Reflective of Romantic Ideologies Essay Example for Free

Reflective of Romantic Ideologies EssayThis Lime-tree arbour my prison is one of the most quoted examples of romanticism. Throughout the three stanzas, many romantic ideologies can be place including aspects such as the romantics view towards character, the power of the imagination and the emphasis on the man-to-man. romanticism emerged against a time of increased urbanisation and industrialisation, where people sought instead an immersion in record instead.Coleridges song exemplifies many of the feelings which the contemporaries of the time had towards record, including impressions of its richness, its superiority to the city and the power of the divine reflected in character. The countryside (nature) is portrayed as more valuable than the city, with Coleridge claiming that Charles hungerd after Nature, many a year, in the great City pent, comparing the city to a prison, whilst nature is something to be desired.Using flashy descriptions such as and that walnut-tree was richly tingd and ye purple heath flowers, Coleridge stimulates the richness and beauty of nature in the readers mind. Nature is given a sense of grandeur, vibrancy and vitality, reflecting the elevation of nature common to the time, with level the simple rook becoming a thing of momentary glory as it crossd the mighty Orbs dilated glory. Unlike in the Augustan age, where nature existed as something to be tamed by mankind, here nature exists in its aver right.In fact, it is even giben to be raised up to a religious level, with Coleridge using the vocative terms thou and ye in reference to the Sun and clouds, essenti in ally lifting them to the level of a deity. Hence they ar able to partake in the majesty of divinity fudge. The Romantics overly believed that as nature reflected the divine, they were able to gain a better understanding of God and themselves from it in the form of epiphanies. As Constable says, the sky was the organ of the sentiment.Coleridge reflects this poli tical theory in his stimulate personal epiphany included in the poem, that sometimes one must be bereft of promisd good, that we may lift the soul, and contemplate with lively joy the joys we can non share and that Nature neer deserts the refreshful and pure. Through the power of nature, his own feelings and perceptions are gradually altered, with the channels in nature mirroring his inner changes. As the stanzas progress, he is less sorrowful for his situation and more appreciative.In the same way the colours of nature go game from poor yellow leaves to broad and sunny leaf, reflecting the power of nature in his diversifyation. Also pensive of this is the way the lime-tree bower turns from macrocosm a prison, into this little lime-tree bower with transparent foliage. In this way, nature is shown to return his own experience, done the up and down notion of the poem, where the dell represents his frustrations and wistful longing before he comes up into the wide wide heave n, signifying his newfound freedom and finally the serenity of nature shows his reflection.The romantic ideology of the role which the imagination plays in life also comes into play during this poem. Like nature, the imagination can also be used as a tool to foster a greater understanding of things and to transform ones stimulated state, yet it can also be used as a method of escapism from the present situation. Coleridge has said that it is the visionary faculty that enables spiritual insight into the ultimate trueness and that it is the prime agent of all human perception.The romantics believed that the imagination held the power to reveal those things which we cannot ordinarily see with our rational minds. In this lime-tree bower my prison this takes place in the way his imaginative journey in the long run leads to a greater understanding of God and its power to change his perceptions about himself and his situation. It is through his imagination that his emotional state is tra nsformed and he ultimately gains an intellectual and emotional release. This transformative power of imagination is similar to that of nature, being reflected in the evocative descriptions which appeal to the senses.After travelling on his imaginative journey, Coleridge is led to a change of feeling about the bower which ceases to be a prison and instead becomes a thing of comfort. It was his own mental processes which shaped it into a prison and it is through his imagination that he can escape this prison. therefore imagination is also presented as a form of escape the poet seeks, with the ability to transcend physical and psychological barriers, although he retains awareness that this is simply his imagination by words such as perchance. Lastly, Coleridges poem is reflective of the focus on the individual in omantic literature, where they are a solitary reflective skeletal system as opposed to works snap on the individual in society. Coleridge stresses the individual through piece of music in first person and interjecting many I phrases. The antithesis in the first line between they are gone and here must I remain firmly brings the attention to the individual in the poem, focusing on this solitary figure and his feelings. The conversational style of the poem also helps by reproducing natural speech, giving the feeling of his own train of thought, coming naturally.In fact, the whole poem encapsulates this focus on the individual, with the bodily structure mirroring his meditation, contemplating a problem and finding a solution to it. The form and structure of the poem is shaped more or less his thoughts and even the landscape reflects these through things such as the transformation in his descriptions of colour. The poem focuses on the individuals perception of things and how these perceptions change over the course of time through things such as nature and the imagination.Thus, Samuel Taylor Coleridges poem, This Lime-tree bower my prison exemplifies many ideologies of Romanticism. The richness of nature and its divine role are explored through descriptive imagery, whilst the power of imagination is expressed as a means of learning and escape. Throughout all of this, the focus remains centred on the individual and the effects upon Coleridge himself, reflecting the Romantic ideology of the individual in itself, not in society.