Poetry is Undergoing Changes

Poetry and its Evolution

Poetry has evolved from the Romantic era to the present. Poems, like authors, have adapted to the revolution. Poems by Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth are not the same as poems by Lord Byron or Shelley. To that end, this paper would aim to describe a Lord Byron poem and demonstrate the distinctions between poems written by romantic writers and poems written by Lord Byron, Shelley, and Keats.

Lord Byron’s Poem: “She Walks”

Lord Byron’s poem Beauty, “She Walks,” describes a nameless woman who is very pretty. He emphasizes elegance by using parallels. He uses contrasts like the cloudless dark nights full of stars and the day that he describes as gaudy. He illustrates that beauty and innocence make the woman he describes an ideal woman. The style used by these writers is different. Shelley, for instance, uses highly figurative language while on the other hand Blake’s works were comprised of simple word and sentences although it had aspects of metaphors and symbolic language. Unlike Lord Byron, who prefers a social satire style and a natural and conversational style, Coleridge preferred a ballad forms in his works. The focus of many Romantic poets revolved around, revolution industrialization, concerns of the rights of women and children and generally the focus on individual experiences. These themes, though not entirely, have been changed by time. Writers like Lord Byron can write about random topics such as beauty in his poem ’She walks in Beauty’.

Conclusion

In conclusion, every poet has their own style of writing which distinguishes their poetry from other poets. It is very difficult to come up with one critique that sums up the works of the writers since their writing styles and concepts keep evolving.

Work Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen, et. al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2012

Not cited in the text