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 

Significance of the Thorn

After reading, I found my thoughts kept coming back to why the thorn was important to the poem. I had a lot of speculation about whether it was a bigger symbol or if perhaps it was just the remnants of a rose that had been stuck into the ground-its thorns and blossom having fallen off, itself just a dead shell of what once was. This lead me to thinking that Martha Ray was also dead. What people were seeing is her ghost.
I also liked finding out through the foot notes that said Martha Ray was his friend's mother.

A Little Bit Gothic

I read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" when I was a senior in high school. I loved it then and I still love it now. Although it is very long and some of the vocabulary is difficult, the overall tale is intriguing and fun. I love the element of horror involving the dead crew, a cursed sea, a female spirit and mythical creatures. I also think Coleridge made the tale more interesting by splitting it into the present of the mariner relating his story, and the actual event. I have never tried to analyze the poem for political, religious, or cultural undertones mainly because unless I am writing a paper on my subject, I prefer to simply enjoy it. Therefore I really do not see any political statement throughout the poem and I am interested in Dr. Porter's statement from Tuesdays class.

Wordsworth's poetry was enjoyable, especially "The Thorn". Once the mound of grassy moss was compared to the size of a baby's grave I knew that the poem would have some type of supernatural element. Sure enough a woman is described as having lost her baby and most people believe it to be buried under the mound. I felt sorry for the woman but I did not know if I should considering she may have killed her own child. Nature played a large part in the poem with the many descriptions of the thorn, the mound, and the lake. Each element of nature tied back into the possible death of the baby and the misery of the woman. I thought the connection between nature and the personal was well done by Wordsworth.

The Immortality of Art

When speaking on Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn the concept of immortality can't be expressed enough in an understanding of the work. Stanza 2 shows this most clearly when he speaks of the lovers under the tree. The young man is playing the pipes and though the two can never quite kiss "she cannot fade" and "for ever wilt thou love." Though man will grow and fade into death this urn and every scene presented is frozen in time...never progressing beyond the time it was etched into the stone.
     The final lines "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"--that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know" and there are a few possibilities for the meaning. To me it speaks of the difference between Art and nature..or in some cases the similarities. Both are beautiful in their ways, though nature ages differently it still ages..trees die, ground washes away, even rocks erode. Art on the other hand will remain the same over a great period of time. Though it may fade even centuries later it can be seen frozen in time.

Keats

I love Keats work and wish we could read more of him. He makes poetry seems so effortless when in fact, it's really hard. I love how both the poems we read compare death and artifacts seamlessly. I love how in Ode to a Grecian Urn Keats uses the urn as a base point to compare death and immortality. He perfectly captures how death effects those left behind. He depicts how death is both sad and beautiful because it leads to immortality. Its an accurate mix of emotion and the way he uses the urn and the funeral to make a point is brilliant. And I love how all this is done by contemplating the lives of the people drawn on the urn. Ali mentioned how the second stanza is her favorite and it is mine too. I love how there is this idea that the young lovers love is pure and forever because they're on the urn. I love how this mirrors the idea that death brings immortality and thus, their love will be forever in the afterlife. I have to admit though the last few lines about beauty is truth-I'm not sure if he is being sarcastic or if he is making statement about what is truly beautiful and truthful-which is art. I also loved how "On seeing the Elgin Marbles" Keats depicts death. You feel as if you are there with him, watching him die. The depiction and the emotions are so relatable as are the emotions in "oDe". Keats does a great job of personalizing his poems. It takes true talent to make a poem about an urn interesting and beautiful.

Keats and the phenomenon of feelings

John Keats, much like Wordsworth and other Romantic writers, is masterful in describing the suddenness of epiphanies. It's hard to explain true emotions in their most purest form, yet somehow Keats is able to effectively show how great art can move an individual, whether that be positive or negative. It's also revealing how so much can pass through one's mind and emotions in a matter of seconds. How writers like Keats are able to capture this moment in such an eloquent matter is beyond my comprehension. Mortality is a hard realization for any person to truly accept, and it's almost heartbreaking to see Keats reaction. Yet how ironic is it to read Keats' work today, with it still being relevant and revered, and see ideas, like fears of being forgotten, become conquered.

Keats' Love of the Urn

Keats' poems seem different from the ones read thus far. I really liked how the second sonnet, "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles", was full of emotion. This was mainly because of the use of words such as "mortality", "god-like", "weep" and "die".

Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is one my favorite poems I have read while in this class. I love how Keats gives life to the scene on the urn by creating characters and settings from the 2D images. Keats seems to really envy the beauty in a moment that will never change whether in regard to lovers, a beautiful day, or the process of aging. This urn may be old but the scene depicted upon it will always remain the same. The sunny day will never become rainy, the lovers will never grow old or fall out of love. The very last line of the poem impacted me the most because of the emotional feeling it conveyed. Keats seems to have a firm grasp on what beauty truly means.

Paige Lollie: Keats

Keats was an interesting read. I'm not sure yet if I really enjoy him or not. There was something I found a little odd about the pace of the sonnets. When saying it out loud, it just felt a little different compared to some of the others. I wonder if his beat is different or if I am putting too much concentration on the ending syllables of his poem.

I also found that, though simple, a lot of his words seemed to carry a lot of power to them. Like I was suppose to put force into them. Example: "Of godlike hardship tells me I must die". For some reason, I struggle picturing this being spoken as a whisper. It comes off that there is meaning and force to the line that must be used when voiced.

In Tuesday's class, it was mentioned that Byron was disgusted about the Marbles being taken away from their rightful place (which I think also comes up in some of his poem). I wonder if Keats has something similar going on when it comes to him and this urn. It was mentioned in a previous post by AliCat that it was curious he was so focused on this one urn. Was he having a similar experience or emotion like what Byron was going through when concerning the marbles?

Why did Keats choose this Urn?

While reading "Ode on a Grecian Urn" I couldn't help but to question why Keats is so curious about this particular urn. Does this piece of pottery have a specific historical significance that I am missing? It seems like the things depicted on the urn are not closely related in style, other than the fact that they are displays of culturally specific life frozen in time. My favorite part of this poem was the second stanza when the speaker tries to imagine the lives of the man playing music to his lover underneath the trees. It seems very romantic to me that Keats speculates that the music the lovers plays is sweeter than any other music because it will never end. These two characters in the poem have a passionate love that has no possibility of ending because they are suspended in time in the artwork.

Smith's personal life inside the text

This was difficult for me to read and understand what was going on. I have to do my presentation on Charlotte Smith so there are parts that remind me of her own life. For example, her childhood was spent in a town, but she and her family had to move to London to live a better life and so she could be married off. In Beachy Head she says:

 "I once was happy, when while yet a child,/ I learn'd to love these upland solitudes," but then she says "And evil unforeseen: Early it came,/ And childhood scarcely passed, I compar'd/ With the polluted smoky atmosphere/ And dark and stifling streets...". 

This seems like what she was trying to say is that she was happy around such beauty in the town she lived in. but was no longer happy in London.  

Paige Lollie: Clare vs. Smith

As I am reading Smith, I am reminded a bit of Clare as his works.

Similarities: Smith and Clare both seem to appreciate adjectives and embrace the typical romantic word-structure. There is also a sense of a positive reaction to the nature around them. It doesn't seem like nature is a neutral world, nor does it seem evil. It is like the lost, untouched paradise where the true meaning of peace and reality lay. Though I like them, I can also see how they could easily be parodied. It almost seems that they are taking everything a bit too seriously (Smith in particular).

Differences: I think it shows through their work that Clare was self-educated. But, compared to Smith, you would think that she would sound less educated than Clare given her own history. However, Smith's choice of words just seem to carry a more refined, nobel air. In simple terms, she wrote smart. There also seemed to be a sense of seriousness to her work, like this wasn't just about natural surroundings and its beauty. With Clare, it felt very simple and a bit light-hearted. With Smith, I am getting a feeling there is a moral or a message hidden behind everything. Like everything she wrote was carefully considered before she placed them on paper.

Charlotte Smith was seriously underrated.

It is interesting to me that Charlotte Smith’s poetry was not recognized for its brilliance during or right after her time.  She has many Romantic sensibilities and beliefs tucked away in the lines of her poetry. The night and nature were a theme in every poem that we read of hers for Tuesday’s class.  She also alluded to the obvious internal struggle she was suffering, which seemed to vex her more when it was dark outside.  By using high amounts of nature in her imagery and rhetoric, and the focus towards to struggle of the individual, I would Romantics of the time would have loved her poetry.  Like John Clare, she might have been using a very basic form of Romanticism that people did not appreciate as much as those who loved Wordsworth, Byron, and Coleridge.  The fact that she is a woman might have hindered her success as well, and her interesting choice of form that she uses in her poems.

I really enjoyed her poetry.  She seems to be the Emily Dickenson of the British Romantic era.  I need to go and research her life to find out why exactly she was so sad.

The Case For Nature As Epic, In Brief.

One of the interesting things I noticed about Clare's "Recollections After A Ramble" is how the central premise discovered at the end of the poem seems to almost be him championing the epic manner of nature. The last stanza of the poem reference the speaker's love for the rural life, and that "These with nature shall prevail/ When epics(') war harps broke in two." Epics are a product of man; nature has no epics written about it. Dante, Milton, Homer, and Virgil do not wax eloquent for pages and pages upon the landscapes of Hell, Paradise, Troy, and Carthage; they speak upon the heroic deeds of their characters (or the justness of divine retribution in Dante's case). Clare's work for the previous pages seems intent on justifying that all the little moments of nature can be just as worthwhile as describing.

Though I think the rampant misspelling and lack of grammar may be more for the meter of the poem, I join my fellow bloggers in wishing to taking a red pen (or two or three) to the page; sadly, I must leave that task to one with more time upon their hands than I.

Badgers and Birds and Clare, oh my!

First off, I agree with Marinna concerning the style of the poem being easier to understand. Clare's language and rhyme scheme are much simpler than those of Bowles and Wordsworth. I was able to breeze right through each poem and did not feel as though there was a lot of emotional depth intended. The poem The Badger is probably the most emotional in my opinion considering I felt horrible for the way in which the badger was killed. Clare seems to be quite fond of nature, similar to Gilpin, except on a more superficial level. Clare's poetry also resembles the other poets because in the first poem Reccolections after a Ramble, the narrator speaks fondly of years past. Stanzas twenty-eight and twenty-nine are perfect examples of "reccolections" on the past with the lines "Some wi many an anxious pain Childish wishes did pursue" and "Then I stood to pause again Retrospection sighd and smild". This looking back on emotions of the past stuck out in my mind as the deepest aspect of Clare's poem. As for the bird poems, I think that all three seemed too similar to enjoy reading more than one in a sitting.

Mixed feelings for Clare

Snipe

Firetail

Nightingale

Badger

By the titles of the poems I honestly thought I would enjoy them more than I did but oh well. I read through them alright but having no commas or periods and only a few dashes made it particularly tiring to read. I didn't feel like he was rambling, just that he didn't know how to end a thought and figured the reader could do it for him.

Looking up the pictures of the birds gives a nice visual of what he's talking about because he doesn't really describe the animal's physical feature, just what he's doing in the bird poems. If this is his idea of writing so readers can experience what he went through while looking at these birds and scrounging around in the woods infringing on their privacy then it's not really what I look for in writings about nature.

The Badger was my favorite of his poems that we were to read because it had so much energy and so much more vivaciousness. It was more of a telling of a tale then the whole 'I'm creeping around trying not to scare this bird so I can find its nest and tell you about it' thing.

Basically, I like Clare's word choice and the subject matter, but most of the way he tells the reader just doesn't work for me.