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234 The Romantic period 1789–1832
theory of poetic language. Some would say, for example, that poems
like Simon Lee are too banal, and that in trying to explore the ordinary
feelings of ordinary people in ordinary settings Wordsworth runs the
risk that he will fail to find the style which can elevate the poem into a
memorable and durable artefact. Indeed, when Wordsworth does achieve
poetic heights he does so by using language which is so elevated and
Latinate that it falsifies his theory. An example would be the lines cited
at the beginning of this language note, which in fact mix ‘low’ and
‘high’ styles and in the process chart the ebb and flow of perception
and understanding. The lines also, however, illustrate another basic
paradox of much Romantic poetry: that the poet is forced to use language
to describe experiences which are outside or beyond language.
On the other hand, some critics feel that in groups of poems, such
as the ‘Lucy’ poems published in Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth comes
very close to achieving his poetic ideals. A frequently cited example is
the poem She Dwelt Among th’ Untrodden Ways, which combines
complexity of insight with simplicity of expression.
KEATS
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know
(John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)
John Keats is likewise a poet who reflected on the nature of poetry.
Keats’s letters are important documents and offer many revealing
insights into the nature of poetry and many critical precepts which are
still cited today as a basis for the evaluation of poetry. Keats wrote
that ‘we hate poetry that has too palpable a design upon us’. By this
he means that we distrust poetry which tries overtly to persuade or
convert us to the poet’s point of view. According to this statement,
poetry should be more indirect, communicating through the power of
its images without the poet making his own presence too obvious.
Like other Romantic poets, Keats wrote poems which were
incomplete; unfinished fragments of a larger vision. He also, like other
Romantic artists, died at a very young age before fulfilling his potential