Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 3. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 29)
Péter Dolmányos: An Outline of the Relationship Between Romanticism and Contemporary Irish Poetry
18 PÉTER DOLMÁNYOS Several of the recorded epiphanic moments of the Romantic period originate from a contemplation of nature. As Heaney comments, Wordsworth read the natural world as signs. 1" The stimulus provided by the natural scene induces a meditation which in turn leads the poet to recognitions of great significance. With these recognitions he returns to the natural scene but his sense of understanding has deepened, which allows him to read the landscape with more 'comprehensive' eyes. 1 1 The increased significance of nature, in this way, is another heritage of the Romantic period. In contemporary Irish poetry nature has different functions for different poets but its importance is universal. For Heaney it is the starting point, for exploration and for poetry —and these two activities are often synonymous for him. The best example is 'Bogland' —in this poem the landscape functions in a similar way as in a Wordsworth poem: it ignites the imagination of the poet. Yet, just as in 'Personal Helicon', the structure of the poem does not follow the Romantic model —the natural phenomena immediately become the basis of associations. Heaney's eyes are perhaps trained by the example of the Romantics. Derek Mahon's bleak landscapes reflect his sense of isolation, they are projections of the persona's (and ultimately of the poet's) inner reality, which is an indication of Romantic antecedents. In the poem 'Going Home' the persona sets out from a place with rich vegetation: 'I am saying goodbye to the trees / The beech, the cedar, the elm, / The mild woods of these parts', and travels to one marked by the absence of such fertility: 'But where I am going the trees / Are few and far between. / No richly forested slopes'. 1 2 In another poem, 'Beyond Howth Head', the persona is writing from a desolate place: 1 0 Heaney, S. "Feeling into Words," p. 51. 1 1 Abrams, M. H. Natural Supernaturalism. Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. London: Oxford University Press, 1971, p. 357. 1 2 Mahon, D. Selected Poems. Harmondsworth: Penguin/Gallery, 1993, pp. 96-98.
