Victorian Poetry Analysis

Into the East: The Evolution of Eastern-like Thought and Mysticism in 18th & 19th Century European Poems and Prose.

It was the essence of Romanticism to be progessive by the standards of its era. All poets explore the 'cutting-edge' of their craft, through new styles of writing, through the exploration of poetic turns of phrase and the manipulation of the language itself. However, in the Romantic genre, a new avenue of exploration opened itself up to the poets of this era. Rather than focusing entirely on new form and style, an evolution was on the horizon.

Through their poetry and their writing, Romantic era poets began exploring not just the world around them but their own emotions and feelings- and through them, examining the nature of their very spirits. These poets defied modern trends, broke away from familiar rhetoric of Church and Christ and the epic poetry in the nature of the Illiad, the Odyssey. It focused on the struggles and trials of the common man (and woman!) of the era, their faults, their fights, the things that were real to them. The motion became inward-seeking, examining the fundamentals of life, of God and man and the very nature of how we as humans interact with the world, with Him, and with one another.

This was the step towards eastern mysticism.

This was the step towards enlightenment.

The first of the poets of this era to explore these sundry notions was Charlotte Smith. Though not necessarily as shrouded in mysticism as those who would follow, she began the slow motion towards those notions in her shorter sonnets (revived first by her and then Willian Bowles in 1789), which explored less the physical world around her and focused more on the ephermal, the inconstant, feelings and thoughts that reigned over her during their composition. Most of her shorter sonnets are most suitable as "a medium of mournful feeling (Norton 39)" and remain an excellent technical example of the form.