Mythopoesis: From Simplicity to Sublimity, Uplifting Aspects in Coleridge, Keats, and Shelly’s Poetry

Abstract

This dissertation pursues the exploration of the innermost sublime nature of romantic poetry composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Such aspects of literature are brought forth by the inclusion of a rather vivid method, the method of myth creation otherwise known after Hellenistic Greek as mythopoesis. Instead of devising a literary work with just reality or rigid mythic elements the process of mythopoesis allows the poet to create a blend of fact and fiction with the freedom of imagination. In turn, mythopoesis inserts a form of wisdom that works well to epitomize the nature of the poem from being a simple construct to becoming a part of the realm of sublimity. Scholars curious about the mythological facet utilize myth as a medium to analyze religion and to bridge between the past and the present. Mythopoesis simultaneously works to satisfy both mythological and realistic criteria within a literary piece. The thesis begins with an analysis of mythopoesis or mythopoeia present in three romantic era poets. It then extends into a dissection of reality and mythic elements that build up a new form of creative imagination. Afterward, the focus shifts to the effects of mythopoeia in said poet's works. It strives to establish that the sublime nature of romantic poetry is largely attributed to the presence of mythopoesis.