Introduction to Unit II--Romanticism, Imagination, and Art

Romanticism is primarily about the magic of words--how the imagination, intuition and insights of the writer (or as Romantics often say, the "poet") combine with his love of language to spin a unique web of words which will catch up the reader's imagination and penetrate his mind and emotions, so that for a moment, he too may be a "poet."

Remember what Bryant said in "The Poet"?

Thou, who wouldst wear the name
     Of poet mid thy brethren of mankind,
  And clothe in words of flame
     Thoughts that shall live within the general mind!. . . .

The secret wouldst thou know
      To touch the heart or fire the blood at will?
   Let thine own eyes o'erflow;
      Let thy lips quiver with the passionate thrill;
   Seize the great thought, ere yet its power be past,
   And bind, in word, the fleet emotion fast.. . . .

And they who read shall say;
      What witchery hangs upon this poet's page!
   What art is this the written spells to find
   That sway from mood to mood the willing mind!

But it took the Romantics, especially Emerson and Poe, with their understanding of the "I", the subjective imagination, to understand what the writer must be, think, feel, and do in order to create "words of flame." We have already encountered Emerson's concept of individualism, of self-reliance--his liberating yet also restricting view of the power and the limits of one's own mind and imagination, which can create worlds yet will always wonder, "is it, after all, only my world, my illusions? or could it be reality?" That's a question that Romantic subjective idealism cannot ever answer. For Romantics, reality lies within that which we can know incontrovertibly--our own minds and hearts, and there is no way to be certain that we do not live in a world of illusions or our own imaginations. We aren't hopelessly bound to our own minds, because, as writers, they understood that words can reach out to the depths and heights of the minds of their readers, somehow creating a world that transcendents the so-called "real world."

So this is why we are beginning this unit with "Illusions." There's a thin line between illusions and imagination, for illusions are projections of the mind and imagination. As Emerson points out, we can never be certain whether what we call reality is illusory or not; it's what we know. Imagination is REAL to us, and may be even more true than what we call "reality." The real action is in our heads.

We are also reading "Circles," which is as much poetry as prose. Not only is this essay dealing with the understanding that the individual mind is the center of its universe, but it does so by exploring the image of the circle (sphere, ball, etc) as metaphor and symbol for the workings of the human mind. The form of this essay is unique and an organic extension of the ideas it embodies; it is circular, coming round incrementally again and again to its base metaphor, building up ideas by circling. It draws the reader into the vortex of its argument by repeated "takes" on the many meanings of the circle. It is geometry become romantic art, endless circles turning into endless spirals upward. You can cut into it at almost any point and seize that version of the metaphor, and as a reader, spin endlessly on your own spiral of thought. That is why we are annotating the essay, because I want you to carry these sentences, each version of the circle metaphor, into your own mind, your own reality. to think about what meaning they carry, alone and in context.

Bon voyage!