Distinctive Poems

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Romantic literature has three distinctive characteristics which include a persistent
reference to Nature and her influence, intimate self-revelation of the poet’s emotions, and the use of contraries. Each one of these characteristics are displayed in the three following poems: Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode, and Keats’ The Eve of St. Agnes. The references to nature are evident in all of these poems, but the most clear is in Tintern Abbey. The self-revelation is exhibited in Dejection and the contraries are displayed all throughout The Eve of St. Agnes.
In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth reflects on the time when he and his sister would go to the banks in Tintern Abbey and he would just enjoy nature. His first reference to nature is when he was standing on the cliff watching the waterfalls and he placed him it a state of “deep seclusion” ( line 7). Wordsworth expresses his feelings about color green that he sees all around him. The color green represents rebirth or growth and with it being all throughout the banks, that would mean that everything is continuing to grow and reproduce. In line 30, he says that nature gives him a tranquil restoration. He is calm and at peace with everything when he is in the wild and surrounded by nature. Wordsworth then says that a “serene and blessed mood” comes over him while he is around nature (line 41). To Wordsworth, nature was like his lover when he was a little boy. “The coarser pleasures of my boyish days” is where he reflects back on the calming pleasures that he received (line 43). Nothing could satisfy his needs like nature could. He had a love for nature that no one else could fill. Now that he’s older, he looks at nature as a mother, always guiding him and putting his heart at ease. Whenever he is in despair or when he is feeling down, he would just lose himself in nature. Nature is like a mother that places her child’s head on her shoulder an...