Romanticismo - Le caratteristiche dei differenti autori

NATURE IN ROMANTIC POETS

o According to Wordsworth, nature means three things: Nature as a source of inspiration, indeed he writes “I wandered lonely as a cloud” inspired by the nature of Lake District, in which daffodils, yellow flowers, flash upon his inward eye, his imagination; Nature as countryside in which mountains, lakes, rivers, are opposed to the noise of town; Nature as living force.
o Coleridge believes that natural images hide symbolical meanings, indeed in “The rime of the ancient mariner” he uses supernatural elements, as the albatross, the figure of the mariner.. and killing of albatross is considered a sin against nature.
o Shelley uses the nature as a symbol, for example, in “Ode to the west wind” the wind represents a change for the society of that time. And the wind is a living force, indeed it’s destroyer and preserver, Shelley gives it human being’s qualities like "tameless, swift, proud".
o In Keats there’s not an identification with nature.

o For Wordsworth poetry is expression of feelings, with the imagination, with his inward eye, he turns common events of reality into a poetry.
o For Coleridge imagination create a new reality, characterized by supernatural elements, and he has to convince the reader that his story is real.
o According to Shelley, imagination is a source of inspiration that leads him to awake people, he imagines a free world.
o Keats with the imagination creates an artificial world, the urn, in which everything is static, is eternal, he creates a vision.

o In his Preface, the Romantic Manifesto, Wordsworth says that he is a man who speaks to another man, because he has more imagination than others, he wants awake people’s feelings.
o According to Coleridge, the poet has to create a sense of mystery, and he has to be convincing, so the story has to seem real.
o For Shelley the poet has to be a prophet, indeed in the last stanza of “Ode to the west wind” he asks the wind to inspire him, because he has to spread his prophetic message among people, to awake them.
o According to Keats the poet has to represent universal reflections, for example the final couplet of “Ode on a Grecian urn” refers to the universal image: beauty is truth, truth beauty.