Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and Byron
•Some say with the initial printing of Coleridge and
Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads, in 1798
•Others say that it began with the French Revolution
in 1789 and ended with the Parliamentary reforms of
1832
•Frustrated by England’s resistance to political
and social change, the Romantic poets turned
away from the public poetry of the Augustans
and focused on private emotions.
•They believed that imagination, rather than
reason, was the best response to forces of
change.
•The term originates from the medieval genre. Do you
remember any of the traits of this genre? Hint: The
Green Knight
•The characteristics of Romanticism include the
following
•Celebration of nature and imagination
•Personal, private experiences and emotions in
simple language
•Lyric form- ode or sonnet, song-like
•A “democratic attitude”- approach audiences as a
“man speaking to men”
•Past or inner dream world that is more picturesque
than the industrial age
•A belief in individual liberty
•A study of the ways humans mirrored other
creatures qualities
• In a group of 6 you will be responsible for one
poet: Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Shelley,
Byron, Keats, or Tennyson.
•Two people will research and present the poet’s
biography.
•Two people will choose two poems, explain how each
poem exhibits characteristics of Romantic poetry, and
point out literary devices (simile, metaphor,
assonance, alliteration, symbolism, personification,
etc.) with which you are already familiar.
•Two people will design an assessment for the class over
the material presented.
•As a group you will collect and grade the class
responses and write a reflection about how well you
believe the class learned the material.
•You must have a visual representation of all poetry for the classwhether in print, transparency for the overhead, or projected through
the LCD projector.
•You may use the anthology, online sources, or print sources- YOU
MUST HAVE A WORK CITED.
•You will receive an individual and group grade- the assignment is
worth 50 points- 25 points for individual work and 25 points for the
overall group presentation- a rubric will be presented in class.
•You must submit all materials to Mrs. M for approval prior to
presenting.
 Born to Edith Pope (née Turner) (1643–1733) and
Alexander Pope, Sr., (1646 – 1717) a linen merchant of
Plough Court, Lombard Street, London, who were
both Catholics.
 The Church of England banned Catholics from
teaching, attending a university, voting, or holding
public office on pain of perpetual imprisonment.
 Pope was taught to read by his aunt, then went to
Twyford School in about 1698–9. He then went to two
Catholic schools in London.
 Pope's formal education ended in 1700, and from then on he mostly
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educated himself by reading the works of classical writers such as the
satirists Horace and Juvenal, the epic poets Homer and Virgil, as well as
English authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dryden. He also
studied many languages and read works by English, French, Italian,
Latin, and Greek poets. ]
From the age of 12, he suffered numerous health problems, such as
Pott’s disease (a form of tuberculosis that affects the bone) which
deformed his body and stunted his growth, leaving him with a severe
hunchback.
His infection caused other health problems including respiratory
difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes, and abdominal pain.
He never grew beyond 4 feet, 6 inches tall.
Although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he
wrote witty letters. He did have one alleged lover, his lifelong friend,
Martha Blount.
 The literature of ancient Rome was much imitated and
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translated.
Writers compared London to Rome and hoped that
England would set the tone in literature by emphasizing
the qualities decorum and rational balance in both art and
affairs that scholars saw in works by Roman authors
Exuberant social commentary and satire characterized the
English Augustan literature.
Heroic couplet: A unit of two rhymed poetic lines in iambic
pentameter, usually with an end- stop punctuation
concluding the second line.
Set meter and sometimes rhyme
Ode
Vital spark of heavenly flame!
Quit, oh quit this mortal frame;
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
The world recedes; it disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring:
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O grave! where is thy victory!
O death! where is thy sting?
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Ode: A long, dignified, deliberative poem
devoted to a single subject, the ode has a
long history. It began in ancient Greek
drama.
The irregular ode has no definite stanza
pattern and admits wide variation in
rhythm and rhyme scheme. English poet
Abraham Cowley is credited with
introducing it.
AA, BB,CC rhyme scheme
Speaks for a group- Christians, not
individual beliefs
“Oh the pain, the bliss of dying”
antithesis and paradox.
“Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?”personification.
ODE ON SOLITUDE
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away, 10
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day.
Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixed; sweet recreation:
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
Henry, Harley. “ The Romantic Period”. Elements of Literature: Sixth
Course. Austin: Holt ,Reinhart, and Winston, 2000. 622638.
David, Jacques-Louis. “Death of Marat”.
Delacroix, Eugene. “Liberty Leading the People”.
Gainsborough, Thomas. “Wooded Landscape with a wagon in the
shade.”