The Romantic Period
I. Wordsworth and his “I wandered lonely as a cloud”
The poem is crystal clear and lucid. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the realistic details of the active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance. The flowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance.
II. Shelley and his “Ode to the West Wind”
In the poem, Shelley eulogizes the west wind as a powerful phenomenon of nature that is both destroyer and preserver. The wind enjoys boundless freedom and has the power to spread messages far and wide. The keynote in the poem is Shelley’s ever-present wish for himself and his fellow men to share the freedom of the west wind, remembering meanwhile his own and common human miseries. And the dominant mood is that of hope rather than despair, as the poet is hoping for the realization of the freedom and joy. The optimism expressed in the last two lines show the poet’s critical attitude toward the ugly social reality and his faith in a bright future for humanity.
III. John Keats and his “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
In the poem Keats shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion. The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on the Grecian urn: the lovers, musicians and worshippers carved on the urn, and their everlasting joys. They are unaffected by time, stilled in expectation. This is the glory and the limitation of the world conjured up by and object of art. The urn celebrates but simplifies intuitions of joy by defying our pain and suffering. But at last, the urn presents his ambivalence about time and the nature of beauty.
IV. The character analysis of Elizabeth in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets. She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-minded, snobbish and vulgar mother. She is a women of distinct character. She is not passive, but pursue her true love bravely. She turns down Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal and seeking her happiness with Darcy, the one she possesses true affection for her. She is also courageous. When Darcy’s aunt lady comes to force her into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy, she boldly challenges her authority, contempt and arrogance. On the whole, Elizabeth is a typical image of the good, attractive lady in the 19th century.
