Comparison and Contrast of Major English Romantic Poets——On Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats

阴山学刊 2009年12月 第22卷第6期 Dec. 2009 Vol. 22 No. 6 YINSHAN ACADEMIC JOURNAL Comparison and Contrast of Major English Romantic Poets     On Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats 郭勇丽、张书慧2 (1.包头师范学院外国语学院,内蒙古包头014030; 2.内蒙古师范大学外国语学院，内蒙古呼和浩特010022) 摘要:华兹华斯、拜伦、雪莱和济慈是杰出的英国浪漫主义诗人。作为同一个文学流派的诗人,他们都 崇尚自然，强调个性解放，并且具有丰富的想象力与非凡的创造力。然而，除了这些公认的共同点之外，更重 要的是,他们的诗作在主題、題材、艺术手法等方面体现出诸多不同之处。正是这些反映他们个性特点的不同 之处使得他们在英国及世界文学史上更加卓而不群。 关键词：英国浪漫主义诗人；自然;个人主义;想象力；象征 中图分类号:1106.2文献标识码:A文章编号= 1004-1869(2009)06 - 0075 - 06 作者简介：郭勇丽（1974-),女，内蒙古包头人,硕士，包头师范学院外国语学院讲师， 论文 政研论文下载论文大学下载论文大学下载关于长拳的论文浙大论文封面下载 有《内蒙古自治区蒙汉双语 人语言关窺探》等。 I. Introduction William Wordsworth, George Gorden, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats are all outstanding English romantic poets. As members of the same literary school, they share a lot of things in common. However, as individual writers, they are quite distinct from one another. In this paper, the similarities and differences of these romantic poets are dealt with through a close examination of their works. Here the similarities are found to be their advocacy of individualism rather than social conformity, their embrace- ment of the unity of nature and heart，and their peculiar imagination and singular creativity. Nevertheless, in this paper, we will chiefly focus on the differences in theme, subject matter and craftsmanship embodied in the poetic works of these major romantic poets. EL Three similarities in the poetry of the major English romantic poets 1. Emphasis on individualism rather than social conformity First of all, one of the most important developments of English Romanticism was the rise in the importance of individualism. As the Industry Revolution and the French Revolution broke the conventional way of life among the English people，new patterns of life brought about great changes in the social and economic situation as well as in arts. Unlike the neoclassical writers and poets, English Romanticists pursued their individual taste in a way not possible before. They stressed the specialty of every individual rather than human history as a whole. Thus, it shifted people ’ s attention from the outside world to the inner mind of every individual. 2, Union of nature and human heart From the analysis of the development of individualism ,we find that English romantic poets actually placed the individual at the center of the world. They thought literary works should give full play to human ’ s emotions and attitudes. On the other hand, they believed that nature, internalized in their minds, had the force to control human emotions. Nature was also the spring for purifying one * s mind and the channel of communication between the human and the divine. So Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats all emphasized the mutual dependence of human heart and nature in their works. 3. Strong imagination and singular creativity Besides, the imagination and creativity played an important role in Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats ’ s poetry. Thanks to their marvelous imagination and singular creativity, forceful and vivid verbal images are presented by the poets right before us, which gives us much strength to look forward to nature, beauty and wisdom. Moreover, English romantic poets relied on their sharp observation to look for inspirations from the common things. It was proven that because Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats had such strong imagination and powerful creativity, commonplace things such as the daffodil, the sea, the west wind and the nightingale were endowed with new meanings and brought more speculations for readers. HI. Differences in theme, subject matter and craftsmanship 1. Different themes and subject matters resulting from their different personal experiences William Wordsworth was bom in 1770 in a lawyer? s family. His mother died when he was eight years old and, six years later, his father followed. He was under the charge of a relative and educated in a school near the beautiful Lake District at Hawkshead in Northwestern England. From then on, he was attracted more by flowers, hills and birds than by his textbooks. Soon, he went to study in Cambridge University. He showed much concern for the French Revolution and plunged himself in it later. However, the bloodshed and cruel behavior of the radicals in the French Revolution made him begin to doubt the meaning of revolution* Gradually, he became conservative. He chose to live in the Lake District far away from society, which seemed evil to him. In his point of view, nature is an educator because it could soothe one，s heart and spirit and it was the important source of one，s inspiration. In his poem 1 Wandered Lonely as a Cloud，he showed his deep love for nature because it could bring pleasure and consolation to the poet. Nature embodied in this poem as daffodil can comfort the distinctively uneasy poet and give him much strength to confront with the tedious reality. Unlike Wordsworth, Byron gave us a different def- 76 inition of nature. George Gorden, Lord Byron was bom in a disadvantaged noble family in London in 1788. He had an irresponsible father and sensitive mother. His childhood was far from happy because of his family atmosphere and his disability. At ten, he inherited the lordship by the death of his great uncle. He became a wealthy man. He published a series of political poems, which were criticized by the authority. He was forced to leave England. Afterwards, he visited Portugal, Spain, Albania, Greece and Turkey in two years, which gave him much poetical material in his poetry. Byron took fancy for the tranquilizing scenes of nature. Compared with Wordsworth, Byron defines nature as something that would bring a calm and peaceful state to a poet rather than Wordsworth’s passion recollected in tranquility. In Canto IV of Childe Harold Pilgrimage ,he gave an expression to his desired appearance of nature, which serves as a force counterbalancing human society, also has the marvelous power to help people overcome man，s weakness.