The Ages Of Poetry Essay, Research Paper

The English Romantic poets of the nineteenth Century had a construct about nature that, over a century subsequently, appears in the poesy of today. These poets have had a important influence on the attitude and vocabulary a modern-day poet utilizations. Among the modern-day poets, Dana Gioia, in his two verse forms, “ Becoming a Redwood, ” and “ Rough State, ” has drawn on the thought of the artlessness and stainless portion of nature that parallels the Romantic poesy of William Wordsworth and William Blake in their verse forms “ Nutting, ” and “ The Tyger. ” Besides, Gioia has captured the wild-like and untamable demeanour of nature that many English Romantics have likewise captured. Finally, Gioia uses the construct of the sublime in his poesy to the extent that nature becomes unsafe to worlds.

Many English Romantic poets have written about the inexperienced person and pureness that can be found in nature. In Wordsworth & # 8217 ; s “ Nutting, ” he remarks on the beauty of the artlessness of an “ unvisited ” nook his character discovers. Wordsworth writes, “ Unvisited, where non a broken bough / Drooped with its shriveled foliages, ungracious mark / Of desolation ; but the Pomaderris apetalas rose / tall and vertical, with alluring bunchs hung, / A virgin scene! ” ( Ln17-31 ) Wordsworth is noticing on the artlessness and beauty of nature without human invasion. This Romantic construct of artlessness analogues Gioia in his verse form “ Rough State. ” He writes, “ a topographic point so difficult to make that no 1 comes & # 8211 ; / a hiding topographic point, a shrine for darning needles / and nesting Jaies, a mark that there is still / one piece of belongings that won & # 8217 ; t be owned. ” ( 17-20 ) This last line implies that this portion of nature will stay untasted, this portion of nature will stay pure and guiltless, and a Romantic construct of nature that even Gioia has adopted in his poesy.

Another construct that the English Romantics held about nature was that nature is wild and untamable. This wild-like facet of nature is described in William Blake & # 8217 ; s “ The Tyger. ” Blake writes, “ Tyger, Tyger / Burning bright / In the woods of the dark / What immortal manus or oculus / Dare frame thy fearful symmetricalness? ” ( 1-4 ) Blake creates this image of the Tyger as a wild animal, an untamable animal of the wood, and thereby composes nature the same manner. Gioia in many ways parallels this position in his verse form. In his verse form “ Rough State, ” nature is viewed as “ a topographic point no applied scientists can get the hang, ” ( 6 ) ” a landscape made of obstructions / of steep hills and stick outing glacial stone. “ ( 1-2 ) This nature Gioia describes is non sweet and delicate or antic ; on the contrary, this attitude toward nature is ferocious and ferine. The landscape of the nature in this unsmooth state is non welcoming to human & # 8217 ; s pace, merely as the “ Tyger ” in William Blake & # 8217 ; s verse form would non be. In Gioia & # 8217 ; s “ Becoming a Redwood, ” a wild and wild animate being is besides found in this transition, “ Something moves nearby. Coyotes Hunt / these hills and battalions of ferine Canis familiariss. / But standing here accepts all that. ” ( 19-21 ) Both the Tyger and the prairie wolf have the inherent aptitude that embodies nature and both are wild animate beings. Gioia draws on the Romantic construct that there is wild freedom found in nature.

This construct of wild freedom and untamable nature can be more clearly seen through the enunciation of the verse forms. Wordsworth writes, “ At irritants, and brakes, and brambles, & # 8212 ; and, in truth, / More ragged than demand was! O & # 8217 ; er pathless stones, / T

hrough beds of matted fern, and tangled brushs, / Coercing my manner, I came to one beloved nook / Unvisited. ” ( 13-17 ) In Gioia’s “ Rough Country, ” he uses words like “ tangled ” ( 10 ) and “ distortion ” ( 13 ) and “ thorn midst undergrowth, ” ( 13 ) all of which Wordsworth uses in his verse form “ Nutting. ” Gioia writes, “ Where tall black short pantss of lightning-scalded pine / push through the tangled forests to do a roost / for hawks and swarming crows. / And crisp slopes / where writhing through the thorn-thick undergrowth. “ ( 9-14 ) In each transition, these poets present nature as something wild, rugged, and hard to steer merely through their chosen words.

There is besides a certain fright and regard of the natural state, the rugged, and the untamable portion of nature that can be seen in the verse form of the English Romantics. In Wordsworth & # 8217 ; s, “ The Preliminary: Book 1, 340-400, ” he talks about the powerful image of the extremum, “ a immense extremum, black and immense / as if with voluntary power inherent aptitude. ” ( 39-40 ) Introducing the construct of the sublime he writes, “ And turning still in stature and inexorable form / Towered up between me and the stars, and still, / For so it seemed, with intent of its ain / And mensural gesture like a living thing, / Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned. ” ( 42-46 ) The powerful presence of this mountain, and its inability to be controlled causes adult male to fear it, and therefore fear nature. William Blake can besides see the danger of nature in “ The Tyger. ” The Tyger represents a nefarious side to nature, one that is careless, and does non worry about adult male. He writes, “ In what distant deeps or skies / Burnt the fire of thine eyes? / On what wings daring he aspire? / What the manus daring prehend the fire? ” ( 5-8 ) This scaring facet of the sublime, one in which adult male is afraid yet in awe of the power of nature can be seen in the work of Gioia. In Gioia & # 8217 ; s, “ Becoming a Redwood, ” we are in awe of nature with the impressiveness of the looming redwood tree. Gioia writes, “ Impossible the redwoods on the far hill / rooted for centuries, the life wood adult tall / and thickened with a hundred thousand yearss of visible radiation. ” ( 13-15 ) With this luster the wild portion of nature implies that there is danger nearby. He writes, “ Part of the grass that answers the air current / portion of the midnight & # 8217 ; s wakefulness that knows / there is no silence but when danger comes. ” ( 25-27 ) This English Romantic construct of sublime that Gioia uses, makes worlds to non merely fear nature such as the Tyger or the mountains, but besides to keep high regard for its beauty and impressiveness.

It is interesting to see how much of our history really does reiterate itself. It is astonishing that even today, we are inquiring the same inquiries about nature and coming to similar decisions as people did in the nineteenth century. Its non that nature hasn & # 8217 ; t changed, but the attitudes toward nature still construct on many general English Romantic thoughts. Dana Gioia, in peculiar, has taken some of the same attitudes toward nature as the Romantics have ; he has developed the untamable and abandon of nature, the inexperienced person and virgin, every bit good as the sublime in his two verse forms, “ Becoming a Redwood, ” and “ Rough State. ” English Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and William Blake influence each of his verse form. Because of their strong influence on modern-day poets today, it would non be surprising to see their influence carry on in yet another century, and have the influence on poets for old ages to come.