Paper Topic:

Romantic Poetry

Harmonizing the Opposites by the Romantic Poets

The Romantic poets discover a harmonizing unity in the midst of diversity and describe it with their power of vivid imagination br

.B .Shelley 's use of the oxymoron harmonious madness ' in The Skylark ' best exemplifies their search for unity in diversity . William Wordsworth was impressed with the opposing earthy and spiritual qualities of his wife , Mary Hutchinson and wrote She is a Phantom of Delight . John Keats ' Ode to a Nightingale ' expresses a struggle to reconcile the ephemeral beauty of human life : Where Beauty

cannot keep her lustrous eyes (l .29 ) What seems apparently paradoxical really turns out to be nothing but an intuitive perception of truth . Shelley 's search for harmony is too imaginative to strike us as real , though we relish its pure idealism . In Keats ' case it is again the superimposition of immortality on bird of flesh and blood that is subject to decay and death as humans are . But Keats means nightingale as a species whom No hungry generation can tread thee down (l .62 ) Wordsworth 's poem about the virtues of his wife a spirit , yet a woman too (l .12 ) sounds more realistic because it was written many years after his marriage . This seems to be the best compliment a wife can get from her husband

Shelley 's skylark combines all the conflicting qualities : it is a high-flying bird , yet it is also blithe spirit ' and unbodied joy (l .15 ) In the song of the skylark he finds a panacea to all human problems and sorrows . He tries to fathom the source of its eternal and unalloyed bliss . The human world is full of imperfections as he says Our sincerest laughter / With some pain is fraught (l .88-89 ) The idealist poet Shelley wishes to learn the secret from skylark Scorner of the ground (l .100 ) and intends to spread this inspiring message to the mankind which is full of Hate and pride and fear (l .92 ) The world will be saved from its sordidness and unhappiness by such harmonious madness (l .103 ) which Shelley wishes to preach . He calls this benevolent passion madness ' because of its intensity , but it is not insanity . It has the power of healing and harmonizing

The opposites in Keats ' ode are The weariness , fever , and the fret (l .23 ) of the real world and the imaginative world of nightingale pouring forth thy soul abroad / In such an ecstasy (l .57-58 ) The poet here makes a temporary effort to experience the bliss of nightingale 's world on the viewless wings of Poesy (l .33 , but he is still conscious of the limitations of the surrounding world where men sit and groan (l .24 ) But his imaginative journey is short-lived and the reverie is broken by harsh reminder of the actual world

Wordsworth , however , is nearest to perfection in his poem which records his impression of the woman he loved and married . His beloved wife who seemed a phantom of delight ' at first...

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