“Hero as Poet” in “On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History” by Thomas Carlyle.
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) was a prominent writer of Victorian age. His early work consisted of translations, essays and autobiographies. His other historical works include “The History of Fredrick II of Prussia”, called Fredrick the Great, “Past and Present” and “Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches”. He holds fair fame by dint of Sartor Resartus. “On Heros, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History” is also his famous work which consists of five lectures. First is the Hero as Divinity, second is the Hero as Prophet, third is the Hero as Poet, fourth is the Hero as Man of Letters and fifth is the Hero as King.
Carlyle in the third lecture depicts what sort of a poet can be a hero. According to him having all the qualities of a heroic warrior can delineate a picture of a heroic warrior in his writings. Like prophets, poets are the people who can see and understand divine mystery. They bring to light “ the open secret ” which is seen by almost none. They can penetrate the “Divine idea of the world that which lies at the bottom of Appearance”. And they are the man of the eternal world. He gives two names of poets which are Dante and Shakespeare. He calls them the saints of poetry.
Carlyle says that people are worshipping Dante. He was an intelligent and hard-working person. Misery, suffering and humiliation were a great part of his life. He could not marry to whom he loved. He was banished from Florence. But all his suffering bestowed him with profound and ponderous intellect. Dante in his epic described all the circumstances of the dark and medieval age. Carlyle gave different names to his “Divine Comedy”. Like “divine song”, “the transcendental mystic song”, “the voice of silent centuries” and “Christian epic” etc. In “Divine Comedy” we can experience the vivid expression of Dante’s realm of imagination. The first part Inferno of “Divine Comedy” explains the condition of hell, and the second part Purgatorio describes the experience of souls and how they are purified. And the third part Paradiso is a kingdom of beauty and delightness. Here, the poet meets his beloved. Dante with all sincerity and circumspection delineates his time. So according to Carlyle the soul of “Divine Comedy” is eternal and will continue to transfer its readers into the world of joy.
According to Carlyle, Shakespeare has the same importance for the modern age as Homer has for Greece and Dante has for the Middle Ages. He praises Shakespeare for his penetrating eye, joyous strength, great soul and true and clear tune. He calls him a tranquil unfathomable sea and the greatest intellect. He says his tragedies can make us acquainted with his sufferings. He says that his use of proverbs can only be compared with Dante's. By concluding this he says Shakespeare’s intelligence is the “unconscious intellect”. And Shakespeare is more than his awareness.
Thomas Carlyle by dint of his prophetic zeal is trying to make the world free from evil. He is trying to convince us of the purity of heart and soul. In describing the hero as a poet he gives us the ideal figures from the world of poetry. He considers Dante a hero because his poetry still encompasses universal lessons. Shakespeare to him is an eternal poet. He believes that Shakespeare gained his art from the depth of nature.
