Chancellor 1
Romanticism: 1798 - 1832
"The sleep of reason produces monsters."
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Period of turbulence:
o Industrial Revolution
 Pollution
 Overcrowded cities
 Low wages
 Poor working conditions
 Employment/exploitation of children
 Uneducated children/low literacy rate for poor
 Spread of disease
o Social Revolution
 Eliminate oppressive monarchies
 Cry for democracy, liberty, and equality
 Desire for mental, spiritual, and philosophical freedom
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Romanticism as a term:
o Not used by writers
o Not used in period
o Hard to define
o Embraced diverse literary characters
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"The Spirit of the Age" (zeitgeist)
o Undeniable and pervasive climate
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Major Romantic Poets
o Wordsworth: contemplative
o Coleridge: mystical
o Byron: dark, brooding, rebellious: power of nature
o Shelley: symbolic; non-tangible things: clouds, wind, etc.
o Keats: sensual; heightened awareness
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Nature: unifying element for all 5 poets
o Power unto itself
o Source of inspiration
o Aid in reflection
o Mirror that reflects God
o Key to the mysteries of life and the universe
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Lyrical ballads
o Volume of poetry
o Published in 1798
o Wordsworth and Coleridge
o Each writes a preface
 Establishes perspective on poetry
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William Wordsworth: 1770-1850
Born in The Lake District
Happy childhood
Chancellor 2
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Walks to "drink in" surroundings
Attended Cambridge
Took a "walking tour" of Europe
o England and France
Meets Coleridge in 1797
Publish Lyrical Ballads in 1798
Autobiographical poem "The Prelude"
o Published posthumously in 1850
o Less detached than 18th century
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: 1772-1834
Youngest of 14 children
Spoiled, undisciplined, but highly imaginative
Easily influenced, capricious adult
Attended Cambridge
Unhappy marriage
Developed rheumatism
o Took opium for pain--becomes addicted
"Kubla Kahn"—product of opium-induced dream
Wordsworth vs. Coleridge
Wordsworth
o Beauty comes from simple things in nature.
o Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling that takes its origins from emotions recollected in
tranquility
Coleridge:
o Had the power to evoke an atmosphere of mysetery that seemed strange yet true
o Poetry is the product of the poet's imagination. The reader should bring to any work a willing
suspension of disbelief.
Shared Poetic Philosophy
Poetry should:
 Be drawn from everyday
 Glorify the commonplace
 Reawaken a sense of wonder
 Written in everyday language
Percy Bysshe Shelley: 1792-1822
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"I always seek in what I see the likeness of something beyond the present and tangible object.”
Extreme heretic and non-conformist
Small, frail child - bullied
Perceived man's basic inhumanity to man
Attends Oxford
o Published "The Necessity of Atheism"
Advocate of the underdog
Said of marriage, "It is a tyrannical and degrading social institution."
…Marries Harriet Westwood.
Move to Ireland, takes up Catholic cause
Meets William Godwin
Chancellor 3
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Fell in love with Mary
To live in a loveless marriage is immoral
Lives with Harriet; invites Mary to join them
She does
Then kills herself 
Believed that "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world"
o Poets have the power to bring about change
Remained idealistic despite society's criticism
Sought elimination of social institutions/conventions (socialism)
o This would lead to freedom
George Gordon/Lord Byron: 1788 - 1824
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"But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which
makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."
Epitome of the darker side of Romanticism
Eccentric family
o "Mad Jack" Byron
 Scandals, affairs
o Catherine Gordon
 Aristocratic, proud, hot-tempered
Born with a clubbed foot
o Self-conscious
o Mother was repulsed by it
 Schizophrenic
o BUT MARILYN THINKS HE'S HANDSOME
Attended Cambridge
o Rebel and rule-breaker
Walking tours
 Portugal, Spain, Greece, Asia Minor
Autobiography
o "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"
 "Childe": coming of age
Member of House of Lords
o Made impassioned speeches defending the rights of factory workers
o Cares about working class despite aristocratic position
Byron's Love Life!!!!!!!!
o Tempestuous affair with Lady Caroline Lamb
o Married Annabella Millbank
 She's a math major.
o Incestuous affair with half-sister, Augusta Leigh
 Left England because of this scandal, never returns
Met Shelley and Mary Shelley in Italy
o Affair with Claire Clairmont
Involved with revolutions
o Italy, then Greece
 More affairs
o Greek revolution changes his attitude
 Wants to die for a cause
 Contracts malaria
 Dies before he has a chance to fight
Created literary persona used by 19th C authors: Byronic hero
Chancellor 4
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o Dark, passionate, moody, remorse-torn, yet unrepentant sinner who exiles himself from society
Admired Swift and Pope
o Only poet with connections to 18th century
 Loved Pope's irreverence more than Swift's
o Only Romantic to write satire: "Don Juan"
Explored Gothic style
o Contest: who can write the most frightening piece of literature
 Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
 Byron: Darkness
Wordsworth/Coleridge
Shelley/Keats
Shelley/Byron
Wordsworth/Keats
John Keats: 1795-1821
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"Poetry should strike a reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a
remembrance."
Sensitive and scholarly child
o Attended John Clarke school
o Develops passion for reading and writing
Parents die
o Mother from TB
Richard Abbey: guardian
o Wants Keats to pursue medicine rather than writing, or else be cut off from financial aid
Has overwhelming premonition of an early death
1818: year of disasters
o Endymion: severely criticized
o Brother Tom contracts TB and dies
o Ill-fated love affair with Fanny Brawn
1819: year of triumph
Writing Characteristics
o Slow paced, graceful flow
o Tries to freeze time: capture the moment
o Sensual imagery
o Tries to lose himself in his subject
Died of TB in Rome in 1821
Epitaph: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."
Romantic Characteristics:
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Medievalism
o Gothic
o Mysterious
o Unexplained things
Orientalism
o Exotic
o Non Western European
o Revolution discord leads people to search elsewhere
Primitivism
o Reaction against aristocratic society/manners
Chancellor 5
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o Simpler lifestyle = greater happiness
Anti-intellectualism
o Reaction against all-knowing attitude of the 18th Century
Humanitarianism
o Worth of the individual
Democracy
o Rebel against the monarchy
Sentimentality
o Love of emotions for their own sake
Confessionalism
Love of the wild and picturesque in external and in human nature
o Do not control nature or people
Shared themes:
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Sought refuge in
o Imaginative past
o Utopian future
o Distant and exotic present
Industrial Revolution leads to problems in England
 Romantic poets escaped the discord in these 3 ways
o Picturesque retreat in nature
o Shared a political ideal
o Sought to plumb psychological, imaginative, and creative depths in poetry
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness" - Keats
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Nature is connected to God
Wordsworth
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Strange Fits of Passion:
1. Immediately connects to reader
2. Combined opposing forces of moving horse and setting moon
3. Point: Passionate love evokes irrational thoughts in a lover
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She Dwells Among the Untrodden Ways:
1. Discusses birth/upbringing, unappreciated beauty (internal/external), and death
2. Point: Beauty, no matter how unappreciated, is sorely missed by someone when it is gone.
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The Solitary Reaper:
1. 1st sets the scene
2. 2nd compares song to music of the birds
3. 3rd discusses content of music
4. 4th discusses affects of the music on the narrator
5. Point: Again with the unappreciated beauty; can have a profound effect on anyone
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Lucy Gray:
1. Again, beautiful, unappreciated child…this is getting pretty fucking old
2. Dumb bitch walks in a snowstorm and is never seen again, boo fucking hoo
3. Romantic characteristics: She’s a motherfucking ghost
Chancellor 6
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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud:
1. Flashback of beautiful daffodils
2. Reflects on this happy memory when alone
3. Point: beauty of voluntarily solitude—power to create a scene in one’s mind
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I Travelled Among Unknown Men:
1. Sudden patriotism for England
2. Result of Lucy’s death: loves the place she called home
3. Point: death of a love one makes a lover appreciate everything about them; especially that
which they loved while alive (e.g. homeland)
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Composed Upon Westminster Bridge:
1. Literally, a bridge at daybreak. Fucking magical.
2. Point: beauty, fucking touching in its majesty, can exist in a manmade world; nature can
bring beauty to an urban place.
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A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal:
1. Perpetual suspension of disbelief when it came to his love
2. Followed by cold reality; that not even love lasts forever
3. Point: the most powerful things eventually come to an end; life and love come to short,
abrupt ends: left with only memories; don’t notice gradual changes (aging process, etc.)
Coleridge
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Byron
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Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
1. Point: don’t fucking screw with nature. If given the opportunity to slay an Albatross, do not
fucking kill that goddamn bird.
Thirty-Three:
1. Asking and then answering a question
2. Pessimistic attitude on life; only worsens as it progresses
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Thirty-Six:
1. Begins by bemoaning his lack of love and his sole companion, grief
2. Changes views: decides to focus on military work; becoming a soldier will give him full
fulfillment—transition from pessimism to optimism; wants to die a soldier’s death
3. From waiting to choosing
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Darkness:
1. Long-ass description of a fucked-up dream—probs borrowed some opium from Coleridge
2. Point: basically, his dream was “not at all a dream”—dark times reveal the worst in people;
“darkness within is greater than the darkness without” ~Miss Rich
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She Walks in Beauty:
1. Blend of inner and outer beauty: outer beauty reflects inner beauty
2. Considers her innocent despite slight bending of ze rules
Chancellor 7
Shelley
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Ozymandias:
1. Broken statue: intended to represent broken ruler, broken empire, dis shit’s all broken
2. Hubris of Ozymandias: threat to other kings; taunting them—their kingdoms will never
surpass his in greatness. Now there is nothing; it has all been swallowed by sand.
3. Point: crafted things in which men take pride are not permanent; eventually they will all fade
to nothingness; whereas nature is forever.
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Ode to the West Wind:
1. Irony: uses celestial imagery despite Atheism
2. Asks the wind to cleanse him of “dead thoughts” and scatter his good ones to the world
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Mutability:
1. Compares humans to clouds, “forgotten lyres”
2. We have no control over what happens to us: we can attempt to bring about a certain
outcome, but the result is beyond control
3. Point: no control; only thing free from change is change itself
Keats
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When I Have Fears
1. Begins by expressing fears that he will not live long enough to write everything he desires
2. Lack of control, as with Shelley: “magic hand of chance”
3. Ironic twist: fear of lack of love and fame are nothing compared to death
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To Autumn:
1. Autumn is: a lively continuation of summer
2. A worker: full of life, winding down from summer
3. Possesses its own beauty—but winter is inevitable
4. Season of life and prosperity, but like summer, must come to an end
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Ode on a Grecian Urn:
1. Festive party—moment frozen in time before a man and a woman kiss; saves the climactic
moment for posterity forever
2. Urn cannot speak: cannot give further information about its roots, but will endure through
time far longer than humans and despite the troubles of the world
3. Only knows happiness and beauty, as it should.
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La Belle Dame Sans Merci:
1. Troubled knight tells a tale of a faery-lady
2. Lured back to her elf cave (Hey MTV, welcome to my elfin grot)
3. Faery bitch lives off of sucking men’s souls (who needs Weight Watchers?)
4. Truly loves the night, but has to steal his soul anyway. Sux bro
Elegy in a Country Churchyard: Thomas Gray
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Pictures himself as one of the poor people in the town
Life must be appreciated even in the obscurest places