The Romantic Age English 12: British Literature Ms. Nash A Definition of “Romanticism” • “A literary movement, and profound shift in sensibility, which took place in Britain and throughout Europe roughly between 1770 and 1848. Intellectually it marked a violent reaction to the Enlightenment. Politically it was inspired by the revolutions in America and France…Emotionally it expressed an extreme assertion of the self and the value of individual experience…together with the sense of the infinite and the transcendental. Socially it championed progressive causes…The stylistic keynote of Romanticism is intensity, and its watchword is ‘Imagination’” (Drabble 842-843 [The Oxford Companion to English Literature]) A Map of England Put It In Context • • • • • Before Restoration (or Neoclassicism) 1660-1798 Order, reason, clarity, logic, scientific, universal experiences Gulliver’s Travels • • • • • After The Victorian Age 1833 – 1901 Depicting realism and naturalism (detailloaded), optimism education, morality A Tale of Two Cities Restoration versus Romanticism • • • • • • • • Scientific observation of outer world; logic Pragmatic (practical) Science, technology General, universal experiences Optimistic about present Moderation, self-restraint Aristocratic; society as whole Nature controlled by humans • • • • • • • • Examine inner feelings, emotions, imagination Idealistic (optimistic) Mysterious, supernatural Concerned with the particular (very specific) Romanticizing the past Excess, spontaneity Concerned with common people and individuals Felt nature should be untamed Important Dates • 1775-1783: American Revolution (fighting ended in 1781) • 1789-1815: French Revolution • 1798: Publication of Lyrical Ballads • 1798-1832: Romantic Period “The Big Six” Romantic Poets • William Blake • William Wordsworth • Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Percy Bysshe Shelley • John Keats • George Gordon, Lord Byron Other Romantic Writers • • • • • • Jane Austen Leigh Hunt Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Sir Walter Scott Robert Southey Schools of Romantic Poetry 1. Lake School William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge Robert Southey 2. Cockney School Leigh Hunt John Keats Other Londoners 3. Radcliffe School Imitators of the gothic style (Anne Radcliffe pioneered gothic style) 4. “Young Poets” Percy Bysshe Shelley Reynolds John Keats Notable Romantic Painters • John Constable (painting of “Flatford Mill” [1817] to the right) • J.M.W. Turner • William Blake • Claude Monet • Eugene Delacroix Notable Romantic Musicians • • • • • • • Beethoven Franz Schubert Claude Debussy Verdi Chopin Franz Josef Haydn Mozart Lyrical Ballads • • • • First published anonymously in 1798 as Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems by Wordsworth and Coleridge Includes “Tintern Abbey” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” In the Preface, Wordsworth writes that good poetry is the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” Key Romantic Themes • • • • • • • • • Imagination Egotism The particular The remote The primitive The medieval The East The sublime Nature • • • Irrational experiences (dreams and drugs) Awareness of process and current conceptions of art and introspection Longing for the infinite encounter through intense experiences of sublime nature (storms, mountains, oceans) Key Events of Romantic Age • • • • • • • 1798: Lyrical Ballads published 1812: Byron publishes Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 1813: Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice 1818: Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein 1819: Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes “Ode to the West Wind” 1820: John Keats publishes “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 1832: First Reform Act extends voting rights and end of the Romantic Age Elegy • Definition: “An elegy is a lament setting out the circumstances and character of a loss. It mourns for a dead person, lists his or her virtues, and seeks consolation beyond the momentary event. It is not associated with any required pattern, cadence, or repetition.” • Examples: “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard” by Thomas Gray and “Adonais” by Percy Bysshe Shelley Thomas Gray, from “Elegy” • The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, • Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: Save that from yonder ivymantled tower The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign. Shelley, from “Adonais” (I) • I weep for Adonais - he is dead! O, weep for Adonais! though our tears Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head! And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers, And teach them thine own sorrow, say: "With me Died Adonais; till the Future dares Forget the Past, his fate and fame shall be An echo and a light unto eternity!" Pastoral • Definition: “The pastoral is a mode of poetry that sought to imitate and celebrate the virtues of rural life (a nature poem).” • Examples: “To My Sister” by William Wordsworth and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats Wordworth, from “To My Sister” • It is the first mild day of March: Each minute sweeter than before The redbreast sings from the tall larch That stands beside our door. There is a blessing in the air, Which seems a sense of joy to yield To the bare trees, and mountains bare, And grass in the green field. My sister! ('tis a wish of mine) Now that our morning meal is done, Make haste, your morning task resign; Come forth and feel the sun. Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” • Textbook – page 726 Ode • Definition: “An ode is a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present. There are three types: Pindaric, Horatian, and Irregular.” • Examples: “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley and “To Autumn” by John Keats Lyric • Definition: “An ancient subdivision of poetry. One of poetry’s three categories, the others being narrative and dramatic. The poet addresses the reader directly and states his own feelings.” • Examples: “Frost at Midnight” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and “To Spring” by William Blake Coleridge, from “Frost at Midnight” • The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry Came loud--and hark, again ! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits Abstruser musings : save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. 'Tis calm indeed ! so calm, that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood, This populous village ! Sea, and hill, and wood, With all the numberless goings-on of life, Inaudible as dreams ! the thin blue flame Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not ; Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing. Blake, “To Spring” • O THOU with dewy locks, who lookest down Through the clear windows of the morning, turn Thine angel eyes upon our western isle, Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring! The hills tell one another, and the listening Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn'd Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth And let thy holy feet visit our clime! Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee. O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put Thy golden crown upon her languish'd head, Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee. Sonnet • Definition: “A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, usually iambic. There are two prominent types: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean.” • Examples: “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth and “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley ORIGINAL CREDIT GIVEN TO A MS. BOWEN