Romantics in the 21st Century

While I'm not posting to ruminate on a particular work or a specific notion, I am posting to articulate how absolutely blown away I am by the reflections you all have posted to this blog. Rereading all of your posts and comments on Halloween day was neither spooky nor tricky--but it was undoubtedly a treat! I chose to reread them in order: from earliest to latest post. First and foremost, the camaraderie that has emerged is laudable. Working through your ideas candidly and respectfully is no easy task, but the insights and reflections that have emerged are high in value. They challenge each other (and myself) to revisit the works we've read; but they also highlight the possibility in works we have not. I was thrilled to read that some of you chose to investigate the Romantic poets we're discussing beyond the confines of the syllabus--i.e. beyond those titles listed. And I enjoyed reading some of your original poems, as well. For those of you who are a bit more shy in this medium (or have not been keeping up with the deadlines--you know who you are), please take the second half of this course to find your voice.

While the Romantics can certainly be described in all the ways (positive, negative and neutral) that many of you have written about, I also wonder if we can simultaneously break down all the complexities in order to realize Romantic poetry and prose as an exercise in voice, in articulation... within a specific place and time. Perhaps the Romantics confronted their world as if an experiment. Could we not think of Romantic works as experiments in representation? As efforts to image (not simply imagine) the world in which we live--physically, intellectually, spiritually. In this way, the Romantic Era can become a less "othered", less "fragmented" period; instead, it becomes, in the terms of M. H. Abrams, a mirror and a lamp. In other words, Romanticism both reflects and enlightens. It challenges preconceptions and urges rereadings "recollected in tranquility" (something I gather from the posts is more the exception than the standard in our lives).

As you continue to read and write, think on what Shelley might be saying when he describes poets as "the unacknowledged legislators of the world." And, by extension, what it means for you to act/write as the same...