mBACKGROUND OF ROMANTICISM

mWILLIAM BLAKE
mWILLIAM WORDSWORTH
mSAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
 M





„ We are going to scope out Romanticism and
mention about English Romantic Poetry
based on first three great poets: Y



Y

Y

and 






„ So as to understand properly we, of course,
should take a look at the period in which
they lived and romanticism was thriving...
  

 
M



 
„ ÉIn the period between the
publication of p
 

 and 

, English
literature was dominated by the
spirit of ROMANTICISM.dz(1)
 r  rr



 r
„ 
  ROMANTIC PERIOD


 AGE OF THE TRIUMPH OF

ROMANTICISM

  (app.) ROMANTIC PERIOD

 M
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„ Napoleonic Y

„ Painful     
 of the
wars
„ The ‘

 
„ The suffering the 



 
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 (2)
 
M



 

ÉFollowing the Revolution itself,

which began in 1789, Britain was at
war with France on continental
Europe for nearly twenty years while
massive repression of political
dissent was implemented at home.dz(3)
ÉAgainst this background much of the
major writing of the period, associated
with the term Romantic, takes place
between 1789 (when the French
Revolution began) and 1824 (the death
of Byron) and can be seen as a response
to changing political and social
conditions in one respect or another.dz(4)
 


É...the last 30 years of the
eighteenth century is considered as
pre-Romantic period. The real and
conscious Romanticism begins
after this preparation period, upon
that William Wordsworth
published The Lyrical Ballads in
1798...
The preface which Wordsworth
added later to the second
edition of the book which also
presented S.T.Coleridge`s some
poems to reader is regarded a
kind of manifestation of
Romanticism.dz(5)
 MM  r

„ NATURE
„ Vivid and colourful language
„ Evocation of elevating themes and ideas
„ A new kind of poetry emphasizing:
intuition over reason
the pastoral over the urban
„ An effort to use a `new language`
„ Simple and understandable language.
 M

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„A critic says he selected 28 ones
from hundreds of definitions of
Romanticism elaborately and
interestingly none of these 28
definitions is similar to one
another.
„We will look at two of them:
 
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ÉRomanticism is the
rebirth of firstly emotions
and then imagination in
literature.dz
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„ÉThe addition
of strangeness
to beautydz (6)
 ( M
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ÉA movement of the 18th and 19th centuries

which marked the reaction in literature,
philosophy, art, religion and politics from
the neo-classicism and formal orthodoxy
of the preceding period. Romanticism
arouse so gradually and exhibited so
many phases that a satisfactory definition
is not possibledz(7)
Anyway...
  
(
„ William Blake
„ William Wordsworth
„ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
„ John Keats
„ Percy Bysshe Shelley
„ Lord Byron
ÉThe M  Mof English
romantic literature pertains to
the six figures who are
historically supposed to have
formed the core of the Romantic
movement of late 18th and early
19th century England.dz(8)
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„ É reacti a ai st revi s literary styles,
„ ar e ts it ei tee t ce t ry a
earlier il s ers,
„ t e ecli e i f r al
lica
rs i a

t e rise f isse
ti
 relii s sects,
„ a
 t e ra i a

recee
te
i
strializati
f ritai
a
 c
seqe
t
c a
es i
its c 
ty sie.dz(2)
„ 





ÉThe Romantic
Poets ushered in
a new era of
poetry.dz
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p
 ÉY


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mBorn - 1757
mStarts at the Royal Academy - 1779
mMarries Catherine Boucher - 1782
mPublishes |
 


 - 1789
mDied Ȃ 1827dz(9)
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ÉBorn in London in 1757, Blake was
a poet, painter, visionary mystic, and
engraver. Her family was very poor. He
could never go to school and learnt on his
own anything he knew. By himself, he
learnt Latin, Greek and Ibranian. He
could read and understand them. As the
French says, he was exactly an
`autodidacte`...dz(10)
É...From his early years, he
experienced visions of angels and
ghostly monks, he saw and
conversed with the angel Gabriel,
the Virgin Mary, and various
historical figures. These memories
never left him and influenced his
poetry throughout his life.dz(11)
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„ Both a   and   
 poet
„ A reflection of his own 
  .
„   d many poems
„ Far reaching in both their scope and range of

.
„ The 
 of human experiences
„ The 


 of life that can be
experienced

 
Y 
„The Marriage of Heaven and
Hell
„Songs of Innocence
„Songs of Experience
„Auguries of Innocence
This is an extract from William Blake's ÉSongs of Innocence" -
William Blake had the capacity to express poetry of great
innocence and joy such as this extract below:


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  É (12)
As a young boy Blake had an
illumining mystical experience.
Throughout his life he maintained
this otherworldly uality and most
significantly was able to experience
and see the divine in and through
Éordinarydz human experiences. For
example in the poem Ér

dz:
ÉAnd all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or jew;
Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.dz

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This ability to see the divine in all is best
summarized in Blakeǯs immortal poem
from M  




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 ÉI wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.dz

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 ÉY

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m1770: Born in Cockermouth,
Cumberland
m1790: Travels to France
m1798: Publishes Lyrical Ballads with
Coleridge
m1843: Becomes Poet Laureate
m1850: Diesdz (13)
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„ William Wordsworth's reputation is defined
by his poems of nature, but his early life was
dominated by the French Revolution and
the libertarian ideals of the time.
„ He graduated from Cambridge University
1791 and then travelled to France and
Europe.
„ Fell in love with Annette Vallon
„ In 1843 he was appointed Poet Laureate.
 
M

Wordsworth's major work was
his autobiographical poem
Ê
%. Completed in
1805, he continued to make
changes and it was not
published until after his death.
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„A marvellous felicity of phrase
„An unrivalled power of
describing natural appearances
and effects
„The most ennobling views of
life and duty
„The sense of the mystic relations
between man and nature
„Master of a noble and expressive
prose style
„Especially his sonnets, he rises to
heights of noble inspiration and
splendour of language rarely
e ualled by any of our poets
ÉWilliam Wordsworth was
one of the greatest poets of
the ages, who excelled in
vivid descriptions of nature
and the joy that could be
derived from the beauties of
nature.dz(14)
   


ÉSTAY near me--do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find in thee,
Historian of my infancy!
Float near me; do not yet depart!
Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art!
A solemn image to my heart,
My father's family!
...
 ...
Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:--with leaps and springs
I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her, feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.dz (15)
 É(
p  
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I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.dz (16)
 '
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p
 É

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m1772: Born
m1794: First poems published
m1797: Meets Wordsworth
m1798: Publishes # 
+


m1834: Diesdz (17)
 V


„The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner
„Christabel
„Kuble Khan
 


M
 
„ ÉMany of the critics are right while they
consider the year 1797 as his Éyear of
wondersdz. Because, he created his most
beautiful three works in that year.
„ If he could have written some other poems
as good as those ones constantly for a ten-
year period, he would, undoubtedly, have
been the greatest poet of Romanticism.dz (18)
 

M 
It may indeed be phantasy, when I
Essay to draw from all created things
Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings ;
And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie
Lessons of love and earnest piety.
So let it be ; and if the wide world rings
In mock of this belief, it brings
...
 ...
Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.
So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee,
Thee only God ! and thou shalt not despise
Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 &-
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„ ÉCharles Lamb wrote one of favourite
descriptions of S.T.C in 1817: "his face
when he repeats his verses hath its
ancient glory, an Arch angel a little
damaged.dz (19)
„ One of the pioneers of the movement
`back to nature` along with Wordsworth
and Blake.
„ É...Coleridge also looked inward, as well as
outward, and in his meditative poetry he
enlarged the boundaries of the individual
sensibility...dz
„ É...Human nature itself was enlarged and
redefined as the subject of poetry.dz
„ É...Together Wordsworth and Coleridge helped
to create a new definition of the sublime and
the beautiful, evincing an aesthetic very
different from the orthodox classical principles
of formal symmetry and proportion.dz (20)
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ÉBeauty is truth,
truth beauty,' - that
is all ye know on
earth, and all ye
need to know.dz (21)
ÉLove is my religion-
I could die for it.dz
(22)
ÉHeard melodies
are sweet, but
those unheard
are sweeter.dz
(23)
ÉMy
imagination is a
monastery and I
am its monk.dz (24)
  
„ (1)Holman, C.Hugh. A Handbook To Literature. New York,
1972. pg.464
„ (2) http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/
„ (3) http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/
„ (4) http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/
„ (5)Urgan, Mîna. İngiliz Edebiyatı Tarihi(History of English
Literature)pgs.502-503.
„ (6) Holman, C.Hugh. A Handbook To Literature. New
York, 1972.pg.466
„ (7) Holman, C.Hugh. A Handbook To Literature. New York,
1972.pg.465
„ (8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_poetry
„ (9) http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/blake.shtml
„ (10) Urgan, Mîna. İngiliz Edebiyatı Tarihi(History of
English Literature) pg.541
„ (11) http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/blake/
„ (12)http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/romantic_po
etry/
„ (13)http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/wordsworth.sht
ml
„ (14)http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/william_wor
dsworth/library/
„ (15)http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/william_wor
dsworth/library/
„ (16)
http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/romantic_poetry
/
„ (17)http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/coleridge.shtml
„ (18) Urgan, Mîna. İngiliz Edebiyatı Tarihi(History of
English Literature) pg.603
„ (19)http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/samuel_taylo
r_coleridge/
„ (20)%&& 

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„ (21)http://www.srichinmoypoetry.com/library/the_poet_se
ers/keats
„ (22)http://www.srichinmoypoetry.com/library/the_poet_s
eers/keats
„ (23)http://www.srichinmoypoetry.com/library/the_poet_s
eers/keats
„ (24)http://www.srichinmoypoetry.com/library/the_poet_s
eers/keats