“First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom: Summary and Critique

Introduction: “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom

“First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom appeared in 1970 in the journal Studies in Romanticism, is considered a seminal work in the field of Romanticism studies. Bloom argues that the Romantic poets, particularly William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats, represent the “first and last” Romantics because they embody the essence of the Romantic spirit more fully than any other writers. He further highlights their main qualities as their emphasis on the individual imagination, their rejection of traditional authority, and their exploration of the mysteries of existence. These arguments of Bloom have had a profound influence on literature and literary theory, shaping the way we understand and appreciate Romantic literature and its legacy.

Summary of “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom

• Romanticism as Quest and Journey:
  • Bloom begins by exploring the idea that the “Odyssey” is the original Romantic poem, embodying the essential characteristics of a quest romance. The hero embarks on a journey not just toward home, but toward an ideal home, or a “supreme trial,” and this motif becomes a defining element of Romantic literature.
  • He states that “romance is a journey towards home, the hero’s home though not the reader’s” and this journey, in Romanticism, is more about the process than the destination, as exemplified by works like Browning, Kafka, and Yeats (“Demonic romance values the journey more than the destination”).
• Romanticism as Fusion of Romance and Prophecy:
  • Bloom argues that Romanticism blends traditional romance with prophetic vision, creating a new form of artistic and spiritual expression. He contrasts Romanticism with earlier literary forms by emphasizing its prophetic nature, drawn from figures like St. John the Apocalyptic rather than just ancient poets like Homer.
  • “Romanticism fused romance and prophecy,” suggesting that Romantic poets were not merely telling stories but were attempting to create new visions of reality, where prophecy plays a critical role.
• Historical Perspective on Romanticism:
  • Bloom discusses the idea that both “First” and “Last” Romantics can be freely chosen by critics, as every critic situates their understanding of Romanticism in relation to their own context. By choosing one’s first Romantic figure, Bloom argues, one also reveals the kind of last Romantic or anti-Romantic one might aspire to be.
  • He notes, “Choose your first Romantic, or your first Romanticism, and you tell us what kind of last Romantic you yourself are,” highlighting the subjectivity involved in defining Romanticism.
• Romanticism as Renaissance of the Renaissance:
  • Bloom identifies English Romanticism as a revival of the Renaissance tradition, looking back to poets like Spenser and Shakespeare rather than the Augustan poets such as Pope and Johnson. He emphasizes how this selective return to Renaissance ideals was central to shaping Romantic imagination.
  • He explains, “English Romanticism, as opposed to Continental, was a renaissance of the Renaissance,” stressing the Romantic movement’s continuity with earlier literary traditions.
• Tensions with Anti-Romanticism:
  • Bloom addresses the counter-arguments of critics like Dr. Samuel Johnson, who viewed the Romantic celebration of the marvelous with skepticism. Johnson dismissed such invention as “fabulous appendages of spectres and predictions” and called for poetry that engages with the real and the imitable.
  • Johnson’s criticism of Gray’s “The Bard” exemplifies this anti-Romantic stance, wherein he valued “original invention” grounded in realism over the supernatural elements Romantic poets cherished.
• Romanticism and the Divine or Eternal:
  • A recurring theme in Romanticism, as Bloom notes, is the poet’s quest for divination or immortality, often expressed through the symbolism of gods, myths, and visionary experiences. Bloom references Borges, who illustrates this with a parable about scholars joyfully killing degenerate gods, showing both the allure and the danger of the Romantic return to divine themes.
  • Bloom describes Romantic poets as “Olympian bards who sung divine ideas below,” poets seeking a form of eternal life through their imaginative powers and divinatory abilities.
• Shamanism and Romanticism:
  • The essay explores the influence of shamanistic traditions on certain strands of Romanticism, particularly in poets like Yeats and Lawrence, whose works show elements of ritual and psychic transformation. However, Bloom notes that the High Romantics (e.g., Blake, Browning) largely moved beyond these magical elements to embrace a more rational, imaginative catharsis.
  • “The shamanism of Empedocles, so strangely re-born in Yeats’s A Vision,” illustrates how mystical traditions permeate the work of later Romantics, though Bloom points out that this is less central to the High Romanticism of the earlier nineteenth century.
• Invention as Divination:
  • Bloom asserts that for the strongest Romantic poets, invention itself becomes a form of divination—a way of creating new realities through imagination. This contrasts with the shamanistic, magical forms of divination, which seek control over nature. Romantic invention, he argues, creates a “world in which the Real Man, the Imagination, can never die.”
  • He notes, “Invention is a positive mode of divination… since it seeks not the heterocosm, but actual power over nature,” thereby elevating the Romantic poet’s creative powers to a quasi-divine status.
• Conclusion: Romanticism’s Legacy:
  • Bloom concludes by discussing the enduring legacy of Romanticism, asserting that modern poets must align themselves with the right precursors within the Romantic tradition to avoid the pitfalls of illusion and phantasmagoria. He names poets like Hardy and Stevens as examples of those who have successfully inherited this tradition without succumbing to its excesses.
  • He emphasizes that the “dark luminous” quality of Romantic poetry can help navigate challenging times, provided poets draw from the right Romantic ancestors.

Literary Terms/Concepts in “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom

Literary Term/Concept	Explanation	Reference in Text
Quest Romance	A narrative centered around a hero’s journey toward an idealized goal, often more about the process and challenges than the final destination.	“Romance is a journey towards home… a supreme trial, after which home is possible, or else homelessness will suffice.”
Demonic Romance	A subversion of traditional romance where the quest’s goal is revealed to be delusive or unattainable, focusing more on the journey’s value than the destination’s fulfillment.	“Demonic romance values the journey more than the destination, and leaves us something other than a sense of loss.”
Prophetic Vision	The role of prophecy in Romanticism, blending the visionary aspect with poetic imagination to create a new form of spiritual and artistic revelation.	“Romanticism fused romance and prophecy… What the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Romantics named as vision might better be termed a making and a hearing.”
Anxiety of Influence	A term coined by Bloom referring to a poet’s struggle to assert originality in the shadow of predecessors, dealing with the creative pressure exerted by earlier literary giants.	“Johnson, who wrote only a few strong poems, had felt deeply the anxiety of influence, as yet another variety of melancholy to add to his afflictions.”
Renaissance of the Renaissance	The idea that English Romanticism was a revival of the Renaissance tradition, selectively returning to figures like Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton rather than more recent predecessors.	“English Romanticism, as opposed to Continental, was a renaissance of the Renaissance.”
Shamanism	A concept describing mystical, magical elements in literature, often involving rituals or psychic transformations. Bloom explores its presence in Romantic poetry.	“The shamanism of Empedocles, so strangely re-born in Yeats’s A Vision…”
Divination	The act of gaining insight or knowledge, often supernatural or prophetic, a central theme in Romanticism’s quest for immortality and transcendence.	“The return of the Gods means then, for Romanticism, the divination of immortality for and by poets…”
Phantasmagoria	A sequence of real or imagined images, often surreal, used by Bloom to describe illusions in Romantic poetry that poets must navigate or resist.	“Every Romantic has a tendency to drink unnecessarily from the Circean cup of illusion…”
Invention	Refers to the poet’s creative originality, seen by Bloom as a positive mode of divination, where the Romantic poet creates new worlds or realities through imagination.	“Invention is a positive mode of divination… The strong Romantic poet, when he is most himself, makes a world in which his Real Man, the Imagination, can never die.”

Contribution of “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom to Literary Theory/Theories

• Development of the “Anxiety of Influence” Theory:
  • Bloom expands on his theory of poetic influence in this work, emphasizing how Romantic poets struggled to assert their originality in the shadow of literary giants like Homer, Milton, and Shakespeare.
  • He writes that poets like Samuel Johnson felt “deeply the anxiety of influence,” revealing how later poets were burdened by their predecessors’ achievements, which shaped their own creative processes.
• Romanticism as Fusion of Romance and Prophecy:
  • Bloom’s contribution includes defining Romanticism as a unique fusion of the traditional quest romance with prophetic vision. This idea adds to the understanding of Romantic poetry not just as storytelling but as a form of visionary literature.
  • He explains, “Romanticism fused romance and prophecy,” and by doing so, Romantic poets became creators of new spiritual and imaginative realms, marking a shift in the purpose of poetry.
• Elevation of Imaginative Creation as Divination:
  • Bloom highlights the Romantic poet’s creative process as a form of divination, where invention itself becomes a mystical act. This emphasizes the poet’s role as a visionary who creates new worlds through imagination, contributing to theories of literary creation and originality.
  • “Invention is a positive mode of divination… The strong Romantic poet, when he is most himself, makes a world in which his Real Man, the Imagination, can never die.”
• Concept of the “Demonic Romance”:
  • Bloom introduces the idea of “demonic romance,” where the quest’s goal becomes delusive or unattainable, yet the journey remains valuable. This concept enriches literary theory by challenging the traditional hero’s journey and reinterpreting the Romantic quest as inherently ambiguous.
  • He discusses how works like Hart Crane’s The Bridge exemplify this idea, with “quest fulfilled to no consequence, or fulfillment revealed as a parody of the goal.”
• Return to the Renaissance as Source of Romantic Imagination:
  • Bloom redefines the lineage of English Romanticism by arguing that it is a “renaissance of the Renaissance,” positioning the Romantics as heirs to Renaissance figures like Spenser and Shakespeare. This perspective reframes Romanticism within a broader historical and literary tradition, influencing how later critics understand its roots.
  • He writes, “English Romanticism, as opposed to Continental, was a renaissance of the Renaissance,” placing Romantic poets in a selective dialogue with their Renaissance predecessors.
• Critique of Anti-Romanticism and Traditional Invention:
  • Bloom engages with anti-Romantic critics, particularly Samuel Johnson, who viewed the Romantic imagination with skepticism. This dialogue adds depth to literary theory by juxtaposing Romantic ideals with realist, rational critiques, showing the tension between invention and imitation in poetic creation.
  • Johnson’s dismissal of Romantic invention as “fabulous appendages of spectres and predictions” represents this critical tension.
• Influence of Shamanism and Myth in Romanticism:
  • Bloom introduces the idea that Romantic poets engage with shamanistic traditions, connecting their poetic inspiration to ancient forms of psychic transformation and ritual. This links Romanticism to broader theories of myth and archetype in literature, offering a framework to analyze mystical elements in poetry.
  • “The shamanism of Empedocles, so strangely re-born in Yeats’s A Vision,” exemplifies this mystical aspect of Romanticism that Bloom explores.
• Incorporation of Psychological and Philosophical Elements:
  • Bloom’s essay contributes to the intersection of literary theory with psychology and philosophy, particularly through his analysis of how poets like Byron and Shelley grappled with existential and metaphysical themes, such as immortality, self-recognition, and divination.
  • He delves into the poets’ “obsessive need for a literal immortality,” positioning Romanticism as a response to human existential concerns, thereby influencing psychoanalytic and existential readings of literature.

Examples of Critiques Through “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom

Literary Work and Author	Critique through Bloom’s Lens	Reference in Text
The Odyssey by Homer	Bloom identifies The Odyssey as the “first Romantic poem” and a foundational quest romance, where the journey (more than the destination) defines the Romantic essence of the hero’s narrative.	“The Odyssey is the fundamental quest romance, and the first Romantic poem… Romance is a journey towards home.”
The Bard by Thomas Gray	Bloom critiques Johnson’s dismissal of The Bard as overly fantastical and disconnected from reality, highlighting the tension between Romantic imagination and anti-Romantic realism.	“To select a singular event, and swell it to a giant’s bulk by fabulous appendages of spectres and predictions, has little difficulty…”
The Bridge by Hart Crane	Bloom interprets The Bridge as a “demonic romance” in which the quest is fulfilled with no meaningful consequence, reflecting Romanticism’s focus on the journey and disillusionment with the goal.	“Hart Crane’s The Bridge… would be seen more clearly as demonic romance, quest fulfilled to no consequence, or fulfillment revealed as a parody of the goal.”
Paradise Lost by John Milton	Bloom examines Milton’s work in relation to his anxieties about poetic divination, interpreting Paradise Lost as an epic where the poet cannot evade the fall or death, unlike other Romantic works.	“Milton… feared from the start that a demon of transformations would mock his career. Lycidas laments the loss of the poetic power of divination…”

Criticism Against “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom

• Overemphasis on Poetic Influence:
  • Critics argue that Bloom’s focus on the “anxiety of influence” overshadows the individuality of Romantic poets, reducing their originality by framing their work primarily as responses to predecessors like Milton, Homer, and Shakespeare.
  • This perspective diminishes the cultural, social, and historical contexts that shaped Romanticism, prioritizing literary lineage over broader influences.
• Neglect of Non-Western and Female Voices:
  • Bloom’s analysis primarily centers on Western male poets, ignoring significant contributions from female writers and non-Western literary traditions. This exclusion limits the scope of his definition of Romanticism, which could benefit from a more diverse range of voices.
  • By focusing mainly on figures like Byron, Keats, and Shelley, Bloom’s study is criticized for reinforcing a narrow, Eurocentric view of literary history.
• Romanticism as Too Mystical and Abstract:
  • Some scholars argue that Bloom’s interpretation of Romanticism, especially his emphasis on divination, prophecy, and shamanism, pushes the concept into a mystical, abstract realm that detaches it from the real-world concerns of Romantic poets.
  • Romanticism often addressed political, social, and personal struggles, but Bloom’s focus on the visionary and supernatural aspects risks overlooking the grounded, human elements of the movement.
• Simplification of Anti-Romanticism:
  • Bloom’s treatment of anti-Romantic critics like Samuel Johnson is seen as overly simplified. By positioning Johnson as a foil to Romantic creativity, Bloom reduces the complexity of anti-Romantic criticism, which often addressed significant concerns about realism and moral values in literature.
  • His portrayal of Johnson’s skepticism as merely anti-Romantic downplays the nuanced critical perspectives of the period.
• Subjectivity in Defining First and Last Romantics:
  • Bloom’s suggestion that critics can choose their “First and Last Romantics” according to personal preference has been criticized for its subjectivity. This approach implies that Romanticism’s boundaries are flexible and potentially arbitrary, weakening the theoretical foundation of his argument.
  • Critics argue that literary movements need clearer historical and thematic definitions rather than being open to individual interpretation.

Representative Quotations from “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom with Explanation

Quotation	Explanation
“The Odyssey is the fundamental quest romance, and the first Romantic poem.”	Bloom identifies The Odyssey as the archetypal Romantic journey, establishing a connection between classical literature and Romanticism’s themes of quests, trials, and idealized homecomings.
“Romanticism fused romance and prophecy.”	This phrase captures Bloom’s central thesis that Romantic poets combined the narrative form of romance with the visionary qualities of prophecy, creating a new genre of imaginative expression.
“Demonic romance values the journey more than the destination.”	Bloom introduces the concept of “demonic romance,” where the process of the quest is valued over its conclusion, reflecting the Romantic disillusionment with traditional notions of fulfillment.
“Choose your first Romantic, or your first Romanticism, and you tell us what kind of last Romantic you yourself are.”	This quote suggests the subjective nature of defining Romanticism, where identifying a “First Romantic” reflects a critic’s own biases and intellectual positioning within literary history.
“English Romanticism, as opposed to Continental, was a renaissance of the Renaissance.”	Bloom argues that English Romanticism revived Renaissance ideals and looked to figures like Spenser and Shakespeare, rather than later poets, as primary influences.
“Invention is a positive mode of divination… The strong Romantic poet, when he is most himself, makes a world in which his Real Man, the Imagination, can never die.”	This reflects Bloom’s view that poetic creation (invention) in Romanticism is a form of divination, where imagination transcends mortality, linking creativity to immortality.
“Johnson, who wrote only a few strong poems, had felt deeply the anxiety of influence.”	Bloom highlights Samuel Johnson’s experience of the “anxiety of influence,” which he argues is central to understanding the struggles of Romantic poets in relation to their predecessors.
“Every Romantic has a tendency to drink unnecessarily from the Circean cup of illusion.”	This metaphor refers to the Romantics’ temptation to indulge in illusion and fantasy, drawing from the myth of Circe, a recurrent theme of transformation and seduction in Romantic literature.
“The return of the Gods means then, for Romanticism, the divination of immortality for and by poets.”	Bloom associates Romanticism with a quest for divination and immortality, framing poets as creators of visionary worlds that challenge the limitations of mortality.
“Romantic poetry, in its long history, has been saved from those worst difficulties by its sense of its own tradition, by the liberating burden of poetic influence.”	Bloom emphasizes that Romanticism’s strength lies in its awareness of and dialogue with its literary tradition, even as poets struggle under the “burden” of influence from past greats.

Suggested Readings: “First and Last Romantics” by Harold Bloom

1. Bloom, Harold. “First and Last Romantics.” Studies in Romanticism, vol. 9, no. 4, 1970, pp. 225–32. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/25599769. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024
2. Altevers, Nannette. “The Revisionary Company: Harold Bloom’s ‘Last Romanticism.’” New Literary History, vol. 23, no. 2, 1992, pp. 361–82. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/469241. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
3. Giraldi, William. “Bloomian Stride.” The Kenyon Review, vol. 35, no. 2, 2013, pp. 175–85. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24242006. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.