Nothing Beside Remains: The Influence of Romantic and Victorian Poetry on W.B. Yeats

I. Introduction:

Thesis Statement—Poets of the Victorian era were inspired by the Romantic poets who came before them; this is apparent when considering the ways in which the influence of works such as Shelley’s “Ozymandias” and Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us,” can be seen in the poetry of W.B. Yeats whose involvement with and separation from both eras is seen in his more modern poetry.

II.

Romantic era poetry began as a protest against the Industrial Revolution (Abrams, 2012)

A. Poets rallied against:

1. Aristocratic social and political standards

2. The scientific explanation for nature

B. Poets celebrated:

1. Strong emotions, specifically awe and apprehension

2. Nature

3. “Orientalism:” exotic locations

4. Past times

5. The importance of art and language

III.

One example of a typical Romantic sonnet is “The World Is Too Much With Us.” (Wordsworth, c. 1802)

A. Basic mechanics

1. Standard Italian sonnet

2. Two quatrains and a sestet

3. Rhyme scheme-ABBA ABBA CDCDCD

B. “The world is too much with us; late and soon / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—”

1. Too overwhelmed by the material world

2. Natural gifts wasted by “getting and spending”

C. "Little we see in nature that is ours; /We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

1. No longer connected to nature

2. “We” are lesser due to lack of connection

D. “This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; / The winds that will be howling at all hours, / And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; / For this, for everything, we are out of tune;”

1. Standard visions of nature should leave one awestruck

2. “We” are not moved

E. Sestet

1. Shift in image

2. If the narrator had been born pagan, they could see old gods from the sea

a. reconnecting with the past

b. return to nature

IV.

A second work indicative of sonnets from the Romantic era is Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” (1818)

A. basic mechanics

1. sonnet

2. atypical rhyme scheme-already shifting away from form

3. two quatrains work together

4. sestet presenting a final image

B. “I met a traveler from an antique land”

1. “orientalism”

2. past times-recounting a tale

C. “’ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ / Nothing beside remains...”

1. people so concerned with material things

2. nothing has lasted

D. “...Round the decay / of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / the lone and level sands stretch far away.”

1. “colossal wreck”—all that remains

2. only the dessert lasts—nature

V.

Victorian-era poetry grew out of the Romantic era but shifted to reflect the changing times (Abrams, 2012)

A. Topics in common

1. Nature

2. Philosophy

B. New topics

1. Science

2. Supernatural writing

VI.

Yeats, a poet borne of the Victorian era, longed to return to the writing of the Romantic period.

A. direct response to disagreements with Victorian poetry

1. "As he understood it, the fundamental error of Victorianism had been to direct poetic concern away from the poet himself and his internal vision...” (Fallis, 1976, p. 90).

a. Yeats—more introspective poet

b. shies away from scientific writing

B. “Because he rejected what he understood to be a false mode of perception in Victorianism, Yeats also had to reject what appeared to be its false mode of expression, a poetic language that was rhetorical and argumentative." (Fallis, 1976, p. 90)

1. Less formal poetry

2. sonnets are less structured

C. many works about leaving

1. physical as a metaphor for poetic separation

2. “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”

a. “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, / And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: / Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for honey-bee; And live alone in the bee-loud glade...” (Yeats, 1890).

(1) reflections on nature

(2) hopes to live alone

b. no standard rhyme scheme

(1). speaks to moving toward more modern poetry

(2). neither Romantic nor Victorian

c. "‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ presents a solitary, dreaming figure, but although the word "I" is used repeatedly in the poem...it does not seem an intimidatingly private poem. The use of "I" is semi-personal and invites identification on the part of the reader” (Haskell, 2001, p. 170).

3. “Sailing to Byzantium”

a. “This is no country for old men...” (Yeats, 1928).

(1) “old” referring to “old tradition”

(2) Age—introspection

VII.

Yeats later works, such as “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” which show an even larger shift away from both Romantic and Victorian poetry into a more modern style which manages to combine both eras in entirely new ways (1928).

A. Violent imagery

B. References to old gods

C. “The structure of the poem rests on the difficult relations between art and fragility, law and violence, solitude and action, mockery and whatever alternative there may be to it, revelation and disenchantment" (Wood, 2010, p. 4)

1. art, emotion, solitude—Romantic ideals

2. revelation and disenchantment—speak to Yeats’ relationship with Victorian poetry

VIII. Conclusion

W. B. Yeats was heavily influenced by the Romantic era, even more so than the Victorian era from which he came; however, both played a role in shaping his work as a modern poet.

References

Abrams, M. H., & Greenblat, S. (2012).The Norton anthology of English literature(9th ed.). New York: Norton.

Fallis, R. (1976). Yeats and the reinterpretation of Victorian poetry. Victorian Poetry, 14(2), 90. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from the JSTOR database.

Haskell, D. (2001). W. B. Yeats. The Kenyon Review, 23(2), 168-175. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from the JSTOR database.

Wood, M. (2010). Introduction: up close and serial. Yeats and violence (p. 4). Oxford: Oxford University Press.