The Romantic Sonnet :: Sonnet essays

The crackers-eyed Sonnet          The Romantic sonnet holds in its topics the ideals of the fourth dimension period,concentrating on emotion, nature, and the expression of nothing.  The Romanticera was one that focused on the commonality of humankind and, while usingemotion and nature, the poets and their works toss out light on peoples universalnatures.  In Charlotte Smiths Sonnet XII - indite on the Sea Shore, thespeaker of the poem embodies two important aspects of Romantic work in relatinghis or her personal feelings and emotions and in addition in having a focused anddetailed natural setting.  The speaker takes his or her solitary property near theshore of a stormy ocean and reflects upon life and the wild gloomy stroke thatsuits the mournful temper of his or her soul (ll.4, 7,8).  speckle much Romanticwriting dealt with love and the struggles endured due to love, there was likewiseemphasis placed on isolation, as se en in the emotions of Smiths speaker andalso in the setting on the work.  Nature, in many Romantic sonnets, is in directparallel with the emotions being conveyed.  Smith, for example, uses the waterto aid the readers comprehension of the speakers show 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 get on with and its significant historicalreferences into a new age where it becomes common to speak of nothing.  InWilliam Wordsworths Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, there is no deeper content to be grasped other than the beauty of the days dawning.  The speakersview of the morning and its majesty and the hush up that comes over the speakerare central ideas in the poem (ll. 3, 11).  In this sonnet, it is again ap parenthow influential and prevalent nature is.         The reflection upon informality runs through many works and is seen quiteevidently in William Blakes Songs of Innocence.  In these poems, there is muchmention of children, whose lives, ideally, should be the most simple.  Alsoinclude 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 jubilate in life should be rising on a pass morning when the birds are singing and when he, in his happiness, cansing with them.