Romanticism

Romanticism

Concepts and BeliefsRomanticismGuiding QuestionsHow did political events in America and France in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries affect English Society?How did the industrialization of England revolutionize the ways in which people lived and worked?What political and economic theories developed in response to the changes brought about by Englands rapid industrialization?What new values and responses to change did the Romantic poets offer?

Social and Political MilestonesThe American Revolution (1776-1783)

The French Revolution and the Era of Napoleon (1789-1815)

The Industrial Revolution in England

Quick Write: What do you know about these events?

7 Critical Elements Started being used to describe specific pieces in 18th century

Originally referred to characteristics of romance

Opposed to classics

Early 19th century the official Romantic period was established

A fundamental component of Romanticism is the belief that man is inherently good

People have a good sense of moral judgment

Man can be swayed/molded towards perfection

Gothic romance- love, death, supernaturalThe Early RomanticsThe Romantic Period (17981832) was a time marked by turmoil in Europe. King George III lost control of the American colonies. The gap between the rich and the poor widened dramatically. The French Revolution inspired fear and resentment between the classes. With the decline of agriculture, the cities were overpopulated and the living conditions were dismal. As a result, there was an escalating focus on making money and protesting injustice. It was a time of high anxiety and great change.

The writers of this period are called Romantic not because they focus on romantic love, but because they are idealists. Romantic writers use their work as relief from the worlds troubles, often focusing on the joy and beauty of nature, the power of human feeling, and the escapism of the fantastic and the supernatural. Romantic writers emphasize liberty and equality, and they frequently harken back to the good old days when life was simpler and more peaceful. Some of the writers even use the language of years or decades earlier to create a sense of the past. Because some of this antiquated language may be more difficult to read, take your time and pay close attention to the notations in the margins of your textbook. They will help you understand the unfamiliar phrasing.

The first generation of Romantic poets (17981805): Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge.

The BeginningDuring the spring of 1798, two young English poets sold some of their poems to raise money for a trip to Germany. Each had published books of poetry, but their new joint work was to be anonymous. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the younger of the pair, told the printer: Wordsworths name is nothingminestinks.

Soon after they left England, their book,Lyrical Ballads, witha Few Other Poems,appeared. Among the few other poems was Coleridges long narrativeThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner(see page 765) and a last-minute addition, Wordsworths Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey (see page 736). Both of these works are now among the most important poems in English literature.

William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth revolutionized the poetry of his time. Unlike his predecessors, who focus on wit and reason, Wordsworth embodies the Romantic ideal. His poems are designed to evoke feeling, sometimes tranquil and serene, sometimes forceful. They touch on human truths and reveal the connections between us all.

Wordsworths poems often depict scenes of the countryside and a simple life, and he praises the glory and the magnitude of nature.

Wordsworth also writes with more accessible language, believing that language, too, should be natural, rather than artificial and ornate.

Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern AbbeyAs you read Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, notice the soundimagery, such as the rolling waters and the rustling of the leaves that soothe the speaker when hes surrounded by the din of the city. Notice, too, thepersonificationof the trees and thesimilethat compares the speaker to a young deer bounding through the forest. These kinds of images reinforce the glories of nature and escaping the oppressive world of the modern city for a simpler time.

In terms of its structure, this poem also employs sound devices likealliteration(asensesublime / ofsomething) andblank versethat reflect the soothing, peaceful atmosphere. The informal language and free-flowing organization of this poem are precursors of the stream-of-consciousness narrative we see often in modern literature.

For this poem, your group will do a close-poetry reading outline

Stages of AnalysisPart 1: Is it Romantic?

Part 2: TPCASTT

Part 3: Individual Close Reading Paragraph. How does the poet create the speaker, the attitude towards the subject, and the purpose of the poem through stylistic devices.

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge

PersonificationWordsworth breathes life into his sonnet by usingpersonification,a kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing is talked about as if it were human. Look for details that personify the city, the sun, the river, even the houses of London.

Point of ViewWordsworth chose to spend most of his time in the English countryside, especially in the beautiful Lake District where, he believed, nature had made him a poet. First published in 1807, this sonnet shows that Wordsworth the nature lover could be moved not only by mountains and waterfalls, but also by the majesty of a sleeping cityin this case, London. It is London seen from a distance, and by a man happily journeying to France. Here, Londons filth and poverty are disguised and transfigured by the poets imagination.

The World is Too Much with Us

AllusionAnallusionis a reference to a person, place, thing, or event that is recognizable from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or popular culture. Allusions are often used to lend deeper meaning to a literary passage or work. In Wordsworths poem The World Is Too Much with Us, the poet alludes to two sea gods from Greek mythologyProteus and Triton. By making reference to these gods, Wordsworth underscores an earlier sentiment in the poem. Look for this connection as you read.

CounterargumentThis sonnet counterattacks the ferocious criticism that Wordsworth was receiving from conservative reviewers, especially Francis Jeffrey in theEdinburgh Review.Jeffrey accused Wordsworth of using unpoetic language, but, even more, of conspiring against society, brooding needlessly over problems instead of contemplating the wonders and pleasures which civilization has created for mankind. Jeffrey considered Wordsworth an enemy of progress because of his idle discontent with the existing institutions of society and his yearning for an earlier, less civilized time when people lived in harmony with nature.

Stages of AnalysisPart 1: Is it Romantic?

Part 2: TPCASTT

Part 3: Individual Close Reading Paragraph. How does the poet create the speaker, the attitude towards the subject, and the purpose of the poem through stylistic devices.

Samuel Coleridge: Kubla KhanBackground

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was known for his presentation of the fantastic, perhaps a product of his addiction to opium. His poem Kubla Khan is an excellent example of mood, which was a major concern of Romantic writers.

He claimed it was written in a reverie brought on by opium taken after he had read a provocative passage in a seventeenth-century travel book. Coleridge asserted that he woke from his dream and was interrupted by a visitor while composing the poem. After the visitor departed an hour later, a mere fragment of his dream-poem could be reproduced, he claimed.

Kubla Khan has a lyrical tone and manner that resemble a meditative ode. Full of mystery and dread, Kubla Khan was composed at about the same time (late 1797 or early 1798) asThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Kubla Khan (c. 1216-1294), the grandson of Genghis Khan, was the Mogul ruler of China.

Literary FocusAlliterationthe repetition of a consonant sound in words that are close to one anothercan have several effects. Coleridge uses alliteration throughout Kubla Khan to help create the poems enchanted mood. Alliteration can impart a musical quality to a poem, emphasize a particular line or idea, or help establish a rhythm.

Rhythm and Rhyme Scheme: Coleridge is using iambs (unstressed stressed), but his rhyme scheme is: A B A A B C C D B D BE F E E F G G H H I I J J K A A K L LM N M N O OP Q R R Q B S B S T O T T T O U U O

Emerging from a DreamKubla Khan has always intrigued readers, including the poet Byron, who, after reading it in manuscript, apparently persuaded Coleridge to publish it in 1816. At the time, Coleridge added a prose introduction that offered a rational account of the poems origins.

The poem you are about to read may challenge the limits of your imagination. It is meant to be heard.

Fantastical and strange, it is like a vivid yet incomprehensible dream. Coleridge, in fact, suggested that the poem came to him in a dream. Like a dream, the poem contains allusions to the deepest human desiresfor pleasure, order, beauty, even chaos and war. It also holds within it the moment when, upon waking, the vividness and the supposed logic of the dream are suddenlyperhaps foreverlost to the dreamer.

Breaking it Down: Stanza OneIt begins as a dream stimulated by Coleridges reading of Samuel Purchas 17th century travel book,Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places discovered, from the Creation unto the Present(London, 1617). The first stanza describes the summer palace built by Kublai Khan, the grandson of the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan and founder of the Yuan dynasty of Chinese emperors in the 13th century, at Xanadu (or Shangdu):In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decreeXanadu, north of Beijing in inner Mongolia, was visited by Marco Polo in 1275 and after his account of his travels to the court of Kubla Khan, the word Xanadu became synonymous with foreign opulence and splendor. Compounding the mythical quality of the place Coleridge is describing, the poems next lines name Xanadu as the placeWhere Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manThis is likely a reference to the 2nd century geographer Pausanias description of the River Alpheus inDescription of Greece. What are other features of this landscape?Breaking it Down: Stanza TwoAccording to Pausanias, the river rises up to the surface, then descends into the earth again and comes up elsewhere in fountains -- clearly the source of the images in the second stanza of the poem:And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,A mighty fountain momently was forced:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the threshers flail:And mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river.Where the lines of the first stanza are measured and tranquil (in both sound and sense), this second stanza is agitated and extreme, like the movement of the rocks and the sacred river, marked with the urgency of exclamation points both at the beginning of the stanza and at its end:And mid this tumult Kubla heard from farAncestral voices prophesying war!Highlight the Agitated and Extreme WordsHow do these develop a shift in tone?Breaking it Down: Stanzas Three and FourThe fantastical description becomes even more so in the third stanza:It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!What other fantastic images are there in this stanza?And then the fourth stanza makes a sudden turn, introducing the narrators I and turning from the description of the palace at Xanadu to something else the narrator has seen:A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw:It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora.Some critics have suggested that Mount Abora is Coleridges name for Mount Amara, the mountain described by John Milton inParadise Lostat the source of the Nile in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) -- an African paradise of nature here set next to Kubla Khans created paradise at Xanadu.How does the song reflect the emergence of Coleridges poem?Breaking it Down: The Final StanzaTo this point Kubla Khan is all magnificent description and allusion, but as soon the poet actually manifests himself in the poem in the word I in the last stanza, he quickly turns from describing the objects in his vision to describing his own poetic endeavor:Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight twould win me,That with music loud and long,I would build that dome in air,That sunny dome! those caves of ice!This must be the place where Coleridges writing was interrupted; when he returned to write these lines, the poem turned out to be about itself, about the impossibility of embodying his fantastical vision. The poem becomes the pleasure-dome, the poet is identified with Kubla Khan -- both are creators of Xanadu, and Coleridge is apeaking of both poet and khan in the poems last lines:And all should cry, Beware! Beware!His flashing eyes, his floating hair!Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dread,For he on honey-dew hath fed,And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Wordsworth advocated the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotionsUse the chart to fill in how the Final Stanza reflects this ideal.Kubla Khan: The Literary CriticismFocused on the influence of opium on its dreamlike qualitiesLanguage and meter are too intricate for it to have been created by the fevered mind of a sleeping poemIs the poem truly a fragment? Does the fifth stanza sum up the poem?Does the poem have no veritable meaning (T.S. Eliot)Or is it an allegory (a symbolic story) about the creation of art?Or is it a reflection of how, like Xanadu, art offers a refuge from the chaos?

Stages of AnalysisPart 1: Is it Romantic?

Part 2: SOAPS Outline

Part 3: Individual Close Reading Paragraph.

How does the poet create the speaker, the attitude towards the subject, and the purpose of the poem through the images and the choice of words he selects?

Rime of Ancient Mariner

Rime of Ancient Mariner

Coleridges most famous poem is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Thisliterary balladcontains adventure, happiness, sadness, anxiety, regret, fear, and forgiveness, among other emotions. That is true Romanticism, to combine so many aspects of human feeling in one work and to depict an exotic adventure through the supernatural and the fantastic.

Coleridges use ofrhymeand ballad stanza structure makes the long poem easy to read. Think of each part as a chapter in a book.

After we complete Stanza 1 and 2, you will be assigned Stanzas 3-7

Your group will create a paraphrase and a Picture Book for the sections of the poem which you will present to the class with key lines and summary of the section.

Rime of the Ancient MarinerBackgroundThe BalladColeridge wroteThe Rime of the AncientMarineras part of the collaboration with Wordsworth in 17971798. As Coleridge later recalled, some of the poems in this volume were intended to present ordinary people and events in a fresh and interesting way. Others, such asAncient Mariner,were to present supernatural characters and events, yet in such a way that would induce the reader to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.

Coleridgesliterary balladimitates the traditionalfolk balladin both subject matter and form. Like the old folk ballads (see page 130), his sensational narrative blends real with supernatural events. It also uses simple language, a good deal of repetition, and strong patterns of rhythm and rhyme.

Coleridge was a skilled poet, and to avoid monotony, he often varies hismeterandrhyme scheme.He also uses sophisticated sound devices likeinternal rhyme(The guests aremet,the feast isset) andassonance(Tis sweeter far to me). To give his ballad an archaic sound, he uses language that was old-fashioned for his day.Mariner: Reading FocusARGUMENTHow a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.

Themes in Ancient Mariner and Frankenstein:The Natural World: The PhysicalThe Spiritual World: The SupernaturalLiminal Space: Between two realms: reason & imagination, dreaming & wakingDuty to OthersReligionRetributionThe Act of StorytellingAncient Mariner: Part OneWedding (Natural) WorldSea (Supernatural) World3 Guests going to a wedding1 guest listens to the storyThe wedding itself serves as a counterpoint to the mariners storyOpening JourneySUNNY BEGINNING (Personification of the Sun)STORM-BLAST: Sailors escapeSNOW-FOG: Land of ice and of fearful soundsthe arrival of the AlbatrossCONFESSION: I SHOT the ALBATROSSConnection to Letters: Consider that Coleridge read this poem to Mary Shelley, how does the opening letter in Frankenstein create two worldsRobert Waltons childhood and his desire to be a sailor?Part Two: Individual v. GroupBlamed for killing the AlbatrossPraised for kill the AlbatrossCrew turns against himMariner: I had done a hellish thingKilled the bird that made the breeze to blowWhen weather turns again, no breeze, water, water, every where nor any drop to drinkThe Mariner notes: instead of the cross, the Albatross about my neck was hungFog clears: thus make themselves accomplices in the crimeCrew approvesI had killed the bird that brought the fog and mistFair Breeze continuesConnection to the Letters: How does Mary Shelley expand on the relationships between the crew? How does she explore the suspension of the journey (Letter IV)? How does Frankenstein, the character set up the Albatross around his neck? (Letter IV)Group Work Focal PointsPart 3: Things get much worse for the crew, but the glimmer of hope on the horizon brings a skeleton ship with two figures , sentenced to LIFE-IN-DEATH for killing the albatrossPart 4: Wedding guest reacts with fear, Marnier tells of the decaying of his shipmates and his own wish for death, has a nature moment and the curse is brokenPart 5: Sleep (Dream State of the Body)the dead men rise and sail the ship at night and then the Mariner hears two voicesPart 6: The Angels Dialogue and Imagines the dead are on the deck, reflection on the curse and the wind eventually gets him homePart 7: Greeted by the Hermit, Ship sinks and Mariner is rescued, Mariner tells his tale to the Hermit (absolved of his guilt) but finds he has to keep telling the story. Wedding Guests exit the church.

Homework: Plot out key points (use web links to Gustav More for pictures for your Part) and write down key lines you could use in your Mariner Group WorkDue Next Class

On Going on a Journey BlogComplete Analysis Log and Key QuotesDue Next Class (Blog Prep) Focus on reasons to go alone, reasons against going with someone else, and how going to a foreign country is different

Upcoming Major Assignments:Read Frankenstein Chapter 1-4 (24 pages): Complete Episodic Notes and Character Analysis on Victor Frankenstein (due Thurs. Jan. 31/Fri. Feb.1)Think about Frankensteins Grief

Read the specific Poetry Group Poems and Lesson Plan Directions from Romantics and Victorians Complete SOAPS and DIDLS for both poems (due Mon. Feb. 4/Tues. Feb. 5)Intro into Going on a JourneyThroughout the essay he creates a series of oppositions, mainly rural vs. urban

Quick Bite: In this essay, Hazlitt examines the joys of walking in nature by oneself. Many of his reasons reflect the Romantic ideals and the Romantic writers of the day, which he often cites, and Coleridge he discusses as the one person that he would not mind on a journey through nature, if he must have company.In the middle of the essay he explores what happens when someone goes with you and why it is a distraction. In the middle of the essay he recalls the inns where he has stayed alone, recalling one that he visited before meeting up with Coleridge. Hazlitt ends his essay by examining the experience one has when one goes to another country, as a juxtaposition to the others.Quick Write on Topic:Hazlitt begins his essay with the following line: "One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey, but I like to go by myself."Make a Prediction: Position Reasons for Going Alone Negative Reasons for Going with Others

On Going on a Journey: EXPERT GROUPSGroup 1: Reasons to Walk Alone (109-to I begin to feel, think, and be myself again-top of 110)

Group 2: Problems with Having a Companion except Coleridge (mid 110-end of first paragraph on 112)

Group 3: C/C Journey Alone vs. Journey Abroad (bottom 114-115)

HOW DOES HAZLITT REFLECT THE ROMANTIC IDEALS?Rime of Ancient Mariner GroupsFacilitator: Keeps group members organized and on task. This person assigns stanzas for students to practice reading aloud and to paraphrase them.

Recorder: This person is responsible to see that students write down their paraphrased statements of their assigned stanzas on their copy of the poem.

Art Director: This person is responsible to see students create drawings or directing the scene of appropriate events in their part of the poem, including written stanzas on the drawing. Use the Six-Sequence (3 key events per Part)

You will create together: the direct quotes, the paraphase or play, and the images (acting, drawn, or taken from Gustav More)

Themes to Consider in Your PartsThe Natural World: The Physical v. The Spiritual World: The SupernaturalLiminal Space: Between two realms: reason & imagination, dreaming & wakingDuty to OthersReligionRetributionThe Act of Storytelling Connection to FrankensteinColeridge gives pre-explanations throughout the Parts. Use these to guide your discussion of the key tableaux that you will present to the class. Make sure they connect to the themes. William BlakeBackground

In the late 1700s, prices increased sharply and work became scarce. Blake saw starving people rooting through garbage, homeless families sleeping in doorways, and children begging on the streets or working at horrible jobs. Most members of the upper class believed that they deserved their comfortable stations in life, and that the poor must be innately evil, deserving the hunger and appalling conditions that they endured.

Blake was said to be mad, not only because he saw visions, but also because his poems cry out against the social problems he saw all around him: the growing division between classes, the wretched working conditions, and child labor. No one should go hungry, he said, in a land as green and wealthy as England.

Quick Write:What are the injustices of the modern world? What are the conditions for the modern 12 year-old? Is this the same everywhere?

Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of ExperienceBlakes Poems: Innocence to ExperienceWilliam Blake first publishedSongs of Innocencein 1789. In 1794, this collection andSongs of Experiencewere issued together in one volume, the title page promising a demonstration of the two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

Blake conceived the first of these states, Innocence, as a state of genuine love and naive trust toward all humankind, accompanied by unquestioned belief in Christian doctrine. Though a firm believer in Christianity, Blake thought that its doctrines were being used by the English Church and other institutions as a form of social control: to encourage among the people passive obedience and acceptance of oppression, poverty, and inequality.

Recognition of this marks what Blake called the state of Experience, a profound disillusionment with human nature and society. One entering the state of Experience sees cruelty and hypocrisy only too clearly but is unable to imagine a way out. Blake also conceived of a third, higher state of consciousness that he called Organized Innocence, which is expressed in his later works. In this state, ones sense of the divinity of humanity coexists with oppression and injustice, though involving continued recognition of and active opposition to them.

Blake: The Poison TreeIn A Poison Tree, Blake expects his readers to recognize theallusionto the biblical story of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve eat fruit from the forbidden tree, they are cast out of Eden. In the poem, the speakers foe likewise eats the fruit of the poison tree and dies. The tree is asymbolof the speakers anger and hatred. By hiding his anger, the speaker deceives his foe, and when his foe partakes of this hidden rage, it destroys him. There is a deliberate cause-and-effect relationship in this poem: Harboring anger leads to destruction

Brief Analysis of Poison TreeSubject and theme:Wrath (anger) and desire to triumph over enemies; the dark side of human nature.Key image:The tree which bears the poisonous fruit.Technical features:Simple narrative in form of parable; "wrath" a powerful Biblical term for a deadly sin;Tree suggests Biblical and mythical narratives;Contrast between treatment of friend and of foe;Repeated use of "And" or "I" to start lines;Rhyme words in second stanza as metaphors of nurturing the desire to harm;Conclusion shows how horrible wrath can be - this is not a literal killing but real spiritual and psychological harm are done.Application to The Chimney SweeperIn these two poems, the first fromSongs ofInnocenceand the second fromSongs ofExperience,Blake speaks for the poor children of his day who were forced to do backbreaking labor.

In Blakes London, buildings were heated by coal- or wood-burning fireplaces, so every house had at least one chimney that had to be cleaned regularly. Poor children were often used to do this dirty and hazardous work because they could fit into the narrow chimney passages.

In fact, some parents were so poverty stricken that they sold their children to masters who managed crews of young sweepers. The work was dangerous, and the children were badly treated by masters concerned only with profits.

If you could cry out against an evil of our dayand get people to listenwhich social injustice would you protest? Take a few minutes to jot down your thoughtsLiterary Elements: Compare/Contrast: The Chimney SweeperParallelismWhen words, phrases, or sentences are arranged in balanced grammatical structures, they are said to beparallel.Poets, dramatists, preachers, and speechwriters (whose work is meant to be spoken aloud) are particularly likely to employ parallelism because the repetition it introduces enhances the rhythmic and emotional effect of their lines and makes them easier to understand and remember. Blakes use of parallelism contributes to the childlike simplicity of the surface of his poems.

Focus QuestionsThe 1794 collection, remember, was calledSongs of Innocence and Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul: explain how these poems show "contrary states".How, in these two poems, does Blake explore different ideas about God and nature? Which do you find more appealing (if either) and why?Both poems use simple rhymes and regular meter. Does this mean the ideas in the poems are simple, too? Give reasons for your answer.

Compare/Contrast Venn DiagramHomeworkComplete Mariner if NeededFrankenstein Chap. 1-4 (17-42) DUE NEXT CLASSThe LambSubject and theme:Lamb is symbol of suffering innocence and Jesus Christ.Key image:The Lamb as seen through the eyes of a child.

Technical features:Repeated questions, directed to the lamb, but easier to answer than those addressed to the tiger;Answers given in the second stanza;Idyllic setting of "stream and mead"Contrasts with "forests of night" (exotic and dangerous) inThe Tyger;Suggests Biblical book ofPsalmsespecially the 23rd psalm, with its "green pastures";As well as making The Lamb, God becomes like The Lamb: Jesus is both the "Good shepherd" and "The Lamb of God". Like the Passover lamb, He is sacrificed to redeem others.

The TygreSubject and theme:Tiger as a symbol of God's power in creationKey images:The tiger as seen by Blake's poetic imagination: "fearful symmetry"; "burning bright...fire"; "hammer...chain...furnace...anvil".

Technical features:Repeated (rhetorical) questions; contrast with meekness of The Lamb;Tyger is addressed directly;simple metre and rhyme;incantatory rhythm (like casting a spell);creation like an industrial process (fourth stanza).The Tygre and The LambReview Brief Notes for Blake

Poetry Elements Graphic Organizer

Poetry Elements Questions from Writing About Poetry