The Romantic Period

1. The Romantic Period Rebellion Against Reason

2. In the beginning… • 1798 – Lyrical Ballads published • Coleridge and Wordsworth sold poems to go to Germany

3. Lyrical Ballads • “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (686) • “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”

4. Alternate Timeline • 1789: French Revolution • 1832: Parliamentary reforms – political foundation for modern Britain

5. 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

6. Industrial Revolution • From hand-made to factory production • City populations explode • Appalling housing conditions • ‘Common’ land now privately owned • Working conditions at worst

7. Laissez-Faire Economics • ‘Free to do’ • Economic philosophy • The Rich got richer; the Poor got poorer

8. 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

9. 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)

10. 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

11. Gothic Literature • Extreme Romanticism • Expressed helplessness about forces beyond control: revolution, industrialization • Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley)

12. “Early” Romantic Poets to Consider… • Robert Burns • William Blake • William Wordsworth • Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)

13. Robert Burns • Scottish • “Auld Lang Syne” (author) • Used dialect • Died young of heart problems • Wrote about lives of ordinary humans

14. 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.

15. To A Mouse On 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!

16. Typical Romantic notion? I’m truly sorry man’s dominion Has broken Nature’s social union, An’ justifies that ill opinion, Which makes thee startle At 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!

17. connotation? 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.

18. 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?

19. 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?

20. 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”

21. William Blake (cont.) He and his wife did everything in making Songs of Innocence (1789): • Writing • Designing • Printing • Engraving

22. 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

23. The Tyger ferocity and power 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? apostrophe: addressing Tyger directly leads to immediacy – illusion of facing a tiger

24. 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?

25. Satan and angels losing war 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? Tyger symbol of some- thing greater? Repeated Question? clues to answer… God? Devil? Man? Dare, NOT Could….what is the effect?

26. The Lamb What is the tone? and Tyger? What does creator give 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? Lamb: literal? symbol? Who is speaker?

27. Symbolism: Who is He? 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! What happened to the lamb in the Bible? In rituals?

28. 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

29. Samuel Taylor Coleridge • left university with no degree – commitment to utopian colony in America • depressed: addiction to opium, failed marriage • profound philosopher and guiding spirit

30. 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

31. Rime of the Ancient Mariner • Exploration of the ‘unreal’/imagination • ‘Ballad’ in seven sections • Involves: • Love • Shame • Isolation • Page 686

32. “Rime of The Ancient Mariner” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Story is a frame story – story is told by the mariner to the wedding guest • Mariner’s ship starts off traveling to the S. Pole, had fog and mist, ice • Mariner kills bird – Albatross • Ship 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 ship • All of his crew dies, he is the only living person out of 200 (4X50) that is alive, they all stare at him

33. “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

34. William Wordsworth • Disillusioned about potential for change • Reunited with sister, Dorothy • 1795, inherited money • 1797, met Coleridge • 1798, Lyrical Ballads

35. Coleridge and Wordsworth’s Friendship • These two authors were the center of the romantic movement • Both loved poetry, loved nature, and they met and talked every day • Wordsworth suggested to Coleridge that he center “Rime” around a crime at sea • Often referred to as the “Lake Poets” – they were both attached to England’s Lake District • Friendship broke down by 1810, mostly b/c of Coleridge’s dependance on painkillers

36. 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

37. The World is Too Much With Us 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; aWe 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; Tone?

38. The World is Too Much With Us 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. Would we be happier if we were more ‘in tune’? Is this still pertinent today? Tone?

39. “Late” Romantic Poets to Consider… • Lord Byron • Percy Shelley • John Keats • Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1812)

40. George Gordon, Lord Byron

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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?

44. 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?

45. 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!

46. Percy Bysshe Shelley

47. Percy Bysshe Shelley • Pamphlet on atheism got him expelled from Oxford • Optimistic: believed human thought and expression could change life for the better • At 19, eloped with 16-yr-old Harriet Westbrook, a friend of his sister’s • At 22, ran away with Mary Godwin, daughter of two most important radicals of 1790s: Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin

48. Percy Bysshe Shelley • Took 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

49. Ozymandias I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand 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 read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

50. 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?