The Brave May Not Live Long, but the Cautious Don't Live at All'. The poem itself is an attack on a former lover, and ends with the couplet: Let others go as they will, I know the best is yet to be; For what will happen shall surely wait: And what man would waste a day? Shelley's 'To a Skylark' is much more sentimental, but it is the Skylark that makes the poem: Oh thou bearer of the voice, That fill'st the dawn with music, Who carest little what men say, And whose proud heart is beating Now thy full song one moment's space; I love thee more than tongue can tell; Thou thinkest not how sweet thou sings, While through thy joyous round thy wings, At every dash, the dull earth rings. At a glance, the most obvious difference between Wordsworth's and Shelley's poems is that Wordsworth's is nature poetry, and Shelley's is human poetry; Shelley's is not nature poetry, but human nature poetry. One might say that Shelley was an artist of nature, but nature becomes something _else_ , an end to itself, an object. In that sense, he is one of the founders of modern poetry, since he gives the artist's mind the ability to transcend nature. Wordsworth, however, is more rooted in nature, as 'Home at Grasmere' suggests: The dews drop fast, the clocks strike eleven, And lights are pale; the stars that oversprinkle The moonless midnight grow serene and kind. She, earth's fairest, and her purest gold, That was twelve hours upon her throne; How many hues has heaven poured on her At once, since I have left her thus alone! Her motion is suspended, while my thoughts Wander far off, and can no longer keep The path they took: but all is recompensed At last, and I return once more to her Without one sigh of regret. Here the poet seems to be one with nature, as though the moon were a subject for painting, and it could hardly be more poetically expressed. What's interesting about this is how natural elements have been infused with Wordsworth's own nature, how he has been able to add the experience of nature to the natural elements, in what may be viewed as a naturalistic view of nature. This is particularly well-demonstrated in his sonnet sequence _Duddon_ : There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore Of those whose spirits are attuned to theirs; We with their music fill the silent air And weep–weep with them in that deep delight Which cannot be exceeded. Then our hearts Are full, and there is no room for despair When we remember that eternal years For ever and for evermore are ours; That while the mortal frames, that house the soul Dust and decay cannot. Here he gives this poem a mystical and spiritual quality, as though he's already in the afterlife. It's interesting that while he says 'The mortal frames' should 'Dust and decay', the following sonnet makes a reference to a higher sense of time, a spiritual time: There is a time in every day and hour (A season of complete fruition) when the mind Is so intent upon what Nature yields To us of pleasure, that it feels no care How any of the common people fare; Whether they work or do not work, eat or starve, Hunger or feed without ceasing. This passage is about the individual human will, and not about nature at large. It becomes, therefore, a very subjective view of nature, not a naturalistic view. The sonnet then moves on to another aspect of this time, namely that it is when one is in love: Or haply, when an earthly passion stirs, One of a more divine import feels himself Endued with new strength and awak'ning powers Beyond the range of his ordinary state. And so he fancies an angel visits him; An angel, such as poets vainly try To paint, tho' 'tis impossible, but still The image always shall remain the same. All this, tho' it is so strange, we still Can feel is in our being: and this strength Is felt most by him who feels it least. This aspect of nature remains within the realm of human emotions, not one of its own 'natural' elements. For example, Wordsworth does not seem to find the earth moving, nor the wind stirring. Instead, he shows a human experience being born from a 'mortal' one, much like Coleridge. Here, Wordsworth makes us see the poem and the poet as being a human being (with emotions) and not a mere object, as would be more characteristic of later Romanticism. He has, therefore, written nature poetry, but it is not nature poetry. It is human nature poetry, what we should now call humanism: There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore Of those whose spirits are attuned to theirs; We with their music fill the silent air And weep–weep with them in that deep delight Which cannot be exceeded. Then our hearts Are full, and there is no room for despair When we remember that eternal years For ever and for evermore are ours; That while the mortal frames, that house the soul Dust and decay cannot. The poetry, which is clearly the human soul finding itself, has a spiritual quality of being without a nature. It is naturalism that has been stripped away, and its place has been taken by a spiritual one. Both poet and his landscape have become human-inspired objects, but the poet is obviously the most prominent in this process. However, the important thing to notice about this poem is that Wordsworth does _not_ think of the universe itself as something external. Nature is an internal experience, and he does not see it as though he has become a philosopher. The Romantic philosophers, unlike Wordsworth, see nature as an external experience and, therefore, a source of knowledge. There is a sense of wonder at it, but the poet is not in wonder at nature's wonders but in his wonder at himself. ## 4.8 Aristotle's Poetics: Poetry as an Art form Since we've been discussing William Blake, we might do well to also consider one of Aristotle's major contributions to the discussion of poetry, namely his Poetics. Aristotle saw poetry as an art form that is different from poetry in verse and drama, but closer to music. All three forms share a lyrical quality. In music the melody is dominant, in poetry the language, and in drama the plot, all of which are not dominant but subservient to the emotional purpose of the art form. In poetry, therefore, the language is the dominant feature and the purpose is the emotional one. Aristotle points out that many forms of poetry, such as the elegy, are so similar to the epic that they should be classed as forms of it, not as separate forms. It is because poetry can be more specific in form that poetry will be more dominant in some societies over others. It will also become more sophisticated as language improves. This does not mean, however, that a poem will become less emotional as it evolves. We could consider the development of language, but the content and emotional drive remains. Although it is an emotion in poetry that one feels, this is not to say that Aristotle thought that poetry had no intellectual content. Aristotle sees a hierarchy in terms of the emotions. First is the pleasure in beauty, then comes the intellectual pleasure, then comes the pleasure in virtue, then comes the pleasure in the moral emotions ( _spoudes_ ). We've already had something of a look at the latter two, and we shall consider how this relates to drama. The pleasure in beauty takes in any of the sublime, the pathetic, the comic, the ironic or the erotic. The aesthetic pleasure is more concerned with what pleases the _eye_ , as opposed to the emotional content. For example, in the painting of Christ Crucified, the content is gruesome, the subject matter is shocking, and yet the painting is most probably a masterpiece. However, beauty alone is inadequate. The reader has to be able to see the work as being of great aesthetic quality. Otherwise, it will be lost. However, this aesthetic pleasure is a necessary part of the work, but it cannot be the primary function of the art form. Aristotle's description of tragic emotion fits well into that of Shakespeare's tragedies, and he makes an interesting connection between poetry and politics. This can be demonstrated by looking at his conception of _katharsis_ (purification) and its similarity to the English word _revolution_. Aristotelian tragedy is essentially cathartic and catharsis involves two major effects. First, it purifies the audience by purifying the emotions. This is similar to the _stasis_ of Thucydides' _