Romanticism - The artistic and philosophical movement

                  

Romanticism refers to the magnificent 18th century artistic and philosophical movement that enabled people to reflect deeply on their lives and the changing world around them and to give voice to these inner cogitations. 

Today we look at the cultural setting that gave birth to romanticism, the features of romanticism and why it was so revolutionary. We will analyse the context and themes of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison which offers as an early example of romanticism. This early poetry ignited the spark which soon became the phenomenon that was the revolution of romanticism across Europe in the early 19th century. Finally we investigate the extent to which the literary ideology of the Romantics continues to connect with a 21st century audience.  

The explosion of the ideas that the Romantics proclaimed can be attributed to a number of things. The themes that we most identify with the Romantics are their rebellious actions, their value of individual thought and their passion for nature. These central foundations were brought on by a neoclassical society ruled by a dictating monarchy, along with the changing and developing times of the industrial revolution. Romantic poets felt the need to rebel against the aristocratic social and political standards which dictated European culture; and to put their rebellion in the form of literature. Along with this, many Romantics expressed their thoughts and frustrations by how science rationalised the purity of nature. A number of poets expressed these thoughts and feelings towards society and the way it treated nature through what they wrote and how they wrote it. 

Each poet added to their work though their expressions and beliefs which were formed from individual experiences and passions. This idea and action of individual thought, freedom of the mind, rebellion against ruling tyrants and opposing religious teaching is what appealed to people. This appeal was so strong that it rapidly spread across western civilisation and secured itself a place in history.  

A poem of interest is This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison penned in 1797 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 

                                       

Coleridge, one of the earliest romantics, was enamoured with the beauty and simplicity of nature. At a young age, following the death of his father, Coleridge was sent to live in the city and spoke of needing to use his imagination to transport himself back to nature. These two themes of the individual thought of imagination along with the beauty of nature are entwined in the poem.  Coleridge took the task of writing this poem under rather unstimulating circumstances. He was living in the country and had friends visiting from the city, among them was William Wordsworth. They had planned to embark on a nature expedition when Coleridge’s wife apparently spilt some boiling milk on his foot. This left Coleridge understandably upset as he rarely saw his friends and now would no longer be able to partake in and view the beauty of the nature on their hike. Hence, Coleridge begins his poem in a rather sour tone, building on self-pity and conveying the lime tree he was sitting under as a prison.

“Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,
This lime-tree bower my prison!
I have lost Beauties and feelings, such as would have been.”   

However, Coleridge soon uses his imagination to conjure up the vision that his friends may have been encountering in his absence. 

Now, my friends emerge Beneath the wide wide Heaven—and view again
The many-steepled tract magnificent Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea,
With some fair bark, perhaps, whose sails light up
The slip of smooth clear blue betwixt two Isles.   

In the poem Coleridge offers a small glimpse of critique of a life that is not immersed in nature. Coleridge laments of the life that his friend Charles leads in the city;   

In gladness all; but thou, methinks, most glad,  
My gentle-hearted Charles! for thou hast pined  
And hunger'd after Nature, many a year,  
In the great City pent, winning thy way  
With sad yet patient soul, through evil and pain  
And strange calamity!    

This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison asserts Coleridge’s belief in the transformative power of nature. After his imaginative journey, in the poem Coleridge returns to his situation under the lime tree bower to see it no longer as a prison but as having beauty also.   

This little lime-tree bower, have I not mark'd  
Much that has sooth'd me. Pale beneath the blaze  
Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd  Some broad and sunny leaf, and lov'd to see  
The shadow of the leaf and stem above  
Dappling its sunshine!    

In this work and others, Coleridge, as with many of the Romantics, uses the beauty and simplicity of nature to critique the world around them.    

A lot of what the Romantics decried such as the rationalisation of the world by scientific thought, the confusion and conflict of religions, the developments of the industrial revolution and power of governments over people, have had their impact of the world over the two centuries.  However, we find echoes of Romanticism in our day. Poets, today more in the form of musicians and rock groups, still herald the beauty of necessity of nature. 

I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.  

These lyrics recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1967 would not be out of place in the period of Romanticism. The ideas, attitudes and values of Romanticism are relevant today, however, they are displayed in a more contemporary context. The thoughts and ideas expressed in 19th century literature may now be seen in big budget movies, media and contemporary music. One cannot look at the photography of Steve Parish and not see the graphical expression of what Coleridge was able to put into words. The beauty and grandeur of nature finds its expression in modern cinematography such as the work of David Attenborough, who after countless exposés on the beauty of nature around the world would state:  

People must feel that the natural world is
important and valuable and beautiful and
wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.
I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.   

Perhaps because of the impact of scientific rational thought and the developments of the industrialised world, today people frequently take a more literal interpretation to their writing about rebellion and their love of the beauty found in nature. As opposed to subtlety that poetry may offer, today people often take to the streets with demonstrations or to the internet with opinions. With the same passion found in the Romantics, people have decided to show their love of the beauty and necessity of nature by setting up organisations and political parties to defend nature. Neighbourhoods will bandy together to save a park or plant trees. The danger is that the true essence of the “romantic” love of nature and its beauty can be lost in the political battle.  

Yet despite the passage of time we still see the romantic notions of symbols such as the Christmas tree being used to adorn the home, the rose to express the love of valentines and even the value of a seaside unit or “tree change” in one’s life. These things echo the sentiments of the Romantics as things with inherent beauty that suspend the noise of life.   

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