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What springs normally to the mind of young readers when the word "romantic" is mentioned? Certainly the prevailing opinion is that this word conveys aesthetic feelings compelling balanced reformer aspiring to overthrow the institutions the words of love and song enunciated with upturned eyes and a febrile forehead, romantic adventures, valorous knights in spotless white, passionate proposals to ladies pining with love, all culminating in a march to the enchanting tune of Lohengrin, etc., etc.
However, one must accept that this is a one-sided and almost entirely contorted image of romanticism. The romantic authors of the early nineteenth century in England too sincerely and regarded themselves reformers and innovators -- they thought of themselves as very wise, but unluckily, some of them lacked almost wholly the essence of wisdom.
Take Wordsworth for instance. He regarded the world's eminent interpreter of nature, sometimes called the high priest of nature. The beginning of this nature love may be search out back at Hawshead, the unroofed school of nature, where he has said to have "learned more eagerly from flowers and hills and stars than from his books." His aesthetic poems, the shorter ones especially, with lines that procrastinate ever in our memories bear his notable attributes - his sensitiveness as shown in the Prelude; the genuineness of his expression as he gives us the bird, the wind, the flower and the rivulet just as they are; his sight and insight into the lavishness of loveliness in the common world and the full acknowledgment of life in nature. He has given us lines which strike us intensely and impressively. Out of a heart full of compelling love he wrote:
"The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock,
The mountain and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colors and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love..."
With a certain flourishing wisdom he heard "the still sad music of humanity"; he learned:
....The nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead,
From joy to joy:..."
With powerful almost disturbed emotionalism he gave us the lines:
"Great God! I'd rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed
So might I, standing in this pleasant lea
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."
There you have a romanticist, a composite of good and bad, a mortal who tried to scale the "gateway of the stars" but could not enter the "golden bar" of heaven because his feet were decidedly of clay.
Wordsworth's philosophy of nature seems, at first sight, very appealing, but examine his lines further and you shake your head in censure and outright dispute. As Catholics we cannot fail to see how his true and genuine paganism crops out constantly and mars the radiance of many of his more purposeful poems. The reader, upon serious deliberation of his works will find doctrines which are for us indefensible. In the keenly sensitive ode "Intimations of Immortality" the doctrine of pre-existence is alluringly shown:
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,
The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath and elsewhere its setting
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
Sounds enticing, does it not? But then he follows this with ideas.
"Earths fills her lap with pleasures of her own;--
To make her foster child, her innate man,
Forget the glories he has known
In that imperial palace whence he came."
Later still in the same poem he says:
"Hence in a season of calm weather
Through the land far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And can see the children sport upon the shore."
How peculiar this is! He is impressing us that there is an authentic occurence before our temporal life. He says nature can make us forget God and is a supplant for the magnificence of God. Romantic fallacies! Yes and very serious ones for us Catholics; and these ideas do seriously mar the works of Wordsworth.
Very far from Wordsworth is Shelley, the visionary, the radical, the revolutionary, and anarchist. We see in him the incapability to see men and society as they are. He is the unhinged reformer searching to topple the institutions he obscurely identified only in the later years of his life.
His poems are filled with a strange sadness- - -
" Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight;
Fresh spring and summer and winter hoar
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more - - oh! never more!"
Shelley's revolutionary works like "Prometheus Unbound," "Revolt of Islam," "Hellas," etc., depict a decided revolutionary radicalism. The reforms they encourage are both stupefying and imaginable. One can only speculate at the widespread beauty that abounds in his passages. He should, I suppose, not be remembered for his vain, foolish rebellion. He shows himself a true poet - a wanderer aspiring perfect beauty though forever sad. The spirit of nature which appeals to us in the sweet-scented flower, the blowing wind, the amber sunset, the magic moonrise - we find reflections of these in his poetry. The emotion that rises and harmonizes into the object beheld, because of the transcendent power of love:
Make me thy lyre even as the forest is
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tune
Sweet though in sadness! Be thou spirit fierce
My spirit! Be thou me impetuous one!
He indented himself against all authority. Down with the laws, these only serve to limit the actions of men and cause impediment and happiness; down with religion, priests from ancient times have led men astray; down with the conventions of society; down with the authority of parents over their children! Let us do away with marriage - the marriage contract, all forms of contract are at the root of all social evils. One cannot take this part of Shelley seriously. He appears like a disrespectful, grumpy, narrow-minded, unpleasant, child moved by such vehemence of indignation as he cannot restrain.
The tragedy of Shelley is the tragedy of the Romanticists - thinking themselves so wise but so inappropriate; trying to voice a philosophy fashioned by the commands of fancy not the lucid light of the intellect.
But he was a lyric poet of aesthetic and comely nuances.
Bombastic Byron forever parading his grief and his loss, weaving out of his disenchantment a texture of poetry and beauty - the romantic pilgrim forever sad, yielding in Comus-like rejoicing in an attempt to forget all. Alternating between satiety and contrition. Such a proud sardonic disillusioned man. What bitterness and grief he reveals in the lines:
"My days are in the yellow leaf,
The flowers and the fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker and the grief
Are mine alone.
A strange indescribable nature. Byron was. Capable of reliable remarkableness (notice his death) but rarely utilizing the regal privilege..
So there you have the romanticists. More bad than good? Surely not. Although their works have some very intricate faults. This might be because they inspired themselves to discern too much and speculate too little; that they, although philosophers, were all too often improper; that out of frustration with human commonality, they wanted to rip up and shatter that society. If one's house leaks, one must repair it, wisely and economically. Surely there is no need to shatter a house just because it leaks here and there.
The final tragedy of the three English Romantic poets we have taken up in this disquisition is that their best work lies in their minor works. Their major works are marred by unreal thoughts, prodigious, extreme narcissism, and hypocrisy. But their lyric power is above reproof. What loveliness in the common place revealed by Wordsworth; what melting liquid word consistencies in Shelley; what vibrant, oscillating emotions in Byron; what a prowess of consonant values and vowel sounds in all of them.
Romantic Fallacies
Inspiring Story on Endurance
A son asked his father, "Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?" The father who, despite having a heart condition, says "Yes". They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying "Yes" to his son's request of going through the race together.
One day, the son asked his father, "Dad, let's join the Ironman together." To which, his father said "Yes" too. For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island .
Father and son went on to complete the race together.
You may watch the video below:
Preparing a Family Easter Candle
Hello everyone!
During the Lenten Season, my family prays together using a purple book entitled "The Lenten Prayer Guide for the Family". I don't know if you can still find that in Christian bookstores in the country so I will share with you a special section on preparing and blessing an Easter candle as well as blessing the Easter family meal.
Wishing you a meaningful and spirit-filled Holy Week.
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One of the special and important elements of the Easter Liturgy is preparing and lighting the Easter candle, a symbol that Christ is the light and the center of our world-
“I am the light of the world; anyone who follows Me will not be walking in the dark; he will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Each home can have its own paschal candle, made and decorated by the family on the evening of Holy Saturday. This is to be left on the dining table, and lit on Easter Sunday during a family meal.
Materials:
A tall vigil candle ( to represent Christ)
5 thumb tacks or drawing pins ( to represent His five wounds)
Greek Letters Α (Alpha) put on top of the Cross and Ω (Omega) placed
below the cross.
Prayer: (to be recited as the thumb tacks or drawing pins are inserted into the candle, one at a time, in the for of a Cross)
1. By His holy
2. and glorious wounds
3. may Christ our Lord
4. guard us
5. and keep us. Amen.
Put your Family Easter Candle on the dining table, and light it on Easter Sunday during a family meal.
Blessing of the Easter Family Meal
All: Amen.
LET THERE BE PEACE
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be
With God as our Father, brothers all are we
Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now
With ev’ry step I take , let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth , and let it begin with me.
Continue lighting your family Easter candle daily at meals during the 50-day period of rejoicing of Easter . ( Easter ends on the day before Pentecost) The following prayer may be said as you light your candle.
Leader: Father, You give us food to share that we might be nourished and strengthened. Above all, You have given us Your Son, Jesus, who gave His life and continue to give His life as food to many. May our gratitude for this food give You praise, through Jesus, the Bread of Life.
All: Amen.
Blessing of the Family Easter Candle
When all have gathered for the Easter family meal, light the Easter candle which you prepared last night, and make the sign of the cross.
Leader: Christ our Light!
All: Thanks be to God.
Leader: Blessed are You, God, Father of all nations. You are the God of light. In You
There is no darkness. As we gather to rejoice in the risen life of Your Son Jesus Christ, may our home be bright with laughter and warm with love. We ask this in Jesus’ name.
All: Amen.
Reading: Luke 24:1-6
Leader: Christ our Lord has been raised:
All: He is truly risen!
Leader: Death no longer has a hold over Him:
All: He is truly risen!
Leader: He lives a new life:
All: He is truly risen !
Leader: Alleluia, Alleluia
All: He is truly risen!
Leader: Praise to You, Lord of Life:
All: He is truly risen!
Leader: Peace be to you:
All: He is truly Risen
Leader: May the Light to Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and
Minds.
Heavenly Father,
Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided but undimmed, a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God. Let it mingle with the lights of heaven and continue bravely burning to dispel the darkness of the night! May the Morning Star which never sets find flame still burning. Christ that Morning Star who came back from the dead
And may He shed His light of peace on all mankind, Your Son, who lives and reigns forever and ever.
All: Amen.
(from the "Lenten Prayer Guide for the Family")