Famous Figures from the Romantic Age
Famous Figures from the Romantic Age
The Romantic Age was a time of great literary expansion and it provided writers a chance to truly speak from their soul to all readers. During the Romantic Age, there were many writers, but few who deserve recognition. Of these writers, there were Keats and Wordsworth. Both alike, yet different in many ways. This is shown in Wordsworth's " It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free," and the poems of John Keats.
William Wordsworth found that the best way to express his feelings through sonnet is through a structure containing only one stanza. Wordsworth compiled everything together as if just spontaneous thoughts written on a page. In the beginning of "It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free," Wordsworth speaks of the night as everlasting "A sound like thunder, everlasting" (Line 8.) He then transitions to speaking to a girl, assumed as his lover. "...Dear Girl! That walkest with me here..." (Line 9). Also, Wordsworth uses description words to create a visual image of what he is describing. An example of this is "The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea" (Line 5). Wordsworth looked at the beauty of nature and its permanence, described it with great detail, and with that created poems that became icons in the Romantic Age.
John Keats, however, felt that several stanzas were necessary to completely get his feelings onto paper. In "Ode to a Grecian Urn," Keats wrote five stanzas, each separated by their subject matter, as if telling a story. He looked at nature as if it were a work of art. He also felt that what was left unsaid was even more powerful than what was actually spoken. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter..." (Line 12). Although Keats did not think of nature as beauty and permanence like Wordsworth, he still created the poem format that gained much respect in the Romantic Age.
There were many differences in the poems of Keats and Wordsworth, however, there were many similarities. Personification was used through many poems, especially the poems of Keats and Wordswoth. "And watching with eternal lids apart" (Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art, line 3). But along with personification, one aspect of the poems that stand out is the comparison of inanimate objects to women or a woman's features. In "Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art," it...