Romantic Poet the Characteristics of Essay

In O'Connor short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the antagonist is an outlaw, in keeping with the frequent use of alienated members of society in Romantic poetry and literature. The alienated member of society is contrasted with the crass materialism and superficiality of the family the Misfit kills. The child June Star is so poorly brought up that she says: "I wouldn't live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks!" To the owner of the roadside restaurant the family stops at, and is punished dearly for her transgression by the author O'Connor with death.

Yet the grandmother, upon hearing of the story of the Misfit says: "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" The grandmother is said to "reached out and touch" the Misfit him on the shoulder, but the Misfit is said to have "sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest." Despite the grandmother's death, the recognition of an outsider figure provides her with some insight and grace, even for the most misbegotten of God's creatures like the grandmother. Thus the fourth, perhaps most profoundly influential idea of Romanticism is that the Romantic poet's alienation, even if it is harsh, cruel, and murderous, like the unintentional poetry in words of the outlaw Misfit, may be able to lead to Enlightenment and grace.

Hughes' "Theme for English B" does not depict a man who is as alienated as O'Connor's Misfit, but clearly, he hopes that his words can have a profound effect upon the reader, despite his anger, that a Black man who drinks and loves bebop is no different than a white individual who does the same: "Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. / I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. / I like a pipe for a Christmas present,/or records-Bessie, bop, or Bach./I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like/the same things other folks like who are other races." The sense of a plea for toleration and understanding is what tempers the Harlem Renaissance poet Hughes' works, and the poetry of others like him from the Renaissance from the more despairing tone of the European Romanticism. The primitive sense of the eternal nature of the poet, his melancholy, his alienation, and his outsider status is addressed not only to blacks but to whites. While the angry of Hughes, and Harlem, is justified, it is explained why the poet is angry, and the poet's rightful rage is used for a productive purpose -- to change society, to educate, and to integrate rather than alienate the poet from the larger world of life and letters.

Works Cited

Frost, Robert. "Fire and Ice." December 11, 2008. http://www2.puc.edu/Faculty/Bryan_Ness/frost1.htm

Holman, C. Hugh & William Harmon. "Romanticism." Definitions from a Handbook to Literature, Sixth Edition. Excerpt available on the web December 11, 2008 at http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng372/intro-h4.htm

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." Poetry.org. December 11, 2008. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722

Hughes, Langston. "Negro." Poem Hunter. December 11, 2008. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/negro/

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Mother." Poem Hunter. December 11, 2008. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-negro-mother/

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." December 11, 2008. http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html

Yeats, W.B. "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven." December 11, 2008. http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/776.....