It is unsurprising that lyrical poems and ballads are not the only examples that come to mind when one thinks of Romanticism. Romanticism and revolutions were very much interconnected: Romantic poets were greatly influenced by the French and American revolutions, and these political uprisings were very much the driving force of change in the literary landscape. This is most evidently seen through both Shelley’s and Byron’s work. However, the failure of the French revolution caused a general rejection of revolutionary ideals; this resulted in a paradigm shift in Romantic poetry, best encapsulated by Wordsworth and Coleridge. The lasting impacts of these political events allowed for the creation of the Romantics’ legacy: they changed the very nature of poetry, which was an act that enabled them to escape traditional and temporal constraints. It is easiest to first look upon how the initial success of revolutions affected the Romantics, who were clearly ‘dissatisfied intellectuals and artists’. Following the victory of the American Revolution, the themes of freedom and liberty had become a new muse for the poets. An example of this is seen through Shelley’s work, Ode to the West Wind (1820). Shelley used the wind as the symbol of change, describing it as ‘Destroyer and preserver’, clearly highlighting to any reader how much he revered this power of change brought by the people creating their own justice. More importantly, his poem is a clear message of his desire for the power of revolution to spread amongst the people, like the wind. Shelley returned to the idea of positive social change at the end of his poem, where he posed the rhetorical question of ‘O Wind,/If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’. Here, ‘Winter’ encompasses the social misery and poor quality of life that Shelley believes plagued nations before revolutions. With this idea in mind, one can see how Shelley thinks that revolution is the passing of winter. His revolutionary ideals are expressed clearest in this capitalization of ‘Spring’: the emphasized importance of the meaning of the season – one of hope, new life, and flourishing – becomes an allegory for Shelley’s inclination towards the ‘Wild Spirit’ encompassed in revolutions. Lord Byron similarly conveyed his political alignments in his poetry; his work Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-18) is a prime illustration of this. Drawing inspiration from his travels, this extensive poem relays his experiences journeying in countries constantly submerged in war. Byron expressed his support for Greece, a country that was then ravaged by violence, and its desire for independence. In Canto II of the poem, Byron wrote ‘Can man its shatter’d splendour renovate,/Recall its virtues back, and vanquish Time and Fate?’. These lines, at the end of stanza 94, communicate to contemporary – and modern – readers the positive view of revolution that the Romantics had after the

中文翻译：

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自由与革命：浪漫主义者如何改变诗歌？

当人们想到浪漫主义时，抒情诗和民谣并不是唯一想到的例子，这并不奇怪。浪漫主义和革命密切相关：浪漫主义诗人深受法国和美国革命的影响，这些政治起义是文学格局变化的主要推动力。这在雪莱和拜伦的作品中表现得最为明显。然而，法国大革命的失败导致人们普遍拒绝革命理想；这导致了浪漫主义诗歌的范式转变，华兹华斯和柯勒律治对此进行了最好的概括。这些政治事件的持久影响创造了浪漫主义的遗产：他们改变了诗歌的本质，这是一种使他们能够摆脱传统和时间限制的行为。首先看看革命的初步成功如何影响浪漫主义者是最容易的，他们显然是“不满的知识分子和艺术家”。随着美国独立战争的胜利，自由和自由的主题成为诗人的新缪斯。雪莱的作品《西风颂》（1820 年）就是一个例子。雪莱用风作为变革的象征，将其描述为“破坏者和保护者”，向任何读者清楚地表明他是多么崇敬这种由创造自己正义的人们带来的变革力量。更重要的是，他的诗清楚地表达了他渴望革命的力量像风一样在人民中传播的愿望。雪莱在他的诗的结尾又回到了积极的社会变革的想法，在那里他提出了“O Wind，/如果冬天来了”的修辞问题，春天还会远吗？”。在这里，“冬天”包含了雪莱认为在革命前困扰着国家的社会苦难和生活质量低下。有了这个想法，就可以看出雪莱是如何认为革命是冬天过去的。他的革命理想在“春天”的大写中得到了最清晰的表达：强调季节意义的重要性——希望、新生活和繁荣之一——成为雪莱倾向于革命中包含的“野性精神”的寓言。拜伦勋爵在他的诗歌中同样表达了他的政治立场。他的作品 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-18) 就是最好的例证。这首广泛的诗从他的旅行中汲取灵感，传达了他在不断被战争淹没的国家中旅行的经历。拜伦表示支持希腊，一个当时饱受暴力蹂躏的国家，渴望独立。在这首诗的第二章，拜伦写道：“人类能否重振其破碎的辉煌，/回忆其美德，征服时间和命运？”。在第 94 节的结尾，这些诗句向当代和现代读者传达了浪漫主义者在革命之后对革命的积极看法。