Revelation through nature, the wonder of the sublime and the possibilities of the imagination: each is a concept that represents a major facet of the Romantic Movement. British poet, Samuel Coleridge is a well-known contributor of this movement, as his collaboration with William Wordsworth in the creation of Lyrical Ballads is largely considered the birth of the Romantic Period. While many Romantic ideas can be observed through Coleridge’s later work, an earlier piece of his poetry, “Frost at Midnight”, interestingly displays several Romantic concepts that had yet to be fully recognized by the British world. “Frost at Midnight” was written almost eight months prior to Lyrical Ballads, in February of 1798, and depicts the movement of the narrator’s …show more content…
Coleridge, first, establishes a gentle, child-like mood throughout the poem by utilizing words such as ‘peaceful’, ‘tender’, ‘secret’, ‘fluttering’, ‘soothing’, and ‘calm’. Next, he ties the innocence of a child to the influence of nature, referring to nature as a “great universal teacher” (63). He speaks of how his son will “see and hear the lovely shapes and sounds intelligible of that eternal language” (59-60), concluding that nature will “mold thy spirit” (63-64). Through such descriptions, Coleridge portrays nature as an essential factor that works to develop both the soul and the personhood of a child. In light of this idea, the narrator projects his own longing for childhood innocence, recalling how he was “reared in the great city…and saw naught lovely but the sky and stars” (51-53). The narrator implies that though he was never able to grow and learn from nature, he finds hope in the fact that his son will “learn far other lore in far other scenes” (50-51). Romantics often considered children the prime example of social experience because their innocence aloud them to treasure the beauty of the earth. Coleridge’s emphasis on the innocence of childhood and his depiction of nature as a universal teacher parallel those ideas of the Romantic Movement, elaborating on the idea that both innocence and nature are a luxury not to be taken for …show more content…
Written to follow the natural progression of the mind, the narrator moves from watching the frost form on his bedroom window to thinking about his childhood and how the frost was his only connection to the world outside his school walls. This thought leads him to ponder the great opportunity that his son will have to grow up in nature and, eventually, his mind returns to the frost, once again referring to its “secret ministry” (72). Through this, Coleridge depicts nature as a catalyst for the transcendence of time. The narrator describes the fire as making him a “toy of thought” (23) and allows the frost on the window to connect him to his past memories of “[gazing] upon the bars to watch that fluttering stranger” (25). The narrator, however, is also prompted by the frost to explore his imagination, as he pictures his son enjoying a much different childhood than he in a world where the “seasons shall be sweet to thee” (64). In each of these cases, nature was the cause of intellectual stimulation, and thus, the common link to the past, present and future. Through the continuous connections of the narrator’s thoughts, Coleridge also indicates ones ability to transcend time within the mind. While sitting beside his “cradled infant [slumbering] peacefully” (7), the narrator demonstrates his ability to remove himself from the present and insert himself into the past
Frost is far more than the simple agrarian writer some claim him to be. He is deceptively simple at first glance, writing poetry that is easy to understand on an immediate, superficial level. Closer examination of his texts, however, reveal his thoughts on deeply troubling psychological states of living in a modern world. As bombs exploded and bodies piled up in the World Wars, people were forced to consider not only death, but the aspects of human nature that could allow such atrocities to occur. By using natural themes and images to present modernist concerns, Frost creates poetry that both soothes his readers and asks them to consider the true nature of the world and themselves.
Robert Frost is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Frost’s work has been regarded by many as unique. Frost’s poems mainly take place in nature, and it is through nature that he uses sense appealing-vocabulary to immerse the reader into the poem. In the poem, “Hardwood Groves”, Frost uses a Hardwood Tree that is losing its leaves as a symbol of life’s vicissitudes. “Frost recognizes that before things in life are raised up, they must fall down” (Bloom 22).
Robert Frost engages the reader in a tension driven metaphor which relates the phenomena of natural processes to what can be regarded as the metaphysical transcendence of ones imagination though time. In this exploration, he reveals the conflict of ones volition against the natural, opposing forces. In the first three lines, the poet sees birch trees swaying in the wind, and likens the movement to young boy swinging on the branches.
Frost's poem addresses the tragic transitory nature of living things; from the moment of conception, we are ever-striding towards death. Frost offers no remedy for the universal illness of aging; no solution to the fact that the glory of youth lasts only a moment. He merely commits to writing a deliberation of what he understands to be a reality, however tragic. The affliction of dissatisfaction that Frost suffers from cannot be treated in any tangible way. Frost's response is to refuse to silently buckle to the seemingly sadistic ways of the world. He attacks the culprit of aging the only way one can attack the enigmatic forces of the universe, by naming it as the tragedy that it is.
Wordsworth is raised in a simple country side and he views his childhood as a time when his relationship with nature was at its greatest; he revisits his childhood memories to relieve his feelings and encourage his imagination. Even if he grew up within nature, he didn’t really appreciate it until he became an adult. He is pantheistic; belief that nature is divine, a God. Since he has religious aspect of nature, he believes that nature is everything and that it makes a person better. His tone in the poem is reproachful and more intense. His poem purpose is to tell the readers and his loved ones that if he feels some kind of way about nature, then we should have the same feeling toward it as well. On the other side, Coleridge is raised in rural city such as London and expresses his idea that, as a child, he felt connected to nature when looking above the sky and seeing the stars. Unlike Wordsworth who felt freedom of mind, Coleridge felt locked up in the city. Since he did not have any experience with nature, he did not get the opportunity to appreciate nature until he became an adult. In Coleridge’s poem “Frost at Midnight,” readers see how the pain of alienation from nature has toughened Coleridge’s hope that his child enjoy a peaceful nature. Instead of looking at the connection between childhood and nature as
In 1797, Coleridge published "Poems" which was well liked. This excited him because he thought that this would begin his road to success. One year later, Wordsworth and Coleridge had their famous "Lyrical Ballads" published. Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner," opens the book. Many people believe that the work the two men did together greatly contributed to the creation of the Romantic Period. It was chosen to open the book because of its powerful descriptions about remorse. This, combined with the element of psychological obsession, may have had a lot to do with his younger years. In several ways, Coleridge's life experiences seem to have a lot to do with his poem, "Frost at Midnight."
with the alliteration of the frst five lines : "Kubla Khan'', ''dome decree'', and ''sunless sea''. Coleridge interlaces short exclamations (''but oh!'', ''a savage place!'') and exageratedly long exclamations (''as holy and enchanted as e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted by a woman wailing for her demon lover!'') reinforces the feeling of flowing which is related to the time ''ticking'' irregularly away, creating a sense of timelessness.
We often come to think that when we hear the term “romantic poetry” our thoughts immediately jump to the images of a candle light dinner, a stroll on the beach, a rose pedal covered bed and so on. However, the definition of the romantic poetry isn’t about the love we know about, but in fact a time period. This period dating in the early eighteen hundreds relieved to us many famous romantic poets including Wordsworth, Burns and Blake. These poets contributed greatly to this time period including their many works, the most lengthy and famous being Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey.” However, if romantic poetry isn’t about love and sex, then what is it about? What makes romantic poetry different than other poetry? The answer to these questions can be answered with the three elements that make up romantic poetry. The three elements of romantic poetry include that we can learn important things from Nature, imagination and emotion are more important than reason and finally that simple ideas can help you understand complex ideas.
Moreover, these various fragments all combine to instill a sense of ambiguity throughout the poem. In a sense, as the poem progresses, the audience discovers further and more troublesome questions regarding its message and its implications. The audience, perhaps, even begins to wonder if there are indeed absolute answers or whether Coleridge consciously intended to create an unresolved poem. Amid this unsettling tumult of questions, one is left to dedicatedly follow Coleridge’s journey in a sequential manner in an attempt to consider and ponder these ambiguities as they arise. Inevitably, however, lingering questions will ...
The imagery of nature and humanity intermingling presents Blake's opinion on the inborn, innate harmony between nature and man. The persona of the poem goes on to express the `gentle streams beneath our feet' where `innocence and virtue meet'. This is where innocence dwells: synchronization with nature, not synchronization with industry where `babes are reduced to misery, fed with a cold usurous hand' as in the experienced version of `Holy Thursday'. The concept of the need for the individual's faithfulness to the laws of nature and what is natural is further reiterated in `the marriage of heaven and hell' in plate 10 where Blake states `where man is not, nature is barren'. The most elevated form of nature is human nature and when man resists and consciously negates nature, `nature' becomes `barren'. Blake goes on to say `sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires'. This harks back to `the Songs of Innocence' `A Cradle Song' where the `infants smiles are his own smiles'. The infant is free to act out its desires as it pleases. It is unbound, untainted. Blake's concern is for the pallid and repressed, subjugated future that awaits the children who must `nurse unacted desires' and emotions in this new world of industrialisation. Despairingly, this is restated again in `the mind-forg'd manacles' of `London'. The imagery of the lambs of the `Songs of Innocence' `Introduction' is developed in `the Chimney Sweeper' into the image of `Little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, that curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd'.
par. 1). With clever poetic purpose, Frost‘s poems meld the ebb and flow of nature to convey
In the William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the vision of children and adults are placed in opposition of one another. Blake portrays childhood as a time of optimism and positivity, of heightened connection with the natural world, and where joy is the overpowering emotion. This joyful nature is shown in Infant Joy, where the speaker, a newborn baby, states “’I happy am,/ Joy is my name.’” (Line 4-5) The speaker in this poem is portrayed as being immediately joyful, which represents Blake’s larger view of childhood as a state of joy that is untouched by humanity, and is untarnished by the experience of the real world. In contrast, Blake’s portrayal of adulthood is one of negativity and pessimism. Blake’s child saw the most cheerful aspects of the natural wo...
Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems. The everyday objects present in his poems provide the reader an alternative perspective of the world. Robert Frost uses all the elements of poetry to describe the darker side of nature. After analyzing the Poem Mending Wall and After Apple Picking it is clear that nature plays a dark and destructive role for Robert Frost. This dark side of Frost’s poetry could have been inspired from the hard life he lived.
By both elaborating on the ideas of earlier writers and adding ideas of his own, Robert Frost creates a place for himself in history. The themes of his poems remain true regardless of the time period. Modern readers understand the importance of love and imagination that Frost describes. His messages about death and relationships have guided readers for decades. While technology becomes an ever more important part of the modern world, the continued love of Frost’s poetry shows that people still feel a connection to nature.
Frost uses nature as a reflection of human experiences; just like humanity it can have seasons and life cycles. He uses different scenes to depict a certain mood for readers to step into the psychological happening of a man. The idea of how seasons change, Frost compares it through the life cycles that humans encounter. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe that nature is not Frost’s central theme in his poetry; it is about the relationship that man has with nature in which can be seen from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken”, and “An Old Man’s Winter Night.”