Significance of Intense Psychological States in Romantic Texts - Term Paper Example

The relationship to a poem often comes from the empathy evoked by the theme that it expresses. Similar to any emotion that one would like to muster from another, it is in one’s fervor that the same is attained. The same goes for what intense psychological states mean as characteristic in the Romantic genre. The passion and the feeling that the persona signifies amplifies to what emotions a reader derives from a particular text. It is the transcendence of that intensity that influences the elucidation from an art form to its audience. In the same way that a mass of people is move into action only by rousing their feelings, it is in sharing emotions that a text captures its reader. There must be established a sense of commonality in order to share the sentiments. Because a poem, story, painting or any other text could not hope its reader to share an emotion it does not contain. Anger induces anger, hope conjures hope, and love begets love. Intense psychological state is the transference of a feeling and an idea in a particular situation, so that its meaning translates and accomplishes what it sets forth to do. Lord Byron’s Childe Harolds Pilgrimage Canto III, William Wordsworth’s There was a Boy and William Cowper’s Hymn 48: Joy and peace in believing although of different general themes and presentation, all denote intense emotional experiences through their personas. Harold in Canto III represents a desolate man who has gone through the rigors of life and has found very little happiness in the years that had passed him. There remains a glimmer of hope which embodies the human spirit though not at all too optimistic of what the future holds or what the past had imparted upon him. The rose tainted glasses had vanished and there remains the man who has been left world-weary but determined to push through whatever life lays before him. “His had been quaffd too quickly, and he found/ The dregs were wormwood: but he filld again,” (stanza 9, lines 73-74). The stanza talks about all the past experiences that have defined him as what he has come to be and at the same time has been holding him back. It represents the persona in metaphorical shackles that binds him wherever he goes. Life has filled him fast and though it may have been bitter, he keeps on drinking the same experiences. The intense psychological state of Harold is important in understanding his voyage and all that he is going through. It binds the reader to the resentments and the aspirations that Byron’s character is experiencing. Simultaneous to the progression is the transformation that the character changes into. This is successful in capturing the emotional state of the persona as the main underpinnings of the poem. The same emotional experiences of a poem’s persona can be perceived in There was a Boy and Hymn 48. The former revolves around the persona’s recollection of a boy. It paints a scene of a normal activity as a boy would do and the little details that comes with child’s play. The scene is unassuming and vividly expounds on a particular scene. The boy calling on birds and mimicking their sounds in the hopes that his calls will be answered, as though they might take him as one of their own, and that his efforts would be answered by the simple gesture of the bird’s customary response. The countryside, in which this boy lived, is alive and joyous and full of hope. While Cowper’s poem true to its essence as a hymn, divulges in the first person that immense feeling of belief infallible and undaunted by any extrinsic adversity. It is a play of contrast between extremes in its later stanzas and revives the feeling of fate in relation to the persona’s infallible resolve to that inclination toward divine faith. The intense emotion of joy reverberates throughout the poem and the character relates this abundance of devotion to the reader in the prospect of infectious religious zeal. The three poems represent a transition in the characters that are expounded in them. Harold is about the journey of a man and all that he has come across with together with the insights that he had grasped. There was a Boy is different in a sense that it is a narration of one looking in from the outside by recounting a particular scene. The voice of the poem is a third person who points out to the reader the story of an ordinary boy and how that short-lived life is affected by one soul. While Hymn 48, though not particularly in the voice of a man by gender, when taken into the consideration of its author, is centered on a man’s reverence and how this disposition affects his approach in life by taking it in with all its complexities. The theme of life and death intertwines with the intense emotion that essentially goes with it. Harold revolves around a life where the persona has recognized it as one lived in vain. The voice is somewhat cynical in recounting the places he had seen. “Self-exiled Harold wanders forth again,/ With nought of hope left, but with less of gloom; The very knowledge that he lived in vain,/ That all was over on this side the tomb,” (stanza 16, lines 136-139). Here, Harold is presented as an older version of himself. He had gone through many experiences and had learned that happiness did not come as a result. He continues his journey despite the forlorn attitude he had acquired through understanding the past. But along with time came wisdom as he was no more the same wide-eyed man he used to be. There was a sense of surrender to his being and the knowledge of who he is and what the things he had gone through became him in the process. There was no remorse in this awareness. He had in effect acquiesced to the notion of his humanity. The sense of recognition of his immortality emanates from the mentioning of the tomb. He is no longer young and he has reached that other half of his life where death is more imminent. Depicted in a different light, the theme of life and death is Wordsworth’s shorter but equally thought-provoking poem. “And there along that bank when I have pass’d/ At evening , I believe, near his grave/ A full half-hour together I have stood,/ Mute- for he died when he was ten years old” (lines 29-32). The poem opens the first stanzas in a jovial mood by describing a careless and cheerful boy typical for his age. It illustrated his quirks and the thing he loved to do for fun, creating sounds to imitate owls. Then, it ends unexpectedly with the persona uneventfully declaring that the boy he recounted as one everyone knew died at the tender age of ten. The last three lines reveal the connection between the voice in the poem and the boy. The two had known each other from childhood. The persona returns to the place much older and recalls fond memories not only of a childhood friend he had lost but also of his own youth. He travels through time and reflects on the beauty of the place that has become too familiar and distant at the same time. The same piece on earth he had shared with a friend, and, where who that boy is and the places he knew, is the same place he will always claim as his own. This is where everyone, at least once in his life awhile back, knew him and vice versa. Though the theme of death is not apparent in Hymn 48, the notion of life is evident in the poem. “Set free from present sorrow,/ We cheerfully can say,/ Ee’n let th unknown to-morrow/ Bring with it what it may.” (stanza 2, lines 13-16). These lines may not precisely suggest that it speaks of life but the message is toward a resolve on an attitude in how to face it despite the unsettling fact that the future is out of one’s control. The text tells the reader to let go of all the problems that one may currently be encountering. That they are insignificant in the greater scale of things and that it is important to be happy not only for today but also for the future that is definite to come. Instead of being apprehensive on what the future holds and being terrified that we may only have to encounter more difficulties, it is important to face it intrepidly. This is of course attainable only by surrendering all fears and apprehensions to a higher being and one who can take away all the sorrows, and that is God. Fate fuels optimism and the same devotion leads to a better outlook in life. This reference to God and the heavens can be seen in the three poems. It is the recognition of a bigger diaspora that is not limited to a person or a single place. Harold in Canto III recognizes the realities that he had never before seen and accepts them for what they are. Regardless of the disillusionment, “Unheeded, searching through the crowd to find/ Fit speculation; such as in strange land/ He found in wonder-works of God and Natures hand.” (stanza 10, lines 88-90). There remains the glimmer of the more beautiful things, nature is referred to as God’s work and likens it to a search of those elusive splendors that imprints the most stunning memories. There was a Boy has also made a couple of references to the same imagery. “And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands/ Press’d closely palm to palm and to his mouth/ Uplifted, he, as through and instrument/ Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls.” (lines 7-10). The position described in how the boy uses his hands to make sounds greatly resembles the appearance of someone praying. Even the churchyard was mentioned in the poem which only serves to reinforce the importance of religion played as part of the boy’s short life. Then, in Hymn 48, the reference to God is very direct since it is the main theme by nature. “It is the LORD who rises/ With healing in his wings:/ When comforts are declining,/ He grants the souls again” (stanza 1, lines 3-6). This is most likely a reference to Jesus Christ since it is in the Christian tradition that he rose from the dead. However, it is represented with healing wings which exudes the image of holiness indicative to the resurrection of the soul. It is in biblical teaching that Jesus’ death and resurrection is the salvation of humankind from original sin. The blanket of the heavens is another symbol used more prominently in Byron’s and Wordsworth’s works. In Harold it was declared, “Like the Chaldean, he could watch the stars,/ Till he had peopled them with beings bright” (stanza 14, lines 118-119). The fascination with the heavens is plain in these lines. The stars remain an interesting and romanticized figure in the poem. They are described as though they are tangible and that they can be tamed. Then in There was a Boy, “At evening, when the stars had just begun/ To move along the edges of the hills” (lines 3-4). Here, the image of dusk was the setting of the narrator. It was the perfect time when nocturnal owls take flight and give people a chance to create encounters. Heavens was also a point of symbolism in Hymn 48, “Beneath the spreading heavens,/ No creature but is fed;/ And he who feeds the ravens,/ Will give his children bread.” (stanza 3, lines 21-24) In this poem, the reference to the heavens is a reckoning point. It was to exemplify the vastness above which covers the earth and all the creatures that dwell below it. There yields a curious thought that while the hymn essentially refers to God, the pronouns he were not written in capitalized form. But the message is clear, faith that God will always provide for He always looks after all of His creations. Byron, Wordsworth and Cowper all have strong voices in each of their poem that revealed intense psychological states in conveying the essence of their message. Harold was charged with various emotional experiences by its protagonist to illustrate the journey that came to be his life. These feelings communicated are oftentimes disheartening but always with snippets of hope. That inner conflict that proves true in every human being makes Harold a character that is easily relatable. There was a Boy is an unapologetic take on the persistence of memory. The persona draws the reader in to the shaping of a character through a boy. It tugs at the concept of perhaps thinking it was the persona himself, a representation of the author and of his childhood. Then it entirely deviates from any preconceived notions cultivated by the reader. The boy died as the persona matter-of-factly revealed and there are very few things more tragic than dying young. This experience transports the persona into his own psychological state as he pauses for a good half hour, thinking about the past. Finally, Joy and peace in believing, is by itself the persona’s own intense psychological state. It is by that ecstatic glorification of God that his emotional experience is shaped. There exudes that infinite brightness simply by fatalistic declaration that a supreme being will always provide. Bibliography Keynes, M., 2004a. Industry and changing landscape. Open University. Keynes, M., 2004b. Religion, exploration and slavery. Open University. Lavine, C. and Donnachie, I. eds., 2003. From enlightenment to Romanticism: Anthology I. Manchester: Manchester University Press Read More