Contemporary Poem-Romantic Comparison

From http://www.poems.com/ Dec 15, 2007

Deep Winter by Karen Johnson

It happens every year, the same
imperceptible crossing of
the light, the future perfect
counterpoint to the beginning of
dragging the shovels out of the barn,
mounting the plow, the blower cleaned and
candles ready for the darkening
which has already come
which will always
be which is no more and no less
than a flake on the back of the ox
which once pulled down the high wall
of the shed with one shake
of its head, teeth clenched tight on the tether
and the lantern suddenly flaring.

In the Romantic era nature was viewed as a general standard. People who lived during this time highly discarded the philosophies of the Enlightment period on their viewpoint of nature. They believed the physical world was orderly, explicable, regular, logical. However, the Romantics thought nature was natural, which provided standards for beauty, and morality.
The poem "Deep Winter," describes nature, in particular as a thing of beauty. Winter triggers memories, things associated with nature that remember. In this poem's case, winter is the season which prepares work for the speaker of the poem; plowing, getting shovels out, and cleaning the blower. Romanticism was viewed as a time when expression was supposed to shown. Uniqueness was highly regarded as well as creavity. This era was a time to discover "oneself" and soul search. The impact of nature in the poem displays that this poem has Romantic ideals. The time of deep winter can present freedom and provide a time of reflection for an individual.