The Confessional Aspect of Romantic Literature - Essay Example

CONFESSIONAL ASPECT OF ROMANTIC LITERATURE Confessional aspect of Romantic Literature Romantic literature of the Victorian period and the years preceding and succeeding this era was tinged with a closeted space of disclosure, concealment and it was joined to the role of the inquisitor and the victim. Many of the poets and authors drove the characters into a hetro-sexualised power relation that defines acts of confession. It must be noted here that the term confession is seen more in the light of a liberating spirit and should not be seen as an adverse form of domination. However, looking at women as confessional subjects would expose these discrepancies, as confession would imply guilt, responsibility and a type of non-straining agency. Again, confession here is not to be regarded as a subversion or submission but more as espousing of the inner self. . It should be again emphasised that some authors such as Mary Shelly makes use of the confessional aspect with a certain implied sexual theme (Bernstein, 1997). This aspect of confessional themes would be examined on the works of Blake, Wordsworth. Keats, Shelley and Byron. Blake, it has to be suggested was not a reformer in the social spheres likes Dockers and while he knew that society could exacerbate the process, confession was something that occurs to some extent in a human soul as it moves from infancy to childhood. In his collection of the Songs of Experience, Blake has formed a collection of a number of poems that have examined the nature of relations and confessions. In one of the poems called the Clod and the Pebble from the collection, the poet has used the clod and the pebbles as the confessional mouthpieces from where the opposing conception of love is understood. This poem is analysed deeply to understand how the Blake has used the element of Confession (Sagar, 1998). Blake says "Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell's despair". The despair that the clod from cattle’s feet is declared in this wonderful confession that it has made to the pebble of the brook. The clod is downtrodden, cast off from the hooves of the cattle, soft, malleable, shapeless and passive and it can be regarded as the long-suffering female. The pebble in the brook on the other hand is shapely, clean and impermeable. A quick reading would make us feel that the clod is confessing its version of love and relations to the cynical and wicked pebble. However, that is not the case as the clod here is attempting to build a heaven in hells despair that would be free from the cattle’s hooves or the pebbles cynics and there is no compromise. While it would possible for the clod to create its heaven, there would not be much available as delight as the clod is not something that can be admired. When the clod confesses its helplessness, it is showing a perverse relation between the exploiter or the pebble and the exploited or the clod and that the clod finds its measure in being degraded by the pebble. (Otto, 2001). The element of confession and helplessness can again be seen in another of Blakes poems 'The Fly' from the same collection. The poet says "Little Fly, Thy summer's play, My thoughtless hand Has brushed away. Am not I, A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me?". Blake clearly is confessing his fragility and helplessness and he speaks of the similarity between his own stature and that of the fly. Both man an the fly can be dominated by a higher and more powerful force and it thus comes to note that the relation is symbiotic (Otto, 2001). Wordsworth on the other hand jumps straight into confessional themes where he professes his love in his works such as The Prelude and Prospectus to the Recluse. To a certain extent, these works are semi autobiographical and the poet is speaking of his French Lady love whom he had to abandon in France. In his work called The Prelude, the poet says "[S]o dear, if I should fail with grateful voice to speak o you, ye mountains and ye lakes, and sounding cataracts...". In his works, there is a liberal use of words such as dear, pleasures, heart, domestic love, sorrow and other such confessional themes. Clearly, the poet is repenting his lost ladylove Annette Vallon for whom he is pining. England and France had an extremely strained relation in those days and Wordsworth could not openly profess his love for her or attempt to bring her back to England, even though they had a child (Hawkins, 1996). In work Prospectus to the Recluse, Wordsworth has delved into the Christian faith and concepts of divination. The poet attempts to use the confessional aspects of enlightenment traditions where gods are treated as superstitions that were created from feat and were occasionally theistic. He has examined the issue of Jehovah's expression through the excursion where is says “[A]ll strength, all terror, single or in bands, that ever was out forth by personal form Jehovah with his thunder and the choir .…” An important aspect to note here is that the work can be considered as a part of the romantic literary themes that the author has attempted to create (Kneale, 1999). In the Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth has expressed his romance and feelings for nature and any confessional statements that he has made is related to how he confesses his love for Tintern Abbey, a beautiful scenic beautiful spot. Wordsworth again has confessed his love for nature in a number of others poems such as the Daffodils. In the Tintern Abbey, he says ‘[W]hen these wild ecstasies shall be matured, Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind, Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms, Thy memory be as a dwelling-place...” There is some confusion here as one wonders if Wordsworth regards nature as a woman with a number of pleasures on offer and he as an explorer or a voyeur, would like to stand in seclusion and admire natural glory. However, it is to be understood that poets rampantly used symbolism in that era to describe anything from a morning sunrise to the sunset and to falling rain and likening it to the current mistress or lover. Hence there is always the element of the confessional and sometimes unrequited love that Wordsworth expresses. There is also the confessional statements when he attempts to link the wonders of the nature to the ordinary and dreary life to which he would have to return and this is the reason for much of his travails (Hawkins, 1996) Keats was a tormented soul who often used poetry to lavish his unfulfilled love and his tormented life. There were extended periods of internal conflicts and Ode to Psyche was an important poem that gave voice to all his pent up and conflicting emotions. The poem is a confession of the disillusionment and desperation that he faced to ease his pain and ties up any loose ends in a very dark and gloomy phase of his life. Keats had been inspired by stories and legends of the ancient Greeks and tended to regard them as awe inspiring and pure. Consequently, the poet wrote ae poem as an Ode to the goddess Psyche. In the opening stanza, Keats has brought up two magical creatures who are presumably consumed by love and it can be interpreted that Keats is making a confession about his will and love for the creates. He says "[S]urely I dreamt to-day, or did I see, The winged Psyche with awaken’d eyes?, I wander’d in a forest thoughtlessly, And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise, Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side". It is obvious that Keats is so besotted with the creatures that he confesses of a deep wish and yearning to join them. He says "Fluttering among the faint Olympians, I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired, So let me be thy choir, and make a moan; Upon the midnight hours". (Wu, 2005). One of his better-known poems 'When i have fears' is a self-confessional poem of the fear that Keats has about death and dying. Keats has described the fears of death because he feels that he would miss important things and events such as writing, fame and even love. In his confession and narration, Keats is speaking of the immense treasure of ideas that resides in his brain and he is worried that with death, the ideas would remain un harvested and wither away and before the pen can bring forth the ideas to the paper. He also speaks of wisdom in the form of rich granaries with huge mounds of grains that would never be used up. There is melancholy and wistfulness in his poem along with a deep sense of despair and helplessness. Part of the reason for this depression was because he had gone into a deep recession and withdrawal mode for a few years when his poems were, he believed not inspiring. Being a highly temperamental youth, the poet probably thought that this temporary writers block was something he would die with and so he confesses about his love for writing and how it would never come forth (Wu, 2005) Keats in his poem 'On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again' is a relation and confession of his own trials, struggles and tribulations with issues of premature death and short life. Keats has tried to compare one of poems Endymion: A Poetic Romance with the works of Shakespeare and he is of the opinion that the great romances that formed the theme of earlier era were much better than the tragedies that is related in the King Lear drama (Wu, 2005). Shelly was actually well known for his deep expression and interpretation of love, expression, beauty and imagination. This sonnet is considered the best among the 16 that Shelly has written and the irony is that Shelly has brought in a number of unknowns into the sonnet and this is a confession in itself. The traveller is an unknown person and he speaking of an unknown broken statue in an unknown land. However, in his sonnet Ozymandia, Shelly confesses about the sheer waste that profligate and megalomaniac rulers build in the form of statues and useless structures. The poem remains one of the most famous works of a British poet and the term has even come into common use. The poet has shown the vain glorious nature of rulers who in their prime construct massive edifices of stone to announce to the living and the future generations about their achievements. However, as the millennium advances, the ancient civilization over which the ruler ruled has gone to the desert and the whole area has been consumed by the desert. All persons who could remember the monarch have long died and the very statute is broken, only the legs and the head remaining. Shelly is attempting to bring to light the ephemeral nature of power, popularity and the fickle nature of such edifices. The sonnet was written at a time when England was undergoing a huge change in the ruling classes and was under the throes of the industrial revolution. Though Shelly did not have anything to do with the social class struggle, the impact of the sonnet at such a time cannot be missed. (Maanen, 2005) Shelly's poem 'Mont Blanc' on the other hand weaves a rich canopy of thoughts and reflections as the poet speaks of the human brain and thought process and its ability to realize about truth. Shelly has discussed the relation between the universe and nature and the human mind and how perception influences the mind. Shelly would have us think that the world can be turned into a reflection of the operation of the thought process. Shelly confesses that the human mind should be free from restraints but knows that nothing in the universe is free. In the poem Shelly has confesses about the nature and significance of power and it refers to the main principle that drives all mental and natural process. The river Arve is the symbol of power and it has its secret throne place at the top of Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in Europe and no one had climbed the peak before. There the association is that power was at once unassailable and impermeable. He says "Power dwells apart in its tranquillity, Remote, serene, and inaccessible, And this, the naked countenance of earth, On which I gaze, even these primaeval mountains" (Schwartz, 1998). In the poem Mont Blanc", Shelly confesses that he is blessed, by the fact, he has become to understand nature and the poet is using truth to guide the humanity. The mountain seems to speak to him as of with a mountain voice and the beauty of nature is relayed through poetry. The poet in placing trust in the truth that has been bestowed feels that he has obtained a place of honour with nature and presumes a right to speak on the facts and the truth that nature presents (Schwartz, 1998). The Prisoner of Chillion by Lord Byron is an excellent narrative poem in which Byron narrates the love and tragedy of a prisoner. There is a deep sense of tragedy, bereavement and ultimately of enlightenment as he found peace with the chains, the walls and the walls that served as a hermitage. The story is wonderfully narrated and copied in parts by main other writers. He says “[C]hillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar; for 't was trod, Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod....none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God..”. Byron through the prisoner is confessing that a person may have some tenets and beliefs that he would not wish to give up even though certain death, torture and imprisonment waits him (Chou, 1999). The narrator or the monk who was imprisoned was jailed along with his brothers and the wretched tale that Byron narrates as he speaks of the misery that the prisoners had to undergo, in the deep and dank dungeons, chained to a pillar along with his brothers, whom he could not see. It was tragic that the narrator was the eldest brother and he had to watch his other brothers die, one by one. The utter wretchedness is revealed in the tormented words that emerge from the tortured throat as he laments the death of his brother one by one. Whether the crime that was committed was so great as to merit this type of barbarous punishment, one would not know. However the it can be seen the dread that Byron had that such a fate would befall him also (Chou, 1999). Byron’s Don Juan on the other hand is a brilliantly and sometimes immoral rendition of the famed seducer of women, but in this version, it is Don Juan who ends up being seduced by woman. This work is clearly a self-confessional and at times hopeful writing where Byron is seen to be confessing to be in the shoes of the famous sin made into flesh symbol that Don Juan represented. No one is sure why Byron took on writing the escapades of this mythical figure but it ha been suggested that Byron was living out his fantasies. It is obvious that the story is a highly fictionalised attempt to titillate and thrill people of those times and there are good sequences from Russia, a pirate island, an Arab harem and finally England (McGoodwin, 2006). The paper has examined the works of a number of English poets of the romantic age and attempted to find out the confessional aspect in their stories. Important works of Edward Blake, Wordsworth, John Keats, Shelly and Lord Byron have been analysed to understand the confessional aspect of the literature. Confession as an aspect should be considered as an outpouring of the soul and a narration and the self-dialogue that the poets indulge in. The subjects for the confessional aspect could be an estranged lover, a beautiful and scenic natural spot, even the inspiration that Byron gets when sees a prison in which a monk was imprisoned a few centuries before and other subjects. Confessional aspect was the means in which the poets narrated their angst, love, and what they strongly believed in. This is different from a narrative dialogue between two people but uses more of a symbolic association between objects and feelings. References Bernstein Susan David, (1997), Confessional Subjects: Revelations of Gender and Power in Victorian Literature and Culture, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC Blake, (2005), Songs of Innocence’s and Experience: William Blake Collection, Retrieved 3 July 2009 from http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/blake/blake_ind.html Chou. Peter, (November 1999), The prisoner of Chillon: Lord Byron, Retrieved 3 July 2009 from http://www.wisdomportal.com/Inspiration/CastleChillon.html Hawkins Da Dy, (May 1, 1996), Reader's Guide to Literature in English, Routledge Publications. Kneale, Douglas, (September 1999), Romantic Aversions: Aftermaths of Classicism in Wordsworth and Coleridge, McGill-Queen's University Press. Maanen Van, (23 April 2005), A note on Shelley's Ozymandias, Neophilologus: Springer Netherlands, 33(1), pp. 123-125. McGoodwin. Michael, (18 February 2006), Lord Byron (George Noel Gordon): Don Juan Summary by Michael McGoodwin. Retrieved 3 July 2009 from http://mcgoodwin.net/pages/otherbooks/lb_donjuan.html Otto, Peter, (October 18, 2001), Blake's Critique of Transcendence: Love, Jealousy, and the Sublime in The Four Zoas, Oxford University Press, USA Sagar, Keith, (1998), William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience, Retrieved 3 July 2009 from http://www.keithsagar.co.uk/Blake/index.html Schwartz. M, (1998), Percy Bysse Shelley and Mont Blanc, Retrieved 03 July 2009 from http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist256/index.html Wu Duncan, (14 October, 2005), Romanticism: An Anthology, 3rd Edition, Wiley-Blackwell Publications Read More