Sublime Mortality

Romanticism captures a strong movement in the aesthetics which further branches into literature, the sublime, the movement of collecting beauty that inspired awe and fear. The constant quest for the sublime in this society and in literature represents the constant quest for signs of one's own mortality and immortality of the world around them. Beginning with travel narratives, describing the sublime, to sublime imagery in poetry, and sublime darkness in Gothic literature and Bryon's hero, the sublime has been interlinked with human mortality. 

Gilpin's obsession with the picturesque in his travel guides exposes a desire to find the dark, rough, or broken in nature. Gilpin goes into minute detail about what makes a scene "picturesque". His notions about darkness, roughness, and broken lines feeds into the idea of the sublime. Finding these elements in nature exaggerates the idea of one's own mortality. The grandiose affect of the picturesque scene made those who sought them feel their own inferiority. This culture porpusely set out to find picturesque scenes in nature and desired to place themselves by or in these sublime scenes to feel the sublime effect of being in awe and afraid. 

Synthesizing the emotion of awe and fear addresses the idea of mortality, especially fear. The notion of fear stems from the fact that you could die and the romantics craved this affirmation of their own mortality. 

In Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey", Wordsworth describes the sublime and picturesque with words and recollection of memory. Nature serves as his refuge of solitude. In this solitude he attempts to recapture a feeling, as a reader the feeling transpired is melancholy. Recalling the imagery of Tintern Abbey brings to mind the sublime architecture and it's decay and possession by nature. Similar to death, where decay of one's legacy and possession by nature take place. Seeking the sublime in nature is also seeking out the emotions induced by confronting your own mortality.

Keats and Smith also introduce strong connections between imagery of the sublime with human mortality. Smith's "Beachy Head" and "Elegiac Sonnets" melt the theme of death and the sublime together cohesively. As we discussed in class Smith's own tragic circumstance led to the strong themes of mortality and the sublime in her poems. Also, in Keats "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" he stresses the connection between the sublime beauty in the decay of the marbles and also the experience of the viewer's realization of human and societal mortality. The great Greek society is dead and that reinforces the fact of mortality on the level of the individual. 

Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel", Scott does the actual physical act of collecting tales, where he captures a sublime essence in the dying of the minstrel or bard and the dying of a cultural tradition. Scott's interlinking of the sublime and mortality is done within the collecting of stories from people and cultures that no longer exist. The mortality of these stories and of the bards that use to remember and orate these tales embodies a sublime quality in it's link between their mortality and induction of the realization of our own mortality. 

As we moved on to Lewis and Wordsworth and Coleridge's "Lyrical Ballads" the motivated journey to discover the thrill of encountering your own extinction  began to manifest itself in the darkness of the Gothic genre. Gothic genre and death are inseparable entities. Lewis' dramatic and often supernatural deaths consequently manifest the idea of human death in general. The effect of Lewis' tales and the Coleridge's poem "The Albatross" is a sensationalized fear similar to that of Gilpin's traveler looking for the picturesque and sublime. 

Ending with collecting the self and the poet, Byron and Wordsworth endeavor to collect their own experience in consequence of their own mortality. Wordsworth's "The Prelude" is a recollection of his child hood memories, an exercise that happens from a result of growing older and contemplating the end of your life. Finally Byron's creation of the byronic hero fuses the idea of the sublime with death. His tales of vampires and the deaths in "The Giaour" cement the sublime with human mortality. 

Over the entire course the idea of human mortality has constantly emerged. Romanticism embodied these ideas of facing human mortality and illustrating the emotional effects of that realization.

More palpable-the poet

This section of collecting the poet is fulfilled with Wordsworth's prelude. Within his other works, Tintern Abbey and Lyrical Ballads, there is not such a strong emphasis on the speaker as the poet. Wordsworth love of nature is so evident in Prelude and another major difference is the poet's abundant use of "I" throughout the poem, which manifests the strong presence of the speaker.

Self promotion

Byron's use of biographical information feeds into making himself a brand. After reading about Byron's similar situation I really saw the genius in his self promotion. Byron's immense popularity was fueled by his scandalous affairs and he chose to use personal stories to bait a wider audience. Readers not only are collecting his "brand", the poet, but also Byron's experiences.

Connections to the thorn

After reading The Thorn, I was lost when it came to how Martha Ray and the baby relate to a thorn. I'm uncertain of what the thorn symbolizes. Although, I didn't fully grasp the importance of the "thorn", I enjoyed the poem and wondered if Martha was crazy or dead...or both.

Ladies Beware

Lewis' tales are fun reads. Having said that, the women of at least the first three tales suffered horrible fates, it just reinforces the idea of a victimized female being deserving of her fate. These woman didn't just have bad luck but they lacked something that earned them some punishment. A little annoying especially because it seems to be a recycled notion in society.

Marbles of Mortality

On Seeing the Elgin Marbles is a beautiful poem. It captures that melancholy awe in discovering the greatness that once was and how quickly it passed away, how quickly we all fade away. "My Spirit is too weak-Mortality/ weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep" these lines inner rhymes emphasize this weakness, the exhaling of breath with "weak-mortality, heavily, on me, unwilling".

Schor's Construction and Deconstruction

In the beginning of "Reading In Detail Aesthetics and the Feminine" Schor constructs a solid link between the criticism of the particular and the feminine only to deconstruct "detailism" into a misogynistic euphemism. It was an insightful read that delved into the extent of prejudice against the feminine and the strong social link between the feminine and ornate.

"Recollections after a Ramble": Merry-Go-Round

Clare's "Recollections After A Ramble" felt as if I was on a merry-go-round. His repetition of rings "And the rings went whirling round", "As round the camp they danced a gig", "The Shepherd he was on his rounds", "At 'roley poley' down the hill", "Oak trees dancing round and round", "Saw the rings the droplets made", creates this effect of constant turning. It mimics the cycle of nature itself, which the poem does overall through the seasons. I just found it interesting to find that amount of repetition and it justified why I felt as if I were going round and round while reading the poem.

Wordsworth's emphasis on the individual experience

Wordsworth "On the Naming of Places" reads as an extension of turning these places from nature to painting to poetry with an added emphasis on the individual and their attachment to these spots. It's no longer an act of viewing nature and taking a physical representation with you to add to your collection or reading a collection of a traveler's analysis but instead attaching yourself or someone else to that spot. I enjoyed reading this collection of poems compared to Tuesdays readings because the tone was not melancholy and Wordsworth is collectively constructing these spots in nature through his poem but maintaining the importance of the personal experience compared to the methodical analysis of looking for the picturesque or sublime.

Love of the Plants

In this reading, Darwin's personification of these flowers played out interestingly with the emphasis on sexual and warrior like characteristics. Also, his call of the muses and allusions made it feel as if I was reading a collection of tiny mythological stories. Having applied the reading methods that we discussed in class, I found it much easier to read the poem all the way through and then go back to the notes. The notes were very useful but very tedious and dull in comparison to the beauty of the poem.