The+Romantics

=**The Romantics** =



The Romantic Age: The best known Romantic poets were Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats and the ir poetry was dependent on various features peculiar to the ir time: a reaction against previous literary styles, arguments with eighteenth century and earlier philosophers, the decline in formal Anglican worship and the rise of dissenting religious sects, and the rapid and unprecedented industrialization of Britain and consequent changes in its countyside. Above all, however, it was the impact of the French Revolution which gave the period its most distinctive and urgent concerns. Following the Revolution itself, which began in 1789, Britain was at war with Fance on continental Europe for nearly twenty years while massive repression of political dissent was implemented at home. Against 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 ano the r. - Freedom - Nature - Love - Self Expression [|William Wordsworth] [|Samuel Taylor Coleridge] [|Lord Byron] [|Percy Bysshe Shelley]
 * Major Themes of Romantic Poetry:**
 * The Poets**

I met a traveler from an antique land  Who said: Two vast and trunk-less legs of stone  Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command  Tell that its sculptor well those passions read  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,  The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.  And on the pedestal these words appear:  "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:  Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The lone and level sands stretch far away. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">- **Percy Bysshe Shelley** =<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;"> She Walks in Beauty = <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">She walks in beauty, like the night <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Of cloudless climes and starry skies; <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And all that's best of dark and bright <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Meet in her aspect and her eyes: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Thus mellowed to that tender light <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Ozymandias **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> One shade the more, one ray the less, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Had half impaired the nameless grace <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Which waves in every raven tress, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Or softly lightens o'er her face; <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Where thoughts serenely sweet express <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The smiles that #|win, the #|tints that glow, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> But tell of days in goodness spent, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> A mind at peace with all below, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> A heart whose love is innocent!
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">- Lord Byron **

=<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;"> Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed From a Skull =

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Start not -nor deem my spirit fled: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> In me behold the only skull <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> From which, unlike a living head, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Whatever flows is never dull.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> I lived, I loved, I quaffed like thee; <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> I died: let earth my bones resign: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Fill up -thou canst not injure me; <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The worm hath fouler lips than thine.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Better to hold the sparkling grape <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Than nurse the earthworm's slimy brood, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And circle in the goblet's shape <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The drink of gods than reptile's food.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> In aid of others' let me shine; <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And when, alas! our brains are gone, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> What nobler substitute than wine?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Quaff while thou canst; another race, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> When thou and thine like me are sped, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> May rescue thee from earth's embrace, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And rhyme and revel with the dead.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Why not -since through life's little day <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Our heads such sad effects produce? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Redeemed from worms and wasting clay, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> This chance is theirs to be of use.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">- Lord Byron **

[|Skull Drinking Cups] Info on Ancient British Drinking cups like the one described in the poem.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud **
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I wandered lonely as a cloud <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> That floats on high o'er vales and hills, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> When all at once I saw a crowd, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> A host, of golden daffodils, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Beside the lake, beneath the trees <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Continuous as the stars that shine <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And twinkle on the Milky Way, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> They stretched in never-ending line <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Along the margin of a bay: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Ten thousand saw I at a glance <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The waves beside them danced, but they <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> A poet could not but be gay <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> In such a jocund company: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> I gazed -and gazed -but little thought <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> What wealth the show to me had brought.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">For oft, when on my couch I lie <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> In vacant or in pensive mood, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> They flash upon that inward eye <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Which is the bliss of solitude; <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And then my heart with pleasure fills <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> And dances with the daffodils.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">William Wordsworth **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">. In English literature, Wordsworth and his friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, were pioneers in the development of the Romantic Movement, or romanticism, a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking. “What I feel about a person or thing,” a romantic poet might have said, “is more important than what scientific investigation, observation, and experience would say about that person or thing.” Intuition–that voice within that makes judgments and decisions without the aid of reason — was a guiding force to the romantic poet. So was nature. Romanticism began in the mid-1700's as a rebellion against the principles of classicism. Whereas classicism espoused the literary ideals of ancient Greece and Rome — objectivity, emotional restraint, and formal rules of composition that writers were expected to follow — romanticism promoted subjectivity, emotional effusiveness, and freedom of expression. “I want to write my way,” the romantic poet might have said, “not the way that writers in ancient times decreed that I should write.”
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Wordsworth and Romanticism **

[|Pandaemonium] Explores the complex relationship between William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Work package exploring the film: [|Burning Bright] - Tracy Chevalier Looks at the world of William Blake. [|The Philospher's Zone] - The Romantic Movement and Rock Music A podcast examining the simularities between the romantic movement and #|rock music
 * Recommended Viewing:**
 * Recommended Reading:**
 * Recommended Listening:**

<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -10000px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 1971px; width: 1px;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Wordsworth and Romanticism ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica; height: 1px; left: -10000px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 1971px; width: 1px;"> ....... In English literature, Wordsworth and his friend, [|Samuel Taylor Coleridge], were pioneers in the development of the Romantic Movement, or romanticism, a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking. “What I feel about a person or thing,” a romantic poet might have said, “is more important than what scientific investigation, observation, and experience would say about that person or thing.” Intuition–that voice within that makes judgments and decisions without the aid of reason — was a guiding force to the romantic poet. So was nature. Romanticism began in the mid-1700's as a rebellion against the principles of classicism. Whereas classicism espoused the literary ideals of ancient Greece and Rome — objectivity, emotional restraint, and formal rules of composition that writers were expected to follow — romanticism promoted subjectivity, emotional effusiveness, and freedom of expression. “I want to write my way,” the romantic poet might have said, “not the way that writers in ancient times decreed that I should write.”