American Literature: Romanticism final exam assignment Sample Final Exams 2013 Question 5

Hannah Wells

Romantic Poetry: Voices of Rebellion

            American Romanticism is never so strong as it is in poetry. The American spirit, the desire for a dream, shines in the microcosm that is a poem. The rebellious, questing, American nature appears in poems from the Puritan era through the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Historically, Romantic works reflect the current, societal situation and are often the voices of the different or discontent.

Anne Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” published in the mid 17^th century, is a lovely example of poetry that features Romantic elements and is in itself a small rebellion. Like some other Romantic poems, Anne Bradstreet’s work has a vein of the controversial and outrageous. Bradstreet sings the praises of her husband and their deep love in an era where love was not a necessary requirement for marriage. She wrote poems in a time when women were not encouraged to read more than The Bible or do more than raise the children and keep the home. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is a passionate piece that is not written for God, but for Bradstreet’s earthly husband. Bradstreet even goes so far as to brag about her situation in comparison to other women and dares them to compare with her love.

To achieve the beauty of “To My Dear and Loving Husband” Bradstreet included Romantic elements like reference to the distant past and nature and the belief in transcendence. The remote “East” does not possess enough riches to compare to the Bradstreets’ love (Bradstreet 6). All of God’s “Rivers cannot quench” the desire Bradstreet has for her husband. These comparisons are also consistent with the tendency for hyperbole in Romantic authors. In the end, Bradstreet wants blessings for her husband, but she also desires to “live ever” after the pair dies (12). Instead of reaching for the Puritan goal of spending her afterlife with God, Bradstreet is hopeful that their love can transcend time and remain after death.

More than two centuries later, Countee Cullen’s “From the Dark Tower” is also a poem of underlying controversy woven into Romantic elements. Unlike Bradstreet’s poem, Cullen, a Harlem Renaissance author, is denied something he longs for. The dream of equality is desired, often denied, but sought after with hunger by the African American authors of the era. Cullen shares the desire of a lost dream with Romantic artists, just as he shares their style. “From the Dark Tower,” like most of Cullen’s poetry, is a variation of the Italian sonnet. Poets like Cullen and McKay mingled this old form, a form that belongs to their oppressors, with their new message. The form might well be called an ironic sonnet since Cullen’s poem is not about love, but about sorrow and underlying rebellion. This rebellion, however, does not explicitly belong to the African American and the poem is quite timeless.

Besides form, Cullen’s poem has several other Romantic elements. Like Bradstreet, Cullen uses nature images symbolically. His “bursting fruit,” fortune and privilege, will not always belong to the tormentor alone (Cullen 2). More importantly, Cullen plays with the images of light and dark and their symbolic nature. The “sable breast” (Cullen 9) of the night sky contrasts the “White stars,” but the night is “no less lovely being dark” (10). Light and dark have historically been the symbols for good and bad, but in this poem, Cullen declares the dark as beautiful and subtly (through Romantic language) asserts the equality of his race. The poet goes on with the image of the dark and avows that “we” will “hide” (Cullen 13) there “And wait” (14). Even if this poem was unlabeled and undated, this last image screams of rebellion and brooding discontent.

Both Anne Bradstreet and Countee Cullen include Romantic elements in their poetry to emphasize an underlying resistance or uniqueness. The study of Romanticism is useful when reading poems from any era because it speaks of a tradition and history across generations. The presentation of poetry in this class made it very clear that Romantic qualities persist in works from authors from different backgrounds, eras and styles. Class discussion was also helpful because students pointed out the uses of elements and their purpose. If the amount of poetry was lacking, the emphasis on finding and understanding the qualities of Romanticism in other mediums made up for it.