Allegory in English Literature

Allegory has been derived from a Greek term "allos" meaning "disguise". So allegory suggests to describe a thing under disguise of another thing. It is an extended narrative in prose or poetry that delineates a story which has an inner meaning.

We can distinguish two main types: Historical and Political allegory, in which the characters and actions represent, or allegorize historical events, and the other one is, the Allegory of ideas, in which the literal characters represent abstract concepts and the plot exemplifies a doctrine or thesis. Another type of allegory symbolizes any religious issue. For example, Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a Christian allegory of guilt and redemption.

John Keats makes a subtle use of allegory throughout his ode, "To Autumn", most explicitly in the second stanza, which represents autumn personified as a female figure and the scenes and the activities of the harvest season. Thus, allegory is a powerful literary figure of speech used by the skillful writer to give a moral, religious, or satirical meaning.

Romanticism in English Literature

Romanticism can be termed as a literary movement which is a protest against the Neo-classic poetic ideals. This movement starts with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge's lyrical Ballads. It prefers emotions and imagination to reason or intellect. C.H. Herford says, "Romanticism is the extra-ordinary development of imaginative sensibility." Another eminent critic says, " One poet is romantic because he falls in love; another romantic because he sees a ghost; another romantic because he hears a cuckoo." It is an unconventional and revolutionary theme. It has a high regard for nature and subjectivity. The subjectivity is at the root of sensuousness, Hellenism, escapism, allegory, pantheism, mysticism, and many other figures of speech. According to Wordsworth, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful imagination recollected in tranquility." This definition highlights the main traits of romanticism- the flow of imagination, high tone of subjectivity, robust individualism, and less care for the rules.

Escapism in English Literature

Lexically, escapism means a tendency to run away or to flee from. Escapism, in literature, means an afford to escape from the hard realities of life. Especially, the romantics tormented by the stings of practical life, wanted to leave this world of misery, sorrow, suffering, and to resume a country of mind, that is, into an imaginary world of the poet’s own creation. An escapist keeps aloof from real life and its problems. He cowardly shrinks from the spectacle of human suffering and escapes from it into an imaginary world of beauty and pleasure, of all the romantics, Keats is regarded as the worst sinner in respect of escapism.

In Keats’ poetry, there are many touches of escapism. In his famous poem, Ode to a Nightingale, we see that he has wanted to escape from the world in various ways like by taking drug and poison, by drinking wine, and even through death.