ROMANTICISM(S): DEFINITION AND FEATURES

Historical period and spirit of the age

- 1750 Romanticism began to develop: in Europe 1750-1870, first in France,

then in Germany
- romance-like, resemble this period
- nature had a great deal in romantic poetry, women were presented as a
nature beings
- inspiration was also often seen in folk literature
- romantic(ism)
- pre-romantic(ism): introduces themes and symbols for later period
- influence: social, political changes, new philosophycal ideas
- industrial apocaliptic period in history end of the old world and the
beginning of a new one

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

* it was viewed as a process, not as an actual event

* changed agricultural societies
* first step in modern economic development
* division labour occured
* forced labour
* machines replaced men at work
* mass productions
* people went from villages to towns

* most of the people worked hard for minimal vages

* children labour
* cities grew, becoming the main symbol of corruption (this can be seen in
William Blake's ''London'')
* everywhere was filth, people were constantly trying to survive, there was
no sense of security
*state and church were responsible for social instability
* pollution
* isolation/ alienation of men
* constant wish for happier and more simple life as well as for the equality
* poems and other art were inspired by the downsides of industrialization
* ''only the strongest survive''- social Darvinism

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

(1789-1799)

* rise of the middle class

* theoretically equal citizens
* end of monarchy and feudal system
* very high taxes
* fall of Bastille proved power of the masses ( declaration of rights of a man
and of the citizens, demanded equal rights )
* Roman catholic church changed, clergy needed to work for salary
* moral vs. radical politicians (radical- moral fear, killed their opposition,
paved way for modern dictatorship)
* legacy is an idea for liberty, equality

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

(1775- 1783)

* Britain lost 13 colonies

* 1787 formed American government
* emergence of a political and economy giant
* political theorists
* Jean Jacques Rousseau- cry to return to nature, man as a noble savage:
man is born good and changed by his environment
* William Godwin- root in all evil in property (practicioner of free love)

- romantic poets, use of organic form

- different movements all over the countries (romanticism)
- c. 1740 movement was inspired by Joseph Wartons The enthusiast
(return to folk literature)
- idea that poetry should be closer to the heart, more natural and simple
- end of 18th century, in Germany, artificial norm to a man, culture opposes
nature, art and didactic poetry are more important than nature
- before 1799 poets in France first wrote in favour of nature, in 1801 opposed
to nature
- 1779- 1830 England, lyrical ballads

Famous English poets of this period were:

William Blake
William Wordsworth
S.T. Coleridge
(first generation)
Lord Byron
P. B. Shelley
J. Keats
(second generation)

- imagination to logic/ emotion to logic

- new subject matter, shift of ideas in poetry, use of myth, symbolism
- poetry was for everyone/ neo-classical was for educated people only
- words are simple
- poetry is expressive rather than imitative
- return to folk and simple motifs
- supernatural aspects are revived
- shift in a view of a poet: poet is often seen as a prophet who is supposed to
awake the mankind from eternal slumber, he is more sensitive about all
the things around him
- poetry is meant to heal
- poets talk about imagination and develop theories about it
- imagination is a divine quality, it enables poet to understand the world,
when poet is in that blessed state all his earthly burdens are removed

- the mind is supposed to transform the world, and world transforms the mind
in return
To see the world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in a hour
William Blake
- In poetry, there is a focus on exotic cultures, misfortunes of ordinary
peoples misfortunes, supernatural elements
- language is simple, poets never use figures of speech to decorate lines
- language is sometimes archaic, they use symbols- meeting points of the
mind and world
- ode, sonnet, terza rimapoets often subject them and change them

WILLIAM BLAKE
(1757- 1827)

- usually seen as a pre-romantic poet

- he was also a painter, illustrator and engraver
- thought that poet is a prophet
- foresaw how political revolutions will develop and influence todays life
(industrialization)
- he was not so famous back then, most writers thought that he was mad
- Dante Gabriel Rosetti first recognized Blake as a genious
- Blake was way ahead of his time ( his art was kind of graphic), texts and
poems were never seen as one story
-he was unconventional, always for racial liberty, equality, saw greatest evil
in frustration for desire
- his visions of a modern man were bleak, world is corrupted and ruined
- he was against rationalism and neo-classicism
- LondonFelphamLondon
- when Blake was 10, he abandoned school in order to become painter, but
became apprentice to an engraver; later he was self- taught
- he painted with his wife Catherine Boucher who was at first illiterate, she
supported him
- often had visions of angels, his deceased brother talked to him while he was
sleeping, and said that he saw old testament prophets
- faculty of vision: we all posses it but we dont nurture it (it is lost to us)
- he began writing at the age of 12

- Poetical sketches (1783, when he was 12-20 of age): used nature a lot,
later he abandoned idea of nature
- his art was not representational, it was magic realism
- uses pastoral for innocence and purity
- uses complex symbols: they change, depending on a context
- dedicated epic to John Milton
- E. Swedenborg had a big influence on Blake: everything reflects perfection
of God ( also had visions)
- J. Boehme: no progression without opposites, evil is necessary in good (had
visions)
- Blake was influenced by the occult tradition, hostile towards church (he
called her whore), because it stands between man and God
- local and global political concerns, wrote about revolutions, child and
woman labour, he was radical and friend to thinkers ( Thomas Paine, Mary
Wollstonecraft)
- in his poetry he freely speaks against monarchy, church
- his poetry was against polished language of neo-classicism
- language is not there to be ornamental
- he is not exactly like the rest of the romantics, because he did not
appreciate nature that much
- in the fall of Bastille he saw freedom from chains, revolution and liberty
- imagination transforms the world, it is his religion, seeing world through
imagination is seeing world through the eye (like Petrarch)
- his most famous works are easy to understand
- Songs of innocence and experience (separate)
- two contrary states
- when you taste experience you cannot go back to innocence
- central poems and introductions should be red together

(The little girl lost and The little girl found, The little boy lost and The
little boy found)
- uses metric feet
- children are main protagonists
- a lot of metamorphosis
- simplicity of poems is intentional
- man is spiritually pure when he is born
- used illuminating printing/ relief etching
- magic(al) realism: movement in art (20th century)
- influenced by Marinism
* Songs of innocence:
- 1789 (proper year of beginning of romanticism
- pastoral central symbol is lamb, children are not aware what is going on,
there is hope and optimism ( The Lamb)
- poems are like nursery rhymes
- prelapsarian state
* Songs of experience:
- 1794
- central symbol is tiger, it presents energy, power; it can creative or
destructive
- children are crying a lot, they are aware of everything (exploitation, racism)
- tone is prophetic and dark

- prophetic works: some of them contain prophecy in their titles (1789);

they are not structurally unified- poem + prose

- prophetic books:
Tiriel
The book of Thel
The book of Alhamia
America: a prophecy
Europe: a prophecy
The song of los
( continental prophecies)
The book of Urizen
Visions of the daughters of Albion
Milton, a poem
Jerusalem
The book of los
Vala, the 4 zoas
- Albion

England, Britain

primeval man: divided in 4 zolas: 1) Tharmas: unity,

instinct and strength
2) Urizen: reason
3) Luvah/ Orc:
passion of revolution,
eroticism
4) Urthona/ Los:
imagination
their female forms are: 1) Enion (maternal instinct)
2) Ahania (pleasure)

3) Vala (nature)
4) Enitharmon ( industrial symbol, the lum,
inspiration)
* division of a man in capitalism: every man is just a one part of a big system
* worship of reason= loss of balance
* reason must be in balance with imagination
* Urizen: creator of universe, negative because he made man follow reason
blindly (Satan), creator and tyrant
* Los: son of Urizen, imagination, at first prophecy, later metallurgy, creative
fire (furnace)
* Orc: revolutionary passion; destroys to create something new
* Twins: Rintrah ( rashness, wrath) and Palambron ( mildness, compassion)
* Fuzon: fire
* Thiriel: air
* Grodna: earth
* Utha: water
- political concerns and general
- Jerusalem ( democratic, public, utopia), Babylon (moral corruption), Babylon
is destroyed in order to build Jerusalem
- Golgonooza: symbol of hope
- everlasting gospel: idea of the divided history of mankind ( father, son and
holy ghost)
- antinomian sect
- against all of the doctrines in his time
- died in poverty
- The marriage of Heaven and Hell: prose work

* inspired by Bible, world of conflicts ( mythological creature represent fights

of everyday man)
* prophetic structures

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
(1770- 1850)

- known as the father of English romanticism: had a worldwide popularity ,

he was most English
- wrote about landscapes, patriotic feelings: Lucy sits beside English fire)
- The daffodils symbolize English country, exemplified English colonies
- literature showed English superiority
- Lyrical ballads
* 1798: beginning of romanticism
* Advertisement: he tried to explain purpose of his ballads/poems
* Preface: shows manifesto of romanticism
- he tried to explain a new kind of poetry, thought and style
- he was also a theorist
- first he lived in poverty, but then he became famous for his literature

- he was radical, revolutionary at first, but later he became conservative

- he loved his sister, Dorothy dearly she helped him and often wrote his lines,
they lived together even after his marriage
- refers to Dorothy in his poems, mentions her
- Wordsworth was educated at Johns College, later Cambridge
- Lucy poems (5) are love poems
- nature and travel are present in his work, he loved nature
- poems are meditative, mental landscape journeys (not descriptive but
expressive)
- frequently begins describing landscapes but then switches to spiritual
things
- he sees God one, unified creature, a spirit that can be found in everything
- God as the almighty spirit (Coleridge)
- interaction between mind and nature; how they transform and shape one
another, poet changes so his view of certain landscapes changes)
- how superstitious beliefs mind constructs ( reflect in his thoughts)
- sad music in humanity ( in nature)
- describes ordinary people
- some of his travels inspired his works:
* Alpine tour 1790; Descriptive sketches: idea of natures beauty and misery
of mankind (landscape poems)
* moved to the Lake district ( Dove cottage) 1799 ; She dwelt among the
untrodden ways
- he doesnt focus on mans brutality but misery
- S. T. Coleridge, R. Southey, W. Wordsworth: The Lake poets
- his work was influenced by: nature, the French revolution (he was radical,
rebel, but then became disappointed)

- Annette Vallon ( inspiration for Lucy): he had an illegitimate child with her,
provided later for them
- downsides of industrialization: inspires instinctive return to nature, sees city
as a sad ruin, nature is protector
- Godwin and Locke influenced him
- Coleridge was his partner, they helped each other: Coleridge made
Wordsworth more imaginative, and he made Coleridge more down to earth
- later Wordsworth became more conservative and Coleridge became a drug
addict
- Wordsworth liked Blake
- first publications: An Evening Walk 1793
Descriptive sketches 1790
Lyrical ballads 1797- 1798 (Coleridge and
Wordsworth)

- poetry was not just for educated people, but also for ordinary people; aim
was to focus on ordinary life and use of simple language so everyone can
understand poems
- ordinary + imaginative colours
- Coleridge wrote about mysterious, supernatural things
- Lucy poems 1798- 1799 (wrote 4 on his way to Germany and 1 on his
way back) : only love poems, Lucy Gray does not belong with them
- Poems in 2 volumes 1807
- The excursion 1814
- The recluse 1888
- The prelude 1805: seen as a masterpiece, inspired by Miltons Samson
Agonistes (state of mind, autobiographical)
- forms of sonnet, ode, Spenserian stanza, traditional ballad

- 1800 changed to conservatism; just trace of revolution spirit in poetry)

- from Whig to Tory: Ode to duty
- his later poetry is more realistic
- romanticism stands for rebellion
- got title in 1843 of Poet Laureate
- 4 most important works: Lyrical ballads
Poems in 2 volumes
The excursion
Poems
- autobiographical poems: personal experiences
- philosophy of nature
- love poetry ( love for Lucy as an admiration)
- ballads, even when they do not have their form, philosophical ideas (mind
and nature)
- motif: river ( nature, process) and church (man- made, product)
- revisions of his poetry
- Martha Ray: human suffering, fictional character, betrayed woman (while
she was pregnant); it is a general story (superstition, tension of story)
- lifelong attachment to values , society denied
- Lyrical ballads 1798, 1800, 1802, 1805, 1815, 1820
- public did not know that two different writers wrote songs
- poets wanted to see how a selection of language functioned in poetry
- poetry is immortal to Wordsworth (stands for naked experience, recollected
memories are composed in a poem)
- strong emotions of people describe various situations
- poems are expressive: about poets emotions, state of mind

- blessed mood: poet sees into the light of things, burdens are lifted, poet
becomes a living soul (different from ordinary man)
- poets mind interacts with the world, he has a greater need to express
emotions and the main point is that they come together
- poet awakens mankind
- Wordsworth and Coleridge both wanted to find out about general truths
- The thorn first is seen as ordinary bush, later its coloured with
imagination
- unusual situation: mystery, reality, fantastic situations
- poetry language is similar to prose language, purified of vulgarity,
hipocracy, good manners
- emotions are more simple, more close to humans
- all poems are lyrical ( each poem expresses some certain emotion),
narrative, sometimes dramatic, philosophical (nature); rustic setting, they are
sometimes tragic and supernatural
- archaic language: Coleridge

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

(1772- 1834)

Beneath this sod

A Poet lies; or that which once was he.
O lift one thought in prayer for S.T.C.
That he, who many a year with toil of breath,
Found Death in Life, may here find Life in Death.
(the epitaph, Coleridge wrote for himself;
life in death and death in life)

- considered one of the most imaginative and mysterious of all the romantic
poets

- generally wrote dreamlike poems, with elements of gothic

- his inspiration often came from use of opium
- he also wrote a large group of realistic (personal and intimate) poems
- wrote about love, fears, focused on events from his time (slavery, poverty)
- unlike Blake, Coleridge apologized for criticism (he was sad)
- Coleridge was a poet, theorist and influential critic (philosophy)
- he had two unfinished works: Christabel and Kubla Khan (lack of
inspiration and confidence; there are no endings, closures, situations are not
solved; in Kubla Khan, poet is in a trans-like state)
- his poems had exotic, supernatural, ballad form
- he developed his own theory of imagination
- didnt think that he was prophetic
- born on October 21st in Devonshire, went to Christs school, the Cambridge
- theologist
- spent some time in army, because of love or financial problems he had all
his life
- 1794 lived with Robert Southey, they tried to create a Utopian society in
Pensilvania; Pantisocracy (12 couples would rule the community, no beliefs,
political system)
- 1795: *Coleridge married Sarah Fricker and Robert married her sister, it was
a loveless marriage and they spent a lot of time separated
*friendship with Wordsworths (friendship lasted 15 years)
* started using laudanum (when he was 23 years old)
- Coleridge was in love with Sarah Hutchinson, sister of Wordsworths wife,
wrote to her verse letters and addressed her as his dearest friend
- his health was weak
- 1808 he was separated from his wife and friends
- effect of laudanum is seen in his poetry

- he was a very emotional man, often depressed, bipolar (first enthusiastic

then depressed, because of this he used laudanum)
- in his poems imagery and colours are vivid
- daydream induced by opium- Kubla Khan
- influenced by the thinkers: Alexander Pope, Edmund Spenser, John Milton
- started writing as a schoolboy
- published first collection of poems in 1796 called Poems on various
subjects
- 1797 The Watchmen
- studied German philosophy 1798 LB
-masterpieces (mystery poems): 1) The rime of the ancient mariner
2) Kubla Khan
3) Christabel
(use of opium, last two difficult to
analyse)

1) The rime of the ancient mariner: * lyrical ballad

* story of crime and punishment
* sailor kills the albatross, doesnt
appreciate life, he is
punished both physically and
mentally
* sea voyage and spiritual self
discovery ( loss of faith,
needs to regain it)
* interpretation: literal,
metaphorical and metaphysical

(psychoanalytic)
* nature of evil in man (sun, moon,
church are symbols,
his wife is a bird, crime towards
her)
* more like Christabel
* real and imagery

2) Kubla Khan: * story of vision, creation and imagination ( 2 different kinds)

* paradise on Earth, K.K. artist, whole place and river
inspiration
* death in a lifeless ocean
* girl presents artist, muse
* idea of paradise on earth, poet is in a trans

3) Christabel: * gothic elements

* innocence and experience/ good and evil
* plot: vulnerable girl goes to the woods near the isolated
castle she lives in, there she finds Geraldine, a beautiful woman, dressed in
white (trick), she is not poor, but she claims that she was kidnapped; girl
takes pity on her and decides to take Geraldine to the castle with her, they
pass by doghouse (dog sensed danger and was alarmed) and enter the
castle; girl drives away spirit of her deceased mother (guardian); later
Christabel undresses and Geraldine gets into bed with her, later she puts a
spell on Christabel, under which she wont remember anything when she
wakes up, she will just feel ashamed; Christabel shows Geraldine to her
father, and he feels dishonoured by his daughter; Christabel feels uneasy and
starts to notice that Geraldine isnt that innocent and beautiful at all; when
they dine together Christabel notices that Geraldine has snake eyes, her
father takes Geraldine out of the castle

- object of poetry: pleasure not truth

* most famous for conversational poems/ poems of friendship
* theoretical work
* criticism
* indulged in a conversation, always addresses somebody (Sarah, friends)
* tone and language he uses are conversational, texts seem like prose
* these poems are very personal and intimate
* he is depressed, afraid, stressed, feels abandoned, very straightforward
tone
* vivid imagery, like in other poems
* begins to be afraid that he will lose his inspiration
* mentions particular flowers, colours, scenery
-works:
Dejection, an Ode to W. Wordsworth/ to a Gentleman
Frost at Midnight
This Lime- Tree Bower my Prison
The Eolian Harp
Fears in Solitude
Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement
The Nightingale

- moved with Dr. James Gillman, wrote there most of his biographical
( theoretical) works
- Biographia Literaria 1817 essays, articles, literary criticism, imagination
theory
- Sybilline Leaves

 Aids to Reflection
Church and State
- religion, politics
- delivered lectures on philosophy and literature ( Shakespearen criticism)
- theory about Hamlets character

Biographia Literaria
- first part: types of imagination
- second part: poet, poetry
- imagination (mata): * primary: God, higher living power of all human
perception necessary for
the creation of the world
* secondary: Artist, lower, reflection, echo of the
former will is necessary,
imitation of creation is a divine
quality of man, used to
recreate (found in artist)
- fancy (uobrazilja): every, any man, similar to memory, close to illusion,
creative artistic genious
in man, lower kind of imagination, fixed, definite, can
help you travel and
live in a world of illusions, cannot create sustainable
worlds
- artist: imagination struggles to idealize and unify

- pleasure from each part and a whole work/ not always true (sometimes
there is no space for compression)
- novel: there is more room for mistakes
- what is poetry/ what is poet?
* poem expresses poets mind
- poetic genious: changes and transforms ideas and imagery, every single
faculty is alive
- imagination is synthetic and magical; controlled by will and understanding
- point is to balance and reconcile opposites: general with the concrete, idea
and image (come together), individual and representative, novelty,
freshness, old and familiar
- emotion, order
- subordinate art ( secondary imagination) to nature (primary imagination)
- Coleridge went to royal academy of art
- died friendless and in poverty
- all his emotions are expressed in his poems
- he was more honest in poetry, speaks more about his problems

GEORGE GORDON BYRON

(1788- 1824)

- most controversial romantic

- unconventional, adventurous, enigmatic, magnetic
- famous as a poet and lover
- abroad poet
- poser in life and poetry
- created Byronic hero who he modeled on the image of himself
- born in London, raised in Scotland
- Mad Jack, Captain John Byron was his father, married Catherine Gordon for
money
- The Wicked Lord was his uncle
- had an abusive mother
- his nanny had a great impact on his life: introduced him to orgies and sex
when he was 9 years old
- Byron was one of the most famous lovers
- eroticism is found in his poetry
- he was eccentric, unusual, fond of animals (kept bear, crocodile, monkey)
- carried a gun at night at the university ( he was afraid of the dark)
- fancied manly activities like boxing
- member of the House of Lords
- defended the Ludittes (destroyed machines)
- travelled a lot across the Europe, Asia
- his stories were about adventures, exotic places, travel had a huge impact
on his poetry, he contrasts customs of different cultures

- cultures and people seen as exotic to Englishmen

- sexuality was more free, loose
- he had a homosexual experience
- interest in exoticism Coleridge: otherworldly
Byron: exotic cultures, because they were
different, characters were
mysterious, brave and passionate men
and ladies
- arrogance in characters
- Weltschmerz: kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands
that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind, also used to
denote the feeling of anxiety caused by the ills of the world
- theme about a struggle for liberty ( theme about constraints of society),
Don Juan limited and chained by society
- admiration for neo-classical poets, Pope, Fielding
- traditionalist (language and style)
- despised Wordsworth and Coleridge
- didnt focus on the importance of imagination, declined to see himself as a
prophet
- education: Eton, Cambridge
- started to write as a boy: first collection: Fugitive Pieces 1807 renamed in
House of Idleness
- 1809 satirical reply: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
- feels free to mock everyone
- 1809. Grand tour across Europe- inspired Childe Harold
- childe was the son of a nobleman who had not yet attained knighthood, or
had not yet won his spurs; as a rank in chivalry, it was used as a title
- 1812: canto I and II of Childe Harold (first Byronic hero)

 Oriental tales (based on personal experiences)

- 1813:
The Giaour (not muslim)
-The bride of Abydos
- 1814:
The Corsair (pirate)
Lara
- 1815: Hebrew melodies ; married Anna Isabella Milbank and had a
legitimate daughter Augusta Ada
- Lady Caroline Lamb spread rumors about him (mad, bad and dangerous to
know) and soon enough he was despised by the society and left England
- fell in love with a boy from a quire Thyrza
- incest: with half sister Augusta (had a child with her called Allegra)
- Lady Oxford was his elderly lover
- Don Juan: hypocrisy of English morality (through character of Don Juans
mother)
- 1816 lived in Geneva: wrote III canto of Childe Harold and The prisoner
of Chillon
- 1817 the verse drama Manfred
- he stayed with Shelley, Shelleys wife told horror stories: birth of her
Frankenstein
- moved to Venice: wrote verse drama Manfred 1818 and canto I and II of
Don Juan 1818- 1819
- moved to Pizza 1821: verse dramas Cain , Mazeppa and The island
- 1822 started journal The Liberal ( P.B. Shelley and Leigh Hunt)
-1823 finished Don Juan ( seduced not seducer, victim of women, no
historical events, not active grand hero but passive man, often seen as a
novel in verse;

joined the Greek rebels fighting against Turks

- 1824 died of fever ( interested in Armenians, wrote grammar)

- Narrative poetry:
* similar to novels in terms of plot, number of characters, lenght
* ''Childe Harold'',''Beppo'','' Don Juan'','' The Oriental Tales'' all are partly
autobiographical; erotic settins, mostly customs he heard about personal
experiences
* focuses on typical romantic themes/ man and nature, man and society, the
noble savage, in context of tyranny and liberty
* passion for liberty, the moral diversions of liberty, exotic/ romantic cultures
and heroes
* symbolical heroes as strugglers against constrains, cry against tyranny,
hypocricy, false morality, egoism and pride
* tone: satirical- mostly aimed at the English society (upper- class), attacks
his contemporaries (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southley); frequently
combinations with humour

- Childe Harold
* 4 cantos, Spenserian stanza
* the Grand tour- Portugal, Spain, Malta, Greece, Albania, Turkey (1809- 1811)
* freshness/ novelty, the best stylist among romantics
* the Byronic hero- modelled on Byron himself
* Cantos III and IV- France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy (1816- 1817)

- THE BYRONIC HERO:

* a child of a noble origins
* Harold was a prototype
* autobiographical

* features: lonely, unloved, joyless, mysterious, tired of joy and people,

seeking solitude, bored, feeling guilt/ remorse for unspecified past sins, selfcentered, prone to self- analysis, world- weary, suffering, WELTSCHMERZ
- Harold, narrator and Byron: Byron is sometimes more important than
Harold- Byrons disillusioned side and narrator as his more positive gradual
identification between the 3; Harold becomes more mature (Byron himself
changes during that time)
- Harold: the child of nature, the Gothic villain, the gloomy egoist, the man of
feeling, the hero of sensibility, PILGRIM searching for self- restoration, we
never get to know why
* contrasts: noble man/ nature vs. Civilization/ modern man
* both public and private themes
* human transience RUINS
* faults: overstating the feelings, manipulating the reader, mystify the reader,
or use inappropriate tongue
- The Oriental Tales : The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair,
Lara
= Childe Harold- the Byronic hero; passionate and resourceful, exotic life
(distant countries, unspecified time, places) , contrasts the beauty of
landscapes and the cruelty of people
* passionate love, cruelty, possessiveness, bravery, defiance, death, misery
* simple storylines made mysterious, digressions, non-linear chronology,
multiple perspective + exoticism + actuality + suspense (Sir Walter Scott?)
- Beppo (1817)
* the precursor of Don Juan in terms of content and form
* humorous satire mocking the hypocrisy of English morality, comparison
between England and Italy
* Ottawa rima
* the Venetian lady Lara whose husband is missing, cavalier
- Don Juan (1818- 1824)

* plays with the ideas of pleasure and sin

* double standards, false, unnatural morality
* mock- heroic, humorous, satirical, picaresque, novel in verse
* a passive hero who is more an object than the subject
* ab ovo (from the conception)
* comparison between Spain and England
* Don Juan as a victim of society which tries to subdue his nature
* explicit exposure of satire
* the legendary Don Juan has nothing to do with Byrons Byronic hero
- other narrative poems:
Parisina (1816)
The prisoner of Chillion (1816)
Mazeppa (1819)
The Island (1823)

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

( 1792- 1822)

- anti- tyrannical, frequently wrote against the church, the priests, the politics
- the idea of a need of a revolution- creating the new world of love
- attitude towards the church: politically speaking a liberalist, free lovepreached and practiced
- wasnt only inspired by the rebellions and revolts but something in his own
family as well; tried to help people he meant to be oppressed
- vegetarian: in favour of the Irish reform- in favour of the land reclamation in
Wales; shot at twice
- he was born is Sussex as a member of a wealthy family; he constantly had
to defend his sisters from his father later made up stories about tyrannical
fathers where it was non- existent, obsessed with figures like that
- Eton and Oxford- a pamphlet written with Thomas Jefferson Hogg- The
necessity of Atheism expelled from university
- very much interested in science, especially chemistry
- interested in religion: the figure of Christ as a symbol of love and suffering
- frequently values use of Neo- platonic philosophy
- 19 married Harriet Westbrook Lake District Jefferson left her
pregnant and went travelling with Mary Harriet drowned herself in the lake
in Hyde Park
- influenced by Neo- platonic philosophy- the greater reality beyond the veil
- the veil: reality hidden behind the world of nature
- writes about scientific phenomena in a poetic way

- the cave: man is chained to the wall of a cave and sees the shadows
- Shelleys universe Neo- platonic

- works:
* 1813: Queen Mab : a philosophical poet in 9 cantos. Satirical and
allegorical; sees past, present and future
* 1816: Allastor or The Spirit of Solitude, an evil spirit poets feelings;
forms an image of an ideal hierarchy, but cannot find it in real life, the quest
for completion equals death
- in 1816 met Byron and Keats, spent time with Byron in Venice Julian and
Maddalo an anti- pastoral eclogue a madman telling the story of his love
* 1917- Laon and Cythna ( published under a different title)
*1818 The revolt of Islam : a man and a woman as the martyrs of liberty
and love
- last 4 years:
Prometheus Unbound

verse dramas

The Cenci
A defense of poetry unfinished theoretical work
Mont Blanc :
* perfectly describes his world
* a symbol of a power that is beyond everything
* a serene, calm manifestation
* the dwelling place of power, the glaciers
* the power is potentially destructive
* the river compared to the way we perceive the universe
Ode to the West Wind :
* needs the power of a West Wind to awaken his inspiration

 To a Skylark :
* contrasts the unintentional art of the bird inspire by happiness of the to the
intentional art of man inspired by sorrow
The Cloud :
* allegorical poem the vitality of the inspiration
The Cenci :
* made up story about tyrannical father
Zastrozzi 1810:
* a gothic novel, remote setting, a typical gothic villain and tortures a son of
the man who killed his mother, wishes him to commit suicide
Epipsychidion :
* autobiographical
* Emilia- inspired by a woman locked up in a convent
* some claim that Emilia is a he
* two women presented as the moon ( Mary) and as a comet ( Claire
Clairmont)

- 3 of his children died

- claimed to see his doppelganger
- lost a lot of his family
- drowned in a lake ( not sure if it was an accident or a murder)
- wrote a pastoral elegy mourning Keatss death Adonais : a young poet
who died before his time and turns into a star
- inspired many poets
- Ozymandias is his most well known sonnet

 Prometheus Unbound
( 1820)

- lyrical drama in 4 acts

- inspired by conversations with Mary: Aeschylus- Prometheus Bound +
Unbound
- allusions to Blake as well- Promethean figures
- a mixture of genres: drama, epic, pastoral, anti- pastoral, romance, music
imagery
- Shelley is angry about misuse or abuse of authority- tyranny
- Prometheus is a revolutionary spirit, rebel, critics compare him to Miltons
Satan
- he is a moral being far superior than his God like Satan from Miltons
Paradise lost
- Prometheus is a benefactor of humanity, child of heaven and earth, link
between gods and men (Uranuss and Gaias son)
- he has pure motives, but ends up punished by Jupiter
- he is redeemed in the end, and forgives his tyrant- first he curses Jupiter,
then pities him
- only true revolution is bloodless
- Prometheus is also frequently compared with Christ ( links between divine
and human, sacrificed themselves for greater good)
- ACT I:

* resembles Christ ( crucifixion mentioned)

* he is tortured by other characters
* begins in anti- pastoral atmosphere, desolate terrain, black, cold, no sound
of life, he is chained to a rock
* resembles Samson
* visited by a ghost of Jupiter then Mercury, the messenger
* Jupiter is also a slave of time, faith, he needs to be overthrown
* Prometheus is a symbol of humanity
* Mercury tempts Prometheus, furies come to disturb him (they bring him
visions of evil in the hearts of men, horrid imagery), he pities heartless men
and Jupiter who enslaved men
- ACT II:
* images of hope, Asia ( Prometheuss love), combined Greek and Roman
mythology with Judeo, talks with her sister and they embark on a quest
(vision of love, love duet)
* Demogorgon: power beyond every other power, cannot be seen, just
sensed- he is sitting on a throne with snake all over it, and he explains to Asia
that Jupiter is nothing but a slave, he overthrown Saturn (time of perfection)
- ACT III:
* witnesses destruction of Jupiter, he falls into darkness
* Ocean and Apollo comment on future effects of the Jupiters fall
* Earth becomes beautiful again, men are free from misery, from every bad
trait, world is regenerated
* spirits say that poetry transforms the world, number of Utopian ideas
* Prometheus and Asia are reunited
- ACT IV:
* new reformed and liberated world

* number of different lyric forms, none dominates- they present democratic

society, no one is more dominant ( political vision)
* multiple perspectives well balanced, all opposites are balanced
* Blakes Albion, Asia and Prometheus, union of opposites

A defense of poetry

- Shelleys theoretical ideas, some of them resemble Coleridges views

- distinction between reason and imagination
- reason: records things, creates thoughts, instrument of the agent, body to
the spirit
- imagination: works on thoughts, and asses its value, analyses, and unifies
( first defuses then unifies)

- poetry is an embodiment of imagination, it transforms the world

- poet is a missionary, leader and liberator; he creates new worlds
- death is only seen as the death of the body, symbolism of the veil ( hides
greater reality)
- when man dies, his soul travels to the world called immortal hours
- when you remember your childhood memories ( We are seven), once we
all die, Shelleys ideas will prove to be true

one
does
not go
witho
ut
anoth
er

JOHN KEATS
( 1795 1821)

- his father died in 1804

- his mother and his brothers died of tuberculosis
- at the age of 16 he became an apprentice to a surgeon, in 1816 gained the
permission to become surgeon himself, but abandoned that life
- he saw poet as a healer, not as a prophet
- Sleep of beauty , poet is compared to a chameleon
- he was melancholic and often sad
- there are all kinds of contrasts in his poetry
- he said that in life we all witness growing (suffering) and dying
- art ensures immortality, but lacks fulfillment: Ode on a Grecian Urn ,
lovers will never kiss, they are frozen before the moment of fulfillment
- everything fades away
- there is a joy in real world before death, focus is on the real world and
sensual imagery

- reality is known through the senses, synesthetic imagery ( condition in

which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the
hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color )
- wrote 6 odes
- themes are in contrasts: pain and pleasure ( pain is necessary for soul to
grow and finally experience pleasure), nature and art, sadness and happiness
- inspired by ballads and gothic literature
- master of odes
- personal odes, Horatian
- forms of sonnets
- influenced by Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, paintings, architecture
- extremely well-read
- translated Aeneid when he was 14 years old
- On first looking into Chapmans Homer, sonnet (1816)
- unlike other romantics who were afraid of losing their imagination, Keats
was afraid that he would die before writing great works or achieving fame
When I have fears that I may cease to be
- Fanny Brawne was his fianc, but he died before he could marry her
- 1816 On Solitude
Sleep and Beaty
- 1817 Endymion: based on the Greek myth of Endymion, the shepherd
beloved by the moon goddess Selene, poem elaborates on the original story
and renames Selene "Cynthia" (an alternative name forArtemis)
- 1818 tour on Lake district, but came back because his brother, Thomas, was
gravely ill and dying; wrote The fall of Hyperion (blank verse) : fall of
primeval gods and rise of the new ones, transition of defeat and progressive
revolutionary change/ parallel to the political revolutions; very hostile views,
critics attacked him, Keats was often afraid of negative criticism

- letters to his brother (I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail
than not be among the greatest)
- 1820 The Eve of Saint Agnes
- 1819 6 odes, 5 published, THE GREAT ODES: 1) Ode on a Grecian Urn
2) Ode to a Nightingalepresent in a form of a
3) Ode to a Psyche

dreamer
(AWAKE/ASLEEP?)

4) Ode on Indolence
season of ripeness,

5) To Autumn
most melancholic
season, introduces
winter (death)

* they are also called private odes

- La Belle Dame Sans Merci ("The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy"): gothic
ballad; story of a knight who remembers a fairy he made love to, images of
pale kings tell him that he is actually enchanted by that same fairy and that
he is not going anywhere, probably because he is dead (season is winter and
lily represents death)
- temporal dislocation in his works
- his last year of life: posthumous existence
- 1820 Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of Saint Agnes and Other Poems
- sensual imagery, he was passionate about life
- Lamia : poem tells how Hermes hears of a nymph who is more beautiful
than all; Hermes, searching for the nymph, instead comes across a Lamia,
trapped in the form of a serpent, she reveals the previously invisible nymph
to him and in return he restores her human form; she goes to seek a youth of
Corinth, Lycius, while Hermes and his nymph depart together into the woods;
the relationship between Lycius and Lamia, however, is destroyed when the
Apollonius reveals Lamia's true identity at their wedding feast, where upon
she seemingly disappears and Lycius dies of grief (close to Blake)

- letters: philosophical ways of life ( chamber of thoughtless youth), wrote

about poet as a chameleon, render objects in poetry- idea of negative
capability: great minds are able to leave mysterious and unfamiliar things as
they are, leave room for doubts; not everything needs to be explained
- buried in Italy, Rome in anonymous grave: Here lies one whose name was
writ in water
( what he thought of permanence, fear of not leaving
any trace)