British Lit Essay

Higher Thought:

Divinity in Romantic Poetry

The Romantic period enforced great changes in English poetry: incorporation of layman vocabulary and linguistic structure, abandonment of past poetic ideologies and practices, and the utilization of new poetic themes and subjects past considered unimportant or insignificant. These changes of traditional poetic principles stemmed heavily, and were greatly inspired, from the American and, perhaps more notably, French Revolutions. The Norton Anthology of English Literature writes, “The [French] Revolution generated a pervasive feeling that this was an age of new beginnings when, by discarding traditional procedures and outworn customs, everything was possible, and not only in the political and social realm but in intellectual and literary enterprises as well” (1318). Poets, noticeably William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, felt their age, which scholars ascribe as falling between, roughly, the years1785-1830, were more open towards a new “renascence” of poetic breadth and evolvement casing a more profound exploration of the poet himself. With the political revolutions taking place in the world a new sense of creative revolution followed suit, allowing poetic freedom to emerge and to showcase each individual poet’s emotional, mental, and, as this paper will explore to more detail, spiritual aspects. One of the more notable characteristics of the age was the prominent description of a “higher spiritual power” residing within the minds of man and its significance towards happiness and creativity. As it will be explored further, that “higher power” does not necessarily facilitate the admittance to God, but is also reserved in the sense of a higher state of being, and, or, consciousness.

The poet perhaps best known and affiliated with the Romantic period was William Wordsworth. Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads contained a preface, revised and extended with each succeeding edition, totaling three, explaining the many characteristics of the anthology’s works, with those characteristics influencing other poets of that generation as well as poets of future generations. The third preface to Lyrical Ballads, quoted from the Norton Anthology’s reprinting, explains Wordsworth’s own revolutionary thinking and justification towards what a poem, and poet, should be and aim to accomplish:

The principal object, then, which I proposed to myself in these poems [ within Lyrical Ballads] was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used by men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them…the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. (1438)

Each of these points of Wordsworth’s poetic practice was radically indifferent to past ideology of poetry, formed, essentially, by the neo-classicists within England, especially the “excitement” taking place in the poet’s mind. Wordsworth writes, “For the human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this, and who does not further know, that one being is elevated above another, in proportion as he possesses this capability” (1440). Two points can be taken from this quotation: the first is that Wordsworth’s thinking that one’s mind possesses an underlying sense of strength and creativity and, thusly, admits that man’s mind retains a higher power. In the prior Eighteenth-century, people, including writers, felt that humanity had a precise and limited range of thought and capability. With the rise of the Romantic period, however, these notions were challenged and rebelled against. The notion that man possesses and retains an intangible and “divine” power would have been refuted by many prior to the Romantics. The Norton Anthology goes on to describe:

Through the greater part of the eighteenth century, humans had for the most part been viewed as limited beings in a strictly ordered and essentially unchanging world. A variety of philosophical and religious systems in that century coincided in a distrust of radical innovation, a respect for the precedents established through the ages by the common sense of humanity, and the recommendation to set accessible goals and to avoid extremes, whether in politics, intellect, morality, or art. (1325)

By Wordsworth’s own belief that poets are “to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them…” this new exploration of artistic thinking would unequivocally arise within specific poetic works. Wordsworth’s sonnet “It is a beauteous evening” perhaps best illustrates his own thinking.

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the Sea:
Listen! The mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.
Dear Child! Dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;
And worshipp’st at the Temple’s inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not. (1490)

Several references within this poem inspire thought towards Wordsworth’s notion that a higher power does exist within the mind of man. “Listen! The mighty Being is awake, / And doth with his eternal motion make / A sound like thunder…” (Lines 6-8). Wordsworth states that “The mighty Being is awake” clearly suggesting a divine power, and that it makes an “internal motion,” implying that the “Being,” note it’s capitalization implying importance and significance with the verse, lies within. The ending lines of the poem conclude with “Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year; / And worshipp’st at the Temple’s inner shrine, / God being with thee when we know it not” (12-5). Here Wordsworth states that the girl with him is constantly around “divinity” throughout the year, implying a never severing relationship, and that she worships “at the Temple’s inner shrine,” again reiterating an internal power. Wordsworth goes further by addressing this power as “God,” who is “…with thee when we know it not.” The idea of “God” possessing divine power is nothing unique to the Romantic period, but, what is unique is referring to an almighty internal power as “God.” William A. Ulmer, professor of English at the University of Alabama, writes:

Wordsworth transfer the heavenly redemption celebrated in Luke—“and it came to pass that the begger died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22)—to a child in her natural innocence, finding in that innocence, however, not merely a sign of God but a reconfirmation of Christian spiritual deliverance. While “It is a beauteous Evening” ignores Church doctrine, it establishes a resonantly Christian religious perspective for the scene it describes. (94-5)

In the sonnet Wordsworth clearly emphasizes that one possesses and retains a “God”-like power, even if it clashes with societal norms of religion and its practice.

The belief that a higher “internal” power is not solely applicable to William Wordsworth’s own personal belief. A fellow Romantic poet, and friend who aided in the writing of Lyrical Ballads, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, also held this belief. His poem “The Eolian Harp” also provides evidence to this new expressive thinking. An eolian harp, named after the god of the winds, Aeolus, contains strings that, when placed to allow exposure to wind fluctuations, vary with played musical notes. This harp was very common in homes during the Romantic period. “The Eolian Harp” was composed a year after Coleridge married Sara Fricker and was commentary on Coleridge’s love of her and the various emotions that were spawned within that love. The first stanzas of the poem utilize the presence of the harp inside the cottage of the two newlyweds. Coleridge uses the harp as a metaphor for the peace and tranquility given to him by the love he possesses for his wife, Sarah. Coleridge later goes on to ponder that perhaps every man possesses their own “eolian harp”, pleasantly and peacefully struck by the winds within one’s own mind. “And what if all of animated nature / Be but organic harps diversely framed, / That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps / Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, / At once the Soul of each, and God of All?” (Lines 44-8). In these lines one can see that Coleridge, much the same as Wordsworth, feels that “God” is a divine power amongst nature as well as inside one’s mind. This pantheistic belief is met with criticism within the lines of the poem. Coleridge’s own wife rebukes his comment. “Well hast thou said and holily dispraised / These shapings of the unregenerate mind…” (54-5). Here Coleridge cites that Sarah feels his spiritual belief is unfounded and incorrect. In a book analyzing Coleridge’s use of biblical imagery and natural symbolism, author H. W. Piper comments, “What Sarah here particularly points out is that he [Coleridge] has forgotten that God is incomprehensible, and that the proper response to him is simply awe and deep feeling…Certainly he let the speculations stand as, apparently, the main purpose of the poem” (34). This reiterates that the line-of-thinking regarding the belief that a great power, “God” in this case and the former, lying within the mind was not commonly accepted in Romantic society.

In another example presenting the ideology of divine power within man’s mind comes from Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley was in line for a baronetcy and, subsequently, was sent to Oxford for schooling. While attending Oxford Shelley and a close friend published a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism and mailed it to bishops and heads of the Oxford colleges, which resulted in his expulsion from school.

After his expulsion Shelley published “Queen Mab”, a poem about a fairy, Mab, and her journey through a horrific past and present and culmination in a rejoice-filled future. The character Mab refutes institutional religion and maxims of morality, feeling they are the cause of evil within society. In keeping with Shelley’s Oxford expelling pamphlet, one can very easily presume that Mab’s beliefs parallel, even to a slight degree, Shelley’s own. Ergo, as an atheist, one could also presume that Shelley would not harbor beliefs that a divine power would be prevalent outside or within the minds of man. However, Shelley’s poems did not exempt the reference towards such a power.

In his poem “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” Shelley devotes the entire work towards the admittance and explanation of a higher power. The first stanza begins “The awful shadow of some unseen Power / Floats though unseen amongst us…” (1.1-2). Here Shelley does, in fact, admit that there is “some unseen Power,” note, again, the significance of capitalization. Stanza two decries “Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate / With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon / Of human thought or form,--where art thou gone? / Why dost thou pass away and leave our state, / This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate?” (2.3-6). Here Shelley ponders why this “Spirit of BEAUTY” is not constant, and can be unattached, leaving man to sadness and despair. Shelley continues the poem by commenting on society’s creation of “God.” “No voice from some sublimer world hath ever / To sage or poet these responses given-- / Therefore the name of God and ghosts of Heaven, / Remain the records of their vain endeavor” (3.25-9). Shelley explains that this “Spirit of BEAUTY” has been given the name of “God” and the existence of “Heaven.” “Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart / And come, for some uncertain moments lent. / Man were immortal, and omnipotent… / Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart” (4.37-41). Here Shelley states that love, hope, and self-esteem do indeed cease to be and if man could retain those divine characteristics this “spirit” would be indefinitely present. Within the poem Shelley goes on to recount his religious upbringing associated with his youth and his search for the metaphysical. “While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped / Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin … / Hopes of high talk with the departed dead… / I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed; / I was not heard—I saw them not…” (5.49-54). In a book analyzing metaphysics within Romantic poetry the author, Jack G. Voller, writes:

This passage has an autobiographical aspect; Percy Shelley dabbled in necromancy as a youth, but the passage refers equally well to his early literary explorations of the supernatural. Just as he raised no ghosts with his youthful incantations, the Gothic fictions supplied no answers, provided no high talk with the departed dead. The “answer,” if such it is, lies ultimately not in the realm of the supernatural but the natural: (176)

“When musing deeply on the lot / Of life, at that sweet time when winds are wooing / All vital things that wake to bring / News of buds and blossoming, -- / Sudden, thy shadow fell on me; / I shrieked, and clasped my hand in extacy!” (5.55-60). Shelley goes on to cite “I vowed that I would dedicate my powers / To thee and thine…” (6.61-2). “Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy spells did bind / To fear himself, and love all human kind” (7.83-4). Here again Shelley remarks of the “Spirit.” Although his explanation of this higher power differs from that of Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s label of “God,” it does parallel their belief that a higher power is indeed present.

Correlating with the vast changes of society, i.e. the American and French revolutions, the poetry of the Romantic period carried out a revolution of its own shelling the ideas and traditions that came before it. With the vast expansion and movement of “acceptable” norms, the poetry, and poets, of the period became preoccupied with the “liberation” of man and his powers. The Norton Anthology underscores, “The Romantic period…was also an age of radical individualism in which both the philosophers and poets put an extraordinarily high estimate on human potentialities and powers” (1325). Fitting with the new individualistic “freedoms” pursued by the generation, fresh and enlightened thoughts of a “higher power,” and its place within man, was pursued more extensively. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge did not abolish the existence, or name, of “God,” but went against the established pietistic notions of that “God” by suggesting divine powers lie inside, not away from, the minds of man. However, this view was not uniformly shared within the age. Percy Bysshe Shelley was noted for expressing atheistic views, yet he to admitted to searching for, and feeling, a higher power above the state of normal consciousness. With past traditions being broken and ignored in the Romantic age one clearly sees that a protrusion of that traditionalistic rebellion is the thinking of what man’s mind truly possesses and is capable of.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H., Stephen Greenblatt, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume B. 7th Ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Piper, H. W. The Singing of Mount Abora: Coleridge’s Use of Biblical Imagery and Natural Symbolism in Poetry and Philosophy. New Jersey: Associated University Presses, 1987.

Ulmer, William A. The Christian Wordsworth: 1798-1805. New York: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Voller, Jack G. The Supernatural Sublime: The Metaphysics of Terror in Anglo-American Romanticism. Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 1994.