Melancholy in Poems of Keats, Wordsworth, and Coleridge - Essay Example

Section/# Melancholy in Romantic Literature The topic of melancholy is discussed in presented in a number of different ways by a number of different poets. For instance, Keats, Wordsworth, and Coleridge all have a unique approach to the way in which the individual should cope/deal with melancholy and sadness. In seeking to understand the topic of melancholy between these different authors, one must first engage in an understanding with regards to the fact that one particular genre of poetry cannot be understood to integrate with the topic and appreciation for melancholy in a singular manner. Instead, each of these poets different somewhat from one another and approached an understanding of melancholy in a unique manner; adding to the flavor of their own poetry and the survival that these poems have been able to achieve within the realm of English literature. As a means of discussing and analyzing this approach as well is drawing inference from the writings that these authors are respectively responsible for, the following analysis will seek to engage the reader with a more profound level of understanding concerning the way in which a projection of life approach is presented by each author in a nuanced and differentiated manner. Firstly, with regards to William Wordsworth’s poem, “Resolution and Independence”, a clear and definitive theme of treating melancholy by turning to nature and allowing the mystical, even magical, powers that nature engenders to address the concerns and worry of an individual is prominently presented. Moreover, a tacit review of city lifestyle and a life that is crowded by man-made representations, man-made emotions, man-made relations, and any and all other facets that are not integrally tied to the environment is affected within this particular poem. Rather than embracing melancholy and accepting it, the author instead offers a clear prescriptive plan for allowing the natural elements to assuage the pains and difficulties that life presents (Ulmer 175). Reflecting on personal experience, the speaker denotes that fact that too long an absence between seeing the natural world has caused a build up of emotional hardship and sadness; a type that can only be released by regular integration and engagement with nature. Such a view is necessarily pastoral; yet, nonetheless it is widely different from the manner through which other poets dealt with the issue of melancholy within their own works. By means of contrast and comparison, Keates “Ode to Melancholy” presents a far different view of melancholy and sadness. For instance, rather than using nature to slowly dissolve this melancholy and replace it with a sense of well-being, Keates advocates that the individual should instead face their melancholy head-on, embrace it, and attempt not to diminish it. Rather than offering a prescriptive treatment plan through which an individual might be able to escape painful remembrance that melancholy and sadness is able to effect, the author instead promotes the fact that seeking to hide away or doll the remembrance of such sadness and melancholy will ultimately only result in a deeper level of sadness in the long run. As a function of this, the poet admonishes the individual not to hide from this emotion and to face it in such a manner that it can eventually be overcome. At such a juncture, the reader is left with the understanding that the poem itself, and by extension the title, “Ode to Melancholy” is in fact a type of miniature celebration to the feeling of sadness. Although the author stops short of stating that sadness exists as the polar opposite of happiness, in order to allow an individual to feel, this understanding is nonetheless presented tacitly (Plumly 165). Further, realizing that certain individuals might take this advice as an excuse to dwell upon melancholy and sadness and make this a way of life, the poet specifically admonishes against this particular process. Ultimately, the reader is left with the interpretation that the only time in which melancholy should be engaged and endured until conclusion is at such a point that it is necessary for the overall health and happiness of the individual to face it head-on. Accordingly, facing it at all times and always, and all places, is ultimately a recipe for perpetual sadness that will render the individual incapacitated with grief. Similarly, Keates represents very much the same understanding with respect to his poem, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”. Within this brief piece, the reader is left with the understanding that even though grief and sadness/melancholy have the ability to transform the imagination and outlook of an individual, they ultimately leave them in the same place as they began; sad, unchanged, and perhaps even any worse condition. Utilizing the case of a “woebegone” night, Keates leverages the imagery of a fairy princess to indicate the way in which melancholy and sadness can come to an individual in their darkest hour; offering intrigue and mystery (Kinch 337). However, when one makes the fateful decision to integrate with them and travel down this thorny path of regret, the end result is invariably the same. From the analysis that has thus far been engaged, the reader can come to the clear understanding that even though the theme of melancholy was discussed by each of the authors that have been listed, the underlying interpretation of this emotion, what it portends, the way in which it should be dealt with, and the manner through which an individual should seek to recover are all invariably different. The differential in approach can of course be attributed to the unique personalities of each of these great poets (Farnell 198). However, a level of subjectivism must also be leveraged if the reader is to understand and comprehend the full value of what Coleridge, Keats, or Wordsworth is attempting to present to the reader. Ultimately, this differential can be understood in terms of life experience and the unique approach of the respective authors; definitively more so than it can be attributed to any particular genre or style. From the analysis that has thus far been presented, three unique views of how the individual should engage, or not engage as the case was, with melancholy were presented. Moreover, the differential in approaches that were promoted by each individual poem lends the reader to understand that melancholy was not an emotion that was dealt with in a singular manner within the literature of the times. Elements of facing grief head on and dealing with it accordingly, avoiding it entirely, and embracing nature as a means of ameliorating the pain that it has were all presented. Furthermore, the level of relevance to literary analysis, as well as the application that each of these approaches can have upon the day to day life that an individual chooses to lead are profound. Although the information that was related within these respective works can be understood in terms of artistic creativity, it is ultimately the belief of this author that the information related by Coleridge, Keats, and Wordsworth was more indicative of their own worldview; something that not only helps the individual researcher craft a response to a series of questions concerning their approach but also helps to focus a level of understanding with respect to the subsequent works that these poets produced during the course of their lives. Works Cited Farnell, Gary. "The Enigma Of La Belle Dame Sans Merci." Romanticism 17.2 (2011): 195-208. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. Kinch, Ashby. "To Corecte In Any Part Or Alle": Some Problems In The Transmission Of The Middle English La Belle Dame Sans Mercy." Mediaeval Studies 68.1 (2006): 333-350. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. Plumly, Stanley. "The Odes For Their Own Sake." Kenyon Review 33.4 (2011): 161-166. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. Ulmer, William A. "William Wordsworth And Philosophical Necessity." Studies In Philology 110.1 (2013): 168-198. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. Read More