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Topic: Changing Trends in Poetry from Romantic Era till Modern ABSTRACT This paper aims at viewing the trends of poetry in the Romantic, Victorian and Modern ages and highlighting the differences. The Romantics are more concerned with man in relation to nature. The tone of the Victorians is elegiac which shows the lamentation of lost connection between man and nature. The Victorians depicted the doubt of their age. The Modern poets depicted the chaos and turmoil of the modern world. World War I dislodged the beliefs of the modern man and it is clear in the poetry of the era. There is a change in theme, form and diction in all these ages.

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The age which relived and revived the romanticism of Elizabethan Era was the Romantic Age which began roughly with the publication of Lyrical ballads in 1798. Romanticism followed the age of Enlightenment and Neo-Classicism. Towards the end of 18th century, in a reaction against Enlightenment ideas, feeling began to be considered more important than reason, both in literature and in ethics. The early Romantic period coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions"--including, of course, the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions--an age of upheavals in political, economic, and social traditions, the age which witnessed the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution. A revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry (and all art), but the very way we perceive the world. It elevated the individual, the passions, and the inner life, embracing a more dramatic, personal, and emotional style--even to the point of melancholic emotion. Romantic Age The Romantic period stands between and connects the Enlightenments promotion of commerce, reason, and liberty and the Victorian experience of industrialization and empire. Romanticism in both artistic production and cultural reception elevated aesthetic practice to an almost divine activity, a realm wherein the individual might forge his or her very self as an ethical, political, and creative being. Characteristics of Romantic Poetry: Romantic poets wrote about the marvelous and supernatural, the exotic, and the medieval. But they also found beauty in the lives of simple rural people and aspects of the everyday world. Another important subject of the Romantics was nostalgia. The main characteristics of Romantic poetry are: Interest in the common man and childhood

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Romantics believed in the natural goodness of humans which is hindered by the urban life of civilization. They believed that the savage is noble, childhood is good and the emotions inspired by both beliefs causes the heart to soar. Humble, rustic subject matter & plain style became the principal subject & medium of poetry. Poets sought to refresh readers sense of wonder about the ordinary things of existence, to make the old world seem new. Strong senses, emotions, and feelings Romantics believed that knowledge is gained through intuition rather than deduction. This is best summed up by Wordsworth who stated that all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Supernatural and Strange Many romantic poems explore the realm of mystery & magic; incorporate materials from folklore, superstition, etc.; & are often set in distant or faraway places. There was a renewed interest in the middle-ages (and the ballad form) as a beautiful, exotic, mysterious bygone era. There was also great interest in unusual modes of experience, such as visionary states of conscious-ness, hypnotism, dreams, drug-induced states, and so forth. Awe of nature Romantics stressed the awe of nature in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection with nature. Romantics rejected the rationalization of nature by the previous thinkers of the Enlightenment period. They tried to give accurate observation & description of wild nature, which serves as a stimulus to thinking & to the resolution of personal problems & crises. In their poetry, landscape was often given human qualities or seen as a sys-tem of symbols revealing the nature of God. Closeness to nature was seen as bringing out humanitys innate goodness. "Nature" meant many things to the Romantics. It was often presented as itself a work of art, constructed by a divine imagination, in emblematic language. Nature was seen as:

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a healing power, a source of subject and image for poetry , a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization, including artificial language, an organically unified whole.

It was viewed as "organic," rather than, as in the scientific or rationalist view, as a system of "mechanical" laws. Romantic nature poetry is essentially a poetry of meditation Symbolism It is a way of expressing so much in so little. The use of symbolism in literature allows derivation of different meanings from a single expression. Symbolism rouses the curiosity of readers and also adds a kind of enigma to the expressions or thoughts of the poet. Representing a particular thing allegorically, lies at the core of symbolism. Repetitive presentation of an object or character is one of the ways in which symbolism is depicted in poetry. Pastoral Life The pastoral life, culture and traditions are mentioned on a frequent basis in romantic poetry. In most cases, the relaxed and slow-paced pastoral life of shepherds is depicted in these poems. Romantic poetry employs this feature in order to present before readers the complexities of life in a simple manner. Contrasting features of country and urban life can also be depicted by the portrayal of pastoral life. Individualism Human beings were seen as essentially noble & good (though corrupted by society), and as possessing great power & potential that had formerly been ascribed only to god. There was a great belief in democratic ideals, concern for human liberty, & a great outcry against various forms of tyranny. The human mind was seen as creating (at least in part) the world around it, and as having access to the infinite via the faculty of imagination. The romantics

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refused to accept limitations, human beings set infinite, inaccessible goals, thus making failure & imperfection glorious accomplishments. This refusal to accept limitations found expression in bold poetic experimentation. Many writers deliberately isolated themselves from society to focus on their individual vision. The use of romanticism in literature appeals to our dreamy inner-self. It helps us transcend the boundaries that are set by rational thinking. It helps us understand the wholesome truth instead of just making conclusions on what we see or derive by logical reasoning. There are so many things in this world beyond our understanding. We can say that the urge to known the unknown is expressed in the form of romantic poetry. Victorian Age Victorian age refers to the era ruled by Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There was no great war in Europe during this period. It was an age of political peace and economic prosperity. All sections of the people were benefitted by the all-round material progress in the country. Transport, communication, medicine, science and electricity, considerable advancement was seen in every field. Science helped the people in many ways. Owing to the progress of science and industry, the Victorian period became an age of intellectual unrest and restless questioning. People lost faith in religion. The spread of Education accelerated the intellectual growth of the people. New scientific theories like those of Darwin revolutionized the altitude of the people. People began to question the authenticity of the stories recorded in the Bible. Victorian Age dwindled into an age of doubts and disputes, restlessness, skepticism and psychological complexity. Science could not be accepted as a substitute for religion. The age was half way between realism and romanticism, materialism and spiritualism, peace and the unrest, science and religion, conservation and liberalism, and mechanism and humanism. 'We are between two worlds' said Arnold "one dead, the other powerless to be born'. Politically, Victorian Age was an age of reforms. The Victorians generally adopted an

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attitude of complacency. They desired to maintain the status quo, because everything was quite satisfactory. They could not give up the conventional morality or religious practices. They tried to reconcile religious dogma and scientific truth. Thus it was an age of compromise. On the whole, the Victorian Age was a period of peace and prosperity, scientific progress and imperial expansion. Characteristics of Victorian Poetry Realism Realism, in the broader sense, rejects imaginative idealization in favor of a close observation of outward appearances. Realism emerged as a form of fictional literature that attempted to capture the qualities of real people and events. The Victorians did not follow the exact lines of realism. Their realism came as a reaction to the extreme imagination of Romantic poets. They worked on the verge of realism and their works still employed romantic elements but they pursued realism with believability of characters, plot, or narrative style. For example, in the poem The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alferd Tennyson we find realism. He depicts a scene of Crimean War which was fought between Russian and Britain during 1853-56. He says: Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. (Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade) The event described is taken from a real event during the war when the Britain brigade fearlessly charged against the Russian forces. Another example of realism can be observed in Robert Brownings poem Duchess in the speech of Duke: Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, My Last

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Wheneer I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. (Browning, My Last Duchess) Here we see that the Duke is talking about the death of his last duchess and the events that led to it. The presentation of the incident is realistic. From the above references we can get an idea about the realism of Victorian literature. Conflict between Science and Religion In the Victorian era, a vast conflict occurred between science and religion because of the publication of Darwins Origin of Species. In his book, Darwin claimed that human beings originated from the apes. This shook the faith of people in religion. Besides this, the industrial revolution caused rapid growth of factories, mills and industries and this material growth affected the thinking of people. Science brought new inventions which, while doing them good, made them mechanized. They became more interested in material welfare than religion. This conflict also affected the minds of the poets and showed through their poetry. Tennyson, for example, adopted a compromising attitude_ he neither yielded to the crisis nor became carefree of the problems. The conflict of age is reflected in his poem In Memoriam, where he refers to the Natural Selection: Are God and Nature then in strife, That Nature lend such evil dreams? So careful of the type she seems, That I considering everywhere Her secret meaning in her deeds, She often brings out one to bear, I falter when I firmly trod (Tennyson, In Memoriam) Love and Romance

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Love and romance are major literary tendencies of the Victorian poetry. Although the Victorian people emphasized on morality and harbored a conservative outlook towards the relationship of men and women but the poetry of the era depicts passionate love. Especially the poetry of Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning contains some of the best love poems of Victorian literature. Alfred Tennyson also incorporated the theme of love and romance in his poetry. Faith in love is shown in his poem Viviens Song: In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours, Faith and unfaith can neer be equal powers: Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all. (Tennyson, Viviens Song) Robert Brownings Last Ride Together depicts the lovers who are pining away for their beloved. His idea of love is not like Romantics. He sees love as a relation capable of giving pain and pleasure. Pessimism Victorian pessimism is the outcome of a deep-seated spiritual disturbance to which the sensitive poets of the age were eminently prone. The age experienced a protracted battle between the advancing forces of science and agnosticism and the retreating forces of Christianity and faith which had been holding ground for times immemorial. While the tremendous advance of science destroyed much of the existing faith, it could not provide another spiritual anchor. Many thinkers and poets, then, felt lost. Pessimism of the Victorians arose from impersonal grounds, not subjective experience. They found themselves blundering between two worlds; one dead, The other powerless to be born, Arnold is the most consistently pessimistic of all the major Victorian poets. Much of his pessimism comes from his ill-adjustment to the changing conditions of his times. As has been said in the beginning, the advance of science in the Victorian age had given a rude

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shock to the body of Christian beliefs. This spiritual disturbance took the form of despairing pessimism. In Dover Beach he observes that "the Sea of Faith" has now withdrawn and the world as he sees it: Hath really neither joy, nor light, nor love, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain, And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant, armies clash by night. (Arnold, Dover Beach) Mysticism Mysticism is a belief in or the pursuit in the unification with the One or some other principle; the immediate consciousness of God; or the direct experience of religious truth. Mysticism is nearly universal and unites most religions in the quest for divinity. Browning is a seer, and pre-eminently a mystic. We see at once that the main position of Browning's belief is identical with what is said to be the characteristic of mysticismunity under diversity at the centre of all existence. The same essence, the one life, expresses itself through diversity of form. He dwells on this again and again: God is seen In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod. Tennyson's mysticism came, as it were, rather in spite of himself, and is based on one thing onlyexperience. He states his position quite clearly in In Memoriam, cxxiv. As is well known, he had from time to time a certain peculiar experience, which he describes fully both in prose and verse, a touch at intervals throughout his life of "ecstasy," and it was on this he based his deepest belief. This is described in In Memoriam, xcv.

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And all at once it seem'd at last The living soul was flash'd on mine, And mine in this was wound, and whirl'd About empyreal heights of thought, And came on that which is, and caught The deep pulsations of the world. (Tennyson, In Memoriam) Humanitarianism Humanitarianism is one of the most important aspects of Victorian literature. In its most general form, humanitarianism is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. No distinction is to be made in the face of human suffering or abuse on grounds of gender, caste, tribal, religious or national divisions. The social ideals in the poetry of Matthew Arnold are those of Victorian humanitarianism. In the poems of Robert Browning we also find the note of Humanitarianism as evident in his famous poem Andrea del Sarto. Morality Victorian literature is characterized by a strong sense of morality. Morality is defined through the traditional and religious standards that structure the way of life for many Victorians. Morality is held in such high regard by the Victorians that many of their works of literature are based upon the way one should morally live. Tennysons Idylls of the King is in part a hypothetical portrait of high idealism and strict morality of Victorian England. Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister by Robert Browning utilizes a dramatic monologue that provides aesthetic detail and moral values. The morality of the monk reflects the often hypocritical clerical view of Christianity. Nature

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Tennyson, Browning and Arnold lost an all-embracing enthusiasm for Nature like the Romantic poets. In the most cases the influence of Nature was on them wholesome and salutary, and symptomatic of spiritual unity of the universe. The Victorians were not able to maintain the confidence and optimist possible for the Romantics. On the one hand, as we shall see, science cultured a love for Nature in some ways as intense, as anything that one can recognize in previous centuries, but on the other hand, by stressing the mechanical and chemical aspects of natural process, it look away the magic and left no room for spiritual direction. Tennyson takes great interest in Nature. "In Memoriam" is one of the most outstanding poem that serves immense evidence of Tennyson's great interest in and love for Nature. In this poem there is calm and tranquil morning with the faded leaves, silvery gossamers, the crowded farms, ambrosial air, towering sycamore, bats went round in fragrant skies, the trees laid their dark arms about the field, the grey old orange, the lonely field, the ship walk up the windy world etc. the pictures of Nature in this poem give pleasure and sorrow, because the poet shows that moonlight not only falls upon the poet's bed but also on the dead friends grave in the church. Robert Browning also has a remarkable love of the color of nature. His vivid painting of brief landscapes, his minute observation, his flashing way of description, his feeling for the breadth and freshness of Nature, his love of flowers and animals, and the way he has of hitting and emphasizing the central point or light of a landscape is considerable. The first natural description he published is in the beginning of Pauline: Thou wilt remember one warm morn when winter Crept agd from the earth, and spring's first breath Blew soft from the moist hills; the blackthorn boughs,(Browning, Pauline)

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Symbolism Symbolism is something that has taken on a meaning beyond what the object actually is. For example the winter season is sometimes used as a symbol which represents aging, decay and death. Spring is often used to represent energy, birth and hope. In Robert Brownings My Last Duchess the portrait of the Duchess is a fresco, a type of work painted in watercolors directly on a plaster wall. The portrait symbolizes the dukes possessive and controlling nature in as much as the duchess has become an art object which he owns and controls. Matthew Arnold also uses symbolism in Dover Beach. In the poem the sea is both a symbol and metaphor, referencing the eternal note of sadness as well as the Sea of faith. The sea shows the fact that man float in their life on a series of waves that move up and down, that bring us close to happiness but only to pull us out again. Dove is a white bird that is often used as a symbol of peace. Arnold could turn this noun and symbol into an adjective, Dover_ The Peaceful beach. This fact highlights the idea of Gods light and white cliff of the Dover strait. Modern Age Twentieth century was an age of unstableness, wars and sharp contrast between the wealthy and the poor shattered the dreams of people who tended to seek an ideal equitable society. Meanwhile European society was experiencing great changes: two world wars broke the old social system. Modern poetry was born in such an era of change, which becomes central to any discussion of 20th century art and literature. The horrors of World War I (1914-19), with its accompanying atrocities and senselessness became the catalyst for the Modernist movement in literature and art. Modernist authors felt betrayed by the war, believing the institutions in which they were

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taught to believe had led the civilized world into a bloody conflict. They no longer considered these institutions as reliable means to access the meaning of life, and therefore turned within themselves to discover the answers. Modernist writers proclaimed a new "subject matter" for literature and they felt that their new way of looking at life required a new form, a new way of writing. Writers of this period tend to pursue more experimental and usually more highly individualistic forms of writing. The main features of the Modern Age are: Break with Tradition The modern poetry is marked with a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against the political, established religious and social views. The modern poets thought on a different level than their predecessors. They took poetry as a means to convey their ideas_ rather than just inspiring the senses. This can be clearly seen in the poetry of T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats. The Waste Land by Eliot conveys the idea of chaos and disharmony in the modern world. He says: Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge. (The Waste Land, Eliot) The above lines do not give an inspiring or romantic picture of the city. They show the mechanical routine of the people who have lost their purpose and seem to be unreal. The Second Coming by Yeats conveys the breaking of all the ideals and the chaos thus created. He responds sharply to the situation of the modern world and says: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, (Second Coming, Yeats) 60

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Yeats very clearly tells the situation of modern world. There is chaos all around. The religion seems to be missing and there is no harmony. Experimentation in Form and Style There is a marked change in form and style in the modern poetry. The modernists used free verse or 'vers libre'. The poets no longer stick to the old forms of poetry. They laid stress on ideas rather than form. The new form also shows the de-centered modern world. The free verse is used by Eliot in Love Song of J. Alferd Prufrock: The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent (Eliot, Love Song of J. Alferd Prufrock)

The modernists are keen to convey the problems of their age than looking for style. Ezra Pound remarked: 'To Break the Pentameter, that was the first heave'. The fragmentation in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Ezra Pound's Cantos is an innovation never used by the Romantics or the Victorians. They were more flexible in the length of poetic lines. Alliteration and assonance were used massively. There is no traditional meter and no rhyme scheme. There is a frequent use of visual images in the poetry of Ezra Pound: The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. (Pound, A Station in the Metro) Sense of Alienation and Loss The frequent theme for the modern poets was of alienation and loss. In a modernist poem the speaker himself is uncertain about his or her own ontological bearings. The speaker of modernist poems characteristically wrestles with the fundamental question of self, often feeling fragmented and alienated from the world around him. In other words, a coherent

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speaker with a clear sense of himself/herself is hard to find in modernist poetry, often leaving readers confused and lost. Such ontological feelings of fragmentation and alienation, which often led to a more pessimistic and bleak outlook on life as manifested in representative modernist poems such as T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, were prompted by fundamental and farreaching historical, social, cultural, and economic changes in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The rise of cities; profound technological changes in transportation, architecture, and engineering; a rising population that engendered crowds and chaos in public spaces; and a growing sense of mass markets often made individuals feel less individual and more alienated, fragmented, and at a loss in their daily worlds. World War I (WWI), moreover, contributed to a more modern local and world view. Subjective Perception of Reality The modern poets were very much impressed by the new philosophies and scientific knowledge. They did not proclaim the ideas of absolute good or absolute truth which prevailed in the Romantics and the Victorians. The modern poetry is subjective but it is not necessarily emotional. The modern poet does not use the poem as a means to give voice to his inner experiences but rather uses the poem as a stage on which he enters as an actor in order to give a performance. There is therefore a degree of separation between the I of the poet and the I voice of the poem. The emotions which resonate in the poem are, therefore, performed emotions and not necessarily real ones, though they may emerge from the recollection of an emotional experience, the emotion recalled in tranquility. Concerned with Psychology The modern poets are keen to present the inner movement of the mind. The theories of Sigmund Freud influenced almost all the writings of this age. The poets tried to show the psychology of the modern man which is quite clear by the element of fear. The problems of

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modern man are material as well as psychological. Sailing to Byzantium by Yeats is a good example of the psychological situation of the poet. Conclusion There is a marked difference between the ages above discussed. The Romantics looked towards nature as an escape from their problems. The Victorians on the other hand saw nature as an opponent of man. The modernists do not even look at nature because their problems are the problems of material world on the political scene. The inner turmoil of the modern man is financial crisis. The thinking styles of the ages are different and their form is different. The Romantics looked for an escape, the Victorians tried to find their existence in the world and the Modern poets find themselves alienated and forlorn in the world. The poetic diction too changed with the passage of time. The Romantics used rural language to establish a connection with nature but the Victorians and the Moderns were more concerned with ideas than language. The main idea in Romanticism was nature and mans connection with nature which was losing control at that time, the Victorians lamented the lost connection with nature and were in doubt about the new relation with machines and the Modernists were bewildered by the intervention of machinery and the loss of center. In fine the poetry in the Romantic era is a far cry from the Modern poetry in form, diction, themes and problems.

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