An analysis of romanticism in the lyrics of

“happinss” by rex orange county

Proposed by:

Rizky Leihitu
16616493
Rizkyleihitu1896@gmail.com
Facilty of letters, gunadarma university
 Chapter 1
Introduction

1.1 Background of The Research

Literature is often defined as a permanent expression in words of some thought or feeling idea
about life and the world. Literary work can construct the world throughout words for the motive
that words have power. By the side of statement, it is represented that through that power, it
can form an image of particular world, as a new world. Those words have documentary aspects
that can break through space and times, illustrate past as well as future (Ratna, 2005:150).
Klarer (1998) states that “Literature is referred to as the entirety of written expression with the
restriction that not every written document can be categorized as literature in the more exact
sense of the word”. The definitions, therefore, usually includes additional adjectives such as
“aesthetic” or “artistic”. Literature is a creation of humankind that has aesthetics and artistic
sides. In the past, the form of literature was usually conveyed orally, such as Epic stories. In
the further progress, literature was made in written form and then it was visualized as in drama.
Later, Epic stories, written literature and drama are known as genre of literature. Klarer
(1998:0) explains the parts of three major literary genres; these are fiction that consists of novel
and short story, drama that consists of comedy and tragedy, and poetry that consists of narrative
poetry and lyric poetry. These three genres of literature are applicable until now.
Is there will be conection betwen “literature to life?” There is an intimate connection
between literature and life. It is, in fact, life which is the subject matter of literature. Life
provides the raw material on which literature imposes an artistic form. Literature, as we defined
in the previous section, is the communication of the writer’s experience of life. But this
connection between literature and life is not so simple as it seems. This problem has been
discussed by some of the greatest literary critics of the world, and their conclusions have been
sometimes contradictory.
 Plato, the great Greek philosopher, was the first to give a serious thought to this problem—
the relation of literature to life. In his discussions he referred mainly to poetry, but what he said
about poetry can be equally applied to literature as a whole. He regarded poetry as a mere
‘imitation’ of life, and thus he condemned the poets. His opposition to poetry was based on his
theory of knowledge. According to him, true reality consists in the ideas of things, of which
individual objects are but reflections or imitations. For example, when we say a black dog, a
good dog, a lame dog etc., we are comparing the dog which we actually see with the ideal dog,
our idea of the dog, which is the true, unchanging reality, while the dogs which we name as
black, good, lame etc. are mere reflections and imitations of that reality. Thus the poet, who
imitates those objects which are themselves imitations of reality, is obviously producing
something, which is still further removed from ultimate reality.

Plato developed this argument first with reference to the painter. Painting is an imitation
of a specific object or group of objects, and if it is nothing but that, if reality lies not in
apprehending reality, the painter is not doing anything particularly valuable. Just as the painter
only imitates what he sees and does not know how to make or to use what he sees (he could
paint a bed, but not make it), so the poet imitates reality without necessarily understanding it.
Poetry or literature as a whole is an imitation of imitation and thus twice removed from truth.

Lyrics are flash stories; they are poems, they contain elements of memoir; in some cases,
they address personal themes, at times universal. Lyrics reflect the individual journey or
cultural observations of the songwriter. They are a serious art form. But are they literature?
Like literature in general, song lyrics often reflect the times in which they were written:
While the song Yankee Doodle Dandy seems nothing more than a cheerful patriotic ditty of
words and music, in reality, it was hugely political. The website Archiving Early America
explains that the song, first a nursery rhyme ridiculing England’s Oliver Cromwell as
”Nankee Doodle,” evolved into “Yankee Doodle” (indicated a trifling fellow), and “Dandy”
(affected manners and dress). The British made fun of the American colonial motley crew,
the early version who wore furs and buckskins, but over time, the motleys got their revenge,
singing Yankee Doodle Dandy when the British surrendered. Great emotional effect?
Writings of a particular time, country, or region? All the compositions for a specific musical
instrument, voice, or ensemble? The lyrics can certainly be classified as literature.
1.2 Problem Formulation
1. how the element of romanticism in the lyrics of the song ‘happiness’ by rex orange
county can give some expression of feelings or thoughts.
2. What are the elements of romaticism along with the values contained in the lytics of
the song ‘happiness’ by rex orange county

1.3 Objectiv of The research

1. To show up the meaning of an romantic expression in the song ‘happiness’ By Rex
orange county.
2. To find out the elements of romantic and the values contained in the lyrics of the
song
‘happiness’ bt Rex orange county.

1.4 scope of The research

this research is a type of qualitative research with descriptive methods and semiotic
approaches. The research technique used is library technique with qualitative data analysis.
Western Semiotics and The Romantic Crisis discuss the periods mentioned in the titles.
This periodization is in parallel with the theoretical argumentation forming the backbone
of the book. In other words, the structure of the book reflects the opposition between the
“classical” and “romantic” interpretations of sign and symbol, and with regards to the
interpretation of the concept builds around the radical change taken place at the end of the
XVIIIth and the beginning of the XIXth century. (According to the author, the contemporary
use of the word symbol is determined by presuppositions originating in the early Romantic
period, thus his ambitious undertaking in fact also shows the formation of the concept of
symbol gone through different variants of meaning.) In what follows, we attempt to outline
the scopes of meaning attached to and emerging from the word symbol through discussing
the historical stages of the Todorovian theory (or theories) of the symbol.

Romantic language concepts question the image of language constructed around “divergence”
the theories of the symbol are also based on a dichotomy, in other words, on the opposition of
symbol and allegory, which evolved gradually in the first decades of the XIXth
century. Theories of the Symbol adequately calls attention to the fact that the great theoreticians
of the era (Kant, Goethe, Schelling, Schiller, Creuzer, Solger), who are the first to put the
symbol into the centre of their reasoning, created diverse concepts, but the common traits of
their definitions constitute the core of the popular definition(s) of the symbol of our times.

CHAPTER 2
THEORETICAL. REVIEW

2.1 Literature
Literature, a body of written works. The name has traditionally been applied to those
imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors
and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution. Literature may be classified
according to a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical
period, genre, and subject matter.
The 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary considers literature to be
“writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or
universal interest.” The 19th-century critic Walter Pater referred to “the matter of imaginative
or artistic literature” as a “transcript, not of mere fact, but of fact in its infinitely varied
forms.” But such definitions assume that the reader already knows what literature is. And
indeed its central meaning, at least, is clear enough. Deriving from the Latin littera, “a letter
of the alphabet,” literature is first and foremost humankind’s entire body of writing; after that
it is the body of writing belonging to a given language or people; then it is individual pieces
of writing.
But already it is necessary to qualify these statements. To use the word writing when
describing literature is itself misleading, for one may speak of “oral literature” or “the
literature of preliterate peoples.” The art of literature is not reducible to the words on the
page; they are there solely because of the craft of writing. As an art, literature might be
described as the organization of words to give pleasure. Yet through words literature elevates
and transforms experience beyond “mere” pleasure. Literature also functions more broadly in
society as a means of both criticizing and affirming cultural values.Literature is a form of
human expression. But not everything expressed in words even when organized and written
down is counted as literature. Those writings that are primarily informative technical,
scholarly, journalistic would be excluded from the rank of literature by most, though not all,
critics. Certain forms of writing, however, are universally regarded as belonging to literature
as an art. Individual attempts within these forms are said to succeed if they possess something
called artistic merit and to fail if they do not. The nature of artistic merit is less easy to define
than to recognize. The writer need not even pursue it to attain it. On the contrary, a scientific
exposition might be of great literary value and a pedestrian poem of none at all. The purest
(or, at least, the most intense) literary form is the lyric poem, and after it comes elegiac, epic,
dramatic, narrative, and expository verse. Most theories of literary criticismbase themselves
on an analysis of poetry, because the aesthetic problems of literature are there presented in
their simplest and purest form. Poetry that fails as literature is not called poetry at all
but verse. Many novels—certainly all the world’s great novels—are literature, but there are
thousands that are not so considered. Most great dramas are considered literature (although
the Chinese, possessors of one of the world’s greatest dramatic traditions, consider their
plays, with few exceptions, to possess no literary merit whatsoever).
The Greeks thought of history as one of the seven arts, inspired by a goddess, the muse Clio.
All of the world’s classic surveys of history can stand as noble examples of the art of
literature, but most historical works and studies today are not written primarily with literary
excellence in mind, though they may possess it, as it were, by accident.
The essay was once written deliberately as a piece of literature: its subject matter was of
comparatively minor importance. Today most essays are written as expository,
informative journalism, although there are still essayists in the great tradition who think of
themselves as artists. Now, as in the past, some of the greatest essayists are critics of
literature, drama, and the arts.
Some personal documents (autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, and letters) rank among the
world’s greatest literature. Some examples of this biographical literature were written
with posterity in mind, others with no thought of their being read by anyone but the writer.
Some are in a highly polished literary style; others, couched in a privately evolved language,
win their standing as literature because of their cogency, insight, depth, and scope.
Many works of philosophy are classed as literature. The Dialogues of Plato (4th century BC)
are written with great narrative skill and in the finest prose; the Meditations of the 2nd-
century Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius are a collection of apparently random thoughts, and
the Greek in which they are written is eccentric. Yet both are classed as literature, while the
speculations of other philosophers, ancient and modern, are not. Certain scientific works
endure as literature long after their scientific content has become outdated. This is
particularly true of books of natural history, where the element of personal observation is of
special importance. An excellent example is Gilbert White’s Natural History and Antiquities
of Selbourne (1789).

2.2 Song

A song, most broadly, is a single (and often standalone) work of music that is typically
intended to be sung by the human voice with distinct and fixed pitches and patterns using
sound and silence and a variety of forms that often include the repetition of sections. The
word "song" is widely used by people in the popular music industry to describe any musical
composition, whether sung or played only by instruments. "Written words created
specifically for music or for which music is specifically created, are called lyrics. If a pre-
existing poem is set to composed music in classical music it is an art song. Songs that are
sung on repeated pitches without distinct contours and patterns that rise and fall are
called chants. Songs in a simple style that are learned informally are often referred to as folk
songs. Songs that are composed for professional singers who sell their recordings or live
shows to the mass market are called popular songs. These songs, which have broad appeal,
are often composed by professional songwriters, composers and lyricists. Art songs are
composed by trained classical composers for concert or recital performances. Songs are
performed live and recorded on audio or video (or, in some cases, a song may be performed
live and simultaneously recorded). Songs may also appear in plays, musical theatre, stage
shows of any form, and within operas.
A song may be for a solo singer, a lead singer supported by background singers, a duet, trio,
or larger ensemble involving more voices singing in harmony, although the term is generally
not used for large classical music vocal forms including opera and oratorio, which use terms
such as aria and recitative instead.[1] Songs with more than one voice to a part singing
in polyphony or harmony are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into
many different forms, depending on the criteria used.
Songs may be written for one or more singers to sing without instrumental accompaniment or
they may be written for performance with instrumental accompaniment. The accompaniment
used for a song depends on the genre of music and, in classical styles, the instructions of the
composer as set out in the musical score. Songs may be accompanied by a single accompanist
playing piano or guitar, by a small ensemble (e.g., a jazz quartet, a basso continuo group (in
the case of Baroque music), a rock or pop band or a rhythm section) or even a big band (for
a jazz song) or orchestra (for a classical aria). One division is between "art songs", "pop
songs" and traditional music which includes "folk songs" and early blues songs. Other
common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular),
by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).
Songs may be learned and passed on "by ear" (as in traditional folk songs); from a recording
or lead sheet (in jazz and pop) or from detailed music notation (in classical music).
Some instrumental music which is played in a singing style may be named a song,
e.g., Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words for solo piano.

2.3 Songs lyrics as literature

Lyrics are flash stories; they are poems, they contain elements of memoir; in some cases, they
address personal themes, at times universal. Lyrics reflect the individual journey or cultural
observations of the songwriter. They are a serious art form.
But are they literature?
Although there are many definitions of literature, my bookshelf copy of Webster’s New
World Dictionary offers the following:
Literature: all writings of prose or verse, especially those of an imaginative or critical
character excellence of form, great emotional effect writings of a particular time, country,
region all the compositions for a specific musical instrument, voice, or ensemble.
Lyric: a lyric poem; the words of a song, as distinguished from the music.
The definition of a lyric is simple; applying the definition of literature to song lyrics is not.
The above is a broad definition of literature, vis-à-vis lyrics, to be sure, but I’d rather fold
lyrics into the literary family, than exclude them.
Like literature in general, song lyrics often reflect the times in which they were written:
While the song Yankee Doodle Dandy seems nothing more than a cheerful patriotic ditty of
words and music, in reality, it was hugely political. The website Archiving Early America
explains that the song, first a nursery rhyme ridiculing England’s Oliver Cromwell as
”Nankee Doodle,” evolved into “Yankee Doodle” (indicated a trifling fellow), and “Dandy”
(affected manners and dress).
The British made fun of the American colonial motley crew, the early version who wore furs
and buckskins, but over time, the motleys got their revenge, singing Yankee Doodle Dandy
when the British surrendered. Great emotional effect? Writings of a particular time, country,
or region? All the compositions for a specific musical instrument, voice, or ensemble? The
lyrics can certainly be classified as literature. Who knew?
No one would argue the significance of Woody Guthrie’s lyrics. The insight helps to make
his work shine as literature.

2.4 the meaning of romanticism

romanticism proper was preceded by several related developments from the mid-18th century
on that can be termed Pre-Romanticism. Among such trends was a new appreciation of the
medieval romance, from which the Romantic movement derives its name. The romance was a
tale or ballad of chivalric adventure whose emphasis on individual heroism and on the exotic
and the mysterious was in clear contrast to the elegant formality and artificiality of prevailing
Classical forms of literature, such as the French Neoclassical tragedy or the English heroic
couplet in poetry. This new interest in relatively unsophisticated but overtly emotional
literary expressions of the past was to be a dominant note in Romanticism.
Romanticism in English literature began in the 1790s with the publication of the Lyrical
Ballads of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth’s “Preface” to
the second edition (1800) of Lyrical Ballads, in which he described poetry as “the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” became the manifesto of the English Romantic
movement in poetry. William Blake was the third principal poet of the movement’s early
phase in England. The first phase of the Romantic movement in Germany was marked
by innovations in both content and literary style and by a preoccupation with the mystical, the
subconscious, and the supernatural. A wealth of talents, including Friedrich Hölderlin, the
early Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jean Paul, Novalis, Ludwig Tieck, A.W. and Friedrich
Schlegel, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, and Friedrich Schelling, belong to this first phase.
In Revolutionary France, the vicomte de Chateaubriand and Mme de Staël were the chief
initiators of Romanticism, by virtue of their influential historical and theoretical writings.
The second phase of Romanticism, comprising the period from about 1805 to the 1830s, was
marked by a quickening of cultural nationalism and a new attention to national origins, as
attested by the collection and imitation of native folklore, folk ballads and poetry, folk
dance and music, and even previously ignored medieval and Renaissance works. The revived
historical appreciation was translated into imaginative writing by Sir Walter Scott, who is
often considered to have invented the historical novel. At about this same time English
Romantic poetry had reached its zenith in the works of John Keats, Lord Byron, and Percy
Bysshe Shelley.
A notable by-product of the Romantic interest in the emotional were works dealing with
the supernatural, the weird, and the horrible, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and works by
C.R. Maturin, the Marquis de Sade, and E.T.A. Hoffmann. The second phase of Romanticism
in Germany was dominated by Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, J.J. von Görres, and
Joseph von Eichendorff.
By the 1820s Romanticism had broadened to embrace the literatures of almost all of Europe.
In this later, second, phase, the movement was less universal in approach and concentrated
more on exploring each nation’s historical and cultural inheritance and on examining the
passions and struggles of exceptional individuals. A brief survey of Romantic or Romantic-
influenced writers would have to include Thomas De Quincey, William Hazlitt, and the
Brontë sisters in England; Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Alphonse de Lamartine, Alfred de
Musset, Stendhal, Prosper Mérimée, Alexandre Dumas (Dumas Père), and Théophile
Gautier in France; Alessandro Manzoni and Giacomo Leopardi in Italy; Aleksandr
Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov in Russia; José de Espronceda and Ángel de Saavedra in
Spain; Adam Mickiewicz in Poland; and almost all of the important writers in pre-Civil War
America.

2.5 romaticism and soul

Most of us know Samuel Taylor Coleridge as the English Romantic poet and author of
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. We may not be aware that he was also an important
English theologian who significantly influenced the New England Transcendentalist
movement in America. Coleridge and Ralph Waldo Emerson were both trained as
Unitarian ministers and as men of God they were deeply concerned with the nature of the
human soul.
Many of us might imagine the human soul to be a phantom-like inner being that contains
our conscience and moral fiber. If we do, we might be surprised to learn that some
forward thinking 19th century theologians like Coleridge and Emerson had a much more
universal understanding of the soul.
For Coleridge the soul was a living dimension of the universe from which all life flows.
Coleridge’s vision of the soul was so powerful that it ignited the imaginations of the
American Transcendentalists and influenced the later development of American
Pragmatism.
“LIFE is the one universal soul,” Coleridge writes, “which, by virtue of the enlivening
Breath, and the informing Word, all organized bodies have in common, each after its
kind.” All beings are enlivened by this soul and yet Coleridge bestows a special honor to
man for in addition to being animated by the soul, “God transfused into man a higher
gift…a soul having its life in itself. And man became a living soul. He did not merely
possess it, he became it. It was his proper being, his truest self, the man in the man.”
Coleridge’s vision was of a universal soul that was the true nature of humankind and in
the soul he said, “nothing is wanted but the eye, which is the light of this house, the light
which is the eye of this soul, this seeing light, this enlightening eye, is Reflection.”
Underneath all of the universe and underling all human beings is a self-subsisting soul.
How can we picture such a soul? It seems best to imagine it as a field of pure knowing
that all human beings exist within and which is the true source of our awareness.
Coleridge called this soul Reason.
When Ralph Waldo Emerson later famously wrote, “I become a transparent eye-ball; I
am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part
or particle of God.” Coleridge’s notion of the soul was being evoked. Emerson, spoke of
the soul as “the background of our being” and explained “From within or from behind, a
light shines through us upon things.”
 CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Research Design

This research employs the qualitative approach . qualitative approach reserch isto
find phenomena such as methods of behavior wich are not describe before and to understand
them form the point of view of participants in the activity. Qualitatif is a way of knowing in
which a research gathers, organizes, and interprets information obtained form humans using
his or her ears as filters.

The use of qualitative is because this research not directly related with the object in
the field and the researcher want to understand and investigate about the meaning along with
the function of romantic sent base on the lyrics of the song “happines” by Rex orange county.

3.2 Data Collection Method

Data collection method used in this research is observation. Observation in data

collection method is systematic wat by watching, listening or monitoring someone behavior
in their natural setting.