Eloquent, Beautiful & Divine - preface
Uploaded by kathylambchop on Nov 07, 2002
Poetry may only be a mere fifteen lines on a page, yet it is much more. It is the art of using various literary techniques and vivid imagery to capture immortally anything from a scent of a rose to the misery of a heartbreak. It also has the ability to provide comfort and insight into many of life’s complexities. This makes poetry, as P.B. Shelly states, “indeed, something divine”. However, there are many more who are unaware of poetry’s hidden secrets. Therefore it is my pleasure to unlock the door and share the many pleasures of poetry in Eloquent, Beautiful & Divine. My anthology contains poems from the Romantic era and the Contemporary- the two periods which I believe help provide answers and comfort at troubled times. Regardless of when poetry is written both eras express issues everyone has to confront, no matter what time they live in.
In the opening section of my compilation- Romantic Ripplets, I have included poems by the most ‘loved’ poets such as P.B. Shelley’s Mont Blanc, John Keats’s To a Nightingale, William Blake’s The French Revolution and I Wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth. The combination of vivid imagery and poetic techniques in all these poems successfully portray the author’s profound issues in life.
Gone are the days of the classic Shakespearean poems where ‘Romantic’ was regarded as something dreamy and remote. Whilst Blake saw “a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower’ and Shelly “met a traveller from an antique land”, other Romantic poets had different views on looking at life’s problems. Many dramatic 19th centaury events occurred, the most significant being the French, American and Industrial Revolutions. The movement of freedom and equality and the constant hopes and fears about the changing society were greatly reflected in its literature. Poets particularly dealt with the individual and quite often, nature, in contrast to the turmoil of the political and social surroundings, was the focus of their poetry. Nature was believed to be the “manifestation of God’s glory on earth” where poets can find their haven.
To some people, taking a stroll may be an exercise, but it can also be a time for inspiration to bathe the inner soul. It is these long walks that inspired the work of the most distinguished poet and founder of the Romantic period- William Wordsworth who found pure bliss when isolated with...