Summary
Bush, Douglas. Mythology and the
Romantic Tradition in English Poetry.Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1937.
821.09 B963
Summary by Leigh Anna Mendenhall
In this work, Bush looks at how the
romantic poets incorporated ancient
myths into modern depictions. He
addresses the revival of poetry through
mythological symbolism, and looks
at how this was affected by the conception
of imagination, myth, nature, and
religion. Much of the text focuses
on individual poets and their incorporation
of the mythological in their works.
The first chapter gives a general
overview of the eighteenth century,
and the last two chapters deal with
the move to the Victorian age and
the present. Most of the middle
of the text is dedicated to the nineteenth
century. Bush examines Wordsworth's
recreation of mythological poetry
for the nineteenth century, and looks
at the conception of mythology as
a device of symbols, able to embody
not just "sensuous experiences" but
also the "higher aspirations of man."
He devotes large sections to Byron,
Keats, Shelley, and Coleridge, and
then turns to the minor poets of
the nineteenth century.
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Jesse D. Hurlbut--Last Updated November 10, 1993