Ivan Prskalo

Professor Anđelka Raguž, PhD

English Literature from Romanticism to Today
1st June 2022
How spontaneous is the overflow of powerful feelings in (Romantic) poetry?
Wordsworth's famous definition of poetry as the spontaneous overflow of
feelings recollected in tranquility has been a subject of much talk, explanation, and
criticism for decades and centuries. Despite that, we can surely say that this definition of
poetry has been the trademark of Romanticism. This essay will be concerning itself with
the adequacy of the mentioned definition of poetry while contrasting Wordsworth's and
Eliot's approaches to writing, and applying it to three poems from the period, namely 'I
Walked Lonely As a Cloud' by William Wordsworth himself, ˝She Walks in Beauty˝
and finally 'When We To Parted, the latter of which were written by George Gordon
Byron.
The reason for referencing Eliot's view on poetry and literature and contrasting
it to that of Wordsworth is so we can better understand the implications of the
aforementioned definition and the rationale behind it. Wordsworth's views on poetry
can be read out from his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, and his views are best summed up
in the assertion that: ˝In order to truly express these feelings, the content of the art must
come from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as possible from
"artificial" rules dictating what a work should consist of˝ (Fatima, Tarique, Chandio
127). It can be said that Wordsworth aimed to free the poet from ˝from the slavish
bonds of the ancients˝ (Fatima, Tarique, Chandio 128) and allow room for authenticity
and freedom in poetry. It is where Eliot's view on authenticity and freedom in poetry
comes in. In it, Eliot takes a diametrically opposite view. In his seminal essay Tradition
and Individual Talent asserts that ˝Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. (...)
It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call nearly
indispensable to anyone who would continue to be a poet beyond his twenty-fifth
year...˝ (Eliot, 43-44), and then he goes on to claim that ˝we must believe that "emotion
recollected in tranquillity" is an inexact formula” (Eliot, 52), defending his claim by
exclaiming that ˝Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it
is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.˝ Here we see a huge
divergence from the opinion of Wordsworth. Eliot is here stating that poetry is much
more focused, objective, in a certain sense colder, than the Romantics would have it.
But is there any reconciliation between the view of Eliot and Wordsworth?
To find the reconciliation, we first have to review Wordsworth's views and
opinions. Upon reviewing them, we can conclude that it would be naive to read
Wordsworth as a poet that is always writing at the whim of his emotion. Wordsworth
indeed relied on his impressions and experiences while writing his poems. It is also true
that he preferred to use the common language and write for larger masses. Even though
all these things are true, we have to also admit that there exists a larger and wider
meaning and importance to Wordsworth's poetry, or to put it like this: ˝It is this nature-
culture relation perhaps what makes Wordsworth´s poems individual as well as national
or cultural at the same time, not simply outbursts of irrational emotionality, but
expressions of the universality of a human being embedded in the temporality of
existence.˝ (Pokrivcak, Pokrivcakova, Buda, 129). So, in a way, he seems closer to Eliot
than at first glance. Eliot did have commendable remarks about Wordsworth in his work
of essays The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticism. It can also be stated that Eliot
himself did not shy from emotion, but was merely showing the ˝the horror of the loss of
emotion˝ (Pokrivcak, Pokrivcakova, Buda, 132). After all, is said and done, we can
conclude that the definition is rather imprecise, but that it captures the great importance
of true passion which makes poetry what it is.
Through that lens, let us look at the poem ˝I Walked Lonely As a Cloud˝. The
poem is written in four stanzas of six lines each and it is written in the first person. The
typical Romantic figure of the Lonely Wanderer finds amazement in the ˝host, of golden
daffodils˝ (Wordsworth, line 4) who were ˝fluttering and dancing in the breeze˝
(Wordsworth, line 6). The speaker looks with awe at the grand host of daffodils. He
enjoys their company, remarking that ˝A poet could not but be gay,/In such a jocund
company˝ (Wordsworth, lines 14-15). The lines that make this poem a picture-perfect
example of Wordsworth's definition of poetry are the lines of the last stanza:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. (Wordsworth, lines 19-24)
In these lines, we see that the whole poem is a recollection. It is a remembering
of a strong private impression that was put to paper by the poet. Through simple
language and common objects, Wordsworth was able to touch upon a common human
sense of amazement and appreciation, channeling that emotion through the lens of
probably his sentiment and experience.
Now we turn to the poems by George Gordon Byron. Wordsworth's definition
of poetry is, in a certain sense, very apt for the poetry of Lord Byron, which is rather
peculiar because Byron himself very much disliked Wordsworth and his approach to
poetry. The dislike went so far that Byron made him one of the targeted poems of his
English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. A Satire. As the biographical article Poetry
Foundation states: ˝The importance of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers lies not
only in its vigor and vitality but in Byron’s lively advocacy of the neoclassical virtues
found in such 17th- and 18th-century poets as Dryden and Pope, and, from his day, in
Gifford.˝ In this manner, Byron stood out from most the Romantic Era poets. The thing
that grouped him with them was still the sense of the Romantic passion and the
romantic aspiration. That can be seen from his statement written in a letter to his friend
Thomas Moore, which reads: ˝I can never get people to understand that poetry is the
expression of excited passion and that there is no such thing as a life of passion any
more than a continuous earthquake or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave
in such a state?˝ In light of this quote, let us examine the mentioned Byron poems.
˝She Walks In Beauty˝ is said to be inspired by his cousin whom she saw
wearing a mourning dress with spangles on it. So in a way, this is a tranquil recollection
of a strong impression. The three-stanza poem describes an angelic and perfect lady
whose innocence can only be appreciated. The fact that the poem describes something
idyllic and not something real is evident right from the beginning stanza, where the
object of description is described in these words:
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies. (Byron, lines 1-6)
˝When We Two Parted˝ is also a poem that comes as a recollection. It is said to
be inspired by a controversial affair between Byron himself and Lady Frances Webster.
In four eight-line stanzas, the speaker laments and remembers the parting of him and his
lover. Time, gender, and circumstances are not specified., but what is specified is the
gloomy atmosphere after the parting. Rather indifferently broken-heartedly, the speaker
recalls the day when their love affair had ended. That was the day of great grief and
sadness. On the other hand, the present state is one of coldness and disappointment, of
regret and despair. The last stanza perfectly encapsulates that mood:
In secret, we met
In silence, I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears. (Byron, lines 33-40)
In conclusion, Wordsworth's definition of poetry is lacking due to its
imprecision and the lack of recognition of the necessary effort that needs to be put in to
be a good poet and to write good poetry. But despite that, the definition itself captures
quite well the mood and sentiment of the Romantic Era, which is evident in the poems
discussed.

Works cited

Byron, George Gordon. ˝She Walks in Beauty.˝ Poetry Foundation,

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43844/she-walks-in-beauty. Accessed
1 June 2022.
Byron, George Gordon. ˝When We Two Parted.˝ Poetry.org,
https://poets.org/poem/when-we-two-parted. Accessed 1 June 2022.
Eliot, Thomas Stearns. The Sacred Wood: Essays On Poetry and Criticism. New York,
Alfred A. Knopf, 1921.
Fatima, Shabad et al. ˝Poetry and poetic process: A comparative study of words worth’s
and T.S. Eliot’s critical approaches.˝ International Journal of English Research,
vol. 5, no. 2, 2019, pp. 127-130.
Pokrivcak, Anton et al. ˝The Role of Emotions in Wordsworth and Eliot.˝ XLinguae
Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 2016, pp. 127-134.
Poetry Foundation. Lord Byron (George Gordon),
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lord-byron. Accessed 1 June 2022.
Raguz, Andelka. ˝Re: Concerning the Essay Assignment.˝ Received by Ivan Prskalo, 29
May 2022.
Wordsworth, William. ˝I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.˝ Poetry
Foundtation,https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45521/i-wandered-lonely-
as-a-cloud. Accessed 1 June 2022.