Romanticizing the Romantics

When I first started studying the British Romantics I was all about William Wordsworth, and more specifically his "Lucy" poems. There was something gloomy and magical about the poems, and I liked the themes of death, unrequited love and longing that were embedded in the works. I had taken to memorizing these poems and while traveling in Ireland with my father several years ago I decided to recite my favorite of the Lucy poems, "She dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" (probably one of his more melodramatic poems, but I didn't see it that way at the time). My father and I were standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean and the wind was blowing ferociously and the scenery all around was so green and natural, I just felt inspired:

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy tone
Half hidden from the eye!
-- Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

After I recited the poem I looked at my dad and he didn't really know what to say except, "I can see why you like that poem." Yeah, I was going through a gothic phase and I was totally obsessed with mortality and the idea that art comes from a dark and tortured place, so I really fed into the Romanticists. They all saw beauty in the natural world, idealized the innocence of childhood, and made me feel less weird for embracing gloom. Reading their work awakened an ardent desire in me to write better poetry.



Although Wordsworth was my first favorite, I quickly found myself in a one-sided love affair with the elusive and brooding Lord Byron. Just look at that face, oh so handsome-- I loved him, clubbed foot and all. It was a one-sided affair, of course, because he was dead, but I would still pretend when reading his poems that they were intended for me. I think I was more captivated by his notoriety in his time and the scandals that he created than I was by his actual poetry. Maybe there were one or two Byron poems that I really liked, but the fact that he was such a controversial character endeared me more to him.

My current favorite of the British Romantics is William Blake, the visionary-- as in, he literally had visions-- artist and poet who was very much ahead of his time. I am a fan of outsider artists and the more I learn about Blake, the more I have come to appreciate his work. William Blake was definitely a little out there, so to speak, and even now people would probably call his mannerisms a little unorthodox. The man invented "free love" two-hundred years before the hippies decided they were going to take over.



For Christmas I bought a copy of Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" for my boyfriend, knowing he would love the artwork of the plates, and perhaps he might even like the words written on them. I also thought it would be a funny gift, as if to say "This is about us. You are the heavenly stability and I'm the demonic pent-up energy and together we form a balance." Wonder if he read it that way...