This week, you will be introduced?the Romantic poets. Romanticism is a literary, artistic and philosophical movement in European cultural history. The beginning of Romantic movement in English literature was marked by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge’s publication. The creative spirit and fiery passion for human liberation and beauty undoubtedly make the younger Romantic poets, Byron, Shelley and Keats, remain young in people’s minds. Romantic writing is usually taken to represent a second renaissance of literature in Britain.

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Content

◎5.1 Introduction to the Romantic Period

◎5.2 William Wordsworth and His Works

◎5.3 Byron and His works

◎5.4 Shelly and His works

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◎5.1 Introduction to the Romantic Period

?Historical Background

?Romantic Poetry

?The Lake Poets

?The Young Romantic Poets

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?Historical Background

·?????? The age of reason is followed by the age of Romanticism

·?????? The Industrial Revolution(the late 18th century) and the French Revolution

The Industrial Revolution: the textile industry紡織業(yè) became completely mechanized and the factory system was fully developed.

Mass production and the expansion of trade created rich capitalists and ruined village workers and small farmers.

Amid the paradox of the accumulation of wealth and spiritual decay. England laid its foundation of its 19th century industrialism, and came to be known as the workshop of the world. Yet the Romanticists knew almost nothing about factory towns and their interests were in the past or in nature.

The French Revolution in 1789 excited the English writers and gave them some hope for a better society. As the Revolution reached its period of terror, many early Romanticists(including Southey, Wordsworth and Coleridge) sank into the conservative camp. However, the young Romanticists (including Shelly, Byron and Keats) still carried on the spirit of Revolution.

·?????? Romantic period extends from about 1789 until 1837 stressed emotion over reason.

?The best media for expressing the romantic spirit is poetry. Therefore, poetry became predominant.

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?Romantic Poetry

·?????? The Romantic poets were mostly writers of imagination and their attention was centered on the spiritual and emotional life of man. Some poets had a kind of nostalgia for the past as they thought the industrialization had corrupted civilization.

·?????? There was also a revived appreciation of natural beauty. Some poets showed an interest in the countryside, while the reasonable man's interest had been centered in the city.

In a nutshell, the Romantic poetry was characterized by the preference for imagination and passion over reason, the love of nature, the nostalgia in the past and the interest in exotic lands.

Popular forms of Romantic poetry include blank verse, the ballad, and the short lyric.

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?The Lake Poets

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The Lake Poets: Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge. They all inhabited the Lake District.

They shared one thing in common: They were all enthusiastic Revolutionists in early youth, but all gave up their liberal ideas and became conservatives later.

In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge co-published Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems. For many critics, the publication of Lyrical Ballads marked the beginning of English Romantic poetry.

·?????? In the preface, Wordsworth said that the typical poetry of his day was too much inclined to gaudy and inane phraseology, and too remote from the deepest and purest truths of human experience.

·?????? For this reason, Wordsworth and Coleridge used the simplest and plainest diction and centered on humble and rustic life to communicate forceful emotion and elementary feelings. Wordsworth focused on the beauty of ordinary subjects. Early in his career, Wordsworth tried to create poetry out of the incidents of simple country life and used the language of ordinary speech. Later, he wrote about his own life and particularly about his emotional and spiritual experiences. Nature played an important role in his poems.

·?????? Coleridge had quite a different inclination. His province had been the miraculous, the mysterious and the exotic. In his masterpiece The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, it related strange, exotic and supernatural events.

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?The Young Romantic Poets

The young Romantic poets remained Revolutionary, in some senses, throughout their careers Byron, Shelly and Keats all died young.

By the time they wrote, the French Revolution was over. The early Romantic Writers had turned from Revolutionaries to conservatists. While the Lake Poets were marked by simple ideals and the reverence for nature. The younger poets had a stronger yearning for humanity's liberation, and rebelled more fiercely than their predecessors.

·?????? The heroes of Byron's poems often revolted against tyranny and injustice.

·?????? Byron not only expressed his passion for freedom and justice in his poems, but also took part in real action. In Italy, he was engaged in the struggle against Austrian rule. In Greece, he took part in the fight for the national independence of the Greeks against Turks.

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Shelly, another poet-Revolutionary of the time, was the most optimistic of the Romanticists. Shelly conveyed two main ideas through his poetry. He believed that the tyranny of rulers and customs is the main source of evil, and that human goodness will sooner or later triumph over evil.

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John Keats was different from the other two, as he turned away from the problems of society to celebrate beauty. Keats' protest against the evils of society hidden in his melancholy and praise of beauty, probably was not so outspoken.

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To sum up, the age of Romanticism is an age of passion, rebellion, individuality, imagination, idealism and creativity.

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◎5.2 William Wordsworth and His Works

?Wordsworth's Background

?"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

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William Wordsworth was generally considered to be the founding father of Romanticism.

Combining democratic ideas- a love of the common man and a celebration of the human spirit. His works had immeasurable influence on the rise of Romanticism in England.

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William Wordsworth , born in 1770, was influenced by the ideals of the French Revolution. In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge co-published Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth had set out to break away from the high speech and rigid form of most English poetry. He wrote in the form of blank verse and ballad, using the language of ordinary individuals.

?Wordsworth believed that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.

With this principle in mind, Wordsworth wrote many of his finest lyrics. By 1810, disillusioned by the failure of French Revolution, Wordsworth became conservative and gradually lost his poetic vision and inspiration. In 1843, Wordsworth was named the Poet Laureate of England.

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?"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

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?Wordsworth is the poet of nature, he has great faith in the beauty and value of nature. The poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud was created two years after his walk with his sister in the woods. During the walk, Wordsworth saw a crowd of happy daffodils dancing along with the wind. When he recalled that experience, he felt the daffodils had brought him some invaluable treasure.

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The poem consists of four six-line stanzas, which is like paragraphs in an article. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC.

The language characteristics of the poem: simple but imaginative, full of rich images.

·?????? The poet vividly depicts the visual image of the flowers. The word CROWD shows us that there are lots of daffodils.

·?????? GOLDEN enables the readers to picture the beautiful color.

·?????? The poet compares the daffodils? to the stars of the Milky Way to help readers visualize their endless line.

·?????? By saying that the daffodils outdid the waves in happiness, the poet successfully highlights the key feature of the daffodils--cheerfulness.

·?????? Apart from visual imagery, the poet also uses kinesthetic images to evoke readers sense of movement.（動(dòng)覺(jué)）Words like dancing, fluttering sprightly and tossing accurately portray the dynamism and liveliness of the daffodils.

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Another figure of speech used by the poet is personification.

·?????? In the first line "I wandered lonely as a cloud", the poet uses reverse personification.反向擬人 which compares a human to a natural object a cloud.

·?????? Later, the daffodils are personified as human beings dancing and tossing their heads.

·?????? This technique suggests the unity and harmony between man and nature which culminates when the speaker's heart dances with the daffodils.

·?????? This strategy also highlights one of the themes of the poem: the soul of humankind and nature blend harmoniously and creates a transcendental moment.

·?????? The poet felt the daffodils had brought him some invaluable treasure: The daffodils' dynamism and cheerfulness pleased and comforted the poet and inspired him to cherish nature and life.

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◎5.3 Byron and His works

?Byron's Background

?"She Walks in Beauty"

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George Gordon Byron, known widely as Lord Byron, was one of the most important and Revolutionary poets of the romantic period.

In 1812, Byron published Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a poem narrating a bitter and melancholic exile among the historical sites of Europe. The poem brought him instant fame. The poem revealed the melancholy and disillusionment of the post-Revolutionary eras and the conflicts between ideals and reality.

The hero Childe Harold was a good example of what came to be known as the Byronic hero: a man impassioned, defiant ,irresistible to women, and yet somehow doomed. The Byronic hero was largely based on the life and personality of Byron himself.

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·?????? From 1818 to 1819, in Venice Byron wrote the first two cantos of Don Juan which was often regarded as his masterpiece. Don Juan was a mock epic in 16 cantos, and was completed in 1823. The hero of Don Juan was a picaresque adventurer, who enjoys a series of amorous adventures. The poem was a great satire on contemporary English society.

·?????? Byron was passionately interested in liberty and political affairs.

?In 1823, he travelled to Greece to help the Greeks' revolt against Turkey.

?In 1824, while engaged in the Greeks' fight for independence. Byron died of fever in Greece. The Greeks mourned his death and although his body was returned to England for burial, his heart was buried in Greece.

·?????? However, owing to Byron's dissolute life and the so-called licentious poems and his reputation for immorality. Westminster Abbey of England refused the burial of Byron's remains. It was not until 1969 that Byron was finally commemorated in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.

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?"She Walks in Beauty"

by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

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One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

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And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

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In 1814, Byron went to a party at Lady Sitwell's where he saw his beautiful cousin Mrs. Wilmot who was wearing a black spangled mourning dress. Mrs. Wilmot's dark hair and fair face, the mixture of various lights and shades impressed Byron and impressed him to write the poem She Walks in Beauty.

·?????? The poem is a short lyric of 3 stanzas with a rhyme scheme of ABABAB.

·?????? In the first stanza, the poem does not describe any of the specific physical beauty of the woman.

·?????? She radiates a beauty that makes her surroundings beautiful. As for her complexion,? we learn that her face has the best of dark and bright that tender light. These abstract descriptions give the readers plenty of room to imagine her perfect complexion.

·?????? Hyperbole/ exaggeration: to convey the perfect glow on the woman's face and indescribable grace that flows in her hair. In a Chinese article Deng Tuzi Fond of Beauty there is a similar description about beauty.“東家之子，著粉則太白，施朱則太赤”Both descriptions conbey to the readers that the beauty is just perfect in glow.

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·?????? In the third stanza, the soft cheeks, the winning smile and the tints in the skin express not only physical beauty, but also reflect the woman's good moral quality. The speaker says that her physical beauty reflects days spent doing good, a peaceful mind and innocent love.

·?????? In this poem, Byron conveys the notion of beauty as an integration of physical beauty and inner beauty.

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◎5.4 Shelly and His works

?Shelly's Background

?“Ozymandias”

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·?????? Shelly rebelled against the restrictive politics and conservative values. His works reflects radical ideas and Revolutionary optimism of his era.

·?????? He was born into an aristocratic family in Sussex England. In 1811, Shelly was expelled from the University because of his pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism. Shortly after his expulsion, Shelly eloped with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook. Owing to the hasty marriage, Shelly was disowned by his father and lost his inheritance. The couple travelled in England and Ireland, distributing pamphlets and urging the Irish to revolt against the English.

·?????? Just before his 30th birthday, Shelly was drowned while sailing in a storm. His body was burned on the beach and his remains were later buried in Rome.

·?????? His epitaph reads: Nothing of him that doth fade. But doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange.

·?????? Shelly's active writing life lasted only about five years, but he produced many remarkable works, including lyrics like Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind and To a Skylark.

·?????? Shelly was also famous for his verse dramas, such as the The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound.

·?????? Prometheus Unbound: the human goodness will eventually triumph over evil.

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?“Ozymandias”

·?????? A sonnet

·?????? Ozymandias was the Greek name for RamsesⅡ, the powerful Egypian pharaoh who ruled during the 13th century BC. Ozymandias ruled for over 60 years and made Egypt a great empire. Ozymandias was a great politician, strategist, artist and architect.

·?????? The grand image and desolate mood. The poem tells a story of past glory and mocks vanity.

·?????? Despite his past glory and might, the king of kings decayed and disappeared in the river of history.

·?????? The poem is told from the perspective of a traveler from ancient Egypt, which creates a mysterious atmosphere.

We may wonder where the torso of the sculpture is. Then comes the second striking visual image-"the broken stone face with a frown" and "a sneer of cold command "

·?????? The words "frown" "sneer" depicts the empire ruler 's contempt and scorn of others. While "cold command" captures the cruelty and arrogance of the pharaoh. Yet, the passions and the pride of the pharaoh survived only in the form of the lifeless statue. We can sense the swelled ego and arrogance of the pharaoh from these words "king of kings" "mighty". The pharaoh is so proud of his achievements and superiority that he boasts. His works will drive rival ruler into despair. However, the pharaoh is mocked by the sculptor and the speaker of the poem as nothing, and mention is made that nothing remains, except the decay of the wreck.

·?????? Time turns fame and power into hollowness. But Shelly's poem have outlived fame and power.

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