Freedom and Entrapment: The Romantic and Modernist Poets’ Sense of Self

“Near Glarus, Switzerland, 1781 by John Warwick Smith”

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Freedom and Entrapment: The Romantic and Modernist Poets’ Sense of Self as Presented in William Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798” and T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

In this essay, I examine the romantic and modernist poets’ sense of self in their works through the representatives of their respective period which are William Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798” and T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. I put forth the argument that even though the sense of alienation is present in both of their works, the romantic sense of alienation is grounded on the poet’s disdain in urban city and humanity, thus having an agency in such alienation. To put it simpler, the poet chooses to alienate himself from society. On the other hand, the modernist sense of alienation is forced upon him by certain conditions, may it be the superficiality of the society or the introverted personality of himself. Therefore, their presentations of self are different as per their origins of the sense of alienation. Wordsworth’s self is more whole, confident, and unified, while Elliot’s self is helpless, doubtful, and fragmented.

To better understand how such a sense of self is formed, it is important to adopt a slight of the Marxist approach in looking into poets’ background and social context because it can explain how such conditions had compelled them to write the work and represent themselves the way they did. Marxist critics hold that a literary work is bound within, or at the very least, influenced by the “social and political circumstances” in which it originates (Barry 160). Such a statement can be seen as applicable to the nature of literary movements during the nineteenth and twentieth century.

The late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century is, in Abrams’ words, “a turbulent period” (1). One can see revolutionary tendency not only in the social, political, and economic development but also in the literary convention. Naturally, as Marxist critics have stated, the latter is largely shaped by the former. The Industrial Revolution brought about tremendous changes in several ways; what used to be an agricultural society was industrialized. The population grew more and more, and to feed themselves, they immigrated to big cities with financial power that was able to provide them with jobs. Thus, these cities, especially London, became modernized.

For romantic poets, the changing cityscape might not be something so pleasant. William Wordsworth reveals his stance against urban life in London in his poem, “Residence in London” (1805). In his encounter with a fair, he refers to it as “…a hell / For eyes and ears, what anarchy and din / Barbarian and infernal – ‘tis a dream / Monstrous in colour, motion, shape, sight, sound!” (Wordsworth in Löffler 312). According to Löffler, the author uses the fair as a “model” for the city (133), therefore in criticizing the fair, he also effectively compares London to “hell”. In the concluding lines, Wordsworth states the prominent romantic theme of finding solace in nature: “The spirit of nature was upon me here; / The soul of beauty and enduring life / Was present as a habit, and diffused – /Through meagre lines and colours, and the press / Of self-destroying, transitory things – / Composure and ennobling harmony” (Wordsworth in Löffler 314). This is the sentiment that drives Wordsworth and other romantic poets to write about “low and rustic life” secluded away in nature.

Following the same direction, Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” mainly describes his deep emotion and his admiration toward nature and how “these beauteous forms” of nature sustains him when he was away in the city. The theme is similar to “Residence in London” where the poet yearns for peace and tranquility of nature as a way to escape the dreary urban atmosphere and environment.

The late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century were no less “turbulent” socially and politically. As the curtain of the nineteenth century came to a close, the fear and the anxiety of degeneration arose (Livesey). Pessimism was also one of the trends in the fin de siècle literature (Abrams 1683). Then, the First World War came and brought much environmental, physical, and mental devastation to Britain. It was not a stable and peaceful time, as writers of this period would make sure of that in their works.

In the literary circle, since reading was now available for the mass, there was the need among writers to elevate their works to the status of “high-brow” by making their work more challenging and sophisticated (1683). The modernist writers found themselves experimenting with their new preference for complexity, allusiveness, objects, or ideas that contrasted sharply with those carried by the surface meaning of the poem (1686). T. S. Elliot has also stated a similar sentiment in his essay, “The Metaphysical Poets” that

[o]ur civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more elusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into his meaning.
(Elliot in Abrams 2137)

Therefore, within the society that is, for a large part, dramatically affected by the war, unstable, and lost most of its faith in God or morality, modernist poets and writers can be seen as attempting to use various new literary techniques in their works to impose some sense of order in this disorder and chaotic world. (Pradittatsanee)

Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is, then, the opposite of the romantic positive and uplifting tone. The poem follows Prufrock, as he is strolling around the street of a city that is painted in a not so complimentary light. He reflects upon the seemingly unchangeable nature of society and the indecisiveness of himself. It is a harrowing monologue of a man who possesses a painfully large amount of self-doubt all the while feeling alienated from everyone around him. There is no sense of comfort that one would normally see in works of romantic poets.

            The sense of alienation is present in the works of both authors, however, they are different in two crucial ways, which are the agency—or lack thereof—in such alienation. In Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, the sense of alienation is mentioned briefly. For example, in the fourth line of the second stanza, the speaker refers to life in the city as “lonely” and weary (“weariness”). In the last stanza, he characterizes humanity as having “evil tongues”, “rash judgment”, and “sneers of selfish men” which might suggest his disdain for the mass. The daily communication between him and other people is also described as being “dreary”. From the selected evidence, one can gather that the speaker feels not belong in society. It is the place that makes him uncomfortable. The people inhabiting such places are also horrible.

The way Wordsworth describes city life and humanity mostly shows how he projects the urban environment and people, while the point of view from the other way around is altogether left out. This is a view of a person who is very convinced in his belief and is ready to pursue what he believes is appropriate. The very assured self-conviction is clearly manifested in the last stanza where he proclaims: “…Therefore, let the moon / Shine upon thee in thy solitary walk; / And let the misty mountain-winds be free / To blow against thee…” Here, the speaker addresses his sister and wants to convince her to find joy in nature. Similarly, such a statement can be read as a guide for the mass to achieve the same status as “a worshipper of nature” as the speaker. To be a worshipper of nature, one needs to “let the moon [s]hine upon” oneself “in thy solitary walk”. One has the full agency in making the decision to let nature embraces oneself, which means one accepts to take a “solitary walk” and be alienated from the urban society.

In Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the sense of alienation is presented to quite a contrary. While Wordsworth uses Tintern Abbey as the setting for the work, which thematically supports the thesis of the poem about escaping the horrible city life into nature’s sublime embrace, the speaker in “The Love Song” is situated in a metropolitan, thus giving the reader a sensation of being trapped. The speaker feels alienated, surely, as he positions himself as a victim of the gossip: “They will say: “How his hair is growing thin! “”; “They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”” The people all around him seem hostile, and unlike Wordsworth, Prufrock has no sanctuary to escape to.

As mentioned that the speaker positions himself as a victim, here in this poem, it can be seen that, like Wordsworth, the speaker provides commentary of the external world as an assertion of his agency in the alienation, however, he also recognizes internally how people in the society play a big part in making him feel not belonging. In making commentary on the society, the speaker accuses the society of being superficial through the repetition of the couplet: “In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo.” Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists with numerous accomplished works, therefore a meaningful discussion concerning him should be profound and take some time. Here, we can see that the conversation takes not too long from the phrase “come and go”, so it can be read as the speaker’s attempt to imply that people in the society are superficial by posing themselves as fashionable or intellectual by talking about famous figures of high art. Apart from self-alienation by disagreeing with certain aspects of the society and trying not to be a part of it. The speaker, then, acknowledges that he, too, is actively being alienated by the people around him. “And I have known the eyes already, known them all— / The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, / And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, / When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,” He knows that he is an object of the talk. He is constantly judged and evaluated. Moreover, in acknowledging this and repeating it (“They will say” in line 41 and 44; “the eyes” in line 55 and 56), this suggests that the speaker cares what is said about him and let it has an influence over his sense of self. This is naturally reflected in the theme and the overall tone of the poem.

When the sense of self is different, the theme presented through such self is also different. In Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, the speaker finds heaven (“these beauteous forms”) and greater power (“the power / of harmony, and the deep power of joy”) in nature, immerses himself in the joyous power and sensation (“In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, / Felt in the blood and felt along with the heart; / And passing even into my purer mind / With tranquil restoration”) and uses it as an escape from the horrible life in the city. He is full of conviction that nature is the place where he belongs. He finds joy and the sublime that elevates his mind and thought: “well pleased to recognize / In nature and the language of the sense / The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, / The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul / Of all my moral being.”. He is confident in the belief that he wants to share with other people. In this poem, he uses his sister (“My dear, dear Sister!”) as a representative image of other people in the world that he wants to invite and show them that even time has passed, the experience of being in nature and all the valuable sensation that they find in there will still be like “life and food” or an emotional sustenance “for future years”. The speaker’s tone is more and more exalted as the line goes by and ends with “exhortations” toward the last lines urging readers to see how nature is important to him and how it will be important for them too. The poem gives an optimistic outlook on life with the thesis that one’s sense of self can always be fulfilled in nature—the place that one truly belongs.

In Elliot’s work, the superficiality of society and the loneliness, as well as the indecisiveness of the speaker, are the main themes of the work. Therefore, the sense of self here cannot be elated or exalted just as we see in Wordsworth’s poem, rather we are left with the sense of isolation and self-doubt. The opening stanza which is an excerpt taken from Dante’s Inferno properly introduces us to Prufrock’s sense of alienation. For a poem written for English-speaking masses, six introductory lines in Italian do not deepen our understanding of the poem. It gives the reader nothing but perplexity. The stanza seems out of place but at the same time so crucial to the theme. So, there is this sense of alienation felt by the reader as well as the sense of contradiction that the speaker manifests throughout the work.

The first twelve lines show us the way the speaker sees the world. he sees the world as helpless from the imagery he uses to describe the evening “[l]ike a patient etherized upon a table”. The use of such imagery suggests that he characterizes society as sick and weak. Perhaps, he sees the Western society as a wounded patient waiting to be operated which means that it would take a long time to fully recover. It is an image of a society in crisis. The environment and the atmosphere are not pleasantly mentioned too. The readers see the image of people coming in and out of a “one-night cheap hotel” which reflects a superficial sexual relationship that modern people seem to enjoy. The streets are not proper streets. They are said to have an “insidious” quality and lead him to “an overwhelming question”.

Apart from the negative view toward the world, he also presents himself in a negative light. As he is pondering whether he should visit someone (“Let us go and make our visit”) and reveal his true feeling, his sense of self seems to diminish more and more. In the first English line of the poem (“Let us go you and I”), he offers to be the host for us, the reader as we go through his internal monologue. He shows us the horrible state of the city, before discussing himself. First, he shows us his indecisiveness. He cannot make up his mind to visit the person and admit his feeling for her (“And indeed there will be time / To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?””). He seems to intentionally postpone the decision by telling himself and us as his guest repeatedly that “there will be time”. After that, he becomes more vulnerable and reveals to us that “I was afraid”, all the while thinking about the imminent rejection and disappointment. This is when we start to see his sense of self deteriorates. He admits that he is not worth being a man by saying that he should have been a creature living at the bottom of the sea instead. He also admits in the work where he is supposed to the speaker, the protagonist that he possesses no quality to be gain such a status (“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be”). He thinks the most appropriate title for him would be “the Fool”. The last image before we and Prufrock parting was us drowning—he drowns in the metaphorical sea and we, perhaps, in his sad tale. He is helpless and sees no way to escape the society whose soul was destroyed by the war. To him, society is left with only its shell now, thin, superficial, and not in any way profound. The act of drowning also implies to us that he will remain in a state of indecisiveness. When drowned, it is hard to know whether he would start kicking his feet and push himself out the water, or he would let himself succumb to the fear, pressure, and judgment of society. His sense of self is quite the opposite of Wordsworth’s; it is bruised, afraid, lonely, and hopeless, as there is no clear indication of his ultimate destination at all.

The structure of both works also reflects the speakers’ sense of self just as their themes do. Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” is a great example of “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Abrams 5). Line after line in the poem is the speaker admitting his sincere love toward nature. Enjambment can be seen in almost every line which helps accentuate the flow of the poem. Even though the poem can be seen as a “spontaneous overflow”, the message is expressed to the reader in an orderly and unified manner. He starts, in the first stanza, by admiring the familiar nature before him and explains how it lives up to the setting in his memory. In the second stanza, he states how the beauty of this nature in his head becomes like nourishment to his mind and helps him be free, thus transforming into “a living soul”. The fifth to the last stanza concerns the speaker’s admiration toward nature, its positive effect, and an invitation to other people to find joy in nature. What we can see throughout the structure of the poem is the way Wordsworth connects his past self and his present self, as well as projects the warm outlook of the future. His sense of self at the moment is whole, unified, and interconnected under the theme of nature just like the poem’s structure suggests.

In Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, we can see the poet’s attempt to make Prufrock’s sense of self fragmented. This is to compliment the indecisive nature of Prufrock himself. The poem begins with an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno. This suggests that even the “love song” that should be about Prufrock is not entirely about him. His thought, then, is all over the place. One moment, he is walking on the street; another, he is in a room listening to women talking about Michelangelo. One moment it seems that he is fully immersed in his thought, but then he tells us that “[w]e have lingered in the chambers of the sea” waiting to drown. The lack of clear position of the speaker in the poem makes it hard to know where he is geographically and where he is in his life, however it serves theme of indecisiveness and ambiguity well.

The allusion to other literary works like Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and even Dante’s Inferno reflects Prufrock’s profound knowledge of the works mentioned in his love song. He knows bits and pieces that are used to construct his work—a representative of himself—but there is no hint of his full assured self at all. It is the intention on Eliot’s part to portray a modern man as he believes he should be. He understands the malaise of the period and uses his literary techniques to impose a sense of order in the chaotic world. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty shared among modern men and women distilled into a concise and structured poem for the reader to read, sympathize, empathize, understand, and eventually come to term with the life—that “you and I”, the reader and Prufrock are trapped in and are destined to drown together.

In conclusion, the sense of self is expressed differently in both works although the two speakers feel alienated. The romantic sense of self is whole and complete because Wordsworth chooses to alienate himself from the urban society and pursue joy in nature where he finds himself truly belong. On the contrary, the modernist sense of self is indecisive, insecure, and fragmented. This is because the speaker feels trapped in a world that is static, mean, and uncaring. He also fears being judged in everything that he does—dressing, eating, or simply behaving. Prufrock is unable to overcome all these obstacles because of the fear of failure and rejection which eventually leads him to a state of in-between as he does not actively pursue or completely reject his hopes and dreams.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H. “The Romantic Period 1785-1830”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. W.W. Norton, 1993. P. 1683-1691.

Abrams, M. H. “The Twentieth Century”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. W.W. Norton, 1993. P. 1-7.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Therory. Third Edition, Manchester University Press. 2009. Pp. 160.

Eliot, T. S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock. Accessed 10 December 2021.

Livesey, Ruth. “Fin de Siècle”. Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press, https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199799558/obo-9780199799558-0030.xml. Accessed 10 December 2021.

Löffler, Catharina. “Romantic Visions of the City: William Wordsworth’s “Residence in London”(1805)”, Walking in the City. JB Metzler, Wiesbaden, 2017. Pp. 293-318.

Pradittatsanee, Darin. “The Modernist Period”. Major Forces and Trends in English Literature. Chulalongkorn University. 09 November 2021. Lecture.

Wordsworth, William. “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45527/lines-composed-a-few-miles-above-tintern-abbey-on-revisiting-the-banks-of-the-wye-during-a-tour-july-13-1798. Accessed 10 December 2021.