Rosemarie Turner 12:2

Mr Livingstone

How romantic is Romantic Poetry?

The word “romantic” as a noun means a feeling of love between two people that is usually in a short lived relationship, as a verb it means to try and make someone love you and it can also be used as an adjective, for example a person may have found a place romantic as it made them feel very strong emotions.  “Romantic” poetry is about describing nature’s beauty and emphasizes human emotions.  These human emotions may be of love but they can also be of hate, jealousy or any other human emotion.  “Romantic” poetry is meant to provoke strong feelings in the reader, whether they are of love, hate etc.

“Composed upon Westminster Bridge” by William Wordsworth is a poem about London and how it made Wordsworth feel.  There is quite rich imagery as Wordsworth describes London and it is obvious that he felt very strongly about this city and enjoyed being there.  Wordsworth compared London to nature, “Earth had not anything to show more fair.”  He believed that nature could not create anything more spectacular than man had in this city.  As he has used nature and its beauty in this poem, it is Romantic, and it is also romantic as it the reader can feel what Wordsworth sees when he looks over London as he uses such detailed descriptions, “Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky.”  William Blake also wrote a poem called “London” about the city.  However, Blake did not think the city was as “majestic” as Wordsworth made London appear.  Blake saw “Marks of weakness, marks of woe.  In every cry of every man, In every Infant’s cry of fear, In every voice” when he walked through London.  This poem is Romantic as it brings strong feelings to the reader like Wordsworth’s poem did, but these are negative emotions.  Blake’s poem is not very romantic though as there are no feelings of joy or love for London in this poem as Wordsworth’s poem did.

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There are poems which may appear to be romantic but are not when the meaning has been found.  Lord Byron’s poem “So We’ll Go No More A-Roving” does appear to be romantic at first glance, “we’ll go no more a-roving By the light of the moon” appears to be sincere.  It sounds as though Lord Byron was being sincere and vowing to be faithful, yet the reason he is going to do this is because his body cannot cope, “For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe”.  This ...

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