ROMANTIC POETRY the birth of Romantic poetry

ROMANTIC POETRY

the birth of Romantic poetry n the late 18 th century n the Age of Enlightenment - emphasis on science, reason and being intellectual n the French Revolution (1789) n industrialization - the poor condition of workers, the new class-conflicts and the pollution of the environment

The Romantics. Themes n regular language - poetry you could actually understand n focus on emotions and feelings n celebrating nature - reaction to the Enlightenment n represent the individual artist

regular language 'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill Appear in Writing or in Judging ill, But, of the two, less dang'rous is th'Offence, To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense‘ Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism

regular language I have a boy of five years old; His face is fair and fresh to see; His limbs are cast in beauty's mould, And dearly he loves me. ‘ William Wordsworth Anecdote for Fathers

Major Romantic Poets Lake poets (first generation of Romantic poets ) William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge second generation of Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats Lord Byron

and William Blake ? ? ?

n n n n n 2 d of 5 children - the son of a humble but decent tradesman - His father was a hosier had religious visions drawing school (11) began writing poetry (12) apprenticed to a London engraving (14) 1779 – began study in the Royal Academy; commercial engraving for bookseller 1782 – married Catherine Boucher 1787 – died his younger brother Robert relief etching, illuminated printing

Important !!! n radical thinker, idealistically revolutionary: The French Revolution (1791), America: A Prophecy (1793), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) n n n enthusiastically religious had interesting ideas about marriage and women (Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories from Real Life ) pioneer of the free love movement

Major works – Blakean style n The Songs of Innocence (1789) and Experience (1793) – 1794 (subtitle, Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul) n The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) n Jerusalem (1820)

The Songs of Innocence and Experience Innocence and experience are essentially opposites that together form a whole. n Songs of Innocence. Most of the poems are about children n focus on a naïve, pure and inexperienced worldview: the world can be scary, and a lack of experience can lead to being taken advantage of in some cases. n In these poems, God is always a protective force, although children don't really fully understand him. n

Songs of Experience n focus on adults n the world is exposed as a dark place where the Church, politics and society can be constraining n poems deal with jealousy and corruption n also suggest that these forces exist in the world among the innocent - but they're too naïve to see them. Experience has some advantages; you're able to see what's really there

prototypical Romantic work n contemporary, accessible language n tend to take place in natural settings (nature as a place where you can get an authentic experience, rather than in a city). n capture the contrast between instinct and reason or nature and civilization - like nature and instinct a lot better than reason and experience.

n 1788 – associated with Emmanuel Swedenborg - scientist n Milton, Paradise Lost “The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devils party without knowing it. ” n 1810 - Milton: A Poem

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Dante's Inferno, Milton's Paradise Lost n it's about Hell: since the Romantics weren't such huge fans of organized religion, Hell's actually a really cool place - people can relax. n Blake suggests that Heaven is too authoritarian and too stuffy and guided by rules. n 'I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. ' n

The period between the 18 and 19 centuries Romantic revival Romantic Revolution involve violent resistance to intolerable oppression movements of the people they generally have a program, typically utopian, relating to some idealized future state of social existence

Lyrical Ballads, 1798 the most influential book of poetry in English literature – the birth of the Romantic Poetry Movement is the publication of this book. n Ballads are poetry of the folk. They do not, historically, have single authors but are the products of a communal voice. n The ballad revival also marked a desire to return to cleansing simplicities, away from the industrialization, institutionalization, and bureaucratization that were transforming the world.

was born in the Lake District n was “allowed to run wild in nature” - pantheistic: God inheres in the natural world around us. God is in nature. n grammar school, attended Cambridge University n In the early 1800 s - settled in the Lake District, met Samuel Taylor Coleridge n extraordinarily introverted: Loneliness and creativity are at the heart of Wordsworth’s poetry, and loneliness, for him, is a creative state. n

'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798'. 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, ' 'Tintern Abbey'

n n n n n Welsh abbey August of 1793 - summer of 1798 160 -line poem Tintern Abbey - founded around the 1100 s, church - completed in 1301 1536 - disbanded Written in accessible, ordinary language blank verse two main themes: memory and Nature worship pantheistic (God and Nature are the same thing )

Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountainsprings With a soft inland murmur. -Once again Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, That on a wild and secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them In hours of weariness

…little, nameless, unremembered, acts Of kindness and love my dearest Friend My dear, dear Friend dear, dear Sister Therefore let the moon Shine on thee in thy solitary walk; And let the misty mountain-winds be free To blow against thee

n n n born in 1772 in a country town in England His father was the vicar of a local church and headmaster of a local school in London at Jesus College - befriended the writer Robert Southey a plan to create a pantisocracy - a utopian society where everyone is equal in status and role (Pennsylvania ) 1795 - met William Wordsworth, huge influence on him (leaders of this blossoming Romantic Movement in poetry )

Major Works n 1798 – poem Frost at Midnight (conversation poem: talks about his upbringing in the city and he worries and hopes that his son will get to really experience nature; importances of nature vs. the city; based on life) n conversation poems: The Eolian Harp n This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison n The Nightingale

'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' 1798 adventure, horror, and mystery + zombies Romantic themes that come up in the poem: n nature (the idea of the natural world), n supernatural forces (zombies), n strong human emotions, n the idea of sin and restoration (you do something bad but you can be redeemed for it). n accessible, modern language – NO!!! n fairly antiquated language deliberately n

n Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan after an opium-induced dream n Got interrupted, couldn’t finish n three important facets of Romantic poetry: imagination celebrated, nature and mysticism.

“If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all. ” “Keatsianism”