflects the development of the poet’s self in the contexts of the politics and culture of his time, particularly in Europe. It also exhibits the political position he was forced to take, where he should place himself historically. Till the end of nineteenth century, no one, no scholar ever thought of fixing Wordsworth as a political poet. It is still an ongoing debate. The poem, Prelude, is today taken as a metaphor for his life and experience. It is a literary, political, and spiritual journey of Wordsworth. The journey, at the same time, is a geographical one too: That day we first Beheld the summit of Mount Blanc, and grieved To have a soulless image on the eye Which had usurped upon a living thought That never more could be. (1805 Prelude, VI.453-7) William Blake, as is well known, was a poet, mystic, and artist. He was deeply conscious of injustice and oppression around him. In most of his poems his violent revolutionary spirit can be seen reflected. In Blake lies the transition from the age of reason to the age of romantic spirit. Therefore, both the romantic’s usual disgust with the dry neoclassical writing and his acute desire of for emotional outburst could be traced in his works. His poems were published under the titles of “Songs of Innocence” and “The Songs of Experience”. While the former was intended to depict the state of innocence, the latter was written with the intension of exposing the challenges and corruption in human beings, which tend to destroy life itself. The oppressed and the exploited get focus in Blake’s poems. A few lines from his poems can easily substantiate his concern for the people, the society, and his country. This is how he reacts to the situation around him: In every cry of every man,     In every infants cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban,     The mind-forged manacles I hear: These lines are from the poem, “London”. In the “Chimney Sweeper”, he writes: That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. Blake’s political stance is not wrapped in patriotic spirit alone. His attitude is humanitarian. He cannot tolerate racial discrimination, or any other form of human wickedness. By dividing poems as innocence and that of experience, Blake could show both sides of human experience. At the same time, whatever he finds in man is not always disappointing. There are also people with innocence like that of a lamb. He realizes that an individual has limitations in improving his self. A chimney sweeping boy cannot do anything to change himself. He is the victim of the social environment. So the life of such an exploited boy can only be changed by the political and the social organizations. As a poet, he helps the authorities to open their eyes to observe such cruel situations. This is the way how Blake is to be viewed as a political poet. He made the initiative in literature, and the romantic spirit in him helped the poets who came after him to explore social and political reforms through poetry. Lord Byron is another romantic poet who deserves a mention here. Byron left England in 1816, never to return again. He once wrote to a friend that “the only virtue they honor in England is hypocrisy” (Walsh). It is better to have any discussion of Byron by looking at him as a European poet. His political or social enthusiasm was never insular. He was gifted with a secular eye. At the same time he was cynical to some extent. He could not tolerate anything he found bad in man or in society. He says in Don Juan: Society is now one polish’d horde Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored (Canto X!!!,st 95,) Byron’s political views influenced the subject matter of his poetry very much. He also did not hesitate in attacking his political opponents like the Duke of Wellington. When they were in Italy, Byron, Shelley, and Leigh Hunt together published the political journal called The Liberal. They were free in Italy, without the fear of British punishment. The English attitude towards Byron was mixed. He died in Greece, his body was brought to England, but a burial at Westminster Abbey was not permitted. It is interesting to remember that Byron died in Greece while he was aiding the struggle for independence there, which made him a national hero there. Though Lord Byron’s range of poems is very wide, it is through his much celebrated poem, Don Juan, that he is mostly remembered. “It is a complicated tale of a human existential dilemma, encompassing both nihilism and traditional morality. Don Juan is Byron in a nutshell: as he was and as he wished humanity to be; a disillusioned yet continually idealistic portrait of mankind” (Holstad). It is in a sense, his political poem. He writes: If I could Have such a prescience, it should be no bar To this my plain, sworn, downright detestation Of every despotism in every nation. (Don Juan) Byron has made his views about Napoleon absolutely clear in this poem. Byron remains in the history of literature as a notorious figure. His sexual attachments with women and even boys created great scandal. However, all his personal weakness gets ignored when the beauty of his poems are thought of. To look at only the political views of the romantic poets in order to assess their literary contribution is never good. Romanticism is a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement. There are several great aspects of this movement. It is centered on an individual. It is subjective, imaginative, spontaneous, emotional, radical, visionary, and transcendental. It becomes interested in politics, mainly because social and political ideologies affect the freedom of an individual, his spiritual growth. Also political ideologies are mostly materialistic. A poet like Wordsworth can never tolerate the world becoming “too much with us”. William Blake could see the evils of exploitation and reproduced his sympathetic observations in beautiful poetic style. He did not try to identify himself with any political side. Byron, on the other hand, was too impatient to sit back and study the probable historical reasons of the oppressed society. He gave himself too much freedom, to indulge in everything excessively. But, he was also true to his instincts and imagination as an artist. Reference Olic-Hamilton, Barbara F. “The Political Sonnets of William Wordsworth” http://www.umassd.edu/ir/bolic/bolic.htm Holstad, Scott C. “Byron’s Biography: Don Juan and Byron’s Existential Angst.” http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/NieveRoja/issue5/byron.htm Poetry of William Blake. http://www.everypoet.com/Archive/Poetry/william_blake/william_blake_contents.htm Walsh, David. “Why We Need Byron”. http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/byr-s01.shtml (All retreated on 6 March, 2007) Read More