World Literature-Romanticism

br World Literature-Romanticism World Literature-Romanticism B . Nature and Human NatureExplain how these two seek to bring us in touch with our true human nature by experiencing our natural environment . Identify the patterns of and imagery that reveal each poet 's sense of nature , and explain what each poet shows us we gain from being close to nature and natural feelings . Does either poet sense anything negative or dangerous about nature and being natural ? For the English Romantic poets of the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries , Nature provided not only the them

, but the psychological and spiritual inspiration for many of their most profound and enduring works . Two key poets of the Romantic movement , William Blake and Samuel Taylor Coleridge provide a rich example of how Romantic poets perceived a duality in nature , one which consisted of the ideal and also of the "lost " or "fallen " ideal . Although William Blake was not , technically , a part of the Romantic movement and preceded the Romantic movement by a few years , his poetry exemplifies many of the attributes which are associated with English Romanticism , foremost among them , his visionary experience of nature and his attempt to articulate this vision through poetry which referred to nature in symbolic terms

Blake 's poems present a simplistic surface they are often short poems with readily identifiable subjects : flowers , animals , city-scapes or landscapes . The poems usually rely upon a "sing-song " rhythm and upon a repetition of imagery . A good illustration of this technique is Blake 's poem "The Ecchoing Green " which presents a seemingly ideal bucolic surface and shows very little overt tension "The Sun does arise / And make happy the skies /The merry bells ring

To welcome the Spring (Blake ) and within these opening lines there is only the faintest hint that ideal nature contains potential peril or negativity . The hint lies within the words "does " and "make " which imply that Divine force must be present in to create paradisal reality In other words , the inference by suggestion here is that without the sun , there would be no nature at all . This seemingly obvious and simple fact means little in logical or scientific terms , but when the poem is read symbolically , the connotations are clear

The poem 's closing lines clarify Blake 's symbolic intent even more fully , remembering that the sun in this poem stands as a symbol for Divine power

No more can be merry

The sun does descend

And our sports have an end

Round the laps of their mothers

Many sisters and brothers

Like birds in their nest

Are ready for rest

And sport no more seen

On the darkening Green (Blake

Without the presence of the sun , the "Green " becomes dark and foreboding . Though Blake 's poem presents a simple , child-like surface its symbolic connotations do , indeed , stipulate a duality in nature and that duality is dependent upon a Divine (sun ) power in to create an ideal

This aspect of symbolism in nature is pronounced even moreso in...