A theme that has recurred across
the works and discussions of this semester is that of family and children. This
theme has come to us in many forms: in novels and in poetry, in true familial
or in metaphorical sense, in politics and in nature, in interactions between
brothers and sisters, parents and children; there is something surrounding the
Romantic Era which seems to thrive on the portrayal of these familial ties.
Although writing about siblings and relatives appears in the work of the most
significant Romantics, the topics of children, childhood, and the parent’s
relationship with the child are heavily focused on in the works we have studied
and how they have been interpreted on this blog. In fact, William Stroup,
Professor of English at Keene State College, notes that “The most famous texts
from Romantic writers emerge from the writer’s childhood memories or engage in
ideas about children’s lives” (Stroup, 1). My final post will discuss how the
child is first explored as a figure in the poetry and illustrations of William
Blake, it will move into how the child is addressed in terms of growth and
development the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, and
then it will culminate with an exploration of the relationships between parents
and children in Jane Austen and in Felicia Hemans.
The “cult of the child,” or the
exploration of the child in poetry, flourished in England after William Blake
began to embody this in his poetry, particularly in his volumes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (Banerjee). Peter
Coveney says that it was in Blake that we have, “the first coordinated
utterance of the Romantic imaginative and spiritually sensitive child”
(Coveney, 51). Katie in her post, “Infant Sorrow vs. Infant Joy,” remarks on
how Blake conveys the idea of the spiritually sensitive child by putting the
poems in the point of view of a newborn baby. The child in “Infant Joy” is born unaware,
unnamed and only feeling pure joy, while the child in “Infant Sorrow” is
struggling, “helpless and naked” (3) and is fully aware of the danger that
faces him as he has left the womb of the mother. This development of innocence
leading into experience is what marks this set of poems, and the figure of the
child, who is naturally going through their own development, is the perfect
vessel for Blake to use as an allegory. He also explores how the innocence of a can seem
delightful, but naïveté can also lead to sorrow, pain, and loss as seen in the
“The Little Girl Lost” and “The Little Girl Found” poems. In these poems, the
kidnapping of a young and naïve girl changes her into an experienced and
sexualized being.
Another way that Blake contributes
to the Romantic theme of the family and children is through his artistic
depictions that accompany his poems. These prints were analyzed in multiple
posts on the blog primarily to discuss the changes in color across multiple
editions and how they affected the interpretation of the poem. One can compare
the differing depictions of “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” which further
magnify their poetic differences. “Infant Joy” shows both mother and child
safely cradled in a flower and watched over by a kind angel or fairy, while
“Infant Sorrow” shows a child exposed and writhing in distress as the mother
rushes towards it. These artistic images further emphasize the connotation of
childhood in the poems of Blake in regards to development from innocence to
experience.
“Infant Joy”Copy V. 1821
“Infant Sorrow” Copy V. 1821
Another poet who looks at childhood
in terms of development is Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His great Romantic work,
“Frost at Midnight,” was a subject of significant discussion on the blog in
regards to his musings about childhood and how childhood experience shapes
one’s adult life. He thinks not only about his own childhood experiences in the
city, but he looks forward to the experiences of his own son in the future,
where he will have a profound connection to nature. The theme of innocence is
connected to childhood once again in Coleridge. I was particularly interested
in Gary Snyder’s post, which compares the openness of nature to the open and
accepting quality of the innocent child’s mind. Therefore it is through the
appreciation of nature that innocence and childhood can be regained for
Coleridge, and he rejoices in that connection in the poem.
The “tender gladness” (49) with which Coleridge speaks about his son in the poem also speaks to the changing idea of the child in society during the Romantic era. For centuries of literary history, treating a child with this level of emotional expression was certainly not the norm. The high infant mortality rates of the pre-Romantic period made it difficult for parents to become deeply attached to their children, as the majority of them would not live to see adulthood (Stroup, 2). The steadily improving rates from the late 18th to the early 19th century allowed for parents like Coleridge to become emotionally connected to their children, and allowed them to realistically muse about their future as Coleridge does in “Frost at Midnight.” As a result of this, and thanks depictions by poets like Blake and Coleridge, the culture during this time period became profoundly child-centered. The image of the child became the embodiment of Romanticism, as it was thought to be close to nature, pure, and uncorrupted (Clarke, 8). This new way of looking at children also affected art, as portraits of children began to increasingly stress innocence, “cuteness,” and dependence. (More info found here: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/projects/newchild/family.html). A contrast in the mother and child images of the Renaissance and that of a mother and child scene in the early 19th century can be seen below. One can see how tightly the mother holds the child in Benjamin West’s Romantic era portrait of his wife, and how the child clings to the mother in full dependence. This is compared with the child in Raphael’s portrait, where affection is shown, but the child seems less dependent and more like a small, aware adult rather than a naïve child.
The “tender gladness” (49) with which Coleridge speaks about his son in the poem also speaks to the changing idea of the child in society during the Romantic era. For centuries of literary history, treating a child with this level of emotional expression was certainly not the norm. The high infant mortality rates of the pre-Romantic period made it difficult for parents to become deeply attached to their children, as the majority of them would not live to see adulthood (Stroup, 2). The steadily improving rates from the late 18th to the early 19th century allowed for parents like Coleridge to become emotionally connected to their children, and allowed them to realistically muse about their future as Coleridge does in “Frost at Midnight.” As a result of this, and thanks depictions by poets like Blake and Coleridge, the culture during this time period became profoundly child-centered. The image of the child became the embodiment of Romanticism, as it was thought to be close to nature, pure, and uncorrupted (Clarke, 8). This new way of looking at children also affected art, as portraits of children began to increasingly stress innocence, “cuteness,” and dependence. (More info found here: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/projects/newchild/family.html). A contrast in the mother and child images of the Renaissance and that of a mother and child scene in the early 19th century can be seen below. One can see how tightly the mother holds the child in Benjamin West’s Romantic era portrait of his wife, and how the child clings to the mother in full dependence. This is compared with the child in Raphael’s portrait, where affection is shown, but the child seems less dependent and more like a small, aware adult rather than a naïve child.
“La Madonna del Gran’Duca”
Raphael, 1504-5
“Mrs
Benjamin West and her son Raphael”
Benjamin West, 1770.
William Wordsworth was deeply affected by the idea of the child in his personal life as well as in his poetry. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth was fascinated with the experiences of the child and how they affect the experiences of the adult. In “Tintern Abbey” he explores the Romantic notion of how the child is deeply connected to nature in its purity, building on his idea that youth functions as “nature’s priest” (Banerjee). In the poem he reminisces, “For nature then/(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days, /And their glad animal movements all gone by)/ To me was all in all” (73-75). This poem also highlights the benefits of growing older, and how the rest of one’s life builds on adult experiences. He learned to love nature as a child, but he learned to think deeply about it and really appreciate it as an adult. The poem also acts on passing this information down to someone younger than him, his sister Dorothy, who, although not an actual child, assumes the innocence of a metaphorical child in this poem. (Dorothy actually suffered from declining mental and physical health during most of her years in close companionship with Wordsworth, as seen here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/dorothy-wordsworth. Perhaps in this sense she did assume the dependence of the child).
Although she is also not a child in
the sense of age and experience, Anne Eliot from Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion, is profoundly affected as
daughter by the actions of her father Sir Walter. As Kat points out in her
post, the “ridiculous parent” is a repeated motif in the works of Austen, and
is often used to highlight the absurdities and flaws of society. Sir Walter is
obsessed with family, not in the affectionate sense, but in regards to family
status and the importance of a family’s personal history. In order to seal his
place in society, Sir Walter lives frivolously and irresponsibly, driving his
family into debt. Anne loses agency in this sense. She is moved from place to
place and is told what to do, not of her own choosing, but because of her
family: the fact that they are in debt, or because her family wants her to make
a suitable match, or because her sister needs Anne to care for her, or her
nephew needs to be cared for. Her status as a woman further compounds this idea
that she is will be dependent on her family or the new family she enters into
with marriage. In this way, Anne is defined by her family and as a metaphorical
child for most of the novel, until she gains some sense of agency.
The role of a childlike, dependent woman versus an independent, unconventional woman is also explored in the poetry of Felicia Hemans. The “Bride of the Greek Isle” struggles with the act of leaving her family and leaving her connections to childhood and youth behind in order to enter an adult life with a husband. The image of the girl even calls to mind West’s portrait of the child above: “She wept on her mother’s faithful breast,/ like a babe that sobs itself to rest” (33-4). Furthermore, in the “Wife of Asdrubal,” Hemans explores the agency of a woman while also exploring the role of the mother. The wife and mother breaks out of the private sphere in order to act in the courageous way her husband would not. She makes the decision to commit infanticide, to kill the children with the loving hands of a mother rather than see them brutalized by the mob or killed in the fire, saying, “E’en now my sons shall die—and thou, their sire,/ In bondage safe, shalt let them expire./Think’st now I love them not?” (57-9). This sacrificial act not only represents a breaking out of dependency by women, but it also depicts the bonds of mother and child that were held so dear during the Romantic era.
Through these five authors, one can trace how the theme of how families and children were represented in he Romantic period. The figure of the child occurs across a variety of works and comes to represent the basic ideas of the Romantic era such as innocence, connection with nature, rebirth and dependency. In some cases the child is used as a symbol for a perceived dependence on another, and it is the breaking of that childlike reliance which is celebrated. Connections with parents and siblings and the idea of how family shapes one’s life are also explored during this time. As readers we bring with us our own familial connections and we are able to deeply engage in the works of Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Austen, and Hemans at this fundamental level. For this reason, it is clear to see why the theme of family and children was so often used in the works of the greatest Romantic writers across the span of the genre.
Works Cited
Banerjee,
Jacqueline. "The Ideas of Childhood In Victorian Children's Fiction: The
Child as Innocent." The Victorian Web (2007). Web. 22 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/childlit/childhood1.html>.
Clarke, John.
"Histories of Childhood." Childhood Studies: An Introduction.
By Dominic Wyse. Malden , MA
Stroup, William.
"The Romantic Child." Literature Compass 1.1 (2005). Web. 22
Apr. 2012.
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00078.x/pdf>.
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