To Handle the Truth; the transition in the representation of truth from between the Neoclassicist and Romantic eras

Sanghoon Oh

While the notion of truth is a fuid principle in it of itself, its representation is one that presents itself with equal fuidity. When comparing the topics focused by the Neoclassical and Romantic literary movements, it may appear that the former was dedicated to giving voice universal truths, whereas the latter seems keen on displaying subjective truths. As popular as this distinction is, even by its contemporaries, I hope to show that this is a false dichotomy between the two eras; the apparent shift in the philosophical paradigm of the Neoclassicists to the Romantics was due to a shift in the representative modes of literature, particularly in the changes in literary conventions, as both eras strived towards the same universal truths albeit in different forms. When comparing the Neoclassicists to the Romantics, it seems the two hold fundamentally different philosophical views of the truth. For the Neoclassicists, a poem’s greatness comes out of the poem’s independence from its creator. Such a sentiment can be found in Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism, a poem/essay which embodies many of the poetic opinions of its time. Lines like “those rules of old discovered, not devised/ Are nature still, but Nature methodized” (lines 88-89) indicates that the structure of poems are not the products of human creation, but the product of nature manifesting in the poet. To put differently, rather than recognizing truths in the world, the poet merely gives acts as a vessel for nature to speak its own truths. Consequently, if all worthy poems are instances of nature’s formalist conventions, then the truths embodied by the poetic works are embodiments of nature itself, giving the truths of a poem a universal scope. By this assessment, poetic worth is determined by the accuracy of the writing in embodying literary conventions, as these rules of nature are both the criteria for the creation and assessment of a poem. While Pope does acknowledge the presence of natural geniuses (lines 9-11), particularly the likes of Virgil and Homer, he believes that their genius comes from being able to access different parts of nature through previously

undiscovered rules of poetics (Pope, lines 68-69,142-145). The failure to comply with these rules (by selecting a subject unworthy of praise or improperly amount of praise for the subject) is an act of hubris, “mimic[king] ancient wits at best” (Pope, lines 331). This externalized view of a poet’s responsibility to their work means the poet is important in so far as they are able to access natural truths, but not intrinsically important, and the truths embodied in the work are the byproduct of the natural conventions. In contrast, Romantics like William Wordsworth claim that the focus of poetry should be on inherently subjective experiences. In the preface to the 1800 edition of the Lyrical Ballads, a popular poetic essay of its time, Wordsworth claims that the subject of poets should be common experiences written in common languages (“Preface” 305). To Wordsworth, the Neoclassical mode of elevated diction and thematic focus fails to capture the real experiences of humans (“Preface” 308-309), and by extension, fails to fully embody truths the poet is aware of (“Preface” 310). A similar view is echoed by his contemporary Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, noting that poetic genius “produces the strongest impressions of novelty while [rescuing] the most admitted truths” (“Biographia” 495). Though Coleridge would disagree with Wordsworth’s use of common diction (“Biographia” 502), he would concur with Wordsworth’s reaction against Neoclassical writing’s complete concession to poetic rules. Coleridge emphatically makes a distinction between poems and the “superfcial form” of a poem (“Biographia” 499), making the Neoclassic commitment to form insuffcient for a poetic work, as a work is poetic only if it conveys truths the poet experiences (“Biographia” 499-500). Consequently, this gives the poet far greater creative freedom in the mode of representing truths, including the types of truths to represent, as they are not bound by any normative propositions of the type of content they must represent. In this regard, the poet not only decides the subject of exploration, but brings out truths from their own personal experience. This emphasis of subjective truths would explain the frequency of man’s relationship to nature as a topic of Romantic literature. While nature was a topic that the Neoclassicists also explored, the Neoclassicists saw nature as an inherently interconnected with the presence of humans (Pope, 493). In contrast, the Romantics see nature as an entity both distinct from but interconnected with humanity, as it is an alternate entity which induces human experiences. Consider Tintern Abbey, a self-meditative poem by Wordsworth. The poem begins with the poet in the titular abbey, relaying the beauty they experience in free verse. The setting provides the conditions for the speaker to refect, allowing them to overcome their existential crisis. The repetition of the isolating terms like “secluded” (“Tintern” lines 6,7) alongside natural imagery indicates the speaker’s solitary presence in the setting. These descriptions not only make

the speaker the subject of the poem but makes the poem subjectively dependant on the speaker’s experiences. Combined with the absence of other characters (something common in Neoclassical writing), there exists no means to counter to the speaker’s view, creating a solipsistic world where the speaker and their subjective experience is the world itself. Not even nature, the catalyzer of these subjective experiences, is independent of the speaker (“Tintern” lines 121-134), thereby making all truths revealed subjective to the speaker and its experiences. It is one’s personal relationship to nature which brings out the sublime experience that catalyzes one’s own personal growth. However, this dichotomy of universal-subjective truths between the Neoclassicists and Romantics respectively fails to account the way the Neoclassicists addressed the self, particularly through their choice in abstract topics. Take, for instance, the topic of death. In Thomas Gray’s Elegy in a Country Courtyard, Gray explores the possibility of his own demise while maintaining Neoclassical conventions, such as iambic pentameter and a consistent ABAB rhyme scheme, to create a strict poetic structure throughout the poem. Furthermore, the passive descriptions diminish the presence of the speaker and detaches them from their surroundings. We only realize the presence of the speaker as a character after they address themselves as “thee” (Gray, Line 93), creating detachment and humility in the inherently subjective topic of their own demise. The result is that when the poet-as-speaker is killed, the reader knows little of their internal thoughts. Yet despite the speaker’s demise, Gray explores the nature of the speaker’s death through the voice of a commoner and through an epitaph. Their placement into the text not only legitimizes their commentary on the speaker but reveals to the reader the universal truth that when one is killed, it is others who experience one’s demise. While one could criticize Gray’s writings for its limitation in the exploration of the speaker’s thoughts, as Neoclassical conventions limits self-placement in a poem, Gray’s commitment to poetic rules of the time makes us experience the inherently impersonal experience of death. Furthermore, the disconnect between the speaker and their internal thoughts, combined with melancholic diction, only furthers the uncompassionate nature of death to the victim. It is through the poems’ obligation to Neoclassical conventions that these universal truths arise; a poem that contemplates the speaker’s experience of death makes it impossible to present others’ experience of one’s own demise, as all these external perspectives are fltered through the speaker. Similar results can be found in Jonathan Swift’s Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, where Swift’s poet-as-writer speculates about others’ reactions to his own demise, with the demise of the poet-as-character of Swift. While Swift’s verses are less melancholic and more theatrical, the effect of self-refection via others produces the same effect as Gray’s work. Through this poem, Swift

reveals the universal truth that our lives are lived vicariously by those around us, indicated by the snide comments on Swift’s degrading health (lines 80- 104), the cacophony of comments following Swift’s demise (lines 153-169) and eventual erasure from public consciousness (lines 245-249). Ultimately, the Neoclassicists like Gray and Swift address the self through the form of their writings, rather than being limited by its conventions. It is through form’s dispassionate exploration of subjective views that produces an epiphenomenal effect that conveys universal truths regarding death, made only possible by the strict use of literary conventions. At the same time, even when their work seems detached from society, the Romantics are fully aware of the inherent socially entrenched nature of their work. As previously established, the Romantics see their work refective of their own subjective views, isolating it from an epistemic position to establish universal views. However, many romantic poems are catalyzed by social positions to provide universal truths. In Wordsworth’s We are Seven, a little girl shows complete ignorance of the concept of death. By portraying the subjective innocence of the girl, we become aware of the inevitable enlightenment she will face regarding the universal truth of death. Only by positing the girl’s subjective truth about the non-existence of death as a contrast with the seemingly obvious truth of death’s omnipresence is the reader able to cognize new formulations regarding death. As adults, our subjective experience of ennui, degrading physique and increasing lethargy makes us forget that at one point, we too were like the girl, lacking the capacity to understand death. Despite our ownership of this knowledge, we become accustomed into forgetting it over time until it is brought to our attention once more. Thus, the mere representation of subjective truths, no matter how different they are, expand our knowledge of universal truths by acting as an antithesis for a dialectical discourse. This notion of attaining universal truths via numerous subjective truths is expanded upon in Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem that evokes the subjective experience of the mariner. While the Mariner’s tale is fantastical and supernatural, he is cursed to universalize the seemingly subjective truth that one should give all of nature the same dignity and respect one has to other humans (“Mariner” 612-617). Both the mariner and the poem itself convey the truth by warning the wedding guest and reader respectively, satisfying the role of a poet as “a man speaking to men” (“Preface” 310) so long as the truths revealed are thought to be universal by the subject. While the truths revealed may initially be subjective in scope, the poet’s proliferation of their subjective truth universalizes subjective truths. Thus, the intersubjective nature of society means any subjective truth brought into social consciousness is (or has elements of) universal truths. As a result, any expression of “ordinary things presented to the mind in an unusual way” (“Preface” 305) exposes society to

subjective descriptions of universal experiences, indicating that the subjective truths the romantics seek are focalized perspectives of objective truths, or that these subjective truths are universalized through proliferation, moving the reader towards a universal truth. While the distinction between Neoclassicists and Romantics explored as a distinction between subjective and objective truths may initially seem compelling, the reality is that both eras strived towards the writer’s view of universal truths. The Neoclassicists’ dedication to form brought forth universal truths that could not otherwise be expressed, as a singular subjective explication would inhibit the representation of other subjectivities. In contrast, the Romantics’ seeming focus on subjective truths was a way of approaching universal truths, as presenting a singular perspective induced a dialectic relationship with the reader. One could argue that the Romantics viewed the universal truth as far more fuid, as indicated by their willingness to deconstruct poetic forms to convey truths, but it cannot be denied that both eras strive towards a universal truth in their own respective manner.

Works cited

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Biographia Literaria”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. pp 492- 504. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. pp 448-464. Gray, Thomas. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. C. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. pp 998-1001. Pope, Alexander. “An Essay on Criticism”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. C. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. pp 490-506. Swift, Jonathan. “Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. C. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. Pp 258-269. Wordsworth, William. “Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798” The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. pp 299-302. Wordsworth, William. “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. pp 304- 315. Wordsworth, William. “We Are Seven”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. pp 288-289.