The Romantic Sonnet :: Sonnet essays

The Romantic Sonnet          The Romantic sonnet holds in its topics the ideals of the clipping period,concentrating on emotion, nature, and the expression of nothing.  The Romanticera was one that foc engaged on the commonality of humankind and, while usingemotion and nature, the poets and their works shed brightness level on peoples universalnatures.  In Charlotte Smiths Sonnet XII - Written on the Sea Shore, thespeaker of the poem embodies two important aspects of Romantic work in relatinghis or her personal feelings and emotions and also in having a focused anddetailed natural setting.  The speaker takes his or her solitary seat near theshore of a stormy sea and reflects upon life and the wild gloomy scene thatsuits the mournful temper of his or her soul (ll.4, 7,8).  While much Romanticwriting dealt with have it away and the struggles endured due to love, there was alsoemphasis placed on isolation, as seen in the emotions o f Smiths speaker andalso in the setting on the work.  Nature, in many a(prenominal) Romantic sonnets, is in directparallel with the emotions being conveyed.  Smith, for example, uses the waterto aid the readers comprehension of the speakers state of mind.  Included inthis traditional natural setting is the use of the sea as stormy, deep,extensive, and dark which ties the speaker in with the setting as the sceneapplies to the tone of the poem as well.   Also characteristic of the Romanticsonnet is the retreat from the neo-classical age and its signifi trickt historicalreferences into a new age where it becomes common to speak of nothing.  InWilliam Wordsworths Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, there is no deepermeaning to be grasped other than the beauty of the days dawning.  The speakersview of the morning and its majesty and the calm that comes over the speakerare central ideas in the poem (ll. 3, 11).  In this sonnet, it is again plainhow influent ial and prevalent nature is.         The reflection upon simplicity runs through many works and is seen quiteevidently in William Blakes Songs of Innocence.  In these poems, there is much take note of children, whose lives, ideally, should be the most simple.  Alsoincluded in this simplicity are the innocence of the children and the simplicityof the tone, metaphors, and images in the works.  In Blakes The School Boy,the character of the poem is a young boy whose joy in life should be rising on asummer morning when the birds are singing and when he, in his happiness, cansing with them.