Solitude and Ecstasy

Abstract

This chapter explores Woolf’s experimentation with the category of poetic effects I have classified as ‘Romantic-lyrical’. The first part of the chapter analyses Romantic lyricism as Woolf depicts it in Orlando. It argues that Woolf’s notion of ‘poetry’ draws heavily on Romantic lyricism and its emphasis on solitude, introspection, and ecstasy as the means to gain a universal perspective on human nature. The second part argues that Woolf’s reinterpretation of the sublime experience, her characteristic ‘moments of being’, affects the focalization, imagery, and style of some of the interior monologues of Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. A poetic response is thus invited from the reader when climactic and/or rhythmic patterns of style are used to convey an epiphanic emotion and universal conception.