Please get out your Romantic Poetry packet (green) Please get out your Romantic Poetry packet (green). Take notes in your AP Lit. binder under the “journal” section. This week: Membean quiz next class Romanticism quiz Friday

Where it all began… The Enlightenment (philosophical movement in 18th century) Writings = elite only! Man in natural state = trouble Science and reason explains everything If every man uses reason and knows his rightful place, world will work perfectly, like a machine

Diderot Didn’t believe there was a place for God in society Wrote an encyclopedia that had him arrested by French government BFF with Rousseau This philosophy didn’t go over too well. If no one believed in God then they wouldn’t believe God had placed them in their rightful and dutiful spot…. It would lead to anarchy.

Rousseau Rousseau Emotional Believed man in his natural state was GOOD and PURE Emotions lead to creativity! “Man was born free, yet everywhere he is in chains…” Eventually jailed by French police as well

These ideas could only exist in a new world…

American Revolution Thomas Paine  Common Sense

Meanwhile…. In France and Britain

Key Concept: Revolution Spreads History of the Times Because the French king has been overthrown by a democratic mob, the French Revolution is radical and frightening to English ruling classes. English conservatives worry that revolutionary fever will cross the Channel to England. Until the violence and terror escalate, English liberals support the French Revolution’s ideals of “liberty, fraternity, equality.” King Louie 16th

Coincides with American/French Revolution Unite reason and feeling! Romantic Era 1770s  late 1800s Coincides with American/French Revolution Unite reason and feeling! Reaction to science (The Enlightenment)

Hugged and kissed all the time Imagination Gothic elements Nature The Romantics Hugged and kissed all the time Not Imagination Gothic elements Nature Individual Creativity Written for all social classes / easy to understand

Key Concept: Revolution Spreads Literature of the Times In reaction to the ugliness and turmoil of the times, writers turn to nature, the past, and a dream world of imagination. Romantic period begins in 1798 with publication of Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, a collaboration by two young poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

Key Concept: Revolution Spreads Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems Included both Coleridge’s long narrative The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.” Both poems are now among the most important poems in English literature. Represented “a new kind of poetry”—spontaneous, emotional, self-revealing poems written in simple language about commonplace subjects.

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Key Concept: Conservatives Clamp Down Literature of the Times The Romantic poets were dedicated to political and social change believed in the power of literature thought imagination—not reason—was the best response to forces of change created private, spontaneous lyric poetry

Key Concept: Conservatives Clamp Down Some Romantic Poets But to the eyes of the man of imagination nature is imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees. . . . To me this world is all one continued vision of fancy or imagination. —William Blake William Blake George Gordon, Lord Byron John Keats Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poets that should come to mind when you think of ROMANTICISM WILLIAM WORDSWORTH SAMUEL COLERIDGE PERCY SHELLEY LORD BYRON

Key Concept: Conservatives Clamp Down Literature of the Times Romantic literature was dominated by poetry. Romantics thought poets were extraordinary people, necessary to humanity and society. Keats called poets “physicians,” Blake called them teachers, and Shelley thought they were the “unacknowledged legislators of the world.” The novel also thrived, however. Key novelists included Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, and Sir Walter Scott.

Key Concept: Industrialization Finds a Foothold History of the Times England is the first nation to experience the effects of the Industrial Revolution. Swelling urban populations create desperate living conditions. The era’s misery and poverty are justified by an economic policy called laissez faire.

Themes of Romantic Poetry Influences on Romantic Poetry Spread of democratic ideals through the American and French Revolutions and disillusionment after failure of French Revolution Reactions against harsh living and working conditions created for urban poor by the Industrial Revolution Fascination with nature and country life, which seemed a blissful retreat from city slums

Themes of Romantic Poetry A New Focus in Poetry Invited readers to feel power and passion Tried to capture personal experience Romantic Period Restoration Era Order had just been restored. Society needed social change. Poets celebrated order, hierarchy, and enlightened rule. Poets wrote about personal feelings, supported individual rights, and used everyday language.

Themes of Romantic Poetry A New Focus in Poetry Romantic comes from the word romance. A medieval romance is a tale of high adventure that idealizes knightly virtues and has supernatural elements. Romantic writers used elements of romance to go beyond Restoration Era formality and explore psychological and mysterious aspects of human experience.

Themes of Romantic Poetry A New Focus in Poetry Romantic poets embraced imagination and naturalness instead of reason and artifice wrote about personal experiences and emotions, often using simple language saw nature as transformative; focused on the ways nature and the human mind mirrored each other’s creative properties Percy Bysshe Shelley

Themes of Romantic Poetry Imagination: The Inspired Guide The Romantics are often considered nature poets. However, they are really “mind poets” who sought to understand the bond between humans and the world of the senses.

Themes of Romantic Poetry Imagination: The Inspired Guide The Romantics saw imagination as the link between mind and nature. To them, imaginative experi- ences were especially moving, perhaps superior to human reasoning. The mysterious forces of Nature inspired them. All six of the major Romantic poets had their own ideas about imagination, but all believed that it could be stimulated by nature and the mind.

Themes of Romantic Poetry Nature: The Wise Teacher If imagination is the Romantic poet’s guide to truth, Nature is the wise teacher that can deliver the lesson. Romantic poets considered themselves especially sensitive. They wanted to help people see the world in all its beauty, sadness, and tenderness.

Themes of Romantic Poetry Nature: The Wise Teacher The Romantics’ interest in natural images and themes was reflected in Gothic literature. Novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein appealed to the imagination through Eerie settings Supernatural events Questions about humans’ ability to manipulate nature

Themes of Romantic Poetry Experience: The Worthy Subject Romantic poets favored idealized rural settings. However, some celebrated the people who lived in crowded cities. They promoted rights to Healthful living conditions Relief from political or economic oppression Self-expression

Themes of Romantic Poetry Experience: The Worthy Subject Some Romantics dreamed that poetry could offer an example of model behavior to improve horrific social conditions: Undemocratic governments Dangerous factories Child workers in coal mine Child labor Laissez-faire economic policies that left businesses unregulated

Themes of Romantic Poetry EMOTIONS RULE Faith in Senses and Feelings Because the Romantic poetry valued individual experience, the rationalism previously admired was replaced by a trust in one’s emotions. The literature in England prior to this movement was witty, intellectual, and social. Romanticism rejects the social ‘us’ and embraces the ‘me’! Intuitions, feelings, and emotions ruled. Man’s heart was a more valued guide than his head. So, another characteristic of Romantic poetry is this enlightenment by emotion.

Themes of Romantic Poetry Belief in the Supernatural Another characteristic of Romantic literature is the inclusion of supernatural elements. Perhaps, for the Romantics, Nature was so powerful that it could not be contained. Nature takes on a mysterious, sometimes even scary quality in literature of the Romantics. Supernatural elements play a large part in these works. Supernatural Natural

Themes of Romantic Poetry Use of simple language Simple Language The Romantics searched for personal experiences and strove to communicate their power in meaningful ways. To achieve this, the Romantic writers employed simple and direct language. This was another way to reject the Neoclassical movement that hoped to emulate the ancient writers in lofty styles and language. Think of it this way… our most personal conversations, our most private, do not need elevated language to impress or ring true. This simple language is another Romantic characteristic.

Themes of Romantic Poetry Ask Yourself 1. Where did Romantic poets look for inspiration? Why? 2. Why do you think Romantic poets wrote about nature during a time of change? [End of Section]

Forms of Romantic Poetry Characteristics of Romantic Poetry Expresses the emotions and concerns of an individual as well as of society Varies the structure of traditional forms to suit a poem’s purpose Focuses on a poet’s personal connection to nature

Forms of Romantic Poetry Function over Form The Romantics took poetry in a new direction. Romantic Poets 18th Century Poets Poetry was a strictly defined literary genre. Poetry was a playground of feelings. Poets experimented with forms and expressed feelings in natural language. Poets used formal language and structured traditional forms such as odes and sonnets. Function seems more important than form. Form seems more important than function.

Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems Early Romantic Poets William Wordsworth Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Kubla Khan

“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” “Ode to a Nightingale” Late Romantic Poets Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ozymandias” “Ode to the West Wind” “To a Skylark” John Keats “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” “Ode to a Nightingale” “Ode to a Grecian Urn”

William Blake (1757-1827) Rebelled against teacher (art cannot be taught, it must be felt) Married illiterate woman; taught her to read Disgusted with society / rules / oppression Wrote poems about the cruelties of child labor