The Romantic Period

Rebellion Against Reason

In the beginning…1798 – Lyrical Ballads published

Coleridge and Wordsworth sold poems to go to Germany

Lyrical Ballads

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (686)

“Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”

Alternate Timeline

1789: French Revolution

1832: Parliamentary reforms – political foundation for modern Britain

Six Major Poets

1st Generation: William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

2nd Generation: Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and George Gordon, Lord Byron – all dead by 1825

Industrial Revolution

From hand-made to factory production

City populations explode

Appalling housing conditions

‘Common’ land now privately owned

Working conditions at worst

Laissez-Faire Economics

‘Free to do’

Economic philosophy

The Rich got richer; the Poor got poorer

Romantic Response

Writing became more lyrical, less formal, not as much prose, more spontaneous work, expressing feelings, imagination, emotion

Done as a response to the political climate of the time, and was a rebelling against that

Romantic More ‘genuine’ – talked of feelings, emotions

Dealt with more psychological issues and was mysterious

Fascination with youth & innocence growing up to trust emotions, will, and identity

Stronger awareness of change/adaptability

Full of idealism (question tradition/authority for the better)

Romantic Poetry

Wordsworth, “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”

NOT artful craft and satire

Simple, unadorned language

Country NOT city

Prize beauty and majesty of nature

Emotion/passion NOT reason

Gothic Literature

Extreme Romanticism

Expressed helplessness about forces beyond control: revolution, industrialization

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley)

“Early” Romantic Poets to Consider…

Robert Burns

William Blake

William Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(1798)

Robert Burns

Scottish

“Auld Lang Syne” (author)

Used dialect

Died young of heart problems

Wrote about lives of ordinary humans

A Red Red Rose by Robert Burns

 O my Luve's like a red, red roseThat's newly sprung in June;O my Luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,So deep in luve am I;And I will luve thee still, my dear,Till a' the seas gang dry: Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,And the rocks melt wi' the sun;I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o' life shall run. And fare thee weel, my only Luve,And fare thee weel awhile!And I will come again, my Luve,Tho' it ware ten thousand mile.

To A MouseOn Turning Her Up in Her Nest,

with the Plow, November 1785.

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie

O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi’ bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,

Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominionHas broken Nature’s social union,An’ justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startleAt me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

An’ fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!A daimen-icker in a thrave

‘S a sma request:I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,

An’ never miss ‘t!

Typical Romanticnotion?

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,

O’ foggage green!An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,

Baith snell an keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ wast,An’ weary winter comin fast,An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,Till crash! the cruel coulter past

Out thro’ thy cell.

connotation?

That wee-bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,

But house or hald,To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,

An’ cranreuch cauld!

But Mouse, thou art no thy-lane,In proving foresight may be vain:The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

Gang aft agley,An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promis’d joy!

tone change?

Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But ock! I backward cast my e’e,

On prospect drear!

An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,

I guess an’ fear!

Do you agree with this comparison?

William Blake

Married homebody

“I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s”

“I will not Reason and Compare; my business is to Create”

William Blake (cont.)

He and his wife did everything in making Songs of Innocence (1789):

Writing

Designing

Printing

Engraving

Blake’s Poetry

Songs of Innocence (1789)

With Songs of Experience (1794)

Innocence: state of genuine love, naïve trust of Christian doctrine (felt English used church as social control)

Experience: profound disillusionment with society and human nature

The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what winds dare he aspire

What the hand dare seize the fire?

ferocity and power

apostrophe: addressing Tyger directly leads toimmediacy – illusion of facinga tiger

And what shoulder, and what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Satan andangels losingwar

Dare, NOT Could….what is the effect?

Tyger symbolof some-thinggreater?

Repeated Question?clues to answer…God? Devil? Man?

The Lamb Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed

By the stream and o’er the mead,

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing, wooly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice?

Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

What is the tone?and Tyger?

Who is speaker?

What does creatorgive lamb?

Lamb:literal?symbol?

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee, Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:He is called by thy name,For He calls himself a Lamb.He is meek, and he is mild;He became a little child.I a child, and thou a lam,We are called by his name. Little Lamb, God bless thee! Little Lamb, God bless thee!

Symbolism:Who is He?

What happened tothe lamb in the Bible?In rituals?

Blake’s Poetry

Songs of Innocence (1789)

With Songs of Experience (1794)

Innocence: state of genuine love, naïve trust of Christian doctrine (felt English used church as social control)

Experience: profound disillusionment with society and human nature

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

left university with no degree – commitment to utopian colony in Americadepressed: addiction to opium, failed marriageprofound philosopher and guiding spirit

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Called Wordsworth the “the best poet of the age”

Wordsworth called Coleridge “the most wonderful man I’ve ever known”

Loneliness came from lifelong need for affection and support not available in an isolated writer’s life

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Exploration of the ‘unreal’/imagination‘Ballad’ in seven sectionsInvolves: Love Shame Isolation

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“Rime of The Ancient Mariner” – Samuel Taylor

ColeridgeStory is a frame story – story is told by the mariner to the wedding guestMariner’s ship starts off traveling to the S. Pole, had fog and mist, iceMariner kills bird – AlbatrossShip stopped moving, “Water Water everywhere, but not a drop to drink”Albatross is hung upon Mariner’s neck for penance“Life In Death” comes on a shipAll of his crew dies, he is the only living person out of 200 (4X50) that is alive, they all stare at him

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Mariner prays for the animals in the water, Albatross falls off the Mariner’s neck

All the sudden, the men come back to life, start working

Mariner faints, comes back to consciousness and is rescued by a religious man

Mariner’s penance is to wander the earth, telling his tale, and he must let people know to love “All things both great and small”

OVERALL THEME/LESSON – Respect all of nature, from men to the smallest animal

William Wordsworth

Disillusioned about potential for change

Reunited with sister, Dorothy

1795, inherited money

1797, met Coleridge

1798, Lyrical Ballads

Coleridge and Wordsworth’s Friendship

These two authors were the center of the romantic movementBoth loved poetry, loved nature, and they met and talked every dayWordsworth suggested to Coleridge that he center “Rime” around a crime at seaOften referred to as the “Lake Poets” – they were both attached to England’s Lake DistrictFriendship broke down by 1810, mostly b/c of Coleridge’s dependance on painkillers

The World is Too Much With Us – pg. 675

1807

Sonnet: 14 lines, shift in thought

Wordsworth realized his creative powers were beginning to fail

Response to accusations of conspiring against society, being an enemy of society

a The world is too much with us; late and soon,

b Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

b Little we see in Nature that is ours;

a We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

a This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

b The winds that will be howling at all hours,

b And are upgathered now like sleeping flowers;

a For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

The World is Too Much With Us

Tone?

c It moves us not. –Great God! I’d rather be

d A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

c So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

d Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

c Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

d Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

The World is Too Much With Us

Tone?Would we be happier if we were more ‘in tune’?

Is this still pertinent today?

“Late” Romantic Poets to Consider…

Lord Byron

Percy Shelley

John Keats

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

(1812)

George Gordon, Lord Byron

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Became Baron Byron at 10 yrs old

Became famous with 2 cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Obsessive determination to prove himself

Club foot, obese, binge diets

Satire targeted Romantic icons: Wordsworth and Coleridge

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Met Percy Shelly and wife Mary

Writing not “Romantic” in style; rather, neoclassical

HE lived the Romantic’s ideas in his lifestyle

Supported Greek nationalists in struggle for independence from Turkey

Died of fevers just months after his 36th birthday

She Walks in Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

Implication?

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

Relation between inner self and appearance?

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Pamphlet on atheism got him expelled from OxfordOptimistic: believed human thought and expression could change life for the betterAt 19, eloped with 16-yr-old Harriet Westbrook, a friend of his sister’sAt 22, ran away with Mary Godwin, daughter of two most important radicals of 1790s: Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin

Percy Bysshe ShelleyTook Mary and sister Claire to Switzerland

Met Byron through Claire

Harriet drowned herself, so Shelley married Mary

Fled debts in England

Though warned not to sail, he drowned in a storm at 29-yrs-old

2 weeks later, body washed ashore and friends burned in funeral pyre on beach

OzymandiasI met a traveler from an antique landWho 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 decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

What remains of the king’s great works?

John Keats

John KeatsBarely over 5 feet tallOrphaned at 14In medical school at 15At 21, competed medical studies; before being licensed as a surgeon, decided to be a poet insteadMuch time spent nursing brother dying of tuberculosis Died at age 26 of tuberculosis

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Ode: uses heightened, impassioned language and addresses an object

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