James 1 Tiffany James Mr.

McCauley Survey 04 December 2012 Romantic, Victorian, Modern Poem Analysis Throughout history poets have chosen very different topics to write about. Each time period also produced several different styles of writing. In the Romantic Period writers tended to focus on nature and emotion, while writers in the Victorian Period tended to focus on change and experimentation. Authors from the Twentieth Century and after like to focus on imagery and hopelessness. In the early poems we read most of the poets focused on nature and comparing people to nature. This is due to the creation of the industrial revolution, which had caused peoples lives to shift from peaceful, serene country sides, to chaotic city environments. This caused people and poets especially, to revere nature for its beauty, but also for its ability to help man find his inner self. An example of this is William Blakes poem, Nurses Song. In the poem the reader can see nature right from the start in the first two lines, when the voices of children are heard on the green, /and laughing is heard on the hill, (Blake 1-2). After reading these two lines even I can see the country side and how peaceful people back in the day must have found it. The last two lines of the first stanza, my heart is at rest within my breast, /and everything else is still, (Blake 3-4), would give anyone the impression that the narrator enjoys being in the country and he became at peace within himself. The poem also talks about birds flying in the sky and sheep grazing on the hill. This is just another example of nature in the poem. However, the last two lines of the poem, the little ones leaped and shouted and laughd, and and all the hills

James 2 echoed, (Blake 15-16), produces the mental picture of happy times when life was simpler and people gained pleasure out of the simple things in life. The poem, Nurses Song also is a great example of how writers used emotion in their poems. For example, My heart is at rest within my breast (Blake 3), makes a person think of a calm, serene moment in time. It makes a person feel as though the narrator is happy and in a good place in life. They dont feel stressed or upset, but at peace within themselves. Another examples is, The little ones leaped and shouted and laughd/ and all the hills ecchoed (Blake 15-16). These lines are obvious in the fact that they are chock full of emotion. The little kids shouted and laughed, atomically tells the reader that this is a poem that is light and fun. That everyone is happy and having a great time playing with each other. From these words you can almost feel their joy at being free to play on the hill. The things that writers wrote about in the Victorian Period are completely different than what was written about in the Romantic Period. For example, in the poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, it is possible to see how the topics of writing have changed. For example, I have run through the night, my skin is as dark (Browning 5), talks about a black slave who has escaped from his oppressor and owner. With this poem Browning has entered into a completely different world. She has brought to light a topic that no one before now had the balls to talk about. With this she opened the doors for many people and made it acceptable for people to finally talk about the injustices that were happening over in America. Another example is, I am black, I am black, And yet God made me, they say: But if He did so, smiling back

James 3 He must have cast his work away Under the feet of his white creatures, With a look of scorn, that the dusky features Might be trodden again to clay (Browning 22-28). These lines talk about an issue on the minds of many and somehow Browning has been able to get inside the heads of the black people who are suffering under the care of their masters in America. Writers also experimented with their writing in the Victorian Period. For example, the first lines of some of the stanzas start off with three words that are repeated twice. For example, I am black, I am black or We were black, we were black. This is something that wasnt done in the Romantic Period. Just like the Romantic Period and the Victorian Period are different, the Twentieth Century and after did a complete 180 in what was written about. Writers started focusing on imagery and hopelessness. For example, in Eliots poem The Hollow Men it is possible for the audience to see that these men have lost all hope in themselves and in life. For example, shape without form, shade without colour,/ paralysed force, gesture without motion (Eliot 11-12), gives the reader a sense of hopelessness, like the narrators have given up. Its like they believe that they no longer exist within this world and are just invisible beings looking in from the outside. For example, remember us if at all not as lost/ violent souls, but only/ as the hollow men/ the stuffed men (Eliot 15-18), shows the audience that these men are not in the land of the dead, but also no longer on earth. They are just wandering spirits who no longer fill anything; they are hollow as stated in the poem. Any emotion or feeling they use to have is gone.

James 4 Imagery has also become one the bigger aspects of writing in this new age. For example, there, the eyes are/ sunlight on a broken column/ there, is a tree swinging/ and voices are/ in the winds singing (Eliot 22-26), gives a ton of breath taking imagery. As the reader reads theses lines, they can see and feel what the author wanted them to. Eliot compares the dead souls eyes as the only light within a lightless void. And it feels like reader is there to see the tree swinging and to hear the whisper of voices on the wind. From one era to the next writers have developed their own style of writing and their own idea of what topics they should write about and what is important to them at that moment in time. As these writers found their own niche within their time era, they wrote poems that touch on topics that people can still relate to today. The paper touched on how the Romantic Era focuses on nature and emotion, while the Victorian Era focused on change and experimentation and the Twentieth Century focused on imagery and hopelessness.

James 5 Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen, editor. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. The Romantic Period Volume D 8th ed. New York City: Norton and Company, 2012. Print. Blake, William. Nurses Song. Greenblatt. 122 Greenblatt, Stephen, editor. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. The Victorian Age Volume E 8th ed. New York City: Norton and Company, 2012. Print. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. Greenblatt. 1130-1137 Greenblatt, Stephen, editor. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. The Twentieth Century and After Volume F 8th ed. New York City: Norton and Company, 2012. Print. Eliot, T.S. The Hollow Men. Greenblatt. 2543-2546