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.

Romanticism

The Snow-Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.
The steed and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come, see the north wind's masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, naught cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs, and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.

During the peek of the Romantic Period, nature became a focal point in literature and arts. The poem above creates an image of a snow storm, where natures overpowering force (in this case snow) covers most of the surroundings. Nature took upon several meanings during this era. For one, nature was believed to be the act of God, and through it circulate the "currents of the Universal Being." Also, nature provided a sense of beauty. By taking appreciation in nature's beauty, it inspires man to virtue. Beauty was believed to unite man, and restore one's soul.
Individualism was another key component of Romanticism. In Emerson's poem, all aspects on nature seem to be individual and separate before the storm hits. For instance, the trees, houses, hills and farmhouse show a world that is completely separate from each other. However, once the snow storm arrives nothing seems separate, and therefore everything is connected since not a single part of nature stands out.

Key Figures in Enlightment Period

John Locke

John Locke was a key figure during the Enlightment Period. Locke's ultimate goal was to show how closely language is connected with the process of thought, which would therefore emphasize the need to use language in the most precise way. Locke also opposed many popular forms of criticisms during his peak, such as the idea of pleasure and profit, but revived ideas on philosophy and poetry and rhetoric (Platonism). In other words, Locke thought that poetry was governed by wit, which sees identities between different things. Philosophy is supposed to teach right from wrong, preside over judgement and to continue further interests in knowledge. Locke also had harsh views on figurative language and rhetoric because there can be so much "error and deceit."

Edmund Burke

Burke, like Locke, believed that knowledge is gained through experience and experimentation. Burke stated that people usually have fixed criterias for truth and falsehood and for operations of reason. But where taste is concerned, a superficial view suggests that people differ widely. Certain standards of taste are common to all human beings. Burke divides the faculities whereby we know the external world into three: senses, imagination, and judgement. An example Burke uses about sesnes is that all organs of men are the same. Therefore, the manner men percieve external objects is the same. In imagination, Burke views it as a creative art and that imaginations come from the recieved senses. Imagination also is the most extensive activity of pleasure and pain.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was regarded as one of the first feminist writers of modern time. She was a radical thinker of her time mostly over the French Revolution of 1789. An important influence that Wollstonecraft had during the Enlightment Period was that of women's rights. She was a proponent of better education for women, have more authority, and freedom. She was very brave for speaking on women's equality because it caused much uproar during that time.