Romanticism
In this packet, you will find the page numbers for what we are reading and the response questions or activities for each
reading. You may leave the packet in the drawer for your class or you may take it with you, but you must have this
packet with you during each class period.
William Blake
1. Take notes over his life.
2. Read “The Lamb” on page 770. Be sure to examine Blake’s artwork on page 771. Take notes over the poem.
3. Write at least three paragraphs about a happy childhood memory, something you remember in a fun or joyful
way.
4. Read “The Tyger” on page 774. Be sure to examine Blake’s artwork on page 775. Take notes over the poem.
5. Re-read your happy childhood memory, then consider how that memory might be different if you experienced it
today, as a grown-up. Write at least two paragraphs describing the memory from the point of view of
experience.
6. Hand in your writing for a daily grade.
Robert Burns
1. Take notes over his life.
2. Read “To a Mouse” on page 784 and “To a Louse” on page 787. Take notes over the poems.
3. Write either a poem or an essay about something small that can be very meaningful. Think about how Burns
uses the mouse and the louse to examine a larger emotion or aspect of human nature.
4. Hand in your writing for a daily grade.
George Gordon, Lord Byron
1. Take notes over his life.
2. Read “She Walks in Beauty” on page 850 and “When We Two Parted” on page 852. Take notes over the poems.
3. Answer the following questions:
a.) In “She Walks in Beauty,” what is the relationship between the woman’s inner self and her appearance?
b.) In “She Walks in Beauty,” there are no descriptions of the woman’s arms or legs. Why do you think the poet
chose to describe only her face?
c.) Analyze the following metaphors and explain the meaning of each comparison:
a. “She Walks in Beauty” lines 1-6
b. “When We Two Parted” lines 17-18
d.) In “When We Two Parted,” why does the speaker feel bitter toward his former lover?
e.) Describe the emotions expressed by the speakers in the two poems. What similiarities and differences are
there?
f.) Hand in your answers for a daily grade.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1.
2.
3.
4.
Take notes over his life.
Read “A Cloud” (in this packet; not in the textbook). Take notes over the poem.
Complete the Poem Study Handout (in this packet)
Turn in your Poem Study Handout for a major grade.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
1. Take notes over her life.
2. Read “From Frankenstein” on page 858. Take notes over the background and novel excerpt.
3. Answer the following questions:
a. List at least two monsters from modern civilization (from movies, stories, etc.).
b. Make a list of each monster’s characteristics (physical and psychological).
c. What is frightening about the monsters? What is human about them? What messages about the dark
side of society do these monsters convey?
d. How does Dr. Frankenstein feel about his work when it is finished?
e. What message do you think Shelley is trying to convey to the reader?
4. Hand in response questions for a daily grade.
Robert Browning
1. Take notes over his life.
2. Read “My Last Duchess” on page 946 and “Porphyria’s Lover” on page 949. Take notes over the poems.
3. Answer the following response questions:
a. In “My Last Duchess,” describe the speaker’s attitude toward his former wife.
b. In “My Last Duchess,” what do you think happened to the duchess? Support your answer with evidence
from the poem.
c. In “Porphyria’s Lover,” why does the speaker kill her? Do you think the speaker feels guilty about what
he has done? Explain your reasoning.
d. How does the desire for possession of a woman motivate each of the speakers in these dramatic
monologues? What does this desire reveal about each speaker?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1. Do you believe love lasts forever? Write a one or two paragraph response to this question on a piece of
notebook paper.
2. Take notes over her life.
3. Read “Sonnet 43” on page 954. Take notes over the poem.
4. Answer the following response questions:
a. What question does the speaker ask and answer?
b. Describe three of the ways in which the speaker loves her husband.
c. How is hyperbole used in lines 2-3?
d. How does the speaker’s attitude in this poem differ from the speaker’s attitude in “My Last Duchess” by
Robert Browning?
5. Hand in your responses for a daily grade.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. Can dreams reveal truths? Write a one or two paragraph response to this question on a piece of notebook
paper.
2. Take notes over his life.
3. Read “Kubla Khan” on page 841. Take notes over the poem.
4. Answer the following response questions:
a. What are some features of the site Kubla Khan chooses for his pleasure dome?
b. Describe in as much detail as you can the images you visualized in lines 1-36. What qualities of nature
are suggested through these images?
c. What ideas does the poem suggest about dreams and the act of creation? Consider (1) the
circumstances of the poem’s composition, (2) Kubla Khan’s construction of his pleasure dome, and
(3) the speaker’s vision of the Abyssinian maid.
5. Hand in your response for a daily grade.
The Cloud
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.
I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,
While I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,
Lightning my pilot sits;
In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls at fits;
Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,
This pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;
Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,
The Spirit he loves remains;
And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead;
As on the jag of a mountain crag,
Which an earthquake rocks and swings,
An eagle alit one moment may sit
In the light of its golden wings.
And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,
Its ardours of rest and of love,
And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From the depth of Heaven above,
With wings folded I rest, on mine aëry nest,
As still as a brooding dove.
That orbèd maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the Moon,
Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till calm the rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.
I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone,
And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.
From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a torrent sea,
Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,
The mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march
With hurricane, fire, and snow,
When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,
Is the million-coloured bow;
The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,
While the moist Earth was laughing below.
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.
Poem Study Handout
“A Cloud” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Answer the questions below on a separate sheet of paper. You do not have to write the questions. You do have to use
complete sentences.
Form Study
1.) What do you think when listening to this poem? What did it sound like or remind you of?
2.) How many stanzas are in the poem?
3.) What is the rhyme scheme? Be sure to look for internal rhyme (rhyme within a single line of a poem).
4.) Write down three rhymes that you find interesting (for example, one you like, one you hate, one you wouldn’t have
thought of, one that seems like he was reaching for the rhyme, one that is pretty, one that is ugly, or one that is a sight or
slant rhyme instead of a true rhyme) and explain what you find interesting about each one.
Character Study
Describe each of the characters. Consider appearance, personality, actions, and/or metaphors Shelley uses.
Cloud
Lightning
Sunrise
Sunset
Moon
Earth
Water
Sky
Content Study
1.) Summarize each stanza.
2.) How does the cloud describe itself in Stanza Five? Quote the words of the poem that lead you to that conclusion.
3. Write down two images that you find interesting (for example, one you like, one you hate, one that made you see
something in a new way, one that seems overused and boring, one that seems awkward or strange, one that is pretty, or
one that is ugly) and explain what you find interesting about each one.
4.) What does the poem say about death in the last stanza?
5.) Shelley uses personification very heavily in this poem. How is the cloud like a person?
Word Study
Use the dictionary pages attached to the packet to look up the meaning of the following words.
Genii
1.) Before looking this word up, what do you think it means? What other words does it remind you of?
2.) Write down the definition of genii. This will direct you to another word. Read the full definition of that word.
3.) Re-read the note about the plural usage of that word. Write down the number of the definitions that apply to how the
word is used in “The Cloud.”
4.) Look up the word tutelary. Write down its definition.
5.) Re-read Stanza Two, substituting information from the definitions for the word genii. Which definition fits the best?
Write it down.
6.) Why would lightning (the speaker’s pilot) be chasing genii all over the world?
Cenotaph
1.) Write down the definition.
2.) Re-read the last stanza, substituting information from the definition for the word cenotaph. How does this image fit in
with the rest of the stanza?