The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition

When you grow tired of reductive approaches to Romantic poetry, pick up THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP and undertake to understand who a poet such as Percy Bysshe Shelley really was--what issues he wrestled with (slavery was legal in the Ottoman Empire), how he navigated the political currents of his time (Napoleon left Europe both shattered and reborn), and why his early death by drowning was an incalculable loss to English letters (he had just completed HELLAS, a prescient treatment of the Greek Rebellion). I promise you, after reading Abrams' luminous exploration of the Romantic world, you will read Shelley's ENGLAND IN 1819 and his DEFENSE OF POETRY with genuine appreciation of those works as explosive introductions to modern life--in other words, as road maps of the world that you and I inhabit.

I am very much an appreciator of Romantic literature, and this book communicates the impact and spirit of this type of literature very powerfully. It requires a certain amout of concentration and mental litheness to digest this material, but this makes it a fun challenge. I would definity recommend this book to anyone who enjoys or is drawn not only to Romantic literature, but literature in general (or even other arts, as well). I also write poetry, and I think this is a basic text for understanding one's own artistic output.

Our way of looking at art in the year 2000 is steeped in the Romantic mentality. The idea of the true poet as lone inspired genius, starving in a garret, creating to express his (and it generally was 'his' in those days) inner turmoil or vision is so ingrained that there almost seems no other possible standard. Yet as M.H. Abrahms points out in this scholarly, yet readable work on Romantic poetry and theory, this view of art and the artist is only as old as the age of Coleridge and Wordsworth. Up until 200 odd years ago, the artist's job had been to act as a mirror, reflecting the world as accurately as possible. The Romantics sought to reverse over 2000 years of previous art criticism by pushing the artist to the forefront and insisting that he be seen as a lamp, illuminating the world with his imagination and vision. Abrahms thoroughly examines the development of Romantic philosophy through the writings of the major English poets and thinkers of the age, drawing in discussions of continental Romanticism as well. Romantic views on Nature, God, Poets and Poetry, Truth, Vision and of course the Imagination are all thoroughly researched and meticulously compiled, making this one of the most comprehensive single volume books on the subject.