Percy Shelley has always been one of my favorite poets, but I had never looked at him through the lense which I am able to apply to him now, because I know his quote describing Romantic poets and prose writers (a.k.a. the title of this blog!) Shelley's specification of the fact that the Romantics are "unacknowledged" is a rather jarring and saddening fact which he then follows with the firm and proud affirmation that they are, nonetheless, the "legislators of the world." (Possibly moreso because of their lack of recognition? Through oppression often comes the greatest inspiration, as we have seen throughout history with slave songs moving into blues, and refugees overcoming their unbearably traumatic struggles by always keeping faith and hope in their hearts that the world will get better for them. Etc.) There seems to be a pattern in history of the greatest artists being unrecognized during their own time, and then later revered (after their deaths, and in some cases a very long time after their deaths) as being "ahead of their time." I have always wondered why this is the case. Why does the present blind observers and audiences to true works of genius? Being ahead of his time is definitely an attribute I would give to Percy Shelley, and when I read his poetry it is abundantly clear and eerie just how insightful and intelligent he truly was. The word 'legislator,' containing the Latin 'legis' stemming from 'lex' or 'law' when translated. Thus, it is hard to ascertain why Shelley would choose such a word to describe the Romantic sect. 'Lator' means 'proposer' which gives the word 'legislator' its completion and authority. Perhaps Shelley is word-playing on the 'laws' of nature which are so often discussed in Romantic poetry. Looking further into the meaning of the word, as Latin has many agent nouns and several connections, 'lator' has the twin 'latus' which means 'borne, brought, or carried'. When these words are applied to Shelley's quote, his idea takes on a new meaning. The carriers of the world. The bearers of the world. The bringers-forth of the world. With their poetry and prose, Romantic poets truly encompassed every overwhelming sense, sight, and feeling experienced in the world and in the mind, from love to nature to death to inspiration, and many more. They shed light on and eloquently describe that which is hardest to describe. They give birth, through their words, to thought and feeling that already exists in the world, but which would remain mostly veiled without their insight.
--I will not write anything after this excerpt is included in this post, because it is truly moving and says everything for itself--
In Shelley's "A New World," he writes:
Oh, write no more the tale of Troy,
If earth Death's scroll must be!
Nor mix with Laian rage the joy
Which dawns upon the free:
Altho' a subtler Sphinx renew
Riddles of death Thebes never knew.
Another Athens shall arise,
And to remoter time
Bequeath, like sunset to the skies,
The splendor of its prime;
And leave, if naught so bright may live,
All earth can take or Heaven can give.
Saturn and Love their long repose
Shall burst, more bright and good
Than all who fell, than One who rose,
Than many unsubdued:
Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers,
But votive tears and symbol flowers.
Oh, cease! must hate and death return?
Cease! must men kill and die?
Cease! drain not to its dregs the urn
Of bitter prophecy.
The world is weary of the past,
Oh, might it die or rest at last!
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Thank you for the Latin explanations! I never thought about the close connection to 'latus', and indeed, this totally changes the meaning of the word 'legislator'. This fits to Wordsworth' opinion of the poet as a translator.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, the first meaning of legislator (creating law) is true as well.
1.: I got the impression that a lot of the Romantics saw themselves as 'special', in a higer position than the 'common man' (although this phrase is complicated as Wordsworth redefined it), gifted, thus with an extraordinary power to see and recognize the world.
2.: Many of the Romantics created 'new laws' in some sense (especially Blake in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" where everything is inverted). And maybe it is because of this that most of them where unacknowledged. They created laws, opinions etc. which were too radical, new, unknown, unthinkable (literally and figurative). I cannot answer the question why some people are ahead of time. But I am convinced that certain ideas need time to grow, develop etc. - and this could be a reason why the Romantics might not be understood in lifetime.