Seeing Is Believing

Seeing Is Believing

By the end of the 18th century literary art and more specifically poetry came upon its greatest stimulant, Romanticism. All throughout the previous century, reason, logic, and rationality dominated all forms of written expression. That is until 1798 when Lyrical Ballads was published featuring the works of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A new age of ideas and passions were born or adopted in Europe and to a certain degree America as well.

It is truly amazing how taking in the same ideas in a different medium can cause a total shift in how those ideas are looked at. I’ve noticed this in my Shakespeare class as well in this class. Read a play from the text and the words lay flat and lifeless on the page. Watch that same play on video and somehow the characters define themselves and the dialogue suddenly works in ways that it never did before. Plots appear out of nowhere and become much easier to follow and interpret after having watched the video. The same thing happened to me in regards to the ideas behind Wordsworth and Coleridge’s writings. Poems that previously seemed somewhat cumbersome and supercilious, (kind of like using the word, supercilious in this sentence), now had a context in my mind, and that made all the difference. I don’t believe it would ever be possible except on a personal level, but if we spent as much time, perhaps even more time on the writers and what went into writing this magnificent poetry and prose, it would make more sense. But I think that would require almost whole classes dedicated to individual authors and poets. (As if college didn’t take long enough as it is, right?). I guess it’s just too bad that there isn’t a movie like Haunted Summer for every one of the poets we’ve read this semester, or if there is, which I don’t know, more time to watch them. I understand that all people tend to learn differently, but personally, I benefited so much more by watching the videos in class this semester, both in this class as well as Shakespeare.

For me at least, I am much more apt to find an authors work interesting if I find that particular author interesting. I’ve found a direct correlation between those two thoughts occurs in most cases, but none more so than with Wordsworth and Coleridge. What an intense and painfully amazing relationship these two had. They inspired each other, encouraged each other, and in many ways destroyed each other. It was as if there was only so much creative energy manifested between the two of them and neither of them could be satisfied with not being the keeper of that energy. First Wordsworth is drawn in by Coleridge’s energy and imagination regarding liberty and freedom. Then he was later drawn further in by Coleridge’s ideas for a commune, back to nature style of living. So much so that Wordsworth and his sister went to live with Coleridge and his wife and child. This is where the shift in the creative energy takes place.