Romantic Poetry - Testing the Limits of Individuality

The Romantic period in British literature marked a turning point towards a greater focus on the individual and how someone chooses to participate in society. Social conservatism sought to retain strict social hierarchies and standards at the time. Anyone who wanted to find a profession outside their social class or role had to suck it up. Romanticism provided a new outlet for a budding literary generation to express their desire to defy norms and be their person. Europe’s strict religious conformity, gender roles, and political repression limited individuality and our modern ideas of freedom of expression.

The Romantic period occurred during the late stages of the Age of Enlightenment. Enlightenment-era thinkers focused on reason and natural law, with one such example being Article 1 of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.” The most salient point is the second part of that article: that “social distinctions” must have mutual benefit. Forcing one person to do a job they don’t want or ignore their desires creates such a social distinction, though it has little benefit to society. Similarly, John Stuart Mill presents his philosophy in Chapter 3 of On Liberty: “It is not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual in themselves, but by cultivating it and calling it forth, […] that human beings become a noble and beautiful object of contemplation,” (117). Mill proposes that individuality is the foundation of a flourishing society. Allowing individual choice promotes the betterment of society rather than tearing it apart.

Gender roles played a massive part in stifling individuality before the Romantic period. Mary Wollstonecraft draws from other Enlightenment writings. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she portrayed women’s contemporary place in society as being suppressed and portrayed society as being unstable because of women’s oppression:

The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on, and the current will run with destructive fury when there are no barriers to break its force. Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, OUTWARD obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless, for at least twenty years of their lives. (Wollstonecraft, ch. 2)

Wollstonecraft explains her feelings regarding society’s treatment of women as overtly discriminatory and detrimental to society. Wollstonecraft also believes that such a biased society has forced women to abandon their individuality, even if not explicitly told they must follow norms.

Enlightenment ideas of individuality found their way into romantic writing. Authors such as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Blake contrasted existing social norms with themes such as youth, inner desires, and personal freedom. Keats was a prolific poet in the Romantic era, with his poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” commenting on individual freedom to find meaning outside of norms:

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd.

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.

Keats likens societal norms to music, explaining set norms as a heard melody, with individual choice as an unheard melody. By describing a sensual ear, he acknowledges that not all perspectives view individual choice as beneficial. Keats describes his vision of a world where can explore their ideas and desires. He explores this idea through a lens of hope, looking towards the future as a place where individuals can make their own choices and seek fulfillment. Similarly, Percy Bysshe Shelley uses his poetic platform to describe how artists can promote new ideas:

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, […]

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, […]

Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth. (“Ode to the West Wind”)

Shelley first drives out dead leaves as a metaphor for his view of social norms as antiquated. He follows this by welcoming the west wind, which he sees as a force of change. In the final quoted stanza, Shelley wishes for the wind to scatter his poetry to bring his ideas to a broader audience. In analyzing Shelley’s poem, I. J. Kapstein points out a cycle of life and death:

Thus the Wind, as the destroyer of the old order and the preserver of the new, for Shelley, symbolized Change or Mutability, which destroys yet re-creates all things; while the Leaves signified for him all things, material and spiritual, ruled by Change. The poem epitomizes Shelley’s conception of the eternal cycle of life and death and resurrection in the universe.

Shelley desires change within society. Kapstein’s described cycle of life and death epitomizes an idealized rebirth for social organization within society. The intriguing part of his analysis is his view of an eternal cycle of life and death.

Through his two poetic collections, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, William Blake explores individuality through multiple sets of ideals. One poem from both collections is “The Chimney Sweeper.” In the part from Songs of Innocence, Blake uses the child as a voice of identity and individuality:

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"

So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. […]

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,

And he opened the coffins & set them all free. (“When my mother”)

Blake uses the child as a metaphor for individual freedom and ideas through this text. Parents are typically children’s greatest pressure to conform to society by pushing them towards more lucrative fields rather than allowing their children to pursue their interests. The angel represents Blake’s hope for a culture that enables and praises individualism rather than simply promoting the status quo.

Of course, many will disagree on the grounds that individualism neglects society. For example, according to Richard Handler, romantic individualism has its limits. Handler refers to Edward Sapir’s writings as they relate to romanticism: “Or else we apply it to the effects of an egoism that bathes in the self-feeling to the exclusion of contradictory realities, including the Not-self; achieving what we see to be a false unity and optimism,” (1). Sapir compares romantic individualism to an egotistical search for self-fulfillment. This misunderstanding leads Sapir to believe that individualism harms society when promoting the individual instead allows civilization to flourish.

Romantic poetry focuses on individuals’ roles within society as a method to promote heterogeneity, allowing it to flourish with culture and creativity. Despite arguments that individualism stifles efficiency, romantic poets convincingly retort that individualism is necessary. John Keats explains his view of individualism while acknowledging counterarguments. Shelley’s idea of rebirth idealizes how society can restructure to benefit everyone involved. Blake demonstrates the oppression that comes when social norms suffocate individualism. Individuals make up society, so individuals must be free to follow their ideas and dreams.