HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY – BEGINNING TO ELIOT
The Middle
English Period (1066-1400)
The true history of English poetry may be
said to begin only in the second half of the 14th century with the
poetical works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Does this mean that no poetry was written
in England prior to this period? Not so, the anonymous epic Beowulf was
apparently written during the 9th century, which is in fact more
than a century before the Normans conquered England. There are specific reasons
as to why we consider Chaucer as the first formal poet in England, and his
poetry as marking the inception of the grand history of English poetry.
However, in order to understand these reasons in their proper perspective, we
need to familiarize ourselves with the social situation that prevailed in
England during what is generally known as the middle English period. The middle
English period begins in the year 1066 when the Normans captured power from the
Saxons by their victory at the Battle of Hastings. Normans were basically
natives of France. So when they captured power, they promoted French interests
in England. There are two specific repercussions that are particularly
important to us in this regard. From a linguistic point of view, English was
now stripped of its importance and reduced to that of a common man’s language.
In its place, French was raised as the language of administration. From a
literary point of view, works produced in the Saxon tongue, as English was
derogatorily referred to at the time, was no longer encouraged or even
recognised. In its place, French literature, specifically the romance poetry of
France, came to be identified as literature proper. So in what was its native
land, English and English literature took a back seat to French and French
literature. This situation prevailed all through the 12th and 13th
century, till the coming of Chaucer in the later half of the 14th
century. Chaucer’s works are invariably identified as signaling the inception
of English literary history fundamentally because of two factors. Firstly, they
were able to establish a standardized form of English that was commonly
accepted by all through out the country. Secondly, they restored the dignity of
the English language and catapulted English literature to its rightful place of
prominence in England. It is for these reasons and probably more not mentioned
here, that Chaucer is popularly considered as the founding figure of English
poetry, its father.
Chaucer and
his Contemporaries: Chaucer had a long and prolific
career that spanned over three decades. In order to trace how his poetic
prowess developed in the course of this extensive duration, critics generally
divide it into three distinct phases. The first known as the French period was
a time during which Chaucer derived the
models and inspiration for his poetry from the literary works of France. The
second called the Italian period commences from the time of his diplomatic tour
to Italy, where he allegedly met the poets Petrarch and Boccaccio and became
familiar with the nuances of Italian literature. The third phase, the so-called
English period, which covers the last fifteen years of his life, is by far the
most important for it marks the phase in which Chaucer truly came into his own
as a poet. The point is in the initial two periods, Chaucer’s inspiration both
with regard to poetic subject and form was fundamentally derived from
literatures of other countries. In the third however it becomes peculiarly
English In that he not only acquired the material for writing poetry from his
keen observation of English lives, but improvised his own poetical forms. With
regard to the latter aspect, his two most noteworthy achievements are the
heroic couplet and the Chaucerian stanza. Chaucerian stanza also sometimes
known as the rhyme royal is a stanza form comprising of seven lines, each in
iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme followed is ‘ABABBCC’. Heroic couplet is a
stanza of two lines, a pair of rhyming iambic pentameter. Like Chaucer’s
poetical career that transformed the English literary scene, his art of poetry
is also tellingly paradigm shifting. When Chaucer began writing poetry, it was
the French romances that set the trend for literary writing in England. Though
he might have been compelled to acquire his early influence from them, we find
that as his poetic art evolved, he gradually broke away from it. By the time he
emerged as an English poet in the true sense of the word, his poetic art
manifested features that exhibited a striking contrast to those exemplified in
the romance poetry of France. In this regard, three most noteworthy breakaway
characteristics, which epitomize the hallmark of Chaucer’s art of poetry, may
be set forth as follows. To begin with, in the romance poetry of France events
and incidents were often exaggerated to fantastic proportions which made them
blatantly unreal. Chaucer on the contrary invariably focused on depicting both
society and people as faithfully as possible. Secondly, French romance poetry
for the most part concentrated on portraying men and women from the genteel classes,
making only passing references to those belonging to the less fortunate walks.
Chaucer conversely aimed at evincing an essentially cosmopolitan view of
humanity, drawing his characters from all segments of the society. Finally, in
seeking to consciously uphold the chivalric code, French poetry of romance
exhibited a vision of the world that was typically serious. In contrast,
Chaucer was fundamentally a humourist, whose outlook on life as exhibited in
his poems is characteristically comic. Some of the notable works of Chaucer
include, The Book of the Duchess, Troilus and Criseyde, The
Legend of Good Women, The Parlement of Foules, and The Canterbury
Tales. Beside Chaucer, there are two other poets whose names need to be
mentioned with regard to poetry in the latter half of the 14th
century. These are those of William Langland, whose allegorical poem Piers
the Plowman was second in popularity at the time only to Chaucer’s own The
Canterbury Tales, and John Gower, the author of Confessio Amantis,
who is identified invariably by the moniker ‘moral Gower’ bestowed on him by
none other than Chaucer himself. The passing away of Chaucer in 1400
historically draws the curtain on the middle English period.
Elizabethan
Age (1558-1603)
After Chaucer’s death at the onset of the
15th century, English poetry went into a long-drawn-out phase of
dormancy, during which no poet or poetry of noteworthy repute came to prevail.
This lean phase that lasted for over a century and a half, eventually concluded
with the publication of the first English poetic anthology entitled Tottel’s
Miscellany. Brought out in 1557 by the printer Richard Tottel, the
collection comprising of verses by various poets, reignited English poetry back
to life. It also proved to be a curtain raiser for Elizabethan poetry, which is
generally divided into two phases the early renaissance and the high
renaissance. Though historically significant, the early renaissance phase of
Elizabethan poetry should be rightfully characterized as more promising than
brilliant. After all, the poets identified with this era such as John Skelton,
George Gascoigne and Thomas Sackville, talented as they undoubtedly were,
nevertheless lacked the genius of those that succeeded them. The early renaissance
phase comes to a close in 1579 with the publication of the pastoral poem The
Shepheard’s Calendar, which signaled the inception of the high renaissance.
It was during this high renaissance phase that English poetry truly achieved
its glory, as exemplified in the works of such poets as William Shakespeare,
Philip Sidney, and most of all, Edmund Spenser.
Elizabethan
Sonneteers: Though the qualitative difference
between the poets of the early and high renaissance is undeniable, there is one
common point of affinity that binds them together. It is the fact that all of
them showcase an evident fondness for writing sonnets. Originating in Italy
during the 13thcentury, the sonnet form made its entry into English poetry in
the 16th century, thanks principally to the efforts of two poets
Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard. Wyatt who was probably the first English poet to
make use of the sonnet form in England, did so adopting the original Italian
model, while his compatriot Howard adopted it with certain modifications to the
effect that his sonnets came to be distinctly identified as the English model.
The difference between the two models in question has to fundamentally do with
the internal structure. Both models were obviously comprised of 14 lines, but
in the Italian model these 14 lines were divided into two parts, an octave
consisting of 8 lines, and a sestet of 6 lines, while in the English model, the
14 lines were divided into 3 quatrains and a concluding couplet. The model
developed by Howard is what that both Shakespeare and Spenser used for
composing their sonnets, while Sidney stuck to the original Italian model.
Beside Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare, other important sonneteers of the
Elizabethan era were Samuel Daniel and Michael Drayton. All the five were alike
in that, the sonnets they wrote invariably took the framework of a sequence. A
sonnet sequence signifies a series of interconnected sonnets that apparently
deal with or develop the same central idea or scenario. Of the many sonneteers
of the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare is probably the most significant by far.
His sonnet sequence which bears no specific title comprises of 154 sonnets in
all. It is notable that Shakespeare who hardly took any care with regard to
protecting the texts of his plays, took ample attention with the sonnets. The
sonnets of Shakespeare are thus available to us today as they were written by
the man more than five centuries ago without any interpolations. In composing
his sonnets, Shakespeare preferred the English model developed by Henry Howard.
Thanks to the popularity that his sonnets acquired, the English model of the
sonnet form is now more widely identified as the Shakespearean sonnet. In the
sonnets, Shakespeare presents the reader with three characters, a male speaker
who is often identified as representing Shakespeare himself, the so-called dark
lady who is frequently recognized to be the wanton woman Mary Fitton, and one
WH who is generally considered as referring to Shakespeare’s patron Henry
Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. The basic line of argument in the sonnets
runs as follows. Initially the dark lady is in love with the speaker. However,
when WH comes along she shifts her affections to him, seeing that he is a
better suitor. The interesting thing to note is that the speaker rather than
becoming jealous, concedes that WH is a better man than him and praises his
virtues. In doing this, he nevertheless exhibits a great deal of bitterness
towards the dark lady for being so insincere. Two schools of thought exist with
regard to what the sonnets actually mean in terms of their interpretation. The
first argues that the sonnets represent a personal form of poetry into which
Shakespeare poured his heart and the many conflicts that arose in it. The
second advocates that the sonnets are basically written from an objective stand
point and that everything that Shakespeare has to say in them is nothing but
literary artifice. As mentioned, the sonnet sequence authored by Shakespeare
does not have a specific title. However, those penned by the other Elizabethan
sonneteers do have and they are as follows. The sonnet sequence by Sidney is
entitled Astrophel and Stella, that by Spenser is called Amoretti,
Drayton’s sonnet sequence is known as Idea’s Mirror, and that of
Daniel’s is dubbed Delia.
Edmund
Spenser:
Nicknamed the poets poet, Edmund Spenser is by far the most important
and influential poetic figure of the Elizabethan age. Though many facets in his
poetic persona contribute to this status, perhaps the foremost is his
versatility. Spenser tried his hand as a poet in practically all forms of
poetry extant at the time, and achieved success in every single one of them.
These range from pastoral poems to spousal odes to sonnets to elegies, but it
is probably the endeavor he undertook in the domain of epic that must be
recognized as his stand out accomplishment. Spenser is the first poet, and one
of only two in the entire annals of English poetry, to actually try his hand in
authoring an epic. Of course he was unable to complete the undertaking, but
whatever parts of it were actually published manifest his poetic genius beyond
any doubt. Regarding his poetic art, there are typically two features that are
invariably recognized as characteristic. The first and perhaps the most telling
is his descriptive vein of writing. The best instance of this self-consciously
ornate style is easily the stanza form he created for his epic known as the
Spenserian stanza. Spenserian stanza is a poetic form containing 9 lines in
total, the first 8 composed in iambic pentameter, with the final line being an
Alexandrine, a line set in iambic hexameter. It must however be admitted that
Spenser’s style though exquisite at the time, has gone out of favour ever
since. The elaborate feature of the Spenserian stanza has also been cited by
critics as the chief reason why Spenser was unable to complete his epic, or
more of it at any rate. The second feature of his art of poetry that is
considered distinctive is the allegorical note. Here again the best illustration
is offered in his epic, in which each of the 12 knights who undertake perilous
adventures in honour of their queen Gloriana typify a distinct type of virtue.
Spenser was a stern moralist, and this aspect of his poetic sensibility is what
the knights ultimately exemplify. Grand, daring and rigid, Spenser’s death in
1599 is invariably identified as drawing the curtain on the high renaissance
phase of Elizabethan poetry. Some of the telling poetical works of Spenser are The
Shepheardes Calender, The Faerie Queene, Amoretti, Prothalamion,
Epithalamion, and Colin Clout’s Come Home Againe.
Jacobean/Caroline
Age (1603-1642)
English poetry during the Jacobean and
the subsequent Caroline era, was dominated by two schools. The first of these
labelled the metaphysical poets is more popular and influential by far. Some of
the poets recognized as forming part of the group include Abraham Cowley,
Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and most
important of them, John Donne. Though recognised as constituting a school, when
they actually lived and wrote, the poets in question did not consciously
identify themselves as such, nor was the tag metaphysical applied to them. The
term was actually propounded only in the 18th century by Samuel
Johnson in his essay on Abraham Cowley, which formed a part of his series
entitled Lives of the Poets. In this
essay, Johnson came up with the term to group together certain poets of the 17th
century, who though wrote independently exhibited striking common features in
their works. The most significant characteristic that he labelled as their
hallmark is what is known as the metaphysical conceit, a comparison in which a
similarity is drawn between two essentially unlike things or ideas. The poet
invariably identified as most adept in creating these conceits in the group is
John Donne, who is for this talent nicknamed ‘the monarch of wit’, and is often
regarded as the principal source from which the other poets derived their
inspiration. Some of the other telling features that the poets identified as
metaphysicals manifested in their poetic writings are the use of relatively simple
diction, the employment of irregular poetic rhythms, and a conscious and
frequent depiction of exaggerations. The second school who occupy a significant
place in the annals of English poetry during the Jacobean and Caroline era are
the so called Cavalier poets. Though he is not formally identified among them,
the poetic works of the playwright Ben Jonson is invariably considered as the
basic source of inspiration for the poems by the cavaliers. Some of the poets
who are actually identified as a part of the group include Robert Herrick,
Richard Lovelace, John Suckling and Thomas Carew. Unlike metaphysical poetry
that explored more complex themes, cavalier poetry was relatively simple,
typically brief, and more often than not dealt with the idea of carpediem
literally seize the day. After the outbreak of the English Civil War, cavalier
poetry came to support the royalist’s agenda, which made it overtly political.
The Common
Wealth Era (1642-1660)
After the outbreak of the English Civil War
in 1642, England went through a period of eighteen years without a king or
queen at its helm. This period is what is generally called the common wealth
period or the interregnum. However in English literary history this phase is
invariably dubbed the puritan or the Miltonic age, after the greatest poet of
the time John Milton.
John Milton: Though Milton’s career formally commenced
during the reign of Charles I, he is invariably recognized as belonging to the
common wealth or puritan era. This is chiefly because his greatest
accomplishments as a poet were achieved during this time, and his sympathies
were essentially puritanic which is why he sided with the parliament during the
English Civil War. There are two essential facets of Milton’s personality that
are particularly noteworthy. These are his religious outlook on life that was
rigidly puritanic, and his political that was essentially reactionary, Both of
which constitute the twin cornerstones of his poetic sensibility. Puritans were
basically a denomination within the Church of England, who were not content
with the reforms enforced and advocated for more. Professing to uphold the
purest form of Christian life, they adhered to a strict code of conduct that
was founded on an absolute faith in the word of God as exemplified in The
Bible. Both as a person and poet, Milton was a puritan and a hard-core one at
that. In his epic for instance where he recounts the story of how humanity fell
from grace, his expressed aim is to justify the ways of God to man. This is to
say, he presents the whole saga as a part of God’s divine will, which all must
unconditionally accept. A more personal expression of his puritanic world view
is offered in his much anthologized sonnet On
his Blindness. In the poem, taking his cue from the Parable of Talents,
rather than feeling sorry for his plight, Milton bemoans that once blind he
might not be able to exercise his obligation of writing poetry. Absolutely
compliant as he was to the will of God, Milton however was anything but
biddable in social and political matters. He was an outspoken champion for the
freedom of the press, advocated for divorce, took the side of the democratic
cause of the parliament, he was a confirmed rebel. Apparently many are of the
opinion that it is this rebellious side of Milton that subconsciously finds
expression in his depiction of Satan in his epic, which is often identified as
being livelier than even that of God. Satan after all was originally an angel,
who was cast down into hell for rebelling against the authority of God in
heaven. Thus in Milton’s art of poetry we have two obviously contradictory
strains coming together, which not only affirms its adroitness but also
complexity. This complexity is bolstered by his erudition as a scholar, which
sometimes makes parts of his poetry extremely obscure to understand. Milton
indeed happens to be one of the most acknowledged intellectuals in the annals
of English literature, whose learning particularly in the domain of the
classics is beyond doubt. Infallible as his learning was, so is his versatility
as a poet. It could be stated in earnest that arguably no other poet in the
history of English poetry ever wrote so many diverse forms like Milton, which
beside accomplishing the virtually impossible enterprise of completing an epic,
extends into such realms as epyllion and closet drama. Indisputably great as
his poetical accomplishments are, his political allegiance to the parliament
during the civil war meant that Milton was not permitted to be interred in the
poet’s corner in West Minster Abbey. It is indeed anybody’s guess if Milton
would have really felt bad at being denied a place in the proverbial spot, but
one thing is certain, with his death the great era of renaissance poetry in
England comes to a close. Some of his important poetical works include the twin
poems L’Allegro and il Penseroso, the elegy Lycidas, the
epic Paradise Lost, and the epyllion Paradise Regained.
Restoration Age (1660-1700)
The restoration of Charles
II to the English throne brought forth a new era in English poetry, one in
which classicism deposed romanticism as the prominent trend. With this change
over, we find the imaginative fervor that characterized English poetry during
the renaissance, no longer encapsulated the sensibility of choice. It was
replaced by a zeal for critical thought, which invariably manifested itself as
a vogue for satire. A form of poetry that was largely ignored during the
renaissance, satire not only emerged as the most sought after poetic form, but
exercised an overwhelming influence on the restoration poetic scene. English
poetry noted for its variety during the renaissance, was thus rendered one
dimensional, with all other poetic forms relegated to a state of peripheral
significance. Of the many poets who were responsible for this undisputed
pre-eminence enjoyed by satire, John Dryden is perhaps the most important by
far.
John Dryden: Dryden was an extremely
versatile writer who wrote all forms of literature popular then, and tasted
telling success in all of them. Yet it is for his prowess as a satirist that he
is particularly remembered and recognized as a stalwart in the annals of English
literature. Dryden’s contribution in the domain of satire is indeed an
influential one, in that he not only wrote actual satires that have become
acknowledged classics in the English language, but did significant work in
theorizing it as a literary form. In this regard, his most notable service is
the establishment of satire as a corrective poem rather than an invective piece
of writing as it was prevalently conceived until that point. The distinction
drawn by Dryden between satire and lampoon is specifically noteworthy here. For
Dryden, the latter which simply represents a personal attack, epitomizes an
antithesis to a satire, and must be positively discouraged. As far as Dryden
was concerned, there are three essential characteristics that a satire should
allegedly exemplify. It must be comical, expose vice, and most important of
all, should reform folly. Beside these characteristics, some of the other
stipulations laid down by Dryden with regard to satire could be summed up as
follows. A satire in the first place must have unity, which is to say, it must
preoccupy itself with a single theme. In the second, it should be composed in
heroic couplet, which Dryden recognized as the most appropriate stylistic
medium for fashioning satires. In the third, it must take as its expressed
target for ridicule, a man of public nuisance. The skilfulness of Dryden as a
satirist becomes obvious when we consider the fact that his satires deal with a
wide range of thematic preoccupations, which vary from the literary to the
political to the religious realm. Three of his most noteworthy satires Mac
Flecknoe, Absalom and Achitophel, and The Hind and the Panther
respectively bear out this point.
Samuel Butler: Beside Dryden, if there
is one other poetical figure that deserves mentioning from the restoration
period, than it is that of Samuel Butler. Like Dryden, Butler is primarily a
satirist, but his poetic art lacks both the variety as well as the subtlety that
characterizes the former. His most noteworthy contribution to English poetry is
the metrical form called Hudibrastic, which takes its name from the title of
his most important work Hudibras. The restoration period that marks the
initial phase of neoclassicism in English poetry, culminates in 1700 with the
passing away of Dryden.
Augustan Period (1700-1751)
The reign of Augustus
Caesar in Rome is generally regarded as the golden period of Latin literature,
during which classicism reached its high point. Recognising the classical
authors of this time as the undisputed masters of the art of literature,
writers in England during the first half of the eighteenth century sought to
imitate their works and literary doctrines. The period thus in English poetry
has come to be labelled the Augustan era. It is however noteworthy that in
trying to imitate, the English writers of the period only managed to replicate
the formal aspects informing the literature of their Roman counterparts,
failing altogether to reproduce their spirit. Consequently, their works though
perfect in terms of form and artistry, came to lack a much needed sense of
vitality. The period thus has also come to be regarded as the high point of
what is generally dubbed pseudo classicism. Like the preceding Restoration
period, the poetic scene of the Augustan age is dominated by satirists, the
chief among whom was Alexander Pope.
Alexander Pope: Though not ranked among
the greats in English poetry, Pope is by far the most influential poet of the
Augustan age. The fact that the period is sometimes called the age of Pope,
emphasises the point. As a poet, Pope modelled himself on Dryden, specialising
in the writing of satires and favouring the heroic couplet as his preferred
medium. His satires however are far more trenchant and personal in scope, which
not only won him the nickname ‘wasp of Twickenham’ but also several enemies.
His witticism and typically epigrammatic vein of writing is nonetheless
undeniably enthralling, and he is undisputedly the greatest pseudo classicist
ever to grace English poetry. Two of his most notable satires are The Rape
of the Lock and The Dunciad.
Johnson and Arbuthnot: Beside Pope,
there are two other names who deserve mentioning with regard to poetry during
the Augustan era. The first of these Dr. Samuel Johnson who is probably
noteworthy for his contribution to English literature more as an essayist and
lexicographer, also preferred satire as his chosen form of composition. As a
satirist however, he lacked the vitality of a Dryden or the wittiness of a
Pope. His two satirical poems London
and Vanity of Human Wishes are
essentially imitative in character. As a poet, indeed as a writer, Johnson
never relinquished the Moral attitude. His definition of poetry as an art that
must instruct through delight, bears ample testimony in this regard. Dr.
Arbuthnot the other minor poet of the time is essentially noted for two things.
Firstly, his prominent membership in the Scribblerus Club and secondly, as the
creator of the figure of John Bull. It is noteworthy that Arbuthnot unlike
Johnson, is not an academic but a medical doctor. His most significant poetical
work is The History of John Bull.
Transitional Age (1751-1798)
As the very term implies, the transitional
age signifies a period of change during which the prominent trend in English
poetry began to shift from classicism to romanticism. It is however noteworthy
that though in decline the former was not yet rendered totally out of favour,
while the latter though in ascendancy had not yet fully matured. The
transitional age thus represents the only time during which the twin trends of
classicism and romanticism existed side by side, exerting an equal influence on
the making of English poetry. It is however noteworthy that the age does not
have any poet who could be singled out as representing the most outstanding
figure of the time. In other words, many poets made a name for themselves
during the period, but none did so in a tellingly prominent way. Among these,
probably the first we must reckon with is Thomas Gray, whose master piece Elegy
Written in a Country Church Yard published in 1751 is generally considered as
signaling the formal inception of the age of transition.
Thomas Gray:
Extremely self-critical by nature, Gray was quite popular during the time as a
poet. He was in fact offered the position of poet laureate in 1757 which he
refused. Yet despite this fame, he
published very little during his own lifetime, merely 13 poems that hardly
amounted to a total of 1000 lines. Notwithstanding this fact however, it must
be acknowledged that Gray was one of the first poets to significantly manifest
the pre-romantic sensibility of fusing the classical with the romantic. Typically
his poetry is romantic in content in that it dealt with personal impulses which
exhibited a sensitive exploration of the private self, and classical in form in
that it made use of traditional poetic structures and rhythmic patterns such as
elegy, ode and iambic metre. . Gray was also dubbed a graveyard poet, a school
of poets whose poetry was characteristically meditative in tone, and was
predominantly preoccupied with notions of mortality and death. Often these
poets chose as their physical setting an actual grave yard or church yard,
which was probably the basic reason they were given the title in the first
place. It is an undeniable fact that Gray would never be counted as one among
the great poets of English literature such as a Spenser, Milton or Dryden. Yet
there can be little doubt that he is probably the most important poetical
figure of the mid 18th century, acknowledged by none other than
Matthew Arnold as the poetical classic of the time.
Oliver
Goldsmith: A poet different from Gray both in
person and sensibility is Oliver Goldsmith. Like the former, he too evinced a
clear manifestation of the transitional spirit in his writings, a fusion of the romantic and the classical trends.
However, he was nothing like Gray in any other aspect. A carefree spirit in
temperament, his poetry is tellingly cheerful and tender. He advocated and
upheld sentimentality in poetry but was extremely careful in ensuring that he
never over did it. He exudes an obvious sense of nostalgia in his poetical
works, exhibiting a passionate longing for the rustic past of England and
mourning its loss. Yet he never rails at anyone or anything too bitterly, is
hardly ever critical or condemnatory, remaining forever gentle and friendly in
his remonstrations. An indomitable spirit of liveliness and yearning pervades
his poetical output, most amply illustrated in two of his most noteworthy
productions The Traveler and The Deserted Village.
William
Blake: William Blake is unlike Gray and Goldsmith,
in fact, is unlike any other poet of his
age. An engraver/painter, he was a confirmed mystic for whom the world of
spirits meant everything, the world of actual men and material practically
nothing. Accordingly his poetry manifests features of symbolism and
strangeness, which lends to them an unmistakable visionery or prophetic
quality. The tiger for instance in his poem of that title epitomizes not the
actual animal that roams the forest at night, but a symbolic encapsulation of
everything that is fierce and cruel in the world. The image of the lamb that it
is juxtaposed with alternatively exemplifies innocence. The furnace fire that
animates the eyes of the tiger is a clear indication of the mystic in the poet,
which is always preoccupied with visions of the spiritual world that underlies
the mundane. His two most significant collections are Songs of Innocence
and Songs of Experience. The most remarkable thing about Blake’s
mysticism is that it does not exude any sense of melancholy, which is typically
the way mysticism is expressed in poetry. Blake was a joyous mystic.
Robert Burns: Robert Burns is in every conceivable aspect the exact opposite of
Blake both as a person and a poet. Born into a peasant family, he spent most of
his youth toiling in the fields relating intimately with people pertaining to
his own walk in life. This physically vigorous life he was compelled to lead
ensured the exclusion of any trace of mysticism in his imagination and
sensibility as a poet. If Blake was unearthly, Burns was earthly as one could
possibly be, his strong suit being the human note. His muse was inspired by the
mundane, the ordinarily mundane, by people who had nothing telling or
sophisticated about them except perhaps a brimming sense of vitality. More than
a poet, Burns was a song writer, one of the best in the language, probably the
best Scotland ever produced. Some of his noteworthy poems include To a Mouse
and The Cotter’s Saturday Night.
Others: Beside the four mentioned, other notable poetical figures of the
transitional age are James Thomson, William Collins and William Cowper.
Romantic Revival (1798-1850)
The publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 marks the formal inception of the romantic
age or the romantic revival movement, which signals the re-instation of
romanticism as the dominant trend in English poetry once again. It is however
noteworthy that this revival of romanticism was tellingly different to the kind
of romanticism that was dominant during the renaissance. For one thing, unlike
the latter that basically derived itself from scholarship produced during the
era of classical antiquity, the former primarily takes its cue from the
philosophy of romanticism propounded by the French thinker Jean Jacques
Rousseau. The literary ideals that came to characterize English poetry during
this period were in fact directly appropriated from Rousseau’s theory. All the
salient features that underlie romantic poetry such as a preoccupation with
nature, emphasis on emotional outpouring, and a blatant disregard for
stipulations, originally form part of Rousseau’s doctrine. Rousseau’s basic
position was that humans are fundamentally good by birth, but become corrupted
in the due course of time by the pernicious impact of civilization. His
suggestion is therefore that human race must shun the sophistications informing
the civilized way of life, and retreat to a primitive form of living. His
protocol was return to nature, for by doing so, it is possible to retain our
innate goodness, and live our lives as free independent beings with no shackles
to bind us. Taking their seminal motivation from Rousseau, it is noteworthy
that all the romantic poets essentially wrote about nature, characterizing it
in various different ways.
William
Wordsworth: Wordsworth in his poetry fundamentally
adopted a spiritual attitude towards nature. He was a pantheist who in fact
conceived nature as a manifestation of god’s own image on earth. This is
precisely why he is often described as the high priest of nature, and is
specifically dubbed the nature poet, even though all the poets of the romantic
era essentially wrote about nature and derived their literary sustenance from
its bosom. It is also notable that unlike the other romantics Wordsworth was
also a moralist. His philosophy was simply nature is my teacher. Wordsworth is
generally identified as the father of the romantic revival for it was he who
pioneered the adoption of Rousseau’s thoughts into poetry. In the Preface he
wrote to Lyrical Ballads he clearly
lays down the salient principles that govern the poems contained in that
volume, and all of them clearly reinforce the influence of Rousseau. Some of
the important principles in this regard include, the conception of poetry as
essentially an expressive medium for recording the personal sentiments of the
author, the selection of events and incidents from rustic life as the proper
subject for poetry, and the need to employ a deliberately simple language that
resembles common speech as the fit style for poetic composition. Beside Lyrical
Ballads, other notable poetical works by Wordsworth include The Prelude
and The Excursion.
John Keats: John Keats who is the youngest of the romantics exemplifies a
perfect foil to Wordsworth in his characterization of nature. Keats unlike
Wordsworth was more than content to sensualise nature, that is, appreciate it
for its beauty as it appeals through the various senses. He was an aesthete who
simply regarded nature as a thing of beauty that offers perennial joy, making
no attempts at spiritual enquiries or ruminations. Keats also did not endeavor
to moralise nature. He is generally preoccupied in his poetry with issues that
are exclusively confined to the realm of art and its diverse facets. He is also
by far the most sensitive of all the romantics. The suicidal tendency that he
frequently expressed in his poetry, which is also sometimes labelled the
romantic death wish, a yearning for a painless and happy death, bears ample
testimony to this point. The speciality of Keats poetry lies in the profusion
of sensory images presented in them, which delineate nature in all its varied
moods and aspects. Endymion, Ode on a Nightingale, Ode on
Melancholy, Ode to Autumn and Ode on a Grecian Urn are some
well known poems by Keats.
Percy
Shelley: Percy Shelley presents somewhat a
different approach from Wordsworth and Keats in his conception of nature.
Unlike the both of them, he intellectualized nature projecting it as an agent
of reform and transformation. Shelley’s ultimate objective as a thinker is to
destroy the existing social order with all its various inequities and
corruptions, and erect a new one in its place where love reigns supreme. Love
for Shelley is the single most important impulse which has the power to
transform and sustain the new world order. By love of course Shelley meant
absolute freedom from tyranny of any kind, an independence that is infallible.
It is important to point out that unlike all the other romantic poets who were
disillusioned by the French revolution, Shelley was exhilarated by it. Its
ideals remained a constant source of motivation for him, which lies at the
heart of his delineation of nature as an intellectual force. Some of his chief
poetical works include The Cloud, Ode to the West Wind, To a
Skylark and Adonais.
Samuel
Coleridge: Arguably the most unusual
characterization of nature among the romantics is the one upheld by Samuel
Coleridge, Wordsworth’s collaborator in Lyrical
Ballads. Coleridge is nicknamed the greatest dreamer in English poetry, and
true to this reputation, his poetry has a dream like quality that remains
unparalleled till date. His characterization of nature is that of a mystic
phenomenon exotic and cryptic, a conception that is obviously inspired by his
interest in medievalism. It must however be acknowledged that both his dreamy
and mystic character as a poet owe a great deal to his alleged method of
composing poetry. By his own admission, Coleridge fashioned his poems in dreams
that he had during slumbers induced by his opium indulgence, which probably
stimulated him as a poet but ruined him as a person. The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner, Christabel and Kubla Khan are three of his most
famous poems.
Victorian Era (1850-1901)
The
dawn of the Victorian era witnessed the dominant trend shifting once again from
classicism to romanticism in English poetry. This shift however did not fully
materialize till the culminating years of the period, when the modernist
movement began gaining ascendancy. The change over nevertheless becomes
palpable right from the very start, in the poetry of arguably the two most
outstanding poets of the era, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning.
Tennyson and Browning: Tennyson and Browning represent a perfect
foil to each other both in terms of their personal temperament and poetic
sensibility. This of course is fundamentally anchored in their respective
attitudes towards life , which was not simply different but mutually
contradictory. A brief juxtaposed critical take of the two in this regard would
bear out this point most succinctly, and perhaps would also help us understand
their varying sensibilities better. A conservative by choice, Tennyson preferred
a sobre and restrained outlook on life, valuing ideals such as tradition and
moderation as principles to be cherished. Accordingly, his poetry is
conditioned by an evident strain of melancholy and meditation, which in fact
constitutes the essential hallmark of his output. On the contrary, a
progressive by choice, Browning adopted an exuberant and indomitable approach
to life, valuing notions of individualism and new possibilities as the
preferred ideals to seek. As a result, his poems evince an apparent sense of
effervescence and enquiry, which epitomizes the most invasive and irresistible
aspect of his works. Perhaps nowhere is this disparity more obvious than in the
choice of persona the two poets opted for in their respective dramatic
monologues, a form of poetry both were partial towards. Tennyson for instance
invariably employed figures from Greek and Roman classics, who were typically
aged, exemplified a type rather than individuals, and most of all, expressed a
clear sense of restraint and dignity. Browning on the other hand derived his
figures from renaissance Italy, personnas who were typically youthful, fiercely
individualistic, and most importantly, characterized by a reckless strain of
abandon and vigour. Owing to this stalk difference in their perspectives,
Tennyson is often identified as a pessimist, with Browning alternatively as an
optimist. Some noteworthy poetical works of Tennyson are Ulysses, The
Lotos Eaters, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tithonus, Morte
d’Arthur, and In Memmoriam. Important poetic compositions of
Browning include My Last Duchess, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Porphyria’s
Lover, Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto, Caliban upon
Setebos, and The Ring and the Book.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: After Tennyson and Browning, the next
important poetical figure of the Victorian era is Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one
of the founding members of the so-called pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Rossetti’s
primary interest was painting and when he wrote poetry, he did it fundamentally
with the sensibility of a painter. As far as he was concerned, shifting from
painting to poetry basically just came down to change in medium, you did the
former with paint and brush on a canvas while the latter with pen and words on
a paper. He is arguably the greatest painter poet, whose works in the realm of
poetry represent in essence verbal pictures. Some of the telling features of
his poetry understandably reflect the facets advocated by the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood
with regard to painting. Two are particularly noteworthy in this regard, these
are exhibiting extreme care in even describing the smallest details and a
fondness for symbolism. Rossetti is also notable for reinstating the mystical
note in English poetry. He is probably the greatest poet when it comes to
manifesting this feature of mysticism after Coleridge. No one among the
Victorians showcased an evident strain of romanticism in the writing of poetry
as Rossetti. We might perhaps call him the last of the great romantics, though he
is formally not a part of the romantic revival movement. The Blessed Damozel,
The Bride’s Prelude, and A Last Confession are poems by Rossetti
that are noteworthy works to get a feel of his poetic art.
Elizabeth Barrett: Elizabeth Barrett Browning is perhaps the
first most important female poetic figure to reckon with in the annals of
English poetry. Though in the novels women had already crafted for themselves a
telling place in the literature of England, thanks largely to the reputation
garnered by such novelists as Ann Radcliffe and Jane Austen, in the realm of
poetry they had remained by and large obscure. It was with the coming of
Barrett Browning that this situation changed. She was in fact so widely
recognized on both sides of the Atlantic for her poetic prowess, that when the
place for poet laureateship opened up in England after Wordsworth’s death, she
was considered a prime contender to get the position. As a poet, she might be
said to continue the romantic tradition in English poetry, but unlike the
classical romantics like Wordsworth and Keats, her work did not retreat from
depicting social reality. In fact, her most striking facet as a poet is her
direct engagement with important social and political issues of her time such
as child labour and slavery. Barrett Browning is particularly noted for the
passionate humanitarianism she abundantly exhibited in her poetical works. She
is also a champion of the women’s question, ardently advocating that a woman
must strive to assert her individuality and self-identity as a person, and not
become swayed or overwhelmed with the pressure exerted on her sensibility by
the dominant male will. She is a versatile artist who tried her hand in
practically every form of poetry popular at the time, and achieved considerable
success in each of her endeavour. She is a romantic with a purpose, an
enthusiastic of the feminine standpoint, a staunch defender of human rights,
all of which combine to make her indeed a special personality in the Victorian
poetic scenario. The Cry of the Children, Sonnets from the Portuguese,
and Aurora Leigh, are memorable poetical compositions by Barrett
Browning that set forth her distinct art of poetry.
Matthew Arnold: Probably the final noteworthy poet of the
Victorian era who deserves special mention is Matthew Arnold. Arnold is
arguably the poet who most tellingly and consciously sought for advancing a
change over from the romantic to the classical in English poetry during the
Victorian era. As a poet, he deliberately sought to break away from the
romantic zeal for extravagant outbursts, alternatively attempting to enforce a
criticism of life which he conceptualized as fundamentally an objective or disinterested
endeavour. As far as poetry with regard to its subject matter is concerned,
there are primarily two factors that Arnoled insisted as paramount. These are
the qualities of truth that signified a faithful representation of life, and
seriousness that denoted a pressing tone of importance. Though he did not
uphold the idea of free verse as such in his works, he is one of the earliest
writers to manifest it in his poetry. His poetry is characteristically informed
by irregular rhythms and imperfect rhymes, which point towards the modernist
movement that unraveled itself with the turn of the 20th century.
Some of Arnold’s iconic poems that bear out his rather peculiar poetical muse
include Dover Beach, The Scholar-Gypsy and Thyrsis. Sober,
wistful and tenacious, with Matthew Arnold the glorious era of Victorian poetry
could be said to draw to its close.
Modernist Era
(1901-1945)
Thomas Sterns Eliot: T. S. Eliot is perhaps the most
colossal poetic figure of the modernist movement. Not only is his poem The
Waste Land considered by one and all as the most iconic modernist work in
the domain of versification, but his poetry in general is looked upon as
epitomizing the most telling representation of modern humanity. To begin with,
as a striking parallel to the complexity of modern life, Eliot’s poetry
typified an intricate phenomenon. His poetry is not the kind which one can
simply pick up off the shelf and read to enjoy. It is imbued with complex
imageries, subtle metaphors and most of all, multiple allusions. In fact, the
allusions on account of the challenge they posed, compelled Eliot to come up
with notes for his poetry which provided readers with a much-needed reference
material for understanding his works. Beside complexity, another hallmark that
Eliot strove to assert in his poetry is that of objectivity. Eliot was a
self-proclaimed classicist who openly opposed the romantic conception of poetry
put forth by Wordsworth. His theory of poetry unlike that of the latter, does
not advocate an expression of the poet’s sentiments or personality, but an
escape from it. This of course must not be taken to suggest that he was against
the expression of feelings or emotions in poetry. It is only that he was not in
favour of expressing them directly or spontaneously as Wordsworth posited. His
idea was that emotions in poetry must be depicted objectively by appropriating
an image or object from the external world that is evocative of the emotion
that the poet is seeking to represent. This method that he called objective
correlative typifies a way in which emotions could be expressed impersonally.
The whole point of Eliot’s professed idea is to facilitate the reader into
partaking of the emotions portrayed in the poem first hand, and not just be
reduced to a passive recipient of the feelings contained in it. Eliot also
believed that poetry should be a product of hard labour, and not just a matter
of inspiration as the romantics conceived it to be. This idea is affirmed by
him in his notion of tradition. Tradition simply refers to obtaining a
selective knowledge of the poems and poets of the past, which requires one to
invest a vast amount of time in reading and reflection. Eliot’s point is that a
person must not take to writing poetry because one is suddenly moved by an
overwhelming impulse, but must do so only after properly acquiring a thorough
wisdom of the domain of poetry. It is necessary to clarify at this juncture
that though Eliot was a self-proclaimed classicist, his brand of classicism did
not enforce a preeminence of reason or intellect over feelings or emotions, as
was the case during the neoclassical era. In fact, Eliot argued that the two
sensibilities of feeling and reason in poetry must be organically fused
together in a balanced proportion to each other. This idea that makes his
preferred type of classicism distinct is generally dubbed unification of
sensibility. Finally, Eliot as a stylist dispensed with traditional metrical
forms that enforced regular rhythmic patterns and rhyme schemes. He pioneered
the vein of writing that became popular under the name of free verse, which
aimed at rendering the language of poetry close to prose or practical speech.
This intended effect is accentuated by the fact that Eliot in his poetry used
relatively simple diction as opposed to ornate words typical of conventional
poetry. Besides The Waste Land, some of the other works that Eliot is
often noted for are Preludes, Journey of the Magi, The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and The Hollow Men.
Gerrard Manley Hopkins: It is important to specify here
that technically Hopkins pertains to the Victorian era because he lived and
wrote his works during the 19th century. However, he is invariably
classified as a modernist poet because it was not until the early years of the
20th century that his unique brand of poetry came to be recognized,
and the kind of features he exhibited in his poetical works are more akin to
the idea of experimentation that modernism endorsed. There are three telling
aspects of Hopkins poetry that manifest the distinctiveness of his poetic art.
These may be summed up in the term’s inscape, instress, and sprung rhythm.
Inscape is a portmanteau word formed by the splicing together of two words
‘inner’ and ‘landscape’. It simply refers to the collection of intrinsic
qualities that makes any creation distinct from all others. Hopkins was of the
view that distinction between things is not in the way they are perceived by
the onlooker, but resides within the very thing itself. It is not perception
but essence that imparts an identity of distinction to all things. This essence
is made evident to the perceiver by what is called instress, which refers to
the energy that animates the inscape and makes it discernible. Inscape and
instress are thus effectively complementary ideas, the former denoting the
unique DNA of things so to say, and instress the soul that apparently enlivens
them. Hopkins’ basic point here is that entities are not capable of being
subjectively perceived by anyone. They could be done so only in terms of their
inscape which is made manifest by the instress that pulsates within them. The
modernist aspect of Hopkins poetry is perhaps more apparent in his stylistic
improvisation which he himself named sprung rhythm. In conventional rhythm, the
meter is generally measured by the number of syllables in a line, taking into
account both the stressed and unstressed ones. The upshot is that meter in such
poetry tends to be uniform and regular throughout. In sprung rhythm however metre
is measured only with regard to the number of stressed syllables in a line,
with no significance given to the number of unstressed syllables. A stressed
syllable for Yeats, could be accompanied by any number of unstressed syllables,
which ensured that the number of syllables varied from each line to the next.
The objective of Hopkins in creating sprung rhythm is to bring poetic metre as
close as possible to real speech, so as to blur the clear-cut distinction
between poetic and prosaic language. Thou art indeed just Lord, Felix
Randal, Carrion Comfort, God’s Grandeur, The Wreck of the
Deutschland, and The Windhover represent some notable poems by
Hopkins that set forth his rather strange yet moving poetic artistry.
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