contemporary poetry 2

7/27/2019 Contemporary Poetry 2

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19-Century Poetry (2): Art, Ambition and Mortality

P. B. Shelleyand Lord Alfred Tennyson


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Outline

19 th Century Poetry: The Romantics and theVictorian Poetry OzymandiasThe Poet Percy Bysshe ShelleyUlyssesThe Poet Lord Alfred TennysonThe Lady of Shalott


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The Romantics: The Big Six

William Blake (1757-1827)Willliam Wordsworth

(1770-1850)Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

John Keats (1795- 1821 )-- died at the age of 25Percy Bysshe Shelley

(1792- 1822 ) -- died atthe age of 29Lord Byron (1788-1824) age 36

Mary Shelley 30 August1797 1 February 1851)


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Art in the Romantic Age

The First Generation : The emphasis on1. Inspired by French Revolution2. Nature and the Natural:

1. correspondence between Nature and human nature (e.g.US Whitman, Dickinson)

2. Democracy: Common and Rustic ( ) people 3. Feelings (spontaneous overflow of powerful

feeling )

4. Imagination and Vision (e.g. I Wandered Lonely as

a Cloud ) & Vision Individualism & Quest so called Natural Supernaturalism


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Art in the Romantic Age

The 2nd Generation : The emphasis on1. Feelings Free Love2. Art & Imagination (e.g. Ode on a Grecian Urn ) &

VisionIndividualism & Quest for the remote (myth)3. More Radical

Breaking down more boundaries (e.g. the sensual, themoral);against authority (Ozymandias )Romantic or Satanic Hero ( Frankenstein)

4. (Lyrics ) narrative poems


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Victorian Poetry

More dramatic, less visionary sometimes sadder Influenced by the Romantics, but there is usually aconflict between their need for conveying personal

emotions and their sense of social responsibility(educational) esp in Tennyson.Influenced by the popularity of novels at the time dramatic monologue and narrative poems (e.g. Idylls

of the Kings Arthurian legends)Late Victorians the Pre-Raphaelites, ThomasHardy and Matthew Arnold


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Ozymandias Starting Questions

Main Idea and Ironies?How is Ozymandias described?

The poems form?an Italian sonnet ( octave + sestet).Narrative frame: the use of the narrator


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OzymandiasI met a traveller from an antique land,Who said--"Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert....Near them, on the sand,Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command ,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive , stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed ;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away ."

image

(Rhyme: ABABACDCEDEFEF).
http://www.lizardfire.com/graphics_genIllus/Ozymandias.htmlhttp://www.lizardfire.com/graphics_genIllus/Ozymandias.html


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I the Poem the one that survives

The narrative frames the effect of distantiation

Survival and death:

traveler

Lives: the other kingsOzymandias

his heart andthe sculptors hand

passions on the sculpture+ lifeless sculpture

sand


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Ramesses II

Front view of the temple of Ramesses II in Abu Simbel , Egypt
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_IIhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Templehttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_IIhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbelhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Egypthttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Egypthttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbelhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_IIhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Templehttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Abu_Simbel%2C_Ramesses_Temple%2C_front%2C_Egypt%2C_Oct_2004.jpghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II


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Ozymandias: Historical Context (2)

The poem: Written in 1817, threeyears after the Waterloo in 1815(which brought Napoleon 'sconquest to a stop). ( source )Shelleys other poem: Ode to theWest WindWhat inspired the poem: The'Younger Memnon' statue of Ramesses II in the BritishMuseum an example of Britishcolonialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandiashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BM%2C_AES_Egyptian_Sulpture_~_Colossal_bust_of_Ramesses_II%2C_the_%27Younger_Memnon%27_%281250_BC%29_%28Room_4%29.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias


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Percy Bysshe Shelley A radical thinker and pronouncedatheistSupporter of free loveEloped first with Harriet, and then withMary Godwin Shelley (as well as her step-sister, when both were 16 ).Set up a radical community of friendswho shared everything with oneanother.Two family suicides (one of Harriet,

the other Marys half sister)1816-- the completion of Frankenstein.1821-- Percy Bysshe Shelleydrowned at sea, aged 29.


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Ulysses

1. The who, where, when and why of the poem? Thelistener s ?

2. Ulysses What does he think about his present life (ll.1-5), his past experience (ll. 7-21), and future goals (ll.22-32). Are there contradictions in his self-perception?

3. Ulysses vs. Telemachus : "He works his work, I mine."Do you find Ulysses irresponsible or a-social?

4. a) the rhythm (e.g. iambic pentameter), b) the

arrangement of explosive and mellifluous sounds inthe poem.


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UlyssesIt little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and doleUnequal laws unto a savage race,That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel; I will drinkLife to the lees. All times I have enjoy'dGreatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with thoseThat loved me, and alone; on shore, and whenThro' scudding drifts the rainy HyadesVext the dim sea. I am become a name;For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments,Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

The Hyades = sisters,daughters of Atlas,who were turned into aconstellation of starsby Zeus. They vexed,or tormented, the seawith blowing sheets of rain ("scudding drifts"),

just as theconstellation caninfluence the sea andweather.


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Ulysses

I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fadesFor ever and for ever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on lifeWere all too little, and of one to me Little remains; but every hour is savedFrom that eternal silence , something more,A bringer of new things ; and vile it wereFor some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desireTo follow knowledge like a sinking star ,Beyond the utmost bound of human thought .


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Ulysses Stanza 3There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;There gloom the dark, broad seas . My mariners,Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--That ever with a frolic welcome tookThe thunder and the sunshine, and opposedFree hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old; Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.

Death closes all ; but something ere the end,Some work of noble note, may yet be done,Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods .The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deepMoans round with many voices. Come, my friends.'T is not too late to seek a newer world .


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Ulysses Stanza 3Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holdsTo sail beyond the sunset, and the bathsOf all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'We are not now that strength which in old daysMoved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are ,--One equal temper of heroic hearts ,Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.


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Ulysses: Historical Contexts

In this poem Tennyson is elaborating upon aconviction he formed at Hallam's death "thatlife without faith leads to personal and social

dislocation" (Chiasson 165). (source)In Memoriam (1850)


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Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) As a twilight poet

Worried about poverty and contracting epilepsy(a family disease) a twilight poetDeeply saddened by the death of his friendHallam. (1833)Shorted sighted and with keen interest in soundeffects, he created his poems in his head,memorizing lines and then creating their contexts.Many narrative poems about suspension andlanguidness; e.g. "The Lotos-Eaters" Mariana(a waiting woman); about dullness of immortality: dramatic monologue: "Tithonus .

As a a poet Laureate (1850) a philosopher-poet, dealing with contemporary concerns withscience vs. God: Nature, Red in tooth and claw

a narrative poet catering to popular taste
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/tithonus.htmlhttp://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/tithonus.html


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The Lady of Shalott Starting Questions

1. How is the Lady of Shalott presented? And how aboutLancelot?

2. What do you think about the rhyme scheme AAAABCCCB,with the "B" always standing for " Camelot " in the fifth line andfor "Shalott " in the ninth? Also, the rhymes either contain longvowels ([ei],[u]) or are feminine rhymes (early barley )except for some stanzas re. the people going to Camelot?

3. What do you think the different elements of the poem meanssymbolically? For instance, the Lady under spell, weaving theimages on a mirror, looking out of the window, Lancelots

attraction and the ending (two different ones in the two differentversions)?


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Structure

Stanza 1 to stanza 4: setting and LSintroducedStanza 5 to stanza 8: what LS does vs. the

outside worldStanza 9 to stanza 12: Lancelot passes byStanza 13 to stanza 17: LSs responses anddeathStanza 18 to stanza 19: coda the othersresponses and Lancelots praise of LS.


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Setting: Camelot vs. the Isle

Note the inverted sentence structure, where thesubject appears late and after theadverbial/prepositional phrase.

An island on a river, surrounded by the barley andrye fieldsOn the island, LS is surrounded four grey walls, andfour grey towers, by lilies, shivering breeze,whitened willows and quivering aspens.

People go to Camelot by barges and shallop, or onthe road running by, but when they look in another direction, they see the isle.


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Lady of Shalott vs. the Mundane World

LSIntroduced with questions;only heard by the reapersfocused on weaving amagic web with colours gay.Half sick when seeingfuneral or wedded loverspassing by

Shadows of the world:the river eddy whirls,the surly village churls andthe red cloaks of market

girlstroop of damsels, curlyshepherd and knights allgoing down to Camelot

a world of action andlove


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Lancelot vs. Lady of Shalott

Lancelot: Associated with the sun,armor and coats of arms ( actions)

His shield loveWith sounds and explosivesounds: bridle bells, glitter,silver bugle,

bearded meteor His appearance described,song quoted: "Tirra lirra."

LS1 in action with self-awareness2. Like a seer3. self-assertion: writes her

name, sings her last songuntil she dies.Persistent in her art creation.


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Ending and Different Interpretations

Respect is paid for LS, with the whole town insilence and fear, and Lancelot praising her.LS:

a woman determined to seek her love and thenshe gets confirmed by the lover a devoted artist seeking to face reality, instead of staying in her ivory town, twice removed fromreality.


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The Lady of Shalott : 1833 s vs. 1842 slast stanzasThey crossd themselves, their

stars they blest,Knight, minstrel, abbot, squire, and

guest.There lay a parchment on her

breast,That puzzled more than all the rest,The wellfed wits at Camelot.The web was woven curiously,The charm is broken utterly,Draw near and fear not,--this is I,

The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here? And in the lighted palace near Died the sound of royal cheer;

And they crossed themselves

for fear, All the Knights at Camelot;But Lancelot mused a littlespaceHe said, "She has a lovely

face;God in his mercy lend her grace,The Lady of Shalott."


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The Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott- 1888 -The TateGallery, John

WilliamWaterhouse. Poem andimages
http://www.pathguy.com/shalott.htmhttp://www.pathguy.com/shalott.htmhttp://www.pathguy.com/shalott.htmhttp://www.pathguy.com/shalott.htm


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References

Ozymandiashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias The Tennyson Pagehttp://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/poems/index.shtml Chapter Three: Poems (1842) Tennyson's

Major Poems :http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/kincaid/ch3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandiashttp://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/poems/index.shtmlhttp://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/poems/index.shtmlhttp://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/kincaid/ch3.htmlhttp://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/kincaid/ch3.htmlhttp://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/kincaid/ch3.htmlhttp://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/kincaid/ch3.htmlhttp://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/poems/index.shtmlhttp://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/poems/index.shtmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

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