The Dominance Of French Neoclassical Culture

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

At the start of the 18th century, Lyrical Ballads, with a few other poems [ii] was published with no author’s name. This collection of poetry was later recognised as the start of the romantic revolution. This was the work of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. One of Wordsworth’s most famous poems, Tintern Abbey, was published in the work, along with Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The second edition, published in 1800, had only Wordsworth listed as author, and included a preface to the poems, which was significantly augmented in the 1802 edition. This preface to Lyrical Ballads is considered a central work of romantic literary theory. In it, Wordsworth discusses what he sees as the elements of a new type of poetry, one based on the "real language of men" and which avoids the poetic diction of much eighteenth century poetry. Here, Wordsworth also gives his famous definition of poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquillity". In Jonathan Bate’s English Literature: A Very Short Introduction [iii] it is suggested that "Romanticism’s emphasis on the writer’s own feelings, as exemplified by William Wordsworth’s decision to create an epic poem not about British history or the war in heaven, but about the growth of his own mind, was in effect a privatizing of poetry" (p.96).

The idea of the sublime came about in the eighteenth century, and is known to be applied to both writing and also natural objects such as mountains, seas and waterfalls. It is known to have been contrasted with the concept of the beautiful, which was perceived as a rather gentle, serene, somewhat feminine quality appropriate to hills, lakes and images of the countryside. The sublime arouses terror and awe over the power of nature. However, it is worth noting that this terror is experienced from a safe distance, whereby the viewer is safe enough to contemplate it rather than flee. In Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgement it is suggested that objects such as thunder clouds, tall cliffs, hurricanes, waterfalls and volcanoes are considered to be rather overwhelming in regards to how we perceive them. In the wake of the sublime amongst philosophers and poets, romantic poets too made efforts to depict scenes of sublimity. William Turner is a good example of an artist who tried to portray just this. In his Hannibal Crossing the Alps it can be suggested that his use of blurry brushwork and sharp contrasts of light and dark enable him to present us with an image that has arguably mastered the concept of portraying a somewhat terrifying storm.

As it has been established that the romantic period focused on one’s expression and use of strong emotions, art and paintings are therefore key examples of what further defined romanticism. For an artist of the romantic period nature was considered to be wild and beautiful, and arguably beyond all forms of human control. The emotions contained within the paintings tend to be rather exaggerated in that they focused on feelings of despair, hope and fear. William Turner is a prime example of an artist within this period; he was known to focus on paintings of landscapes in particular. Much of his work portrayed images of fires and storms, and through these images he was arguably able to express certain forces of nature and equally, their importance in relation to mankind. Some examples of his paintings that depict nature include that of Snow Storm- Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842) and Angel Standing in the Sun (1846). Another example of one of Turner's most famous paintings is The Slave Ship. It is through this piece of work that he truly expresses his feelings and connections with nature.

Romanticism, amongst other movements, is arguably regarded as a high point in the concept of English literature itself. It is worth noting however that the label of the romantic period was attached after events, and not necessarily by the innovators themselves. Romanticism was all about the expression of intense, and often uplifting, emotions and as a result, due to this idea, it can be suggested that Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony marked the beginning of the romantic era within music. Often, but not always, it means having a deep, spiritual relationship with nature. "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her," wrote Wordsworth in Tintern Abbey. In his book Romanticism: A Short Introduction, Ferber claimed that " It is worth remembering, in view of the indelible label later generations have given them, that in Britain neither the exactly contemporaneous ‘Lake School’ (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Lamb) nor the next generation (Byron, Shelley, Keats, Hunt) nor anyone else called themselves Romantics at the time." (p.7) which in itself could be key to the romantic movement in that the prime poets or artists did not know that they were making such an impact from their work.