Reflection and Solitude

                                                            Reflection and Solitude

            Through out the course of this semester we have taken the time to focus on several different writers from the Romantic period. A lot of the works that we have studied focus on the idea of reflection through solitude. A few specific works that focus on this would by: “The Badger” by John Clare, “The Thorn” by William Wordsworth, “Glow Worm” by Charlotte Smith, and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats. I feel that these works symbolize reflection through solitude.

Starting with “The Thorn” by Wordsworth, a woman has spent her life in solitude away from society, just as a thorn would. The comparisons between the two reveal characteristics of solitude. A thorn is not admired like a flower is, and a thorn is “so old and grey” (Wordsworth) and Wordsworth describes the thorn as wretched. The thorn is stuck in an unfortunate state and lives a life of solitude. Calliope from The Romantic Collecting BlogSpot was not sure if the thorn was alluding to something larger than itself of not, but I see that it is, (http://romanticcollecting.blogspot.com/search/label/Reflection%20and%20Solitude).  The thorn reflects solitude from society because it stands outside the town and stands alone. Wordsworth carefully crafted Martha Ray to symbolize the thorn because they both have similar characteristics. Martha Ray also stands alone outside of society, and she seems to reflect her state of solitude. Wordsworth chooses the word “wretched” (Wordsworth) to describe her, just like he did the thorn. Both of these characters reflect solitude in the way that they are both described in an unfortunate or sad state. According to Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, which is William’s sister,

“The Thorn” arose out of my observing, on the ridge of Quantock Hill, on a stormy day, a thorn, which I had often passed in calm and bright weather without noticing it. I said to myself, ‘Cannot I by some invention do as much to make this Thorn permanently an impressive object as the storm has made it to my eyes are this moment?” (Parrish).

Wordsworth felt that something as insignificant as a thorn was to him on a pretty day deserved  attention. The thorn only caught his eye in the midst of a storm, but he thought that it was worth dedicating a work to because it caught his eye. The thorn sat in solitude, but in the midst of a storm it deserved attention. Thomas Ashton refers to the statement made by Harold Littledale that suggests, “a psychology study of a self revealed character, we do not think of the speaker but of the story”(Ashton). While reading “The Thorn” we lose sight of Wordsworth and concentrate on the story of the thorn and of Martha Ray. Wordsworth creates a focus around their bond through solitude and that becomes the main focus of the poem.

            
                 Charlotte Smith describes solitude in “The glow-worm” by attracting the bright attention of a child and then killing what the child was so interested in. It’s as if she is saying you are better off alone, my dear. The child finds joy in a little glow-worm only to wake up and find it turned to dust, “Yet with the morning shudders to behold his lucid treasure, ray less as the dust! – So turn the world’s bright joys to cold and blank disgust” (Smith). Smith delights in solitude as we have seen in many of her sonnets, and during the class discussion many people were upset about her decision to kill the worm. A few compared it to a child catching a firefly, only to wake up to its death. Smith took a happy, and could be nostalgic, memory and ended it with death. She is reinforcing the idea that life will let you down and that mostly it is best spent alone. Smith’s message is that there really is not any joy in the world and that life is better spend in solitude.

            In John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” he describes moments that are frozen in time. He uses pictures on an Urn to think about life’s moments and how they are looked at when frozen in time. Keats is saying that perhaps, life is better spent frozen. There is no time to get sad or feel lost if time is frozen, “Though winning near the goal – yet, do not grieve; she cannot fade, though thou has not they bliss, forever wilt thou love, and she be fair” (Keats). Keats reflects these moments in solitude, and the reader almost gather’s a nostalgia feel from it. Keats feels that “When old age shall this generation waste” (Keats). Time is better frozen because as you age, you lose your desire to live. According to www.englishhistory.net there is a lot of speculation on which Keats intended audience is, “Scholars have been unable to agree to whom the last thirteen lines are addressed,” (englishhistory.net). I think this is because it does not necessarily matter. Keats felt that he was getting his message across and that whoever enjoyed it, enjoyed it. Knikki’s take on the Urn was that “Keats seems to really envy the beauty in the moment that will never change…the urn may be old but it will always stay the same” (http://romanticcollecting.blogspot.com/search/label/Reflection%20and%20Solitude). I agree that Keats is enjoying the freeze frame idea that the urn creates, and that life is better spent that way. The urn is in solitude taking in the characters it displays, and enjoying being stuck in the moment. Paige Lollie mentioned on the blog how it was mentioned in class that “Byron was disgusted about the marbles being taken away from their rightful place”, (http://romanticcollecting.blogspot.com/search/label/Reflection%20and%20Solitude) and she wonders if Keats was experiencing the same emotion. I think that Keats was experiencing this emotion, and that he felt jealousy towards the characters that were pictured on the urn.

            
                   In John Clare’s “The Badger,” the reader follows the day of a badger and while the reader is engaging in nature, there is a larger message at play. Clare is exercising the idea that that society is pulling the poor badger in several different directions and at the end of the day, society kills it. Society is afraid of the badger so the badger lives in solitude, constantly running away from the dangers that society holds. I think that it is important to reflect on the fact that Clare grew up in a peasant family and that he spent a lot of time in nature (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-clare) because he became emotionally connected with these animal in the midst of his solitude and that created an ill feeling towards society’s interruption of solitude. Clare’s reflection of the badger shows the peacefulness of solitude. If the badger did not have to endure the effects of society, it could have lived a peaceful life. Knikki from the blog says that she “felt like the badger was the most emotional in her opinion because she felt terrible about the way the badger was killed,”  (http://romanticcollecting.blogspot.com/search/label/Reflection%20and%20Solitude).  I think that this is a perfect example of what Clare was aiming for. He was wanting an emotional pull from the reader to create a feeling of uneasiness toward society, and to push the idea that life would be better if spent in solitude.  

            
         Wordsworth, Smith, Keats and Clare discuss the idea of reflection in solitude in different ways but the same message can be taken from them. Solitude is a part of life and sometimes it can ruin life, sometimes it betters life, and sometimes it is necessary. This class has been spread through out many different topics, but I enjoyed pulling the idea of solitude from these works.

Works Cited:

Ashton, Thomas L. “”The Thorn”: Wordsworth’s Insensitive Plant”.

Huntington Library Quarterly , Vol. 35, No. 2 (Feb., 1972), pp. 171-187

Clare, John, Eric Robinson, David Powell, and John Clare. Major Works. Oxford:

Oxford UP, 2008. Print.

Keats, John, “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other

Poems. London: Taylor and Hessey, 1820.

Parrish, Stephen Maxfield. "The Thorn": Wordsworth's Dramatic

Monologue. ELH , Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun., 1957), pp. 153-163

Smith, Charlotte, and Stuart Curran. The Poems of Charlotte Smith. New York:

Oxford UP, 1993. Print.

Wordsworth, William, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dahlia Porter, and Michael Gamer.

Lyrical Ballads 1798 and 1800. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2008. Print.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-clare

http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odeonagrecianurn.html

http://romanticcollecting.blogspot.com/search/label/Reflection%20and%20Solitude