Allegory In English Romantic Poetry

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Allegory In English Romantic Poetry
Wonder is a special attribute that is innate in a human being, it leads him to discover something
or create something beautiful. Wonder is intense or gradual in terms of feeling. It is a feeling
which is extra-ordinary, or brings ordinary to extra-ordinary. The question of why, what, whence
is unclear, a vague conception that intrigues the man to explore the universe. When one
wonders, his/her emotions try to invoke a meaning, this stimulates the “cognitive sense of
possibility”. But this possibility is vague and when emotions are added, it has romantic sense to
it (Parsons 88-89).
Through wonder comes Imagination which is a vague concept as well as it deals with human
knowledge and understanding. David Hume and Aristotle believed that imagination was one’s
perception and reasoning of a certain imagery. It had a mimetic role in philosophy as well as in
poetry. Kant regarded imagination as “schematization” that is “hidden art in the depths of
human soul” (Rastovic 11). These philosophers regarded imagination as mediation role.
Furthermore, they regarded metaphor and myth as cognitive act of objective reality and that the
subject’s ability to recreate that reality. This became the basis for romantic poets like William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats and Percy B. Shelley. Coleridge and Shelley
were more interested in extraordinary power of imagination while Wordsworth, Keats and
Shelley as well, were interested in the phenomena of metaphor and myth which was important
for the imagination (Karadas 9).
In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, Romantic English poets highlighted
the role of imagination in creativity through their works. The reason why imagination became
central was due to the emphasis on individuality that was the main debate due to the effects of
French Revolution in English society as well as in England’s politics.
Romanticism was the marking of man shifting from collectivity to individuality. Urbanization in
England caused the people to have identity crisis which made them self-conscious about their
own existence in the world. Previously, the art was written for the elite class, with no care about
the working class. Romanticism emphasized that common man should be the center, because a
common man was close to the realities of life. The urbanization distanced man from himself, but
a common country man was close to himself and nature. Furthermore, the common man had
this attribute of wonder and imagination that was absent in an urban man because he was too
busy with the world.
Romanticism was the reaction against the Age of Enlightenment from the French Revolution, in
fact, the word “romantic” is derived from a French word romaunt which means a romantic story
told in a verse (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2019). Romantic in a sense that
appreciating the beauty of nature, trusting emotions than intellect and conquest to find one’s
self through wonder. This was a movement that challenged the idealized traditions of
neoclassical poetry as well as the rationalism which was prominent in the 18th century. The real
movement began at the end of the 18th century that originated when the two great poetic
minds, namely William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, came together.
Wordsworth’s poetry became influenced due to this interaction, his poetic style changed from
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long poems to short and dramatic poems which became very popular among the readers.
These poems were written in a form that broke the traditional writings of neoclassicism and
became the characteristic of romantic poetry as well. He wrote a collection of short poems
Lyrical Ballads with the collaboration of Coleridge that highlighted the characteristics of romantic
poetry. Most of the poems in this collection were experimental as they were mostly
conversational and more focused on the middle and lower class of the society which is called
“diction”.
Lucy Gray, an excerpt from the book, is conversational and simple poem that depicts the death
of a little girl. Wordsworth style of writing poetry was mostly narrated from the life of a child, a
simple and colloquial language. Lucy was a girl who got lost after snowstorm. Her mother and
father searched for her everywhere, at daybreak her mother say Lucy’s footsteps on the snow
that end near her house. She is a lost child with no trace, she gets immersed in the nature,
never to be found. Lucy represent “light” which is the world of imagination. According to
Bercovitch, Wordsworth grieves over Lucy is a symbolized presentation of him grieving over
losing his creative powers. Lucy is a hope of light that together with nature can bring back the
beauty of wonder in him (11).
For Wordsworth, Childhood was the main topic around which his poems would center. Because
he believed that a child creates his own world of imagination as it has the attribute of wonder in
him. When he/she sees something which is not known to them, or something that feels magical
to them, they wonder about it. Wonder then leads to them creating an imaginative world which is
full of all good things that the world has. Childhood fascinated Wordsworth, in his book The
Prelude at the beginning, he is nostalgic about his own childhood experience which was full of
wonder. He used to wander around and wonder about the world, and that’s how he developed
his perception about the world. For him childhood was the true source of inspiration that would
bring back the light of imagination in him. He explores into his own childhood memory which
was accompanied by Nature.
His imaginative world opens up when he remembers his childhood. He at first wanders around
the nature, he feels that as an adult he cannot seem to connect with the imagination. He is
empty and he knows that his life has become different as an adult. He says:
To none more grateful than to me; escaped
From the vast city, where I long had pined
A discontented sojourner, now free,
He remembers the beauty and joys of life that was “drinking in pure.” A child is free from the
shackles of societal values and expectations, Wordsworth has escaped from the city life to
reminisce about his childhood. He remembers how he had playful conversations with nature that
were pure enjoyment for him. He, as a child, wondered about life and his world of imagination
was full of joys. The beauty of nature makes him excited that he can unburden from his “own
unnatural self” He can wonder about his life and fill his mind with imagination. As he says in
Book II that childhood is the “Great birthright of our being” because the perception of a child
about everything in this world is pure and magical. The reason why imagination and wonder is
emphasized in his poetry is because he wants to find himself through it. Similarly, in Ode:
Imitation of Immortality is a nostalgia of his past when “The things which I have seen I now can
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see no more” He admits of being self-conscious of losing the ability to imagine and throughout
the poem tries to revive that relationship with nature, to give him a peace of mind. According to
Bercovitch, these three poems showed the development of Wordsworth towards imagination, he
first expresses his concern in Lucy Gray, then he searches for the light in the Ode: Imitation of
Immortality and finally, he reaches the conclusion in The Prelude (12). Thus, Wordsworth’s
poetry depicted the spiritual development of a man which lacked in the mechanical society
during French Revolution.
Coleridge’s perception of romantic poetry was quite influenced by Wordsworth’s point of view.
In his book called Biographia Literaria, he reviewed about The Prelude through which he built
his own idea about imagination. For him, imagination is “a growth of a critic’s mind” (Wallace
216). His progress in writing romantic poetry was reflected in his book, in fact, all his
philosophies about life were presented in the form of biographies of other well-known literary
people; he himself considered this book as personal. He wrote poems that were mostly related
to supernatural or mystery. He emphasized that mind had more power than nature, thus,
imagination came from within, therefore, union of emotion and thought are important aspects of
imagination (Taylor 76).
There were three supernatural poems that he wrote that are considered to be “imaginative trio”,
namely Christabel, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan that highlighted the
transitional change from pre-supernatural to supernatural (Bloom et. al 185). The final poem that
he wrote based on this genre was The Ballad of the Dark Ladie which is an inspired poem that
reflects Coleridge’s world of imaginative speech by showing the dark lady who is taken from
Shakespeare’s sonnets. In fact, the dark lady shows the concept of oriental imagination which
he became interested in after writing other poems (Sadiq 7).
Coleridge’s approach to writing a ballad was different from Wordsworth, in fact the
characteristics were distinct as well. His philosophy of writing poetry was “art for art’s sake”.
Wordsworth mostly wrote in the perception of himself, which Coleridge didn’t agree to it. He
treated ballad as “an assortment of poetic devices” (Stork 314). Dark Ladie is a poem about a
maid who was seduced and left alone by the Knight. Now, she waits for him and expresses her
desire to be the bride of the Knight. This poem determines the transitional change that took
place in poet’s style of ballad writing. Through this poem, critics believe, his interest and
understanding of imagination was shifted towards Orient from the supernatural (Sadiq 12). His
interest in poetic form changed with time, as he grew up he wrote more sophisticated poems
that were based on his personal experience.
Dejection: An Ode was remarkable piece that hinted the tragedy of his life. For him, loss of
dream meant loss of imagination because his poetry was mostly written through daydream in
which his conscious and unconscious mind power merged together. This ode was “the death of
imagination” and showed his “personal demoralization” as a poet. Imagination was an
important part of his poetry, losing it, meant losing his ability to write poetry (Bloom et. al 188)
He begins the poem by quoting Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence
Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon,
With the old Moon in her arms;
And I fear, I fear, my Master dear!
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We shall have a deadly storm.
This poem is about how the narrator is in a desperate search of inspiration despite being
surrounded by nature. He begins the poem by appreciating the beauty of nature, he is accosted
towards a Lady and complains that he can see the nature but cannot feel it. He expresses his
concerns by saying that no “outward forms” can invoke inspirations except his own emotions.
There was a time when “fancy made me dreams of happiness” but now he has lost all the joy.
Even the wind is “worse than wintry song”, that nature has no power over his imagination.
Throughout the poem, there is a sense of dejection that shows that his mind is disconnected
with the world, and so his imagination has nothing to do with. In a way, he believes that he has
dominance over nature through language, therefore, for him “imaginative speech” is the
supernatural (Taylor 78).
The work of Wordsworth and Coleridge marked the beginning of the Romanticism in poetic
form. Dejection: An Ode was written in the contrast of Ode: Intimations of Immortality in terms of
language, tone and imagery. As both had different perspective in terms of imagination it
affected their style of writing. Coleridge emphasized that poetry should be written with fancy
words because the mind of the uneducated man isn’t developed enough to understand poetry
while Wordsworth wrote for the common man to understand through nature. Wordsworth grew
up with nature and Coleridge imagined it (Cathy). Despite difference of opinions on wonder and
imagination, their poetry brought out important characteristics of Romantic poetry. The romantic
poems were simple yet subjective, melancholic but imaginative, and emphasized more on
individuality and personal emotions; which means they had no formal rules. Therefore, the form
of poetry differed for every romantic poet. But most importantly, Nature was seen as the
celebration of individuality that highlighted the revolutionary way of appreciating art, through
individuality the man could wonder and create a new world of imagination.
Keats’ idea of imagination was influenced by Wordsworth’s poetry. Like Wordsworth, he
believed that imagination is the result of natural phenomenon. For him creativity was “that
which is creative must create itself.” His most famous theory of “Negative Capability” which
emphasized that man should be free of all constraints of logic and science in order to achieve
imagination and creativity. In his poem, I Stood Tip-Toe upon a Hill, he sees nature as a
beautiful goddess, just as Wordsworth did in his poetry. He sets the guidelines in this poem of
how nature can be brought to life if they are seen in terms of mythology and imagination. He
says:
“For what has made the sage or poet write
But the fair paradise of Nature’s light
In the calm grandeur of a sober line,
We see the waving of the mountain’s pine;
And when a tale is beautifully staid,
We feel the safety of a hawthorn glade:”
Through this poem he conveyed the message that understanding and seeing mythology can
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only be acquired if there is a poetic imagination. His poetry did mentioned few Greek and
Roman myths because he considered them imaginative.
He had “lingering imagination” that could be seen in every line, rich with beauty and aesthetics
which makes one wonder and be lost in his imaginative world (Mulcahy 239). Ode to Autumn is
the best example, and it can be considered similar to Wordsworth’s Ode to Imitation but has
more imagery. His imaginative world is mostly nature brought to life. In his ode, he explains
Autumn with the surroundings “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness/ Close bosom-friend of
the maturing sun,” “winnowing wind” “barred clouds bloom the soft dying day,/and touch the
stubble-plains with rosy hue.” Commonly, autumn is seen as something sad and melancholic,
but this poem describes the beauty and aesthetic of autumn because “thou hast music too”
This ode is more about observing nature and appreciating its beauty of everyday life. Just as he
loved writing about myths, this ode is a connection of mythological world with the everyday
world, he uses the words like “Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft lifted by the
winnowing wind…” Furthermore, there is a sense of calmness and acceptance of life in the
following lines:
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours,
There are no complicated ideologies in this Ode, in fact, it is a slow poem that relaxes the mind
of the reader. Negative capability, when the poet loses sense over his own personal identity,
was achieved through this poem, in fact, he wrote this poem when he was going through his
worst times in life (Lovell 214).
There was a time in life when he fell into depression because he couldn’t understand love and
loss, his brother Tom died due to Tuberculosis and his relationship with his fiancée Fanny
Brawne was complicated. During this time he wrote La Belle Dame Sans Merci, a ballad which
was inspired from the Lyrical Ballads. This folk ballad which is surrealistic in form is about
romance between a lady and a knight. It begins abruptly with expression of loss and
bereavement “the sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds to sing,” the knight is
confused about how he ended up alone beside the lake. He then remembers “I met a lady in
the meads” whom he fell in love with “I set her on my pacing steed” and she “took me to her
Elfin grot” but he saw a frightening dream which contained “pale kings and princes too” who
cried “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” finally he wakes up alone in a “cold hill’s side”. He repeats
the first five lines again to show how he was deceived by the lady. This was an imaginative
poem which emphasized that temptation could bring anyone to despair like the “knight in
arms.” Unlike his odes, this poem focused more on the escape into the world of imagination
which brought despair to the reality. The lady is a supernatural being who bewitches him
towards herself, the knight is lonely, and so he follows her. This hints that too much imagination
can lead someone to despair, this is the moral that Keats tried to convey through this poem.
Keats was at the peak of being the greatest poet in England, he had this agitation and fear in
himself which reflected in this poem. His obsession with the loitering imagination worked up his
mind to create a magic in his lines of poetry which brought him to fame, but when he fell ill, it
consumed him with sadness, thus, the knight can be considered an allegory of himself.
During his hard times, Percy B. Shelley was the one who encouraged him and appreciated his
poems. He could be considered an admirer of Keats because most of his was inspired by
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Keats’ works. Percy B. Shelley was one of those romantic poets who had certain philosophies
of understanding poetry and poets. In his article “Defense of Poetry” he emphasized that
imagination and reason were important for a person to appreciate beauty. He considered poets
as prophets because they described the beauty from their observations and experiences
through poetry. Language is an important element for maintaining unity and harmony among the
civilization. He said “Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is 
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