The mind can create its own world rather than the other way about. William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelly, John Keats, and Robert Browning all display a certain power of imagination, in which the mind is capable of creating its own world. From the imagination of poets, words live on, depicting scenes as if one was involved.
William Wordsworth displays a great deal of imagination in his poem I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud. He uses personification to create an image so beautiful and real. A host of golden daffodils. . .
/dancing in the breeze. . . (4-7) here Wordsworth creates an image that the daffodils are inviting strangers in and entertaining or dancing for them.
Wordsworth says I gazed- and gazed- but little thought/ what wealth the show to me had brought,(17-18) he didnt realize what the scenery meant to him until he wasnt around it. Through his words, readers can experience the dancing of the daffodils. Percy Bysshe Shelly takes the reader on a journey in his poem Ozymandias. I met a traveler from an antique land, Shelly says in the first line.
From the beginning of the poem, the mind is able to create its own antique land, because Shelly doesnt specify from the real world what an antique land is. Shellys use of imagery allows the reader to picture the traveler, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command(4). Shelly used words that allow the mind to create. John Keats is another poet whose words allow the mind to create its own world. In Ozymandias, Keats says, Thou still unravished bride of quietness,(1).
He is allowing the readers to create their own unravished bride of quietness. At the end of the poem, Keats leaves us with a great quote; Beauty is truth, truth beauty,(49). He is saying that beauty can be found in anything that is real or true. My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, gives the reader scenery, but leaves blanks for the mind to wander. Looking as if she were alive,(2) one might wander why she isnt still alive. I gave commands,(45) well what kind of commands? By leaving questions, Browning allows the mind the mind to explore options and try to find solutions.
Poetry leaves a world for the mind to create what is beautiful. Wordsworth, Shelly, Keats, and Browning all do an excellent job of allowing the mind to create its own world. They allow the power of imagination to take over. Bibliography:Literature: An introduction to Fiction,Poetry, and Drama.
Ed. X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia.
7th Ed. 463-68
