GATE 8
Welcome! In order to find out who the
mystery poet is, first examine a variety of clues
that we have left for you. As soon as you do this,
you will then proceed to the next room where
you can guess who the poet is! Depending on
how much you learn from the clues will help you
in the end! Good luck.
The Romantic Era Mementos
Works by the Mystery Poet
Letter from the Past
Possible Poet’s Biography
Poet Comparisons
To The Future Generations:
My dear friends, admirers, I hope that when you find this capsule, it will
not be too late. I intend to give you some information and possessions that were
with me from my time in the “Romantic Era”. I was a friend of poetry. The great
philosopher, William Godwin was my father-in-law and inspiration for my
writing. I hope that my works including Adonais and Ode to the Wind will
give the gift of imagining with creativity power that I feel everyone has. You all
have “godlike” personalities in you no matter no matter who you are. Nature
will also always be around. Let yourselves wonder and do not bind yourself to
such limits even if you think something is wrong. Personally, I choose the path
of revolution where I had the power of “free thought” and believed what I
wanted to. I hope that nature will continue to be an important aspect in of life
that will inspire you and the reflection you bestow on society.
Sincerely,
Your Mystery Poet
Ashes
of His
Heart
Painting
of Wife
Map of
Sussex,
England
Quill
Book of
Keats
As a writer in the romantic
era, he did not have a variety of tools
we have today, one being the pen or
pencil. He used the quill which is a
large feather of the wing or tail of a
bird. It is used with a jar of ink in
order to write. One would simply dip
the quill in the ink and press lightly in
order to produce writing.
At the age of seventeen (1814), she began a
relationship with one of her father's political admirers.
The mystery poet and Mary started meeting secretly at
her mother's grave and their relationship flourished.
However, Mary’s father discovered their growing love for
each other and immediately tried to finish the
relationship, without success. The couple travelled to
France with her step sister Claire Clairmont and returned
when they were broke. Upon their return, Mary was
pregnant and her father refused supporting her. In 1816,
the spent their summer with Lord Byron, Claire's affair at
the time. The bad weather confined them to the house
and they spent much of their time talking about
galvanism and reading ghost stories.
In August 4, 1792, he was born at Field
Place, a broad-fronted country house set on an
estate/working farm in Sussex. As a child, he freely
roamed its several farms and heavily wooded
grounds. Field Place was "improved" by
consecutive owners over the years, however the
house has been restored to its eighteenth-century
look by Kenneth Prichard Jones (past president of
the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association). The
house is composed of several architectural
elements. The original thirteenth-century section
held the kitchen in Shelley’s time.
After his death by drowning, his body was
cremated in the presence of his friends Edward
Trelawny and Leigh Hunt. Strangely, Shelley's heart
did not burn and was retrieved from the fire by
Trelawny, who gave the heart to Hunt, who ultimately
gave it to the deceased's’ wife. The heart was finally
buried in 1889 along with the body of his son Sir Percy
Florence. In a 1955 article in The Journal of the History
of Medicine, Arthur Norman suggested that he may
have suffered from "a progressively calcifying heart . .
. which indeed would have resisted cremation as
readily as a skull, a jaw or fragments of bone." His
ashes were stored for several months in the British
Consul's wine cellar in Rome before eventually being
buried in the Protestant Cemetery. When his wife died
in 1851, her husband's heart was found amongst her
belongings. It was actually wrapped in one of the
Edward Trelawny and Leighpages
Huntof Adonais - his famous poem to Keats.
during the cremating of his body.
He and Keats were essential admirers and
good friends. When he was exiled to Italy for his
strongly held beliefs and the need to escape from the
clutches of money lenders, Keats sailed over for the
benefit of his health. Later on, when learning of
Keats's illness, She kindly asked him to stay with his
family in Italy. Keats politely refused. In the Spring of
1821, upon Keats's death, Shelley wrote the beautiful
elegy Adonais (published July 1821). The next year,
he drowned and when his body was found, a volume
of Keats's poetry was discovered in his pocket. He
was an obvious an admirer of Keats' poetry.
Masque
Ode To of
TheAnarchy
West
Wind
“I met Murder on the way-He
a mask
likeleaf thou
“If had
I were
a dead
Castlereagh-mightest bear;
Very
smooth
he look'd
If I were
a swift
cloudyet
to fly
grim;
Seven bloodhounds
with thee;
followed
A wave tohim:...”
pant beneath thy
power, and share…”
Adonais
“I weep for Adonais -he is
dead!
O, weep for Adonais! though
our tears
Thaw not the frost which
binds so dear a head!”
Ode To The West Wind (1819)
Inspiration
The poet is directly speaking
to the wind and its power to do as it
wants. He explains how it takes charge
of nature having the power to both
preserve or destroy all in its path. The
poet shares that the wind over the
Mediterranean Sea was an inspiration
for the poem. Recognizing its
influential control, the wind becomes a
metaphor for nature’s overwhelming
spirit. He looks to nature’s power to
assist him in his poetry and prays that
the wind will deliver his words to others
as it does with all other objects in
nature.
Summary
The narrator of this poem talks
greatly about the power of the West Wind.
He lists a series of things the wind has done
that illustrates its power: driving away the
autumn leaves, placing seeds in the earth,
bringing thunderstorms and stirring up the
seas and oceans. He wishes that the wind
could use its power over him as it does to
nature. Knowing the wind cannot do this, he
asks it to play him like an instrument in order
to bring out the sadness within him. The
speaker also ponders if the wind can help
him spread his ideas all over the world,
possibly inspiring others. The West Wind of
autumn brings in a cold period of winter, but
isn’t winter always followed by a spring?
Adonais (Spring 1821)
Inspiration
On February 1821, Keats dies in Rome. It was not until some weeks later that
the author found out about his friend’s death. They weren’t very close because they had
only met a minimum of times and there had been a few letters sent to one another.
Shelley had shown and had invited Keats to be his guest. He also knew of the attacks on
Keats' poetry. His own poetry had been reviewed the same way. When the report of
Keats' death reached him, the poet was convinced that Keats had dies because of such
bad reviews. He then decided to write Keats a defense against the Tory reviewers. The
result was Adonais.
Summary
In the poem, the author is mourning the death of his good friend, Keats. John Keats had
entered a state of unhappiness after being pounded by horrible reviews on his poetry. After his
death, the mystery poet came to mourn and announced that Keats should be remembered
forever. In his story, Keats is given the name Adonis. Adonis is a Greek god who was loved by
Venus and died at a very young age, being torn apart by wild boars. This reference to the myth
symbolizes his belief that Keats dies because of his depression over his literary criticism. He
also urges his readers not to weep for Keats because he is not dead; it is the living who are
dead. He has gone where "envy and calumny and hate and pain" cannot reach him. The poet
tells himself he should now depart from life, “I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; Whilst, burning
through the inmost veil of Heaven, The soul of Adonais, like a star, Beacons from the abode
where the Eternal are.”
Masque of Anarchy (1817)
Inspiration
'The Mask of Anarchy' was written as
a response to the 'Peterloo Massacre’. On the
16th of August, 1819 the area around St.
Peters Square, Manchester, played host to the
growing outrage of over 60,000 peaceful
protesters. The Massacre occurred during a
time of massive political tension and protests.
Fewer than 2% of the population had the right
to vote, and hunger was widespread with the
terrible corn laws making bread unaffordable.
An estimated 18 people, including a woman
and a child, died from deep cuts and trampling.
Over 700 people received serious injuries which
were all in the name of liberty and freedom
from poverty. The people gathered to demand
parliamentary improvement however were
charged by the sabre-wielding cavalry. The
result was a bloody massacre and Shelley’s
response, The Masque of Anarchy.
Summary
The speaker is sleeping in Italy
when“Rise
he is awoken
a voice from
England.
likebylions
after
He is summoned back to his home nation to
slumber
witness a recent massacre. He personifies
InFraud,
unvanquishable
Murder,
Hypocrisy, various
Destructions,NUMBER!
and Anarchy in the story.
Anarchy leads armed forces through
Shake
chains to
England
and theyour
“seven bloodhounds”
annihilateearth,
the innocent
people.
Anarchy
like
dew
claims to be God, King, and Law, and only
Which
sleep
had
fall'n
few
choose toin
follow
him. As
his forces
proceed wreaking
even Hope cries
onhavoc,
you:
out in despair. After all the destruction, a
YE ARE MANY-THEY
mist of hope emerges and revives others
ARE
and kills Anarchy.
TheFEW.”
land of England
seems to speak and asks its people to rise
and retake their freedom. “
Wordsworth was born on April 7,
1770 in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England
and was orphaned at the age of eight. He
studied in Hawkshead Grammar School
which began his passion for writing, and
for poetry. Wordsworth continued on to go
to Saint John’s College, and then left for a
journey all over Europe. While touring the
continent, he came across the French
Revolution, and it influenced his early
poems. In 1802, he married Mary
Hutchinson, and had five children. His
most famous work, The Prelude, was a
piece he worked on throughout his career,
to his death. He also met Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, another poet.
Born on January 22, 1788, in Aberdeen,
Scotland, he took his family’s English title of
baron. He was abandoned by his father and he
hated his mother. He studied poetry at the
Aberdeen Grammar School and made his first
pieces there, although they were deemed
obscene. At 20, he was faced with heavy debt
and bad reviews, so he started to travel around
the Mediterranean. When he returned to
England from his trip, he was suddenly famous,
and had love affairs, one such example being
with Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sister in law. Soon
he was forced to leave again, and began to
work on his most famous poem, Don Juan. It
was never finished, but became one of the most
famous long poems.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4, 1792
at Field Place near Horsham, Sussex England. He was the
son of Timothy and Elizabeth Shelley. In 1804, he went to
Eton College where he studied for 6 years. There, he
published his first novel, Zastrozzi. In this novel, Shelley
expressed his opinions about atheism. In 1810, Shelley
entered Oxford University and became good friends with
Thomas Jefferson Hogg. In 1811, Shelley was expelled for
publishing and distributing “The Necessity of Atheism”. In
1811, he ran away with Harriet Westbrook to Scotland. In
1812, Shelley met his hero, the author of Political Justice,
William Godwin, political philosopher. Shelley eloped with
Mary (daughter of Godwin) in 1814. With improved finance
and health, in 1815, Percy Shelley had time to write poetry
and so he published the verse allegory, Alastor, or The Spirit
of Solitude. In December of 1816, it was discovered that
Harriet committed suicide by drowning herself in the
Serpentine River, in London. After Harriet’s death, Shelley
and Mary officially get married. In July, 8, 1822, shortly
before his thirteenth birthday, Shelley drowned in a storm
in the Gulf of Spezia, in his ship, Don Juan.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on
October 21, 1772 in Devenshire, England. He
loved reading in his childhood and learned at his
father’s school until his father died. He then
started to learn at Christ’s Hospital School,
where he made friends like Tom Evans and
Charles Lamb. His father wanted Coleridge to
be a clergyman, so he attended Jesus College,
University of Cambridge. He was also in debt,
and met a scholar named Robert Southey when
he was on his way to Wales. They both began to
work on a play after their marriages, and in its
progress, he wanted to be in law, but with no
other backup, he continued to write. His
marriage was unhappy, and his partner, Sarah
Fricker stayed apart. He was also addicted to
opium.
Browning was born on May 7, 1812 in
Camberwell, England. His mother was a skilled pianist and
his father was a devoted Christian. Due to his family’s
collection of books, he was already a skilled reader and
writer by the age of five. He learned in three languages at
fourteen, while being home schooled to 16 years old. In
1825, his cousin gave him a Percy Bysshe Shelley poem.
He then became an atheist and vegetarian, and enrolled in
the University of London briefly, quitting since he wanted to
learn at his own pace. By 1833, he was publishing his first
poems, and soon married Elizabeth Barrett, while they
were working together on poems. He wrote a collection of
poems titled Men and Women for her, and it was one of his
best regarded works. In 1861, Elizabeth died, and began to
write many poems, and then died himself, just publishing
Asolando.
Now that you have been given the chance to examine
some information about the mystery poet and other poets of
the Romantic Era, you can now take a guess to who he is!!! If you
guess wrong, you can go back and take a closer look at the
information. If you guess right, HOORAY! We hope you enjoyed
learning about poets of the Romantic Era. ;)
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"William Wordsworth." Poets.org. N.p.. Web. 28 Nov 2013. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/296>.
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"George Gordon Lord Byron." Poets.org. N.p.. Web. 28 Nov 2013.
<http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1562>.
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"Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Poets.org. N.p.. Web. 28 Nov 2013.
<http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/292>.
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"Robert Browning." Poets.org. N.p.. Web. 28 Nov 2013. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/182>.
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"Free Poetry." Ode to the West Wind by Percy Shelley Poetry. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.publicdomainpoems.com/odetothewestwind.html>.
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"Alastor; Or, The Spirit of Solitude." By Percy Bysshe Shelley : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec.
2013. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174380>.
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"Percy Shelley: Poems Summary and Analysis." Percy Shelley: Poems Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of
"Adonais" N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. <http://www.gradesaver.com/percy-shelley-poems/study-