I have to pick up a thought which I wrote in my last Blog entry because I still have to think about it – or maybe even more. It is the thought how the Romantics influence my way of thinking and how I see the world.
In Germany I study ‘Applied Literary and Cultural Studies’ as a major and ‘Music’ and Journalism/mass communication’ as minors. I chose this because I was looking for something that deals with Literature and Music. So this seemed to be a good solution. In this field of study there are a lot of practical classes where we learn how to organize a lecture etc. However, I more and more get the feeling that I lack in some basics. Maybe it is because we are very free to choose the classes we want to. But after a while I realized that I need the basics, that I want to know the important literary epochs. I do not need them for my study but for myself. (Eventually I should have chosen Literary Studies instead of “Applied….” ?). And so I decided to take the Romanticsm class. My expectations were very …how to say…fact-orientated? You know, at school you learn to identify a literary work and its epoche by several characteristics etc. And now? Now I am caught by the Romantic poets and their thoughts, I really try to understand what they were writing about (and it feels so much better than only learning characteristics and attributes although it is much more difficult). Some lyrics are just beautiful, some complicated (cf. Beachy Head, Marriage of Heaven and Hell), some timeless – and some thoughts are also questionable but it is worth to think about them. Somehow the Romantic thoughts touch, affect, influence me. I still have to figure this out. I even started to redefine my intellectual concept. I really adore that and how certain people reflect(ed) on their world ort he world at all. And I questioned myself if I should not start to think about it as well instead of ‘drifting along’. I begun to reread Kant and went to the library to borrow Goethe’s “Faust” – which I enjoyed when I read it at school. This is a starting point. By reading, reflecting on and hopefully understanding these and other works I try to…honestly, I still do not really know but I try to get a better understanding of the world…
There is one more thing I had to think about: I went to a Waldorf School. Every morning we had to speak the following morning verse:
I gaze into the world
in which the sun is shining
in which the stars are sparkling
in which the stones repose
where living plants are growing
where sentient beasts are living
where man soul gifted gives
the spirit a dwelling place
I gaze into my soul
that lives within my being
the world creator weaves
in sunlight and in soul light
in world space therewithout
in soul depths herewithin
to thee creator spirit
i will now turn my heart
to ask that the strength and the blessing
to learn and to work
may grow within my innermost being.
By Rudolf Steiner
I did not really think about the meaning when I was a teenager. But now, almost 3 years after I finished school I remember this verse and start to think about it. And I believe it was/is a try to make us aware of the world in its whole creation… it is another way to describe the way, different from Wordsworth’s or any other Romantic poet but still a way.
I have a huge amount of work and reading to do, I know, but it feels good, I feel good when I think about it; it feels right at the very moment.
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I think the beauty of literature, romantic or not, is that it deals with human emotions, the basics. Romanticism goes back to the basics (i.e. nature), which lends itself to timelessness. Your poem was not applicable then to you, but years later it is. You said it feels good to think about these things; I think it is because this is part of who we are, as people and as an individual. We get so bogged down in the facts everyday (especially in school) that we forget about the bigger picture. Romanticism becomes very influential to me (and it seems to you) because it gives us an excuse to stop and explore the realms of our imagination and reality.
ReplyDeleteWow, I really appreciate that a primary or high school has that sort of philosophy! That's really beautiful, and its interesting that it did not settle in for you until you were older with more experience to recognize its importance. I feel that way with the Romantics, like I had that moment in the park where it hit me "I am having a romantic reflection; wait come to think of it, I have a fairly romantic frame of mind so much of the time! whoa!" And I had really been struggling with them up until that point, and to a degree still am. It was still a great revelation to have.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had read Kant or Goethe earlier on, because I feel it would give so much more context to what we are reading now; the ideas become a universal thread connecting all things, and I simply LOVE to see and understand how ideas and movements and epochs influence one another and the people of each generation.
Perhaps it some how illuminates that deep timeless question of the nature of humanity, and I get nerdly excited researching how different types of people and different generations and different modes of information and learning approach this question or endeavor this quest.
I too have a huge amount of work to do, reading, understanding, asking questions. For me I have set up a few foundational long term goals for myself: To learn what makes me happy and follow it; to be of use, and discover in what way I can best affect the world; and to read enough and delve deeply enough into those who have asked the same questions before me to enrich my mind and soul and to communicate intelligently about it.
I can say that's why I appreciate studying English.