The Romantic Age

1. The Romantic Age English 12: British Literature Ms. Owen April 2007

2. 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])

3. A Map of England

4. 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 (detail-loaded), optimism education, morality A Tale of Two Cities

5. 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

6. Important Dates 1775-1783: American Revolution (fighting ended in 1781) 1789-1815: French Revolution 1798: Publication of Lyrical Ballads 1798-1832: Romantic Period

7. �The Big Six� Romantic Poets William Blake William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats George Gordon, Lord Byron

8. Other Romantic Writers Jane Austen Leigh Hunt Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Sir Walter Scott Robert Southey

9. Schools of Romantic Poetry

10. Notable Romantic Painters John Constable (painting of �Flatford Mill� [1817] to the right) J.M.W. Turner William Blake Claude Monet Eugene Delacroix

11. Notable Romantic Musicians Beethoven Franz Schubert Claude Debussy Verdi Chopin Franz Josef Haydn Mozart

12. 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�

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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 ivy-mantled towerThe moping owl does to the moon complainOf such as, wandering near her secret bower,Molest her ancient solitary reign.

17. Shelley, from �Adonais� (I) I weep for Adonais - he is dead!O, weep for Adonais! though our tearsThaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!And thou, sad Hour, selected from all yearsTo mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers,And teach them thine own sorrow, say: "With meDied Adonais; till the Future daresForget the Past, his fate and fame shall beAn echo and a light unto eternity!"

18. 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

19. 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. 

20. Keats, �Ode on a Grecian Urn� Textbook � page 726

21. 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

22. Shelley, �Ode to the West Wind� Textbook � page 704

23. Keats, �To Autumn� Textbook � page 729

24. 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

25. Coleridge, from �Frost at Midnight� The Frost performs its secret ministry,Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cryCame loud--and hark, again ! loud as before.The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,Have left me to that solitude, which suitsAbstruser musings : save that at my sideMy cradled infant slumbers peacefully.'Tis calm indeed ! so calm, that it disturbsAnd vexes meditation with its strangeAnd 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 flameLies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not ;Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.

26. 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. 

27. 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

28. Wordsworth, �Composed Upon� Textbook � page 653

29. Shelley, �Ozymandias� Textbook � page 702

30. Recap of Poetry Portfolio Portfolio title page (1) Section title pages (5) Romantic poetry you find (10) * Poetry you create (3) Romantic illustrations you find (10) * Illustrations you find or create (3) Author background + turning in your source (10) Explanation of themes and symbols (10) Responding to how poem is representative of Romantic Age (10) * Reader Response (10) Due date: April 30, 2007 * If you work with a partner, you should have 6 poems and illustrations and 20 reader responses.