Romanticism In M. H. Abrams's Poem

M.H Abrams an American literary critic is popularly known for his works on Romanticism. One of his ground breaking works is The Mirror and the Lamp: romantic theory and critical traditions where he highlighted the contrast in understanding literature in the pre-romantic period and in the post romantic period. Literature until 18th century was classified as a mere reflection of the external activities and object and with the advent of Romanticism, the poet gained importance. The poet was seen as the ‘lamp’ or the illuminator who with his works illuminated the work rather then mere imitation of the external objects. In modern criticism, the interpretation of a text centered around the artist which can be seen in the works of I.A Richards. Abrams tries to trace the growth of

Thirdly, ‘Universe’ refers to the external objects of imitation . Lastly, is the ‘audiences’ who perceives the work of art and interprets in their way. One notable fact is that these elements are represented in different degrees in the theories in which they occur.

He moves on to discuss the four important theories namely mimetic theory, pragmatic theory and the objective theory. His discussion of the four aesthetic theories provides us with an idea of development of criticism till date.

The mimetic theory is perhaps the oldest aesthetic theory which views a particular piece of art as the imitation of the external objects around it. It finds its origin in the works of Plato. Plato’s in his theory of mimesis, stated that all art is mimetic and imitates life . He attacked art because of its inability to get to the root of the things. For him, art was twice removed from reality. Further, Abrams discusses the idea mimesis by bringing in Socrates’s views on imitation as represented by Plato in his book Republic. Socrates through an concrete example of a bed an carpenter established the fact that art is twice removed from the reality. The bed is