Romantic Era

Romantic Era

  • Submitted By: Kadizzel
  • Date Submitted: 11/15/2008 5:24 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 382
  • Page: 2
  • Views: 646

The poets of the Romantic era wrote seemingly simple poems, but if they were studied, many symbolisms would become clear. For example, in Henry Longfellow’s poem “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” the tide represents many things. The methodic nature of the tide reflects the methodic nature of life and the universe. Both things are very constant, reliable things. Also, the tide represents nature’s ability to “efface the footprints in the sands” which means the nature will always dominate humans and that all humans are in the circle of life: we come and we go. Another example of symbolism in Romantic poetry is the ship in “Old Ironsides”. The poem was in protest to the “scrapping” of the ship USS Constitution, which was a monument that all the public looked upon with pride, and it reminded them of the victorious battle against the British. In addition, the ship was a memorial for all the soldiers who died on it during the fight for freedom. In another poem of Holmes, “The Chambered Heart” there is great symbolism relating to the heart. He addresses in the last verse that the nautilus (like the heart) leaves its old shell, builds a bigger, better one, and forgets about the old one just like the heart. In the comic story “Rip Van Winkle” Washington Irving create a wimp of a character. Rip (that character) is a man who tries to escape the responsibilities of life. When it comes to physical work on his farm, Rip doesn’t bring it. Even though his patch of land is the smallest in the county, it is the worst conditioned. And when asked to do some helpful work around the house, Rip always finds an excuse to take his dog and temporarily escape to the mountain with his dog Wolf. But its hard not to like Rip because he is very appealing in some categories; he is very innocent and does what nice things for neighbors, but when he comes home, he is laze and a bad influence on his children! The relieve Rip expressed when he “escaped” old responsibilities is very unattractive. The...

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