Download Romantic poetry

Romantic poetry
Millennium I pp. 220 - 221
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What are the main themes in Blake’s poetry?
• Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” (1789) portray the un-fallen state of man ( the
state in which humanity was before Adam and Eve were banished by God from
Heaven for committing the sin of pride) while “Songs of Experience (1794) deal
with the presence of evil and injustice in the world.
• Blake was also very much concerned with social problems like the exploitation
of children at work.
2. What did Wordsworth mainly write about?
• Wordsworth’s poems, such as “I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud” and “Tintern
Abbey”, mostly deal with the countryside, simple folk and man’s communion
with Nature.
3. Define Wordsworth’s idea of poetry in the Preface to “Lyrical Ballads”
•
He explained his preference for ordinary subjects and ordinary language. He
stated that poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” and that
these originated from “emotions recollected in tranquillity”.
4. What kind of poems did Coleridge contribute to the collection?
• To “Lyrical Ballads” Coleridge contributed poems on supernatural and magic
subjects , like “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” (1798) and “Kubla Kan”
(1816), set in exotic half-magical lands.
STUDY QUESTIONS
5. Why was Byron a legendary figure? In which ways do his heroes
resemble Byron himself?
• Both in his life and in his works, Byron embodied the aspirations of the
generation brought up in the ideals of the French Revolution. The heroes of his
long narrative poems, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812-1818) and “Don
Juan” (1819-1824), are bold and impetuous and they rebel against social
codes and hypocrisy as Byron did.
6. What are the main themes of Shelley’s poetry?
• The ideals of freedom and happiness as in his “Ode to the West Wind” (18191824) and the aspirations to infinity, as in “Prometheus Unbound” (1820).
7. What do Keat’s Odes and ballads deal with?
•
In his “Ode to a Grecian Urn” (1819) Keats joined an acute awareness of life’s
brevity with the belief in the ethical value of beauty, while in a ballad like “La
Bell Dame Sans Mercy” (1819) he showed his love for Romantic subjects.
WRITING NES
8. The poetry, features and themes of the first generation of Romantic poets
(maximum 250 words).
• William Blake was a forerunner but also an isolated figure. Although selftaught, the simplicity of his poems is only apparent. Next to the un-fallen state
of man (Songs of Innocence) he composed songs on the presence of evil and
injustice in the world (Songs of Experience). The two states are
complementary, one does not prevail on the other.
• True Romanticism began with the publication of the “Lyrical Ballads” and its
Preface in 1800, It was a joint creation of two friends in the Lake District.
William Wordsworth’s contribution is in the Romantic spirit, language and
subject matter. His poems are based on the countryside, country folk, man’s
communion with nature. The Preface is considered the English Romantic
Manifesto. His preference is for ordinary subjects and language. His poetry
derives from the free overflow of powerful feelings coming from “emotions
recollected in tranquillity”. Great was the influence he exercised when he sang
of the child in his primitive innocence but with greater power of perception than
the adult.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge contributed poems on the supernatural and magic
subjects, instead. Some of his poems are in exotic half-magical settings,
others are called the “demonic poems” for the area they explore. Together the
two poets embody the two sides of English Romanticism: the ordinary and the
supernatural. (211 words)
WRITING NES
9. The poetry, features and themes of the second generation of Romantic
poets (maximum 150 words).
• Among the Romantic poets of the second generation, Lord Byron was a living
legend. He died in Greece for Greek independence. He wrote tales of
adventure in exotic lands whose protagonists resemble him: bold and
rebellious against injustice and hypocrisy. His close friend Percy Bysshe
Shelley , led a life of scandal and exile, too. He was an anarchist and an
atheist. In Italy he wrote his best production: lyrics and odes where nature is
linked to the ideals of freedom and happiness.
• John Keats died young and abroad too. He believed in the ethical value of
beauty which is eternal and symbolized by the Greek beauty of the urn, whose
scenes are suspended in time. (116 words).