“What are poets for?” asked Heidegger in his 1946 essay. For Heidegger, in destitute post-war Germany, he sought for the poet’s purpose or function in society. He claimed that poets “reach into the fearful abyss to follow the traces” left by divinities in order to “prepare the way for the return of cosmic order.” Simply put, poets restore order. Poets such as Shakespeare, William Blake and Judith Wright articulate ideological, social and aesthetic concepts which encourage people to reflect on and embrace their philosophies, including idealising inner beauty, challenging the Establishment and promoting Romanticist ideologies, respectively.
William Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest writer in the history of the English language, whilst famous for his dramatic theatrical plays he has also written 154 sonnets. Two in particular, Sonnet 18 and 130 demonstrate Shakespeare’s ability as a poet best, simultaneously mocking both poetic and social conventions, demeaning ideal beauty popularised by his contemporaries in the sonnet form. Sonnet 18 (well known as ‘Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?’) idealises the beauty of the speaker’s friend like most Petrarchan style 14-line sonnets, however makes aware that it’s the poem which immortalises his friend’s beauty. The speaker compares his beauty with summer, opening with the question “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, however, in an untraditional sense the speaker proceeds to treat summer negatively, “Thou art more lovely and more temperate,” in praising his beauty. He claims “Summer’s lease have all too short a date” and that “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines”, critiquing the supposed ideal season for not lasting long enough and for the sun sometimes being too hot, making comment that like his friends beauty it isn’t everlasting and can be “too hot” ruining itself. Incidentally his beauty will be scared naturally by change from time as “his gold complexion dimm’d; / And every fair from fair sometime declines, / By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d,” referring to his friend’s “fairness”, (a term for beauty at that time) the speaker remarks it will inevitably decline and die with him. However, the speaker turns meta, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade… So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” he makes aware that unlike the loss of a rare perfectly beautiful summers day, it’s the poem which preserves this idealised beauty, which, so long as it is read, will be envisioned by readers literally centuries to come. As the structure of Petrarchan sonnets go, the first 8 lines (the octave) are followed by another six lines (the sestet) which are distinguished by the Volta, conveying a switch in tone as the poem translates from problem to answer quite simply. The last word in line 8 “untrimmed” can mean like the untrimmed sails of a boat, and in that sense acts as an oxymoron “By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d” to mean the only thing that doesn’t change in nature is in fact change itself, and in effect also acts as the Volta from octave to sestet relaying the theme from change to eternity in the poem. Much speculation surrounding the speaker’s choice of subject leads to deep homo-erotic readings of the text, drawing from authorial context as well as the obvious choice of a male appraisal in a romantic sonnet form. Romantic language “lovely, darling, gold complexion, fair” and the choice of form would traditionally be reserved for a woman, challenging social influences on poetry or vice versa. Several other poems of Shakespeare’s are addressed to men in similarly affectionate tones, but not much is actually evident, however the autobiographical nature of the sonnets feed this speculation. I view the friendship as purely plutonic based on no obvious sexual remarks, however it expresses a daring idealisation of a man’s beauty in order to challenge social and poetic convention. It’s this expression in Shakespeare’s choice of words which allows for deeper interpretation of a poems core themes.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 similarly challenges poetic conventions, this time more obviously through actually parodying the Petrarchan sonnet form. When read at face value, the speaker disparages his wife by comparing her to the traditional symbols of beauty in the typical sonnet, however she doesn’t exhibit these qualities but lacks them, but the poem in fact works ironically as it satirises idealised beauty and instead compliments her inner beauty and her true qualities. The speaker uses Petrarchan structure and terminology, in order to make harsh comparisons, before the conclusion undermines these contrasting images of idealised beauty and disparagement. The comparison “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is outright an anti-simile, going against all usual comparisons to stars being of romantic content, and notably doesn’t just describe his mistress’s eyes as dark or plain, but simply doesn’t meet that quality so often idealised, similarly; “I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, / But no such roses see I in her cheeks” the romantic symbol of the rose has appeared in countless poems, but here it is employed to imply his wife lacks any visual attraction. “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun” seems to be nothing but a false expectation, for the idealisation of skin as ‘white as snow’ seems unattainable. This sentiment is expressed when reaching the Volta, as the tone switches from disparagement to complimentary, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare” the speaker acknowledges his beloved for the real qualities she exhibits “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound” demeaning the idealisation of such expectations of beauty in poetry (and subsequently in society). The use of the conventional Petrarchan sonnet form betrays the traditional content of such a poem, and fulfils a parody role, as it is composed in iambic pentameter, the typical metre for romantic poetry in order to create the juxtaposition of expectation and being realistic. But the ultimate complimentary nature of the poem portrays an idealisation of inner-beauty instead of outer beauty, “As any she belied with false compare”, for the speaker still places his wife on a pedestal.
William Blake is now famous for his creativity and expressiveness as a seminal poet from the romanticist era, however during his time he was mostly unrecognised for such idiosyncratic views. Heavily influenced by the French and American revolutions which were current affairs in Blake’s time, and living in Industrial revolutionary London, he held quite anti-establishment views, and even as a very religious man, held contempt for the church. Blake’s philosophies tend to be very much an undercurrent in his work, publishing two poem anthologies ‘Songs of Innocence’ & ‘Songs of Experience’ showing the ‘Two Contrary States of the Human Soul’, in ‘Experience’ his poem ‘London’ from 1794 alludes to revolution and accuses the establishment for the conditions the everyday people face. The speaker illustrates a restriction on the human soul as a result of the industrial conditions. The use of chartered in “I wander thro' each charter'd street / Near where the charter'd Thames does flow” conveys a politically controlled London, restrictive streets on which these scenes take place; “And mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe” the first singular use of mark can imply to take note of these marks of weakness and woe, influenced by the recent French revolution Blake could be implying that these people can only endure so much before they snap, and considering every face is marked the odds are in the populations favours and so it’s more cautionary to the establishment then marginalising the people. The scene is pitiful with “In every cry of every Man / In every Infant’s cry of fear / In every voice, in every ban / The mind-forg'd manacles I hear” use of anaphora means that in everywhere, the speaker can hear these “mind-forg’d manacles” which continues the political restrictiveness enforced on these people, as it becomes mental handcuffs, controlling their mind. Also notable is the grammar in this stanza, as “Man” and “Infant” are both capitalized, signifying equal importance evoking William Blake’s underlying philosophy in the appreciation of innocence in the child and experience in the man, and the importance of finding the balance of both sides of the human soul. However, these mental handcuffs are controlling and restricting both sides of the soul imposed by the establishment of industrial London. The “Every black'ning Church appalls / And the hapless Soldier’s sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls” accuses the Church, the government and monarchy for dangerous and filthy conditions. The “blackening church” is an obvious contrast to the representation of a white church, as it connotes sin, evil and corrupt, betraying the values that the church should uphold. The “hapless soldiers sigh” portrays the soldiers as victims too, as their last breath is unfortunate or a waste, and considering the relatively recent American civil war implies that such repression in America (or indeed on any colonial battlefield) was also unjust and that the British soldier’s death was unnecessary and not for a good cause. And the sigh “run in blood down the palace walls” connotes that the blood is ultimately on the monarchy’s hands, and perhaps alludes to them being ultimately to blame and should be done away with. The poems metre is seemingly Iambic Tetrameter, “I wander thro' each charter'd street” however not every line is perfect; “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” perhaps to stress the imperfection and sickness of London and the people, or even to reinforce the idea of the people rejecting the establishment of London in the same way they reject the structure of the poem, incidentally titled ‘London’. William Blake’s expression of ideas is what has made him famous, and his ideology is one that whilst it never shaped London it was quite prophetical, and is recognised for being so progressive during such a mechanistic and inhuman time.
Judith Wright was a modern Australian Romanticist poet. A devoted environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights, she believed that poets should be concerned with national and social problems. ‘Five Senses’ from 1963 is a poem which corresponds the relationship between mankind and the environment being psychedelic exhibiting Judith’s Romanticist influence. The poem expresses the interpretation through the human senses as a connection between inner existence and object reality. It describes the senses as an experience of ecstasy “While I'm in my five senses / they send me spinning / all sounds and silences, / all shape and colour” the paradoxical sensation and random imagery evoke an indescribable connection. Contextually, the narcotic connection could be an influence of the psychedelic culture of the 1960’s in which it was written. The free form of the poem expresses this surreal sensation, the experimental composition of the poem conveying the bizarre inconsistent drug like rhythm with an A/B/C/D variation over the 20 lines. Alternatively, the poem could also be an exploration for the creative process involved in the creation of poetry, as the “Now my five senses / gather into a meaning” the rhythm of the poem comes naturally “these shapes that spring from nothing, / become a rhythm that dances, / a pure design” echoing the romanticist value of the environment as the source of inspiration and artistry. Judith made clear that she didn’t like her work being analysed, especially as part of the school syllabus, however interpreting the text alternatively still corresponds the human senses and the environment, proving that Judith’s poetry successfully reflects her environmentalist beliefs.