1. “Rebels and Dreamers”: The British Romantic Period
ENG 400: British Literature
Unit IV – Rebels and Dreamers

2. Speech In Defense of the Lower Classes Apostrophe to the Ocean
Song: Men of England
Speech In Defense of the Lower Classes
Readings and Concepts
Introduction to
Ozymandias
Apostrophe to the Ocean

3. Lord Byron (1788 – 1824) Name: George Gordon, Title: Lord Byron
Born in London to a poor, but noble family
10 years old: inherited great-uncle’s title of Baron
17 years old: left home to attend Trinity College at Cambridge
After college, traveled through Europe and Middle East
Returned home with two sections of book-length poem entitled Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Hero was a moody, sensitive, and reckless young man (“Byronic hero”)
Popularity of Childe Harold made Byron an overnight success

4. Lord Byron continued . . . “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know”
Reckless lifestyle thrilled and scandalized society
1816: driven out of England by scandal from his broken marriage (never returned to England)
Spent time living and writing in Italy
Championed liberty and other Romantic ideals
1823: joined revolutionaries to free Greece from Turkish rule
Died while training with Greek rebels (considered a national hero of Greece)

5. Speech: In Defense of the Lower Classes
Although a member of the aristocracy, Lord Byron was a supporter of radical reform and political liberty.
His first speech to the House of Lords defended workers who had sabotaged factory equipment that had put them out of work (see “Luddite Riots”). At the time, Parliament was debating using the death penalty for these crimes.
As you read, consider the components of the argument including
Situation, audience, and purpose
Claim, warrants, and evidence
Persuasive and rhetorical devices

6. Speech In Defense of the Lower Classes
Speech - Vocabulary
(v.) destruction or killing of one in ten, or of any large part of a group
decimation
(adj.) effective
efficacious
(v.) to free from slavery or oppression
emancipate

7. Speech – Vocabulary continued
Speech In Defense of the Lower Classes
Speech – Vocabulary continued
impediments
(n.) hindrances; obstructions; problems or obstacles to be overcome
temporize
(v.) to delay doing something in order to gain time; to avoid coming to a decision or committing yourself

8. Figurative Language & The “Sublime”
Apostrophe to the Ocean
Figurative Language & The “Sublime”
Figurative Language: not meant to be take literally; used to evoke emotions and state ideas in an imaginative way
similes: direct comparisons of dissimilar things using the words “like” or “as”
metaphors: comparisons in which one thing is identified with another, dissimilar thing
personification: giving human qualities to nonhuman subjects
Sublime: Romantic sense of overwhelming power and beauty in nature that escapes human understanding.

9. Apostrophe to the Ocean Vocabulary
leviathan (n)
monstrous sea creature
also used to describe a large ship
arbiter (n)
judge, umpire
person who makes a decision or ruling
torrid (adj)
very hot, scorching (usually describing weather)