I found Keats’s letters haunting. They are so powerful in their use of language and variance of subject that they force you to focus in to be able to understand their depth. If you do not devote all of your attention to these letters, you would easily lose sight of what Keats is trying to accomplish. I do wish that there was more background information provided on who he was sending these letters to and maybe some of their responses. To be able to see Keats in a back and forth dialogue with someone he respected and admires would have been incredibly fascinating. Especially to see his ability to converse with Fanny Brawne.

The other intriguing part about these letters is the space of time they are able to cover. They are at once general and detailed in their descriptions of life. Keats will focus in on one particular occurrence and then use it to display a broadened sense of his life and visions. I also found that at times, Keats doesn’t really seem to be addressing any particular person in his letters. They become abstract and intimate, like a journal, and less like a mailed letter. I wonder what the perception of this was for the person on the receiving end of these letters and really how does one respond to this type of higher thinking.

“In the generations since his death many have wondered what Keats would have accomplished had he lived. Such thoughts, however, focus on the tragedy of the poet’s death, rather than on the sustained richness of his achievements” (Broadview 1083).

I really found these sentences in the opening biography of Keats impactful and telling about the life that Keats lived. I believe that we do overly imagine the greatness that would have come from Keats, instead of valuing what he was able to accomplish. The effect of this is that we can end up undervaluing the poetry he created during his short life. Secondly, I would argue that we boil the figure of Keats down into his death. He could be seen solely in the image of his grave, not the prolific writings he developed. Is his death tragic? Yes, of course. But I think that to ignore all other aspects of him is to do him a disservice.

Throughout the poems we read for today’s class, I was able to recognize the thematic elements of fancy and imagination. In particular, this can be seen in Sleep and Poetry, which was my favorite of his poems that we read. The way the dreamer moves in and out of sleep is seamless, yet painful to watch. You can see him want to remain in that dreamscape but the imminent morning (waking up) is always near by. I love how the poem depicts life’s constant sense of fleeting and mystery.

“Stop and consider! Life is but a day;

A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way…” (Lines 85-6).

Life in this form is made precious, while still showing its ability to cause one intense pain and grief. Life to Keats marked moments of flashing danger, coupled with the beauty found in his imagination and dreams.

I couldn’t help but think about the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads as I read Shelley’s work. Similarly to Wordsworth, Shelley wanted to create a document that outlined the importance, action, and longevity of poetry through criticism. What I found interesting about this is the differences I found between the two. Wordsworth, for his part, worked on his piece to make it accessible to an audience that he thought the poetry had been pushed away from. He wanted to bring poetry to a vast range of readers and had great faith in all readers. He altered his language and syntax so that his piece would be easily read. I would argue that Shelley does not bear this torch in the same manner. His language could become flowery and verbose. This does not take away from the substance or beauty of what he has created, it only separates certain readings from understanding his points. He also lacks faith in his reader, he believes in poetry as an elevated art. One that only a certain handful can truly comprehend and apply.

The other part that I noticed was Shelley’s use of imagination to create a persuasive argument around the value of poetry. I thought that his reference to the sciences and philosophy as an extension of the imagination used to create poetry was a very eloquent and demanding argument. By speaking the language of those that would normally demote his work, he pulls them into the argument so that they can have a common ground to debate on. And by pulling on concepts of rationalism and realism, he is able to show the value of the imagination as a universal.

I found Shelley’s radicalism so interesting throughout this poetry. He was feeling and powerful in his words about life and those he saw around him. In particular, his poetry about fellow poets shows his opinions so distinctly. He expresses his own political and emotional views through talking of others in both a positive and negative light. But then he is able to counter this realism with a sense of dreaming and the supernatural. Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude shows this dreamlike quality that Shelley is so able to provide. The entire poem moves like a lucid dream, through the character’s own dreams and even when the character is outside of his dream scape. Lines 470-493 takes on the senses to really integrate the reader into the poem by showing them what they can see, hear, and feel.

The poem I really liked the most was Mutability because of how even in such a short space of lines, so much of the human identity is touched on. He shows how humanity is founded in the ability for people to adjust themselves to their situations. We are able to keep moving forward and that is incredibly unique. It may not be easy, actually it will probably be very difficult, but that does not mean that it is not valuable.

This text was interesting in that from this class and classes I’ve taken before it, I know the influence of this poem is really powerful. However, I found myself not as moved by this text as I have been by other pieces by Byron and other poets we have read this semester. Manfred is as compelling of a character, as he isn’t. He comes across as widely self-centered/motivated and uses his power for the sole good of himself. Even though, this good really isn’t all that good for himself as he is depressed and falls into the trap of his own rationale. The end of the first act shows this in full force as his monologue digresses around what makes a man a man, what aging means, and what death will look like for him.

At the end of this, what I find more compelling is the creation that this piece was able to spark in others.

Lord Byron, you naughty man, is really quite something. He has the charisma and the wits to develop something like Don Juan and make it compelling. Yes there are many issues with race, gender, and class that appear within the text. Describing someone as better (physically and morally) because they have been spared from the dark attributes of the Jew and Muslim, is probably not in the best taste. And describing women in the way he does, overly sexualizing them, is also maybe not in the best taste.

However, what is rewarding from Lord Byron’s work is his keen ability to point out and satirize ironies, hypocrisies, and the gossip that is apart of his world. He has very little shame in being able to speak his mind and making sure everyone knows exactly what he thinks about them. It makes me wonder about the initial reception of this piece from his peers, like Wordsworth and Coleridge. Did they find it offensive? Or was it as funny to them, as I find it today? Also what did his wife think, I don’t see her thinking too fondly of her portrayal?

After reading this section of Coleridge’s poetry, it really showed me the gothic elements that can be found in Romanticism. Cristabel, in particular, represents a lot of the Gothic elements that I noticed. In this we have a heroine in the form of a powerful Baron’s daughter, who comes into contact with a woman with some supernatural elements. All the characters for a Gothic piece are in play as the poem goes along. The past haunts the present in the form of Geraldine coming to meet the Baron, as he is reminded of her father, his old friend.

The part of the poem that was the most intriguing to me was the element of prayer and spells that seemed to go hand in hand with one another. The spells that were created really created an atmosphere of the Gothic and the mystical. It was difficult to understand how much the characters themselves believed in the magic. But they were influenced by the spells and their ability to pray as a way to connect with nature.

Fears in Solitude was the poem of Coleridge’s that really caught my eye throughout this reading. In this poem, I saw the present and thought how funny (depressing) it is that we are still dealing with the same issues that Coleridge saw in England during this time. Throughout this semester, we have read a lot of poetry centered on the conflict with France. Coleridge uses imagery and ration to argue against the conflict. He shows his reader the potential suffering they may have if complicit to the atrocities committed in war. My favorite is in lines 104-107:

“…Boys and girls,

And women, that would groan to see a child

Pull off an insect’s leg, all read of war,

The best amusement for our morning meal!”

And instantly, Coleridge has satirized the media consumption of the British individual, while also poignantly showing how desensitized to violence war makes us. When rationally, it would seem that we would become more understanding and internally harmed by the idea of violence anywhere near us. I really believe that this idea is so pertinent to our understanding of conflict today. We can simply scroll past a video or article of violence without much of a thought, we can write it off as if it is far away from us. Or we can read about it with passion and still go on with our days, untouched. Coleridge is highlighting something that he would’ve hoped would be solved by today, only for me to realize that we are not anywhere close to losing our ambivalence to conflict. We favor what we are told to favor, without thought of the truth. We support our country no matter what. And like Coleridge goes on to say, national pride is not a complete evil but is something that should promote more than just violence. National pride should represent more than our ability to wage war against an adversary, we should rally around the flag outside of the concept of warfare.

I thought it was interesting that this section used a lot of Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals and smaller essays. It really showed a different side about what we are studying and how it impacted lives during the time this material was being written. I found that Dorothy Wordsworth’s details were incredibly beautiful, especially her descriptions of the nature around her and the people she encountered.

She clearly had a keen eye for details of what and who was around her. I really feel like this is why she was such an integral part of her brother and Coleridge’s poetic thought. I was very interested in her perceptions of poverty and class that were around her. She really humanized the impoverished people around her by giving them descriptions of more than just their class. They were given faces and emotions within her journals and within her poetry. Her writing is also clearly romantic in their essence because she shows her sense of reflection, understanding, nature, and individuality within the community.

The Two-Part Prelude is a long poem of Wordsworth’s that discusses his relationship with memory, death, growing up, and his role as the poet.

In the first part, it is clear that Wordsworth has been affected by the deaths around him. He intertwines these deaths, almost, like markers of time passing. In doing this, he is able to show his own naïvety as a young boy and how that is chipped away with grief and loss. Line 357, “I looked in such anxiety of hope,” in particular highlights this event. In this moment, he looks upon his father’s grave and sees himself hopeful for the future as he is becoming an adult but also set off kilter by the sudden loss of his father. The “anxiety of hope” is something that I think many people can empathize with as they are growing up. Wordsworth’s acknowledgement of this shows his deep passion for understanding and valuing childhood as a way of being able to reflect upon oneself in the present.

The idea of memory is also intrinsically tied in with the idea of loss. I believe this is done quite poignantly. Memory is and will always be something that is lost, we can never have that moment in the present again. It will always be something of the past that we may enter back into in the present but for a limited, secluded period of time. Wordsworth shows in his poem that the loss of the present and its movement into memory is something that we should value. We ought to be glad that these memories can be called upon because of how they may aid us in figuring out who we are in the present and as change comes closer.