Every generation is said to be characterized by a rejection of or rebellion against the values of the previous generation. The Romantics were no different. They rejected the values of the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, both of which were characterized by order, control, rational thought, reason, science, industrialization, and urbanization. These values influenced the way in which those people who adopted them perceived the world and are reflected in art and literature. The Romantics rejected these values, seeing them as negative and damaging. The Romantics valued imagination and emotion, intuition, a love of nature, the country life (as the opposite of urbanization and industrialization), an interest in the divine and mythical, creativity, rebellion, revolution, individualism, and subjective experience. These values are reflected in the art and literature produced by the Romantics.
There are several ‘big names’ associated with the Romantics, including Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats. However, Emily Bront¸ also wrote during that time period. Though better known for her novel Wuthering Heights Bront¸ also wrote many poems. Though her work is most often considered Victorian, her poetry appears to reflect the values of Romanticism. One poem in particular showcases Romantic values; this poem is “High Waving Heather.” This paper will demonstrate how the language and images Bront¸ used in the poem reflect the values held by the Romantics and sheds light on Romanticism.
The opening lines of the poem combine images and language to paint a particularly Romantic scene: tall heather waving in the winds from a storm. But the heather isn’t just waving; it begins to bend in the “stormy blasts,” which evokes a feeling of high emotion. The heather by itself reflects the Romantics’ love of nature and country life. The second line of the poem likewise reflects a love of nature and country life: “Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars.” Where else but in the country, away from the lights of the city, could one truly appreciate the moonlight and stars? And the city would also keep one from appreciating how the “darkness and glory” are “rejoicingly blending,” as the city lights would illuminate the darkness. But in the country – which the Romantics valued – one could experience that blending. Of course, nature does not have emotions, but the Romantics saw nature as divine and mystical, so in their view it would have emotions, and it would rejoice in the blending of darkness and glory. Furthermore, the divine is something accessible through nature – nature reveals the divine. The fourth line of the poem, “Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending,” highlights this meeting of nature and divinity. This line also evokes images of heavy cloud cover and rain, mirroring the “stormy blasts” of the first line and a kind of rejoicing in nature.
And in all this wildness and divinity and natural blending, “Man’s spirit” finds freedom from its daily drudgery, its “drear dungeon.” The experience of seeing the heather waving in the wind and the blending of night and storm, inspires the spirit of a person, helping the individual to feel more, “bursting the fetters and breaking the bars.” This choice of language and the image it paints of breaking free reflect the rebellion and revolution so valued by the Romantics, as well as the potency of emotion they favored over cold reason and rationale. That this experience should happen in the country, in the wilds, reflects their love of nature and their belief that it was superior to the urban environment. This also appears to be an account of one person’s experience of a storm in the wilds, which also reflects the Romantics’ valuation of individualism and subjective experience.
The second stanza also opens with natural images, highlighting the Romantics’ love of nature: “All down the mountain sides, wild forest lending.” One can clearly imagine a mountainside covered in trees in the midst of the storm. The second line brings a robust sense of the scene into focus: “One might voice to the life-giving wind.” All those trees waving in the wind would indeed create a great rustling, giving voice to the wind. Bront¸’s use of this image, as in the previous stanza, seems to underline the Romantics’ intense preference for life in the country, as one could not appreciate such an experience from within the heart of an urban environment. Moreover, the blending of storm and forest mirrors the blending of storm and night in the previous stanza, where the storm seems ever more to be a symbol of intense emotion, so that the experience of the storm blending with natural elements is actually emotion blending with nature, so that nature seems to be inspired to feeling. In the case of the forest on the mountainside, nature is inspired to give voice – perhaps to sing? – as a result of the storm.
But it’s not just the forest in this stanza that is inspired – “rivers in their banks” also find themselves inspired. The storm appears to inspire them to rend their banks and overwhelm their regular boundaries, much like man’s spirit in the previous stanza which is inspired to break free of its bars; similarly, the rivers break free of their banks which are their bars. They slip their fetters and “fast through the valleys a reckless course wending,” meaning they go where they please. This image is a celebration of revolution and rebellion as only the Romantics could create or appreciate. This rebellion or revolution gives the rivers the opportunity to explore and ‘experience.’ Consequently, “wider and deeper their waters extending,” meaning that the rivers go farther and deeper than ever before, having new experiences. This appears to be a positive thing, since it occurs during a jubilee, which is Bront¸’s choice of word to express the ‘behavior’ of the rivers. The rivers’ experiences as a positive thing reflects the Romantics’ valuation of subjective experience and individual experience as a positive thing, especially since it often leads to creativity. In the case of the rivers, going farther and deeper than ever before seems to imply that they forge new courses, which is similar to creativity.
The final line of the stanza underlines the positivity of the rivers’ forging new courses and ‘being creative’ – as the rivers ‘try’ new things they leave “a desolate desert behind.” This seems to suggest that the rivers are ‘fleeing’ barrenness, seeking fertile lands and new experiences. The rivers leave behind infertility to seek fertility. The storm inspires them to new experiences, to new courses, to leave behind the old and empty in pursuit of novel and possible things. This mirrors the experience of man’s spirit in the previous stanza, as he is inspired to leave behind the oldness and emptiness of a prison cell. He seeks freedom, as the rivers do, as well as newness and novelty. The barrenness of his life is the desert the rivers are fleeing. The barrenness of the desert also suggests an absence of living things, of nature, which the Romantics would have found desolate and miserable. It is appropriate that the prison cell – which would also be barren of natural life – and the desert are places from which to flee, and that man’s spirit and the rivers should flee from them, seeking nature, seeking life, and seeking creativity and newness. The Romantics would say that in seeking nature, such as a life in the country, a person would find individual experiences which would open their emotions, make use of their intuition, inspire their imaginations, and connect them with the divine and mystical.
Bront¸ does not open the final stanza with natural images. She opens it with echoes of the ‘actions’ of the natural forces described in the poem – the shining of the stars, the lowering of heaven, the swelling of man’s spirit from his prison and the rivers in their banks, and the dying of the desert. These actions echo the ever changing ‘character’ of nature – “changing for ever from midnight to noon.” This “changing for ever” seems to be what gives nature its boundless creativity and vibrancy as celebrated in the poem, for this poem does indeed appear to be a celebration of nature and how its ‘emotions’ can inspire. In fact, its emotions come “roaring like thunder, like soft music sighing,” which demonstrates a range of inspired experiences. This range of inspired experiences and emotions would be approved by the Romantics, and Bront¸’s choice of words to express that range of experiences is a good one.
The fourth line of the last stanza may be the weakest in the poem – “Shadows on shadows advancing and flying.” While it creates an interesting image – the idea of shadows approaching and moving, perhaps interwoven together – it does not connect the reader with nature or emotion or other Romantic notions. However, it may reflect the experience of the narrator in the moment and what the narrator sees as the storm passes: clouds within clouds, shadows in the night, and perhaps fog. This may also reflect the intuitive or introspective thought processes favored by the Romantics, the shadows of the inner landscape as the narrator processes the experience of watching the storm interact with or inspire nature.
The idea that these shadows might be connected to a concrete experience emerges in the next line with “lightning-bright flashes the deep gloom defying.” The lightning flashes – a natural experience – appear to be emoting as they defy “the deep gloom,” which would cause the shadows to advance and fly. Again, Bront¸ uses language of rebellion or revolution, attributing emotions of mutiny or revolt to the lightning. The lightning seems to rebelling against the shadows. But their rebellion – much like the experience of an emotion – comes “as swiftly” and fades “as soon.” The storm which has inspired all of the action of this poem also comes as swiftly and fades as soon. But the rest of nature will remain even after the storm – like an experience and an emotional reaction to an experience – passes. It is divine and inspiring and eternal. All of these elements combine together to highlight how nature can be inspired and inspiring, the potency and creativity that emotion can provoke, and how freedom can be found in these experiences.
Bront¸’s use of language and imagery in the poem “High Waving Heather” reveal that despite her designation as a Victorian writer, she clearly had Romantic leanings. “High Waving Heather” contains emotive language and imagery which reflect the values of the Romantics which include a love of nature, a love of the country, intuition, emotion, the divine/mystical, creativity, rebellion, revolution, individualism, and subjective experience. The poem’s reflection of and clear alignment with Romantic values clarifies how the Romantics felt about these elements and how they celebrated them in their writings.
