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Romanticism affected the whole of European culture:

? GERMANY Sturm und Drang Movement (1770); was essentially philosophical, asserted nationalism, drew from Rousseau’s interest in nature and stressed the individual and his feelings

? ENGLAND It started in the 1780s; is best represented by its poetry

? FRANCE It developed mainly in drama and literary criticism

? ITALY It starter in 1816; it had a strong nationalistic component. Best represented by novel and poetry

The literary expression in England of the period may be said to have opened in 1798, year of the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, result of the collaboration of two young poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. In the first edition of the Ballads passed almost unnoticed, but the second in 1800, attracted the attention of critics for the <> to the new edition explained the ideas behind the new type of poetry.

Poetry, thought Wordsworth and Coleridge, should deal with simple subjects and humble people, and moreover, be written in the simple language of everyday life.

Key concepts:

- The stress on imagination and on individual experience

- The conception of the artist as an original creator free from any neo-classical control by models and rules

- The notion of nature as a living organic structure and as a medium for conveying fundamental spiritual truths as well as the importance attached to natural scenery

- A distinctive style which in literature included widespread use of imagery, symbolism and myth

In 1798 started the Romantic Movement in Britain, when WORDSWORTH and COLERIDGE published the collection of experimental (this adjective shows that the most of the poems were new) poems called Lyrical Ballads (manifesto of English Romanticism).

Four editions:

- 1798

- 1800 (preface: the poet’s task is to make poems from things the poet really sees and feels)

- 1802

- 1805

The preface to 1802’s edition established the basis of Romantism. Wordsworth justified the reasons why he wrote the Lyrical Ballads:

- What is poetry? “I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity”

- What is a poet? “He is a man speaking to men: a man, it true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul; a man with his own passions and volitions”

- What is the best language to describe both of them? “The principal object was to choose incidents and situations from common life in a selection of language really used by men to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination” “Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil and speak a plainer and more emphatic language”

The First Generation of Romantic Poets: William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834)

Wordsworth during the French Revolution was attracted by the new democratic ideas so he became a fervent supporter of it. In 1795 he met Samuel Coleridge, with whom he was to develop a long and very productive friendship. They shared the same love for nature and enjoyed talking long walks and talking about poetry. It was probably trough Coleridge’s influence that Wordsworth passed from his fragmentary ideas upon impressions and emotions to a philosophical theory. Wordsworth began writing poetry when he was still a schoolboy. His best and most original verse was composed between 1797 and 1807 (the great decade). The most important volume of verse by Wordsworth, and probably the best since the Renaissance, is “Lyrical Ballads”, composed with Coleridge. The main themes of Wordsworth’s poetry are nature and childhood. It was trough a fusion with nature and a quiet contemplation of her beauty that man could discover the image of God. Nature in fact is a friend and a comforter to man, the only great teacher from which, by penetrating into her divine essence, man could learn virtue and wisdom. The mission of the poet was to open man’s souls to the inner reality of nature, and to the joy she can offer us.

Coleridge met Wordsworth, and according to what did I say, and this was prove one of the most fruitful friendship in English literature, and coincided with the most fertile period in Coleridge’s poetic career. With Wordsworth he made the “building travel”, they visited Germany to study German idealism and philosophy.

He began to increase the opium doses, and became virtually an opium addict. Coleridge’s literary production was exceptionally varied: translations, essays on philosophy, religion and politics, he worked also for newspapers.

He wrote two beautiful Poems: “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, included in the “Daemonic Group”. In this poems he introduced the theme of mystery and supernatural, nature (nature plays an important part in his poems, but he doesn’t find happiness and consolation in it, instead of Wordsworth) and exoticism.

In conclusion the poet now has turned into a prophet looking for truth, not outside but within himself, not through reason and outer experience, but through imagination.

(1170-1850)

He was born in Cockermouth on the edge of the Lake District. After graduating at Cambridge University he travelled to France in 1791 were aroused by the revolutionary movement. He fell in love with Annette Vallon who bore him a daughter. In 1797 he made friends with Coleridge and the two poets worked in collaboration for the Lyrical Ballads. He wrote the preface to L.B., and also the opening poem Tintern Abbey (name of a church in the Lake District where he lived for a long time). He is closely connected to the Lake District, where he found God, truth, moral values, joy and inspiration. The last thirty years of his life were almost uneventful. He continued to write and revise his works: The Prelude, Poems in Two Volumes, The Excursion. His reputation increased throughout his life and he was made POET LAUREATE in 1843. He died in 1850.

William Wordsworth

Themes:

? NATURE

It is his most important subject and is used in a variety of senses in his poems. 2 meanings

? COUNTRYSIDE as opposed to the town

countryside in I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and in The Solitary Reaper

urban landscape in Composed upon Westminster Bridge ? then become a sort of rural landscape

? nature as a SOURCE OF FEELINGS

words that emphasize joy at the bright colour and gentle movement of the dancing daffodils

a record of man’s response to nature, often joyful

? ACTIVE FORCE

some sort of goddess which manifests herself in the wild secluded countryside

pantheistic view of the world which is seen as an expression of God

? CHILD

The previous age had generally valued children not for what they are but for the adults they might become.

It did not appreciate the irrationality of childhood since it placed an excessive emphasis on reason.

He knew Rousseau’s ideas, and he attached much importance to childhood as the time when man is closest to God and can feel the glorious splendour of the natural world around him.

? He is the one able to describe the relationship between what you see and what you feel

? According to Wordsworth is impossible for everybody to be a poet

? The idea that only the poet can go through this step is geniality, no common people can

? Wordsworth was convinced that anybody should read poetry to learn how to feel, how to express feelings. That’s the reason why he is a DEMOCRATIC THINKER , using common words, simple constructions (Daffodils is a good example for simplicity, it is easy to understood)

?

He was more involved in everything

? He wrote for everybody

Composed upon westminstre bridge

context

The poem was written in 1802 when Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, were going to Calais, France, to meet with his former French mistress Annette Vallon and Caroline, his illegitimate daughter by her. Wordsworth had not seen her since 1791 when he had expressed to her a wish to marry but had been forced to return to Great Britain because of the increasing likelihood of war between Britain and France. In 1802 the Peace of Amiens once again allowed travel to France. Wordsworth now wished to marry his childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. The purpose of their journey was to arrive at a mutually agreeable settlement regarding Wordsworth's obligations to Annette and Caroline and free his conscience to marry Mary.[1]

A coach they were travelling on paused on Westminster Bridge, and the view of the city somewhat surprised Wordsworth. Despite the city being made totally of man, and not nature. Despite the city being that dirty place that had grown so much in the Industrial Revolution that people in the villages had starved to death, rather than move to such an unknown, dirty place, Wordsworth was surprised at its beauty in the early sunlight.

Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" can be closely compared with Blake's "London". "London" gives an impression of contempt for the city and what it has become, whilst "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge" is a looser, friendlier approach to a poem about London.

Summary

in the beginning of the poem, the poet is describing the beauty of the morning scene at Westminster Bridge. He says there is nothing more beautiful on earth - a scene which is "touching in its majesty". Wordsworth puts the beauty of such a scene down to the "smokeless air", an unusual thing for London in the 1800s, and part of the beauty that only the earliest morning can bring. He even goes so far as to suggest that no "valley, rock, or hill" has been so beautifully lit by the early morning, which, considering Wordsworth's preference for rustic figures and nature, would seem surprising until the penultimate line of the sonnet half-answers our questions. The beauty of the city is that it is sleeping. There are no people bustling about, there is no smoke... the sun (which note, is Nature) may only have such a deep effect on the city at this time, before the city becomes a city - whilst it is still just buildings.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud (Daffodils) Wordsworth

The poem was composed in 1804 and was inspired by the sight of a field full of golden daffodils waving in the wind. The key of the poem is joy, as we can see from the many words which express pleasure and delight: in fact the daffodils are golden, waving in a sprightly dance and outdoing the waves in glee: they provide a jocund company and the sight of them fills the poet’s heart with pleasure. The flowers are set in a natural environment made up of land, air and water. The words related to the three elements are: for land: wales, hills, tree. For air: cloud, breeze, stars, milky way. For water: lake, bay, waves. All nature appears wonderfully alive and happy in fact the cloud floats on high; the stars shine and twinkle, the waves dance and sparkle in glee. The daffodils, too, are not static like in a painting, but alive with motion. They are in fact fluttering and dancing in the breeze, and tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The sight of the daffodils amazes the poet at first because of their great number in fact they a crowd, continuous, ten thousand, host, never ending-line. Yet Wordsworth is not interested in the flowers as such, but in the way they effect him; that is from inner to deter worlds and viceverse. The sight of the flowers brings the poet delight but he doesn’t realize that at the moment but only later, when memory brings back the scene. It is clear that the daffodils have a metaphorical meaning. They may represent the voice of nature, which is scarcely audible except in solitude, the magic moment when our spirit develops a visionary power and we “return to the enchanted unity with nature we knew in childhood; they may represent a living microcosm within the larger macrocosm of nature. Describing the daffodils the poet mentions only one colour: golden; but the whole poem implicitly suggest a wealth of colours: white = clouds; green = hills, vales, trees; blue = lake; silver = star; silver-white = milky way. In stanza 4 the poet suggests the perfect state of mind we should be in to hear the voice of nature; he says we should be in a sort of inner emptiness almost like that of the mystics when they enter into communion with God. This state of mind favours the poet’s inner perception, which he calls “in ward eye”. Tanks to this inner perception the poet’s physical “loneliness” turns into a moment of ecstasy, which to calls bliss of solitude. Brief as it is, the poem presents a perfect structure. It is divided into four stanzas which correspond to the various moods of the poet.

Stanza 1_ Setting and shock at the sight

Stanza 2_ Description of the flowers

Stanza 3_ Relationship between the flowers and the poet

Stanza 4_ Emotion recollected in tranquillity

The devices used by Wordsworth in this poem are. Similes: lonely as a cloud; continuous as stars. Personification: crowd, host, (the daffodils) fluttering and dancing (line 6),(the daffodils) tossing their heads (line12);(the waves) dance (line 13) company (line 16), (my heart) dances (line 24). The personification of the flowers make them alive as if endowed with a life and a soul of their own repetition: gazed (line 17). It conveys the impression of the poet breathless when faced with the beauty of nature and unable to remove his eyes from it.

The Solitary Reaper

Wordsworth’s The Solitary Reaper is an example of his fundamental belief that poetry was, “Emotion recollected in tranquillity.” It is, on the surface, a very simple poem in which a walker is inspired by hearing the singing of a lovely, but poor Scottish girl working in the fields, becomes, on closer examination, a complex poem about the impact of a unique moment on a man’s sense of his own existence.

Language has a great effect, in fact it makes the experience vivid so that one of the delights of the poem is his capacity to recall the episode so naturally that it is hard to see it merely as a “literary” creation, rather than the results of a real experience simply recounted. In fact for Wordsworth the act of imagination and the feelings inspired by that were as real as any other form human experience derived by daily life. In The Solitary Reaper is also clearly connected the theme of time and death as well as the poem is open to symbolic reading.

We can notice some important romantic elements in the poem; first of all the function of the after-image in the poet’s mind which can be seen not only as a functional elements to the poetry composition but also as an other world where he can escape from the present.

S.T. Coleridge

He is remembered more for another romantic element in his poetry: the emphasis on the supernatural, the mysterious and the dreamlike. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (rime=old English for ballad), which was included in the Lyrical Ballads, he revived the traditional ballad of the Middle Ages.

The Rime of the Ancient Manner deals with imagination and fantasy. For the Lyrical Ballads he wrote 4 compositions.

In 1816 he published Kubla Khan (he was an oriental king probably met by Marco Polo during his travels): it evoked an opium dream and was a perfect example of the magical tendency present in his poetry.

Coleridge wrote under effects of drags: he was ill, affected from diseases and he suffered a lot. He was addicted to drags and abused of them, he could not write without drags. He wrote his best works under the dependence of drags. He was one of the most fascinated romantic writers.

Difference between w:

He was more interested in the supernatural, situations and conditions far away from normality

To describe supernatural he used figures of speech (? poetry becomes more difficult)

He wrote specially for himself

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)

Part of Coleridge's “Daemonic Group” of poems, which also includes “Christabel” and “Kubla Khan”, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the story of the Romantic archetype, the Wanderer, the man with the mark of Cain, doomed to walk the earth alone and alienated from all others. What is presented to the reader is a theme of guilt and remorse, juxtaposed with the background joy of a wedding feast.

An old gray-headed sailor, the idealized portrait of Coleridge as a poet, approaches three young men headed for a wedding celebration. The audience is unwilling, but is forced to hear the tale anyway. It seems that as a penance for what he has done, the Mariner is compelled to tell his story whenever the agony returns.

Immersed in a hypnotic and gothic atmosphere (unnatural events, sense of mystery, and horror, symbols and ghosts) the extraordinary events narrated leave the poem open to many interpretations.

One man speaking with another man of rather personal and emotional things is a very Romantic idea.

So, this rhythmic poem that moves the story along like a song, can talk about Coleridge’s life: Just as the mariner experienced a series of terrible events on his voyage, Coleridge’s life was difficult.

He struggled with addiction to opium, his marriage was sometimes difficult, and he certainly seems to have questioned the strength of his poetic gift. It is possible that, like the mariner, Coleridge experienced storytelling and creative urges in connection with feelings of guilt and failure and saw the creation of a poem as an act that is fundamentally cathartic and which expurgates guilt.

There are several religious references in the poem, for example God, Christ, Holiness and Lord. Then you can read The mariner as a moral parable of man, from original sin to his final redemption, or as an allegory of life, where the ship is a microcosm in which every deed of a single person has a repercussion on others.

Coleridge's interests always lay with the exotic and the supernatural, which he hoped to make more real for his readers by employing simple, straightforward language in an archaic English ballad form. In this relatively brief poem, he succeeds in making the extraordinary believable.

Anyway this poem is an outpouring of emotions that creates an exotic and magic atmosphere, according to the best works of English romanticism.

Task of the poet

TASK OF THE POET:

Wordsworth: the poet is a man speaking to men but he is more sensitive, he can understand men in a deeper way, he teach to enter into community with nature.

Coleridge: he start form ordinary experience to create a timeless world full of striking images. The reader is naturally led to a willing suspension of disbelief.

nature

Wordsworth: he is the poet of nature, three different meanings: as a countryside opposed to town, as a source of feelings, as an active force expression of god.

Coleridge: it’s a divine power and all natural creature must be respected. Is not a comfort for man but something that destroys.

the rime of the ancient mariner

There was an old mariner who stopped one man from a group of three. “Why do you stop me with your long grey beard and your keen eyes?

The doors of the bride’s house are already opened, and I’m a close relates; the guests are arrived, the party is begun: can’t you hear the happy row?”

The mariner held him with his very thin hands and said: “There was a ship…”. But soon the guest tried to leave him: “Hold off! Get away, you old fool!”.

The old one held the guest again with his hypnotic eyes and the man stayed, and listened like a very young kid: the mariner had caught his attention.

The guest sat on a stone and he cannot do without hearing; and then the bright-eyed mariner began to tell his story to the guest.

“The ship had left the docks, the port was left in a happily way. We passed near by the church, below the hill, below the lighthouse top.

“The Sun (personification of JUSTICE) appeared at our left, he came out of the sea. And he shone bright, and then he wen down to the sea on our right.”

They sailed a lot till they reached the Line.

When the guest heard the bridal music he wanted to go away, but the mariner went on with his story.

“Then the Storm (personification of ENEMY) came in a strong a tyrannous way, and he pushed us south along.

“The masts of the ship were sloping and the prow was sinking; the ship itself was sailing fast chased by wind; but suddenly the wind stopped, the roar became less loud and we found ourselves at the South Pole.

“And here we found fog and snow, and a wonder and unusual cold; and ice, ice everywhere, green as emerald.

“The snowy hills shone with a depressing light and there was no men and no animals; the ice covered everything crackling and roaring.”

Then a great albatross (personification of SPIRIT GUIDE) appeared in the sky and the companionship received it with great joy. Suddenly the wind begun to blow and it pushed the ship from behind, as the albatross carried it. But the mariner shot the bird and killed it (=action AGAINST NATUTRE with no reason at all ? irrationality of crime).

“The Sun now rose again, he came out of the sea still hidden by mist and again he went down into the sea on the left.

“The good wind from behind still blew the sails but no bird was following us. And there was neither food nor joy on the ship.

“I had done a hellish thing, and it would cause pain. To all the mariners I was the damned one who killed the holy bird that made the breeze blow.”

But when the fog went away they damned him no more, and justified him (this made’em ACCOMPLICIES in the crime).

“The good breeze blew, the ship sailed well; we were the first to arrive at that silent sea (the Pacific Ocean).

“But suddenly the wind stopped, the sails drop down, and I and my fellows were all terrified by that silence, and tried to break it talking.

“We were under a hot and copper sky, and the little bloody Sun stayed upon us (the Judge is furious).

“Day after day we were always in the same place, as stuck as in a painting.

“There was only water around us, but all the woods of the ship were dry, and we had nothing to drink.

“The sea was rot and…oh my God…it could not be! But slimy creatures were crawling in the sea.

“Death-fires were dancing mad at night, and the sea seemed like green, blue and white oil.”

A Spirit had followed them; not an angel, nor a ghost but one of the inhabitants of Nature.

“Oh my God! My mates had evil looks on me, they throw all the guilt on me, an in sign of my sin, they hung the Albatross around my neck”.

While the ship is still stuck and haunted in the middle of the ocean, a phantom ship appeared with two ghosts on it: Death & Life in death (with medieval features). They were casting dice to establish which of them had to take the mariner’s soul or the souls of the others.

Death won the crew and they suddenly died. The ancient mariner remained there for 7 days and 7 nights becoming quite mad. Every element of Nature was against him.

At this very moment of the story the guest feared the old man ‘cause he thought he was a talking ghost. But the ancient mariner assured him he was not and proceeded on his tale:

“I was alone in the wide sea with my agony, and no saint took pity on me.

“The men were all died and all those terrible creatures in the sea could live with me.

“I looked upon the rotting sea and upon the deck, but everywhere there were only images of decay.

“I looked above the sky and tried to pray, but before doing it a immoral thought came to me and made my heart dry”.

He felt observed by the corps and he could not stand this situation…he thought there was a curse on him.

Although his life was lonely the Stars and the Moon (=FORGIVENESS) were still shining in the sky, and they reached every night their home with a silent JOY.

“Beyond the shadow of the ship I watched those snakes; they were moving in shining white paths and when they came out of the water they were illumined by a magic light, as the foam they did diving.

“Within the shadow of the ship I watched their nice appearance: they were blue green and black, and every track they did swimming was of golden fire.

“Oh happy living things! They now seemed to me as beautiful creatures, only love could come out from my heart and I blessed them. Now surely a saint was having mercy on me.

“At that very moment I could pray and from my neck the albatross fell down, and sank into the sea”.

It began raining (=new baptism) and a troop of angels came down from the sky and entered into the bodies of the others mariners making them alive.

Now the old mariner felt uneasy with his living fellows because of his remorse, it was as they were haunting him. Then a boat came close to their ship: there were two persons on it: the pilot and a hermit (=CONFESSOR). The mariner had to pass on that boat and in this very moment all the crew on the ship died again, and the ship sank. So the mariner could be brung to the shore. His penance was to tell his story to everyone he met.

“Good-bye my guest! I have to tell you this: you have to love both man and beast,

“Both great things and small! Because dear God loves us and He made and loves all”.

Then the mariner went away, with his bright eyes and his long beard, and the Wedding-guest entered the house of the bride.

He was upset and shocked, sadder but wiser.