An Analysis of the Significance of Nature and Individualism in Romantic Poetries– Comparing and Contrasting Friedrich Hölderlin’s To the Fates with Giacomo Leopardi’s The Infinite Anonymous College

Centered on subjectivity, literature in the Romantic period thrived with its unique feature of surfacing the writers’ inner emotions between the lines. Poetry being one of the most iconic literary forms during this period often deals with themes, such as the power of nature, imagination, revolution, individualism, and mortality. Friedrich Hölderlin’s To the Fates and Giacomo Leopardi’s The Infinite both associate their life issues with nature. Nonetheless, two poets adopted different approaches to address their matters.

Friedrich Hölderlin discloses that his love for poetry conquers his fear of death in his poem, To the Fates. In the first stanza, Hölderlin writes, “Grant me a single summer, you lords of all, / A single autumn, for the fullgrown song” (Hölderlin, line 1-2). He asks the Fates to grant him the wish of witnessing the profundity of the seasons changing. “So that, with such sweet playing sated, / Then my heart may die more willing” (Hölderlin, line 1-4). He yearns to explore the magnificence of nature so that his mind would not agonize that much when he is on his deathbed. The second stanza starts with, “The soul, in life robbed of its godly right, / Rests not, even in Orcus down below” (Hölderlin, line 5-6). He...