Romanticism_lecture_revised

							Who wrote “A Modest Proposal” – The Journal of the Plague Years” – “the Rape of the Lock” –
“The Spectator” – The Diary of Samuel Pepys?

What did they have in common? (All essays expressing observations and disgruntlements of the
Restoration days steeped in order and tyranny. The essays were critical of current government
policies and class rigidities.

People were exploding with thought and new ideas, exploring where these might take them.
Spurred by the French Revolution- there was an explosion of a desire for true freedom of thought
and emotion. Peoples’ ideals had been suppressed too long.



The Flowering Romanticism 1798-1870 (between the publication of the Lyrical Ballads and the
death of Charles Dickens. 18th century (pp 751) In your text lecture notes span from pages 751-
891 (140 pages)

Begin with reading excerpts from poets:
“The Lorelei” Heinrich Heine
“I wandered lonely as a cloud” William Wordsworth
“”She walks in Beauty” Lord Byron
“Ode to the West Wind” Percy Bysshe Shelley
“When I have fears that I may case” John Keats
“Rime of the ancient Mariner” Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Frankenstein Mary Shelley

   I.      Time Line: The French Revolution was between 1788 the 1804: The French

           Revolution , however, moved into the Reign of Terror, in which thousands are killed.

           This occurred 1 year and 1 month after the onset of the revolution itself . It marked

           ‘mass executions’ of the enemies of the revolution. Between 16,000- 40,000 walked

           to the Guillotine. Persons who opposed the French nobility. In the end, King Louis

           XVI, himself, was guillotined. War breaks out between Britain and revolutionary

           France.

           1799 The Rosetta stone, which makes it possible to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics

           is discovered by Napoleon’s army in Egypt, Napoleon takes the reins of power in

           France.


        1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleonic France, 1804

Napoleon crowns himself emperor.
1808 German romantic author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes the first part of his verse

drama Faust.


1805 The British Fleet under Horatio Nelson, defeats Napoleon’s navy at the Battle of Trafalgar.


1812 Napoleon invades Russia,


1818 Mary Shelley publishes her gothic novel Frankenstein


1819 the first steamship crosses the Atlantic ocean


1798 William Wordworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge publish the first edition of Lyrical

Ballads, ( which actually marked the beginning of the Romantic Literary era.


II. Questions of the Times There were a number of questions of the times


   1. What can people learn from Nature?
    Romantic writers idealized nature and promoted the idea that human beings could learn
   greatly from nature’s simple truths. Can nature be a source of comfort, inspiration. What
   can we learn from the harsher side of nature?

   2. Is emotion stronger than reason?
   Coming out of the age of reason, romantic writers saw emotions as the core of human
   experience and literature became the main means of expressing those emotions Do you
   think emotions trump reason Do you think the best writing focuses on personal feelings or
   do you prefer writing that examines less personal concerns?

   3. When is the ordinary extraordinary? Romantic writers celebrated the charm of
      everyday objects and experiences and the glory of the common people. They felt that
      even the most unnoticed persons deserved respect .

   4. How does war change our values?

     Remember Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities” (1859 – post romantic) the people
   went through the terrible suffering and poverty, therefore through revolt and revolution there
   was no turning back. Romantic writers recognized this threat particularly because of
   Napoleon Bonaparte and they therefore supported social reform against endless government
   restrictions The question therefore begs to be asked ;What is the proper balance between
   liberty and security? Ummm seems as if we are at that very question again.
So the romantics were asking through their writing: what can fix society? Can science tell us

how to live? What topics are really newsworthy? (war- certainly), What is a woman’s role in

public life? Where/ how are our individual freedoms defined?


   III. Romanticism: Historical context. (pp755-756)            The literary movement known as

       romanticism developed as a reaction to these three social influences. : unrest of the

       French Revolution , the excesses of the industrial revolution, and widespread poverty

       and oppression of the workers. The ideas of “liberty, equality, brotherhood” that

       spurred the French Revolution became the answers in the hearts of the romantic poets

       and novelist. It was a turning point in human history and it was noted by William

       Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Blake when they wrote “ then the

       valleys of France shall cry to the soldier, throw down thy sword, and musket. And run

       and embrace the meek peasant. Her Nobles shall hear and shall weep and put off the red

       robe of terror, the crown of oppression, the shoes of contempt and unbuckle the girdle of

       war from the desolate earth.” (Remember that the nobility at that time wanted greater

       political influence. They saw themselves as special with better blood. They had had

       tremendous tax exemptions so the tax was paid on the backs of the poor.)

George III was the British king (1760-1820). And Percy Bysshe Shelly calls him “ an old, mad,

blind, despised, and dying king” He ruled England during the American and French revolution.

George was inflexible and non sympathetic to the colonists… Therefore, many English citizens

felt sympathy for the French revolution. However, the horrors of what was going on in France

through the reign of terror and the massacre and persecution of thousands of French aristocrats

and middle class citizens made the English citizens pull back recognizing their own country

suffering from the restless laboring masses and social ills .
  The Industrial revolution was in full swing. Coal was king but there was not parliamentary

representations so there were no factory regulations and therefore crime and poor sanitation and

child labor was rampant. Working up to 18-20 hours in a day. People were hanged for theft and

thrown into prison for debt. ( debtor’s prison) Nothing was done b/c the government was afraid

of anarchy. As what had happened in France. Therefore the government grew more and more

restrictive. And cracked down on rights to public assembly and outlawing writing or speech..

interesting>. Democracy is put to the test.

   In France Napoleon Bonaparte threw out democratic principles and made himself emperor.

Britain was threatened, then the British fleet under Horatio Nelson destroyed the French navy in

the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Napoleon was on the down hill slide and exiled to the island of

Elba off the Italian coast.

IV. Cultural Influence. (pp 757-760) Therefore the romantic writers of the time are reacting to

the negative effect of industrialization, the poverty and the appalling working conditions and

oppression of the workers by turning to nature for truth and beauty. The sympathies of

romantic writers such as Lord Byron lay with the poor workers. ( “How Green is my Valley”

Maureen O’Hara film 1941) Wales) Then further compounding problems, factories

(particularly the weavers of cloth) began to mechanize and modernize taking away jobs from the

laborers. They revolted by smashing and burning the machinery. Parliament passed a law that

said this activity was punishable by death. This was known as the Luddite riots.( 1811-12)

    Romantic Literature. (pp759) Therefore the English romantics revolted against the

            1.   Tyranny and order and traditionalism of neoclassicism (Neoclassicism

                 dominates the restoration period. It is based on Greek/roman classical
               literature – and emphasized: order, logic, restrained emotion, accuracy,

               correctness, good taste. Therefore it was a great age of the essay, the letter,

               the satire expressed with wit and intellect.)

           2. Therefore the romantic writers were influenced by these revolutionary ideals and

               agitation for change. They valued emotion, nature and the commonplace.

           3. They popularized lyric poems (Lyric comes from a song expressed by a single

               singer accompanied by a lyre. It focuses on expressing emotions or thoughts,

               rather than on telling a story. Therefore poems of imagination, melody,

               emotion were written that created a single unified impression.)

           4. To the romantic, emotion became more important than reason, and individual
           relationship to nature was of primary concern. Poetry became in written words of
           William Wordsworth “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” He felt
           poetry should be expressing strong emotions and the free play of imagination.
                Percy Shelley wrote in “Ode to the West Wind”“ I fall upon the thorns of life~! I
           bleed” .

    William Blake in 1798 saw poverty and suffering all around him and was an ardent

    supporter of the French Revolution. He viewed the world as a blending of opposite poles.

    Themes: Goodness and evil, innocence and experience, heaven and hell.

V. Romanticism evolves. ( pp. 761-763) In 1798 William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor

Coleridge publish landmark poetry collaboration “Lyrical Ballads.” Where is found ‘the Rime

of the ancient Mariner’ This marks the beginning of the Romantic Period. They wrote to

capture the natural and the supernatural. Wordworth’s work gave to poetry “The charm of

novelty to things of every day.”’ While Coleridge explored the supernatural event that

nevertheless had a human interest and semblance of truth… Defining features of romantic

writers were: “ an emphasis on the individual, a rejection of artificiality in favor of passion and

emotion, a love of nature, a respect for the commonplace, and a freeing of the imagination.
Another talented prose write was Jane Austen. She was of the era but was not of the romantic

writers. She remained neoclassical. And confined her writing to experiences of the intimate

world she knew. The genteel society of England. So we have Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and

Sense and Sensibility.


Late Romantics include. Lord George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley,

John Keats, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.


 VI. Revolt against Neoclassicism: (pp. 759-560) “Wordsworth declares: ‘ the poems are
“experiments in poetic language and subject matter. By deliberately taking language and
subjects from common life.
       A. They were united in rebellion against their enlightenment ( age of reason) forebears.

           John Dryden, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. The romantics expressed a new

           sensibility of freedom and self-expression.

           On your outline you have a chart: fill this in with the following.


               Neoclassical Writers                         Romantic Writers


               Stressed reason and common sense             Stressed emotion and imagination


               Wrote about objective issues that            Wrote about subjective experiences of the
               concerned society as a whole                 individual

               Respected human institutions of church and   Exalted nature in all its creative and destructive
               state                                        forces

               Exercised controlled wit and urbanity        Celebrated intense passion and vision


               Maintained traditional standards and         Believed in experimentation and
               believed in order                            spontaneity of thought
     Romanticism, therefore, is not love , rather it is an idea, described as emotion over reason,

     heart over artificiality, a sense of passion for the universe and its beauty.


     VII. William Blake (a quintessential romanticist) 1757-1827 (pp 768-769) As a school boy he

     was very precocious, reading the Bible and the works of John Milton. And began writing poetry

     at age 12. Blake believed that children’s unfettered imagination was something of a state of

     grace. He found church doctrine inadequate and believed it used a form of social control.

     Blake’s poems are simple and straight forward. He uses symbols to convey important themes.

     He wrote “ Songs of Innocence and Songs of experience to explore the two contrary states of the

     human soul. Therefore look for 1. word choice = descriptive words, 2. ideas, = which identifies

     common or contrasting ideas, and 3.tone = author’s attitude toward the subject.

                (The Tyger” p. 774) Blake

     VIII. Robert Burns 1759-1796 ( pp 782-783) a Scotsman, had unparalleled ability to speak for

     his people, along with the simple beauty of his verse, helped make him Scotland’s favorite son. (

     when Scotland was liberated from England in 1320).

1.     He endured extreme poverty and hard labor as a child. The experience left him in poor health

      and fueled his hatred of Scotland’s rigid class system. Burns compiled several volumes of

      Scottish folk songs. He focused on dialect. He established setting or produced local flavor. In

      reaction to many in Scottish society and letters who were beginning to favor standard, or

      British, English, Burns chose to write in Scots, a northern dialect of English spoken primarily

      by Scottish peasants. Burns found that using dialect enabled him to convey both the speech and

      the spirit of those who made up much of Scotland’s working class. This dedication to natural

      speech is one reason why Burns inspired later romantic poets such as William Wordsworth.

      (To a Louse) (pp. 787)
IX. Heinrich Heine. One of Europe’s most renowned love poets. Heine wrote in a

simple, musical style. But he also wrote of suffering and loneliness like Bryon. He is

famous for writing “The Lorelei” which grew out of his interest for German folklore.

According to legend a maiden who drowned herself after a lover’s betrayal sits upon the

Lorelei rock high above the Rhine River combing her hair in the moonlight and singing a

haunting song that lures boatmen to their death. Sounds like the sirens in The Odyssey,

yes? Most poems other than dramatic and narrative poems are lyric poems. Lyric poems

have melodic rhythm and convey emotion, using imagery and figurative language.

     “The Lorelei” pp792

X. Romantic Mavericks. P. 795 In summary these poetic mavericks tended to emphasize

1. emotion over reason and featured 2.both the everyday as well as 3. the supernatural

subjects. Blake and Burns wrote gentle, rhyming verses that could almost masquerade as

nursery rhymes. However, hidden beneath the charm of playful images of lambs, children

and field of mice lie startling truths and harsh commentaries. Therefore Blake and burns

were serious, philosophical poets.

XI. William Wordsworth: (pp798-799) A walking tour through revolutionary France in the

summer of 1790 was the high point of Wordsworth’s college years. He was excited by the change

he saw, however, war broke out between England and France preventing him from staying in

France and being with the love of his life: Annette Vallon. He stayed in England and working with

Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced the Lyrical Ballads. He was awarded the poet laureateship in

1843. (One who serves as the national official poet. The laurel in ancient Greece was sacred

to Apollo therefore was used as a wreath of honor.). As a romanticist he rejected the world of

industry and science. Therefore an emphasis on 1. The commonplace

     2. Language resembling natural speech
         3. Elements of the mysterious, exotic , and supernatural.

             Wordsworth’s poems have distinctive stylistic elements such as

            a. Long, free-flowing sentences, often with phrases that interrupt main ideas

                Two of his more famous poems are: “The world is too much with us” “I wandered

                lonely as a cloud”

   XII. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: ( pp 812-813) develops fascination with the supernatural

   at age 5. Was a superb conversationalist, an influential critic, and wrote poetry while

   walking. Most famous for “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” “Kubla Khan” Indeed, the

   Lyrical Ballads opens with “The Rime of the ancient Mariner” most widely memorized

   poem in your great grandmother’s day.

1. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a celebrated literary ballad or narrative poem and a

deliberate imitation of the traditional folk ballad. The subject is the perilous journey of an old

sailor. Along with other elements: dialogue, repetition of words, phrases, a strong patterns of

rhyme and rhythm. With an emphasis on the supernatural.

     ‘A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist
     And still it neared and neared:
     As f it dodged a water-sprite,
     It plunged, and tacked and veered.
              The poem tells a story and therefore has setting, characters, point of view, plot,

             conflict and theme. So when you read it, focus on the main story, not on the frame

             story.

       XIII. Two Faces of Romanticism Coleridge and Wordsworth good friends but two

       different kinds of poems.”In this idea originated the plan of the Lyrical Ballads; in

       which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters

       supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human

       interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure… that willing suspension of
   disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth, on the other

   hand, was./..to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling

   analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind’s attention to the lethargy of

   custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us…”

     In other words, Coleridge agreed to write about the supernatural in a way that was

   believable, while Wordsworth set out to awaken readers’ senses to the magical wonder

   of everyday sights and sounds.

IVX. George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824 (pp 848-849) A superstar in his own

time, Daring, flirtatious, brooding, strikingly handsome. “mad, bad and dangerous to

know” His scorn for hypocrisy and repression and his enthusiasm for rebellion and great

passion made him a symbol for the romantic spirit. He was, indeed, by inheritance, a

Lord, born to a Scots heiress, Catherine Gordon of Gight, His father was “mad Jack”

Byron He inherited the ancestral Byron estate from his great uncle and with it the title of

the sixth Baron Byron. He is best known for his piece “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”

inspired by his own adventure through Spain, Portugal, Malta, Greece and Asia

Minor/turkey. His poetic heroes are restless tortured souls who disdained conventional

values.. His home was in Switzerland on Lake Geneva (Chillon castle) and indeed in self

exile.

1. He frequently used figurative language especially the metaphor and simile.
    Read “She Walks in Beauty” p. 850.

XV. Mary Shelley, (pp858-859) (my favorite) who wrote Frankenstein or the Modern

Prometheus was she was only 18.     She was married to Percy Bysshe Shelley at the time

and were visiting their friend Lord Byron, at ( chillon castle ). And the same volcano
( Eyrafyatlajokull = Ay-ya-fyat-la-ya-kult) that has erupted in ice land this past year had

erupted then causing all of Europe to be very cold during the summer months,

consequently, Bryon suggested for amusement to hold a contest to see who could come up

with the best ‘ghost story”. Sounds like The Canterbury Tales, Yes? Frankenstein is

touted as being the best gothic horror tale ever written. As a story of science gone awry, it

warned against the dangers of the new industrial age and the desire to control nature. As

the original source of all ‘mad scientist” stories, it is a pioneering work of science fiction

and horror that has spawned countless film and stage adaptations.

 The story tells of an obsessive Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein who uses an electrical

 charge to animate a lifeless body he has pieced together from human remain. He causes

 harm and destruction wherever he goes as he faces rejection, rather than understanding

 from those he encounters.

 Frankenstein’s monsters is more than just a scary creature he is a mirror that reflects

 difficult truths about society and culture such as the failure to treat with compassion those

 we do not understand. Shelly uses similar imagery and diction to describe both

 Frankenstein and his monster and show how closely the two are connected.

 “ It was already one in the morning, the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my

 candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the

 dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitate its

 limbs.

  How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom

 with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? Him limbs were in

 proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow
      skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous

      black and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness, but these luxuriances only formed a

      more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the

      dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black

      lips.’

XVI.. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822 (pp860-861) An idealist and a nonconformist. Percy

Shelley passionately opposed all injustice and dreamed of changing the world through poetry..

He believed that poetry nourished the imagination, and the imagination by enabling empathy for

others. And this brings about social change. He was bullied as a child and held a lifelong hatred

of tyranny and conformity. He was however highly educated at Oxford University but he never

backed down from his strong views and also eloped with 16 year old Harriet Westbrook. In his

first major poem “Queen Mab” he attacks social institutions such as marriage, the monarchy and

the church.. Later, still married he met and fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and

abandoned Harriet who was pregnant. With their second child.. He was a social outcast and fled

with Mary to Geneva, Switzerland and connected with poet Lord Byron.. Shelley later is free to

marry Mary Godwin and she takes on her new name as Mary Shelley. Another famous work of

Percy Shelley was “Ode to the West Wind”. Protesting the Peterloo massacre in which workers

demonstrating for reform were killed by soldiers. He died tragically in a boating accident They

had a son William. When you read ‘Frankenstein” you will be able to piece together these

fictitious characters from Mary’s personal life.

      XVII. Views on Poetry. You can seen many of the romantic poets knew each other

      personally, and shared similar beliefs about art and politics.. But as individual artists they

      disagreed with one another about the purpose and definition of poetry.. Therefore each
      poet has a distinctive style and voice. You will not confuse, for example, Wordsworth’s

      elegant mediations on the English countryside with Shelley’s soaring ecstatic odes..

      XVIII. John Keats 1795-1821 (pp.878-879) a life cut short at age 25 he produced some

      of the evocative (tending to bring out especial strong emotional responses. It brings

      tears to my eyes) and exquisite poems in the English language.. Keats is better known for

      poetry that is full of sounds, sights, smells, and warmth. Through imager, his words and

      phrases appeal to one or more of the five senses and create sensory experiences for the

      reader. . He saw beauty in both physical and philosophical terms. He saw beauty in things

      that you might not normally think of as beautiful.

          Two of his more famous poems is “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to a Nightingale”

      “When I have Fears that I may cease to be”.


IXX. Romantic Ideals Many of the ideas that the late romantics expressed have become

intrinsic to Western culture, felt not only in art but in politics and even in the way people view

themselves in relation to one another, to nature, and to the universe. In fact, these ideas are so

pervasive in the modern world that some have gone so far as to say that the romantic era has yet

to end.


XX. The Legacy of Romanticism. ( pp 766-767) Romantic fascination with the supernatural is

till thriving in today’s books and movies. Shelly’s Frankenstein sometimes called the world’s

first work of science fiction is not so very different from the laboratory creations in the film The

Matrix, and the eerie ghost-driven ship of Coleridge’s The Rime of the ancient Mariner” is

remarkably similar to the ship in Pirates of the Caribbean.And like the romantic poets, today’s

environmentalists condemn the harm that urbanization and industrialization bring to the natural

landscape.
       Elements of a Romance

       Plot: Romances have a simple, inevitable plot. A hero battles an evil enemy and
       ultimately wins.
         Therefore there is
            A near perfect hero
            An evil enemy
            A quest with three stages
              - A dangerous journey
              - A central test or ordeal to determine if he/she is truly a hero
              - A return to the point from which they began


    Then the hero’s journey - includes therefore

                 The test
                 Supernatural elements
                 Good versus evil
                 Female figures who are usually maidens 9in need of rescue)


Romanticism looks back to middle ages for setting, uses natural and the supernatural, relies
on the power of imagination, and oftentimes themes include:

      Isolation
      Consequences of senseless acts/implications of the acts
      Knowing one’s place in nature, respect for life.