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Romanticism and the Imagination. By Lydia Palos. Context. Romanticism emerged within the years from 1789 to 1832
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Romanticism and the Imagination By Lydia Palos
Context • Romanticism emerged within the years from 1789 to 1832 • Shift in values from neoclassicism (reason, rationality, empiricism) towards a expression and poetry that resulted from the sense of the sublime, the supernatural and the transcendental • For the Romantic the concept of a given order was meaningless. In itself the world had no order to discover. Order was something imposed on the world.’ – Lecturer Ian Johnston • Towards the end of the 18th century, emotion overtook reason, as it was seen to be a more pure response to nature. • The Romantics believed that emotions opened up the inner as well as the outer world, and helped to understand the relationships between man, nature, and the imagination.
The Power of the Imagination • For the Romantics, imagination became the medium for creative insight, inspiration and individuality. • The Romantics had great confidence in the ability of the human imagination to create connections between the inner mind and the outer world of nature. • It was seen that, with the use of imagination, a mortal human mind or soul could connect with the mysterious and the divine.
Quotes • ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’- William Wordsworth • ‘…seizing upon the sense and imagination, captivate the soul before the understanding is ready to either join with them or to oppose them.’- Edmund Burke • ‘…the imagination is the true fire, stolen from heaven, to animate this cold creature of clay, producing all those fine sympathies that lead to rapture, rendering men social by expanding their hearts…’ – Mary Wollstonecraft • ‘The imagination is the distinguishing characteristic of a man as a progressive being…regarding themselves in the future, and contemplating the possible moral and intellectual advance towards perfection…thus we are for the most part able to realise what we will, and thus we accomplish the end of our being. The contemplation of futurity inspires humanity of soul in our judgement of the present.’ – Samuel T. Coleridge
‘Three years she grew in sun and shower • The persona is grieving his lover, Lucy’s death and remembers her time on the earth. • Uses personification of Nature to make it seem that Lucy’s death was worthwhile and less tragic: ‘A lovelier flower on earth was never sown; This child I myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make A lady of my own’ • This poem depicts the narrator’s acceptance of Lucy’s death and the realisation that she will live on in his memories and in the landscape around him
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Mary Wollstonecraft expresses her views and beliefs that women should be educated and have the same fundamental rights as men • Believes that rational education was a means for an individual to rise to their full potential and become equal to men
Inform, Illuminate and Transform • Inform: to make a comment on, to describe • Illuminate: To shine light on, reveal facts • Transform: To alter/change human experience, could result from a change in perspectives, etc.
Imagination within the texts This lime tree bower my prison • Uses imagination to enable the persona to escape from his prison in reality and realises that he embarked on an imaginative journey Frost at Midnight • Persona uses the imagination to remember his childhood. He also uses it to picture how he would like his son to grow up with nature.
Imagination within the texts A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Imagination is used as an agent of moral improvement. It is what encouraged her to pursue her beliefs and be optimistic about the future. Three years she grew in sun and shower • Persona uses the imagination to grieve for his loved one, Lucy, by making her death seem worthwhile. He uses imagination to take solace in the fact that Lucy is now part of the environment and will live forever, in perfect harmony, with nature.
Challenge/Reflect the Romantic Period • Coleridge’s poems and ‘Three years she grew in sun and shower’ reflect the values of the Romantic period • Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,’ however, challenge the views that were present within this era.
