Nostalgia in Wordsworth and Housman’s Poetry
This essay will focus on the significance of nostalgia in the works of William Wordsworth and A.E. Housman. As some critics believe, for better or worse, Romanticism and nostalgia are so frequently associated as to be nearly synonymous. Nostalgia exiles us from the present as it brings the imagined past near. One of those Romantic poets who talks about nostalgia is Wordsworth. A.E. Housman, in contrast, was one of the greatest classicists of his age. Like Thomas Hardy, the majority of his poems are written in such a plain and direct style that further analysis or critical interpretation may seem unnecessary; but it is worth examining how Housman creates the emotional, nostalgic punch that his poems carry.
Wordsworth and the Romantic Idealization of Nature
Wordsworth was known as one of the most important poets of the Romantic period because he had a deep sense of love for nature that influenced him and his works. Modernity and the advent of city life were things many Romantic poets seemed to detest. This trait is most perceptible in the work of William Wordsworth, who often presented pastoral settings in his poetry. In his poem Michael, a young man leaves his home in the peaceful mountains for the city and is permanently corrupted. In his famous preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth, regarding modern urban life, lamented “the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident.”
For Wordsworth, the city was a place that excited the mind far too much and dulled one’s ability to think clearly and purely. This point of view conveys nostalgia for the times in which society was less centered around urban life. The distractions and spectacles inherent in urban life reduced people’s ability to focus on the metaphysical meaning of the world around them and left them unable to be moved by the simple and calming influence of nature. This has much to do with the perception of the Romantics as primarily opposed to the city.
Housman’s Nostalgia for a Lost England
Like Wordsworth, Housman is also known for the existence of nostalgia in his poems. The fortieth poem from A Shropshire Lad, which begins “Into my heart an air that kills,” is one of his most famous ones, a short lyric about nostalgia and growing old. Its two stanzas of four lines each form a dialogue on the nature of nostalgia.
In the poem, the speaker views a distant land and recalls, with a certain melancholy nostalgia, the hills of his homeland. He recognizes that, whilst he was happy when he lived there, he cannot return there now that he is older and has left that land behind. The traditional quatrain form of the poem, with the abab rhyme scheme, allows him to reflect on the passing of time and the futility of longing for a land and an age that is dead and gone.
A Shropshire Lad gave a glimpse into an interior life he would normally keep hidden. His poems deal with unsatisfied love, war, the natural world, and the transience of youth and beauty and are written in tones of nostalgia, resignation, and regret. You feel this nostalgia for an older, lost England. It is part of his enduring appeal, and no matter how many times you read him, you cannot help but surrender to the resonant sounds of his sad music.
Conclusion: The Role of Nostalgia in Poetry
Overall, an interest in the ancient world is discernible in many poets, as many of them use language in their poetry that was, at the time, archaic. The investment in the ancient world in these works illustrates that many Romantic poets were nostalgic for the pre-modern times in which society was not so centered around urbanization. Wordsworth was known as one of the most important poets of the Romantic period who introduced the Romantic Movement to English literature and called poetry the science of feeling and emotions. On the other hand, by a chance of timing, Housman became the laureate of nostalgia for a country reeling from social upheaval, technological change, and conflict.