In this paper I am going to comment on the main common features of the Romantic and Victorian era. The most important thing of this paper is the analysis of two poems, a Romantic and a Victorian one according to the social and political context of both authors. The poems I have chosen are from the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Matthew Arnold:
An
old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,--
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn,--mud from a muddy spring,--
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,--
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,--
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,--
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless--a book sealed;
A Senate,--Time's worst statute unrepealed,--
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestous day.
God knows it, I am with you. If to prize
Those virtues, priz'd and practis'd
by too few,
But priz'd, but lov'd, but eminent
in you,
Man's fundamental life: if to
despise
The barren optimistic sophistries
Of comfortable moles, whom what they
do
Teaches the limit of the just and
true--
And for such doing have no need of
eyes:
If sadness at the long heart-wasting
show
Wherein earth's great ones are
disquieted:
If thoughts, not idle, while before
me flow
If these
are yours, if this is what you are,
Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share
The Romantic era was a period of great change and emancipation.
It moved away from that by allowing artistic freedom, experimentation, and
creativity. One of the fundamentals of Romanticism is the belief in the natural
goodness of man, the idea that man in a state
of nature would behave well but is impeded by civilization. The
"savage" is noble, childhood is good and the emotions inspired by
both beliefs causes the heart to soar. On the contrary, urban life generates a
fear and distrust of the world. The idea of man's natural goodness and the
stress on emotion also contributed to the development of Romantic
individualism, that is, the belief that what is special in a man is to be
valued over what is representative. So, the basic aims of romanticism were
various: a return to nature and to belief in the goodness of humanity; the
rediscovery of the artist as a supremely individual creator; the development of
nationalistic pride and the exaltation of the senses and emotions over reason
and intellect. (4) The
Romantic period coincided with the French Revolution. The two generations of
English Romantic poets were each affected by it. Specially the younger
generation of poets; Byron, Keats and Shelley, grew up in a society with
strict rules. ( An outline of English literature, 252)
Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was the first English monarch to see her name
given to the period of her reign still living. The Victorian
Age was characterised by rapid change and developments in nearly every
sphere; from advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge to
changes in population growth and location. Over time, this rapid transformation
deeply affected the country's mood: an age that began with a confidence and
optimism leading to economic boom and prosperity eventually gave way to
uncertainty and doubt regarding Britain's place in the world. Victorian Poetry was an important period in
the history of poetry, providing the link between the Romantic movement and the modernist movement of the 20th Century. The reclaiming of the past was a major part of Victorian literature with an
interest in both classical literature but also the medieval literature of
England. Furthermore, the Victorian age provided a
significant development of poetic ideals such as the increased use of the
Sonnet as a poetic form, which was to influence later modern poets.The Victorian era produced a
dramatic change that brought England to its highest point of development as a
world power. Some writers such as Thomas Babbington Macauley applauded England’s
progress, while others such as Mathew Arnold, critisized it. (6)
Victorian poets were heirs to the Romantics, and many of the generalizations about Romantic poetry still apply:
distrust of organized religion, scepticism, interest in the occult and the
mysterious. Yet where Romantic poets made a leap of faith to assert that the
received image of God did not exist, Victorian poets were more likely to have a
scientific conviction of God's absence. This is one of the few differences
between both periods. Furhtermore, the Victorian poet and Romantic poet move
back in time and space, higher too and beyond the conventional experience, into
a more imaginative order of experience. But whereas the Romantic remains
lyrically elevated in/by that imaginative transport, the Victorian poet returns
more prudent and embittered, as a rule, to his present-day audience. (5) The most important feature
which differenciates Victorians from Romantics is their sense of social
responsability. (10)
According
to Northrop Frye, regarding the formal features shared by the Victorian with
the Romantic poets, he mentions the tendency of the Romantics to develop
encyclopaedic, grand, long poems in the form of epics, which is retained in
Victorian poetry. (7)
Poets in the Victorian period were to some extent
influenced by the Romantic Poets such as Keats, William Blake, Shelley and W. Wordsworth. So it is said that are more the similarities
which both periods have, than their differences.
Speaking
about both poems, the first one is “England in 1819” and it belongs to
Romanticism. It was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets who is
widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets
of the English language. It was composed in 1819 but it
was not published until 1839. (8.1)
I will start making a brief analysis of
this one. “England in 1819” is a political sonnet. It has got fourteen lines
and it is written in iambic pentameter. Its structure is different from the
usual one: a-b-a-b,
a-b-c-d, c-d-c-c, d-d. Like many of Shelley's sonnets, it
does not fit the rhyming patterns one might expect from a nineteenth-century
sonnet.
It has the the rhyme in the final syllable
of a verse, so predominates the tail rhyme ( king, flow, spring, etc.). The
rhyme is consonant because of the the repetition of consonant sounds.
“An old, mad, blind, despised, and
dying king,--
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn,--mud from a muddy spring,--“ (verses 1,2,3)
“England in 1819” reflects Shelley’s liberal ideas. Shelley
describes the estate of England in 1819. The poem condemns the arrogance of
power attacks England's
decadent, oppressive ruling class. First of all, he makes reference to the King
George III who is "old, mad, blind, despised, and dying”. After that, he
makes reference to the princess. The people are oppressed, hungry, and
hopeless, their fields untilled; the army is corrupt and dangerous to its own
people. Shelley says that the laws are useless, religion has become morally
degenerate, and Senat is “Time's worst statute unrepealed." In the part Shelley describes what he believes would
be best for England. In the last couplet, he shows a ray of hope,
we have a note of Shelley optimism:
“Are graves from which a glorious Phantom
may
Burst to illumine our tempestuous day”(v. 13-14)
In these
lines, Shelley imagines a “glorious Phantom” that could be the collective
revolutionaries and their philosophical ideals. Shelley doesn’t describe how
this panthom will exactly be, I mean, how this panthom will solve the problems
of life in England. However, it will clearly and permanently replace the
much-hated senate. Here we find a Shelley more omptimistic, in fact,
Romanticism poetry in general is characterised for expressing pure and happy
feelings.
I think this poem has something of
amibiguos because of the number of methapors. However, the message Shelley
wanted to trasmit is straightforward in meaning, he is criticising the society
he lived. So Shelley feels in disagree with the rules of his time and he
rebells against them.
In the poem there is a list of violent
metaphors used, which leave no
doubt about his feelings on the state of his nation. :
“Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who
flow
Through public scorn, mud from a muddy spring,” (v.3,4)
“An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield” (v.8,9)
Along
the poem, Shelley addresses the plight of the working class and the ways that
the ruling class is oppressive. The poem shows how Shelley grew up in a society
which was dominated by the repression of a series of Tory governments
apprehensive that every request for freedom might open a revolution. For the
Romantics society had become an evil force moulding its citiziens, so it was
seen as dark, repressive and limiting action. (A Short History of English
literature, 48). So it’s clear that the French Revolution affected Shelley and
the other Romantic poets. In the case of my elected poet, Shelley adopted a
more radical position than a conservative one which can be seen through his
poems. His aim it’s very clear, he wanted to change his society.
The other poem is called “To a Republican Friend” and
its author is Matthew Arnold, an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was
born at Laleham on the Thames, the eldest son of Thomas Arnold. He was the principal
English literary critic of his generation, an important commentator on society
and culture. (8.2)
Starting with the analysis, this poem is a sonnet
following the common features of it. It is written in iambic pentameter and every other syllable is naturally
accented. It has the common following structure: a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f,
g-g. It has the the rhyme in the final syllable of a verse,
so predominates the tail rhyme ( king, flow, spring, etc.). The rhyme is
consonant because of the the repetition of consonant sounds:
Those virtues, priz'd and practis'd
by too few,
As we
know, the Victorian era was influenced by the Industrial revolution. It meant a
devolpement of machinery and new work methods. Many people previously rural
became urbanised by the new rail transport. The growth of industry, the
building boom, the swift population spurt and spread of the railway changed the
character of Britain too rapidly for many to understand. Many Victorians
allowed their understanding to be led by poets. It was an age both exhilarated
and confused by growing wealth and power, the pace of industrial and by social
change. So during this age, the poets showed his social concern about what was
happening. In my elected poem, Matthew Arnold shows the darker side of all this
revolution. (A History of English Literature, 247)
In the
poem “To my Republican friend”,
Arnold reminds the reader of the sad side of the new economy and the potential
for greed in such a rapidly progressing system of commerce and
industrialization. The poem is written in first person and is adressed to
another person. In this case, the poet is adressing to his friend.
“God knows, I am with you. If you prize”
(verse 1)
The poem
ends with the resonating simply worded lines:
“The
armies of the homeless and unfed:
If these are yours, if this is what
you are,
Then am I yours, and what you feel,
I share” (v. 11-14)
Instead
of setting his language on high, he brings it to a lower lever and exposes the
dirty side of the new economy and subsequent politics. Arnold uses a
pessimistic tone which was characteristic of the Victorian poets because of the
conditions they lived in.
Furthermore,
we can find that through the text, there are some repetitions of words, one
example is the conjunction “if” which is repeated at the beggining of each
sentence:
Wherein earth's great ones are
disquieted:
If
thoughts,
not idle, while before me flow
The armies of the homeless and
unfed:--
If
these are
yours, if this is what you are,
Then am I yours, and what you feel,
I share”(9-14)
It
is a straightforward poem in meaning because it is has not a difficult
language, I mean, it has not too much metaphors and the message is clear.
The
poem transmits despair and a sensation of disagreement with the society he was
living in. The language is pessimistic; in fact, Matthew Arnold was considered the major cultural critic
of the Victorian era.
After analyzing
both poems individually, I am going to compare them together.
From the
beginning, I want to say that both poems have some kind of similarities in
their tittles. With these names, it’s quite clear that the poem is going to be
a criticism of the society. Shelley’s poem is called “England in 1819” and
Arnold’s poem is called “To a republican friend, 1848”. Both have the year in
their tittles which means that the criticism of both poets was directed to the
facts happening in those days. The poems are situated in a concrete time.
Secondly,
it’s important to point out that both poems have the same structure. They are
sonnets with the same corresponding characteristics although Shelley’s poem
doesn’t follow the usual rhyming patterns. Furthermore, the main character of
both poets is the same poet, I mean, the speakers are the own poets. In both
there is an expression of feelings, emotions, and critics but without avoiding
the real world which was characteristic of the Romantics. In this era, poets expressed their spirit and
passions; it didn’t merely imitate the outside world. However, in Shelley’s
poem “England in 1819” there is a contradiction in what I have just said before
because it doesn’t exists a distance between the poet and the real world. The poet
narrates all the injustices that existed in the England of his time. So
Shelley’s poem doesn’t follow these Romantic features at all, he is more
concerned about social problems, in fact, he was considered an important idealist and social reformer.
“To
a Republican Friend” is also a poem which reflects social concern. In Victorian Age a pessimistic tone appear
because of the conditions of the time they were living in. There were problems
in religion, culture, literature and society. These problems became the
best-known topics of Victorian Age, I mean, the poets discussed these problems
rather than everyday topics.
“England
in 1819” and “To a Republican friend” poems are full of pessimism although Shelley’s
poem is not as pessimistic as the Arnold one’s. One of the most important
characteristic in Arnold’s poems is his pessimism. “England in 1819” and “To a
Republican friend” have a pessimistic language and both are an attack against
the way of life. In the case of the romantic poem, Shelley attacks principally
religion, government and the king. In the case of “To a Republican Friend”
Matthew attacks the new economy and the process of industrialization. Both
poets have in common that they reflect their radical political approach to solving England's troubles.
Both
poets are written in everyday
language and discuss why they write about everyday topics, unsophisticated
subjects. These poets don't use unusual word
combinations because for them, it was not important how you write but it was
important what you write about.
On the one hand, Shelley grew up in a society dominated by the
repression. This fact brought him to become concerned about the problems of his
society. He demonstrates his
support of the revolution in my elected poem. It can
be clearly seen that he was a fierce denouncer of political power and a
passionate advocate for liberty.
On the other hand, Matthew was also concerned about the problems of his society. While some
poets aplauded the rapid process of industrialisation, Matthew Arnold
critizised it. It can be seen
in my chosen poem that he is makes a criticism of the new economy.
To sum
up with the comparison, I want to say that both poems have the same structure.
They also coincide with the main topic; the criticism of the society the lived
in. I think that this is the most important similarity of them. Both poets were
revolutionaries and
they expressed their defiant ideas in their works.
In
conclusion, I think that the message the poets wanted to transmit us is their
own disagreement with some aspects of their society. Following the French
Revolution and Napoleonic wars, Europe was left torn by economic decline,
political turmoil, and uncertainty. The poets of this time were angry with these
factors and the result of their political commitment was a series of angry
political poems condemning the arrogance of power. (9) Some good examples of this are the poems I
have analysed.
Secondly,
I would like to say the reasons why I have elected these poets and these poems.
It’s
clear that these ones are not the most suitable poems which represent best each
period. In Romanticism, as we know, the most important characteristics are
sensibility; primitivism; love of nature; sympathetic interest in the past,
especially the medieval; mysticism; individualism; romanticism criticism; a
reaction against whatever characterized neoclassicism and a the concern about
the society. In my elected poem, the last aspect is which predominates. Shelley
reflects his radical political approach to solving England's troubles.
On
the contrary, the poems of the Victorian age were based on the topics of culture, literature, society, religion,
nature and love. “To a Republican friend” is not perhaps the best poem to make
reference to Victorian age. But what I wanted to emphasize is that these
authors and the rest of the people lived in the repression and were not free of
doing what they wanted to.
To finish
with my paper, I want to say that I tried to compare both poems showing the
main similarities between both periods. There are perhaps more similarities
than differences as all the Victorian poets show the strong influence of the
Romantics, in fact, they often rewrote Romantic poems but with a sense of
distance. What I have empahised is that in both periods, there were poets who
were concerned with contemporary social problems and fight to get a better a
situation. Percy Shelley and Matthew Arnold have the same aim; to improve and
to change their society.
CITATIONS
1-
Alexander, Michael: A History of English Literature.
Great Britain: palgrave
foundations, 2000
2-
Rogers, Pat: An outline of English Literature.
Great Britain: Oxford University
Press, 1987
3-
Evans, Ifor: A Short History of English Literature.
Great Britain: Penguin books,
1940
5- British Literature
since 1760: Romantic and Victorian Characteristics, by Al Drak, 28 Dec 2007:
<http://www.ajdrake.com/e212_sum_04/materials/guides/rom_romvic_character.htm>
6- The Norton Anthology of English
literature: The Victorian Age: Review 2 Jan 2008: <http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/victorian/review/summary.htm>
7- Victorian Poetry, 2 Jan 2008:
<http://www.uta.edu/english/tim/courses/3352f01/vic.html>
8- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
22 Dec 2007: www.wikipedia.com
8.1
Percy Bysshe, Shelley 22 Dec 2007<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley>
8.2 Matthew Arnold, 22 Dec 2007
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold>
9- The Norton Anthology of English
literature: Victorian Age: topics, 3 Jan 2008: <http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/victorian/welcome.htm>
10- The Victorian Web-Victorianism as
a Fusion of Neoclassical and Romantic Ideas and Attitudes, 28 Dec 2007: <http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/abrams1.html
>