Alvin Conway

Sinfonia 9: the Second Movement Alvin Conway

If the Age of Reason was the masculine Yang, then it can be said Romanticism, invariably, was its creative feminine counterpoint, the Yin. Plato's argumentative philosophical essays in The Republic on the dynamism and contrast between sense (the head) and sensibility (the heart) was Kant's discourse on phenomenon and its antipode, noumenon. Mathematics is abstract form but it is not beauty. A rose is beauty but it is not abstract form. The language of mathematics in scientific realism became a central component of the Age of Reason. In contrast, the language of the rose expressing abstract sentiment became a central component of Romanticism. Blake's tyger is seen as raging and burning bright while Poe's dreams come quietly in the dark of night. Both poets used Romantic language and allegories to convey different aspects of reason, sentiment, and intuition. The poet could not live his experience with his audience symbiotically but they could share in his experience empathically through his gift of words.