Thematic Elements in Two Works of Romanticism
During the late 1700s and 1800s, the Romantic Movement among writers, poets, and painters evolved -- partly as a revolt against Industrialism and partly as a counter-movement in response to the zeitgeist of Neoclassicism. In two distinct works, strong thematic elements of the Romantic Movement are represented. In the painting, The Wanderer Above The Mists 1817-1818, Caspar David Friedrich depicts the raw beauty of communion with nature, solitude, as well as the inevitable passage of time. Similarly, in William Wordsworth's poem, "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey", key elements of the Romantic Movement are expressed, such as nature, aloneness, and travel -- travel through time and space.
Friedrich's depiction of the lone man standing upon a craggy rock overlooking a misty landscape exemplifies the man's identification with a natural environment. However, nature, in this context, appears brutal -- as the rock is somewhat higher (more like a small rocky cliff) than the background which is undefined, as undefined as the man himself -- the wanderer. The background is also replete with a number of rocky buttes and outcroppings that poke through the misty clouds below the man. The placement of the man above the clouds suggests his place in the cosmos as well. He transcends all that is below him; nature is separate from him but he appears to be comfortable in the midst of all that is natural, as he peers from the rocky ledge.
As the wanderer faces away from the viewer of the work, only his backside and general attire are visible. He is wearing an overcoat, and grips a walking stick (or cane?) in his right hand. The overcoat could be the outer dress of a well-to-do man. Only a well-to-do man has the economic means to "wander" in early-19th century Europe. In addition, he is certainly not dressed for hiking, suggesting that the man is merely visiting the remote area to view its immensity and grandeur. The manner and style of his dress suggest a man who does not possess an outdoorsy temperament, yet is perfectly comfortable among imposing natural beauty and grandeur -- and even presides over the scenery.
At the same time, as he peers into the misty abyss, he is alone. His solitude is stark, and he appears to command the abyss. He has born witness to the wonders below him, but he has returned to a familiar place. One speculates that the man has traveled to the ends of the earth and back to re-visit the craggy ledge -- and reminisce about his travels, his labours, as well as his loves. The immensity of the man overshadows everything else in the painting, suggesting that whatever processes are occurring inside of him dwarf the world below him. He is a "god" in his own Universe. The mists below him suggest a dream-like reverie, or a deeply-pensive state of consciousness, illustrating that the man's thought processes are central to the painting. Whether he is reminiscing, overlooking a familiar terrain, or simply stopping to view the landscape is speculative, but nothing in this painting overshadows this man's pre-eminence -- not even the expansive setting itself, one that seemingly stretches out to infinity.
In Wordsworth's "Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey", reminiscence and nostalgia come alive on the page via the printed word. This poem could nearly serve as the lyrical accompaniment to Friedrich's painting. First, Wordsworth pays great homage to Nature.
"and again I hear/These waters, rolling from their mountain springs/With a sweet in-land
murmur" (Wordsworth, lines 2-4). He has been at the same spot before. Similar to the wanderer from Friedrich's painting, Wordsworth is re-visiting a familiar place from a time past -- five years ago. The place holds a deep sense of meaning and nostalgia for him, as he waxes poetically: "The day is come when I again repose/Here, under this dark sycamore, and view/ These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts," (Wordsworth, 9-11). Wordsworth enjoys the solitude that the serenity of Nature offers.
Wordsworth refers to those who live in total isolation -- hermits -- and adulates them. "With some uncertain notice, as might seem,/Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,/Or of some hermit's cave, where by his fire/The hermit sits alone" (Wordsworth, 19-23). Like a hermit, Wordsworth is most comfortable in seclusion -- in a Holy Communion with Nature. In seclusion, Wordsworth finds his peace of mind and tranquility, something he holds close to him during his travels through villages, towns, and cities. "Though absent long,/These forms of beauty have not been to me,/As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:/But, oft in lonely rooms, and mid the din/Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,/In hours of weariness, sensations sweet" (Wordsworth, 25-29). Contrary to most people, his reminiscences about being alone in nature bring Wordsworth great joy and pleasure, while being among others is a lonely, vacuous experience.
The Romanticist Movement, as a whole, deemed travel -- especially aimless wandering -- through Nature a necessary part of their literary and artistic aesthetic. Wordsworth exemplifies the nomadic spirit of the Romanticist. During his travels, however, a youthful man -- full of ardor and affection for Nature -- has changed. Upon his return, he has come to regard Nature with more maturity, as he, too, has gone through life changes. "For nature then/(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,/And their glad animal movements all gone by,)/To me was all in all.--I cannot paint/What then I was." Wordsworth waxes nostalgic about his younger days, but finds himself unable to articulate the days of his youth, as he has grown older and more refined.
Clearly, the meandering river is a metaphor for Wordsworth's flow of thoughts, and it leaves a deep impression upon his mind, as the transitory properties of Nature are reflected by the river. "For thou art with me, here, upon the banks/Of this fair river; thou, my dearest Friend,/My dear, dear friend, and in thy voice I catch the language of my former heart and read/My former pleasures in the shooting lights/Of thy wild eyes" (Wordsworth, 115-120). Thus, the poet hears Nature's voice from all quarters and even sees Nature's handiwork in the skies, as she pervades every part of the Cosmos.
Both the wanderer and Wordsworth's persona are spatiotemporal travelers. Both men have wandered aimlessly only to arrive at the same spot, somehow changed by their former experiences in more remote locales. Ultimately, the force of Nature harkens them back to a point where they, too, have become larger-than-life forces of Nature themselves. Friedrich's wanderer stands at the precipice of an unfathomable chasm, while Wordsworth communes with Nature and has a powerful religious experience.
Both Friedrich's The Wanderer Above The Mists 1817-1818 and Wordsworth's "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" are emblematic of the Romantic Movement in both literature and the visual arts. The two works eerily complement each other, and one wonders if Wordsworth's poem influenced Friedrich's painting. Nonetheless, the two artists convey a message that stresses a highly-similar thematic core. Both artists -- the poet and the painter -- depict and portray men who travel nomadically, value seclusion, and venerate the power and Force of Nature. Both men face the Abyss, but overcome their physical limitations by communing in a reverie with Nature's primeval force. They have been transformed into illuminated men, and are themselves a part and parcel of the Universal force of nature.
