英美文学选读(英国)浪漫主义时期笔记

Chapter 3 The Romantic Period

1.

The Romantic Period:

The Romantic period is the period generally said to have begun in 1798 with the

publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s

Lyrical Ballads

and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott’s

death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament. It is emphasized the special qualities of each

individual’s mind.

2.

Social background:

a. during this period, England itself had experienced profound economic and social changes. The primarily

agricultural society had been replaced by a modern industrialized one.

b. With the British Industrial Revolution coming into its full swing, the capitalist class came to dominate not

only the means of production, but also trade and world market.

3.

The Romantic Movement:

it expressed a more or less negative attitude toward the existing social and

political

conditions

that

came

with

industrialization

and

the

growing

importance

of

the

bourgeoise.

The

romantics demontrated a a strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18

th

-century writers

and

philosophers.

They

saw

man

as

an

individual

in

the

solitary

state.

Thus,

the

Romanticism

actually

constitutes a change of direction from the outer world of social

civilization to the inner world of the human

spirit.

The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats are the

major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as

the

poetic

revolution.

Wordsworth

and

Coleridge

were

the

major

representatives

of

this

movement.

Wordsworth defines the poet as a “man speaking to men”, and poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful

feelings.

”

Imagination,

defined

by

Coleridge,

is

the

vital

faculty

that

creates

new

wholes

out

of

disparate

elements.

The

Romantics

not

only

extol

the

faculty

of

imamgination,

but

also

elevate

the

concepts

of

spontaneity and inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true poetry. The natural world comes to the

forefront of the poetic imagination. Nature is not only the major source of the poetic imagery, but also provides

the dominant subject mattre. It is in solitude, in communion with the natural universe, that man can exercise

this most valuable of faculties.

Romantics

also

tend

to

be

nationalistic,

defending

the

great

poets

and

dramatists

of

their

own

national

heritage against the advocates of classical rules.

Poetry

: to the Romantics, poetry should be free from all would turn to the humble people and the

common everyday life for subjects.

Prose

:

It’s also a great age of prose. With education greatly developed for the middle

-class people, there was a

rapid

growth in the reading public and an increasing demand for reading materials.

Romantics made literary

comments on the writers with high standards, which paved the way for the development of a new and valuable

type

of

critical

writings.

Colerige,

Hazlitt,

Lamb,

and

De

Quincey

were

the

leading

figures

in

this

new

development.

Novel

: the 2 major novelists of the period are Jane Austen and Walter Scott.

Gothic novel: a tyoe of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18

th

century, was one of the Romantic

movement.

Its

principal

elements

are

violence,

horror,

and

the

supernatural,

which

strongly

appeal

to

the

reader

’

s emotion.

With is description of the dark, irritional side of human nature, the Gothic form

exerted a

great influence over the writers of the Romantic period.

3.

Ballads:

the most important form of popular literature; flourished during the 15

th

century; Most written

down in 18

th

century; mostly written in quatrains; Most important is the Robin Hood ballads.

4.

Romanticism:

it is romanticism is a literary trend. It prevailed in England during the period of 1798-1832.

Romanticists were discontent with and opposed to the development of capitalism. They split into two groups.

Some

Romantic

writers

reflected

the

thinking

of

those

classes

which

had

been

ruined

by

the

bourgeoisie

called Passive Romantic poets represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey.

Others

expressed

the

aspiration

of

the

labouring

classes

called

Active

or

Revolutionary

Romantic

poets

represented by Byron and Shelley and Keats.

5.

Lake Poets:

Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey have often been mentioned as the “Lake Poets”

because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England

6.

Byronic

Hero

a

proud,

mysterious

rebelling

figure

of

noble

origin

rights

all

the

wrongs

in

a

corrupt

society, and is

against any kind

of tyrannical

rules;

It

appeared first

in

Childe H

arold’s

Pilgrimage and then

further developed in later works as the Oriental Tales, Manfred and Don Juan; the figure is somewhat modeled

on the life and personality of Byron himself, and makes Byron famous both at home and abroad.

7.

Main Writers:

A.

William Blake(1757-1827)

:

1.

Literarily,

Blake

was

the

first

important

Romantic

poet,

showing

a

comtempt

for

the

rule

of

reason,

opposing the calssical tradition of the 18

th

century,and treasuring the individual

’

s imagination.

2. His first printed work, Poetic Skelches, is a collection of youthful verse. Joy, laughter, love and harmony

are the prevailing notes.

3. The Songs of Innocence is a lovely volume of of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though

not

without

its

evils

and

sufferings.

The

wretched

child

described

in

“

The

Chimney

Sweeper,

”

orphaned,

exploited, yet touched by visionary rapture, evokes unbearable poignancy when he finally puts his trust in the

order

of

the

universe

as

he

knows

it.

Blake

experimented

in

meter

and

rhyme

and

introduced

bold

metrical

innovations which could not be found in the poetry of his contemporaries.

4. The Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression

with a malancholy tone. The little chinmney sweeper sings

“

notes of woe

”

while his parents go to the church

and praise

“

God & his Priest & King

”—

the very intrument of their repression. A number of poems in the Songs

of Experience also find a counterpart in the Songs of Experience. The 2 books hold the similar subject-matter,

but the tone, emphasis and conclusion differ.

5. Childhood is central to Blake

’

s concern in the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, and this

concern

gives

the

2

books

a

strong

social

and

historical

reference.

The

two

“

Chimney

Sweeper

”

poems

are

good examples to reveal the relation between an economic ciecumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and

an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making people compliant to exploitation.

The

poem

from

the

Songs

of

Innocence

indicates

the

conditions

which

make

religion

a

consolation,

a

prospect

“

illusionary

happiness;

”

the

poem

from

the

Songs

of

Experience

reveals

the

nature

of

religion

which

helps

bring misery to the poor children.

6. Blake

’

s Marriage of Heaven and Hell marks his entry into maturity. The poem plays the double role both

as

a

satire

and

a

revolutionary

prophecy.

Blake

explores

the

relationship

of

the

contrries.

Attraction

and

repulsion,

reason

and

energy,

love

and

hate,

are

necessary

to

human

existence.

The

“

Marriage

”

means

the

reconciliation of the contraries, not the subordination of the one to the other.

Main works: Poetical Sketches

Songs of Innocence

is a lovely volume of poems

Holy Thursday

reminds us terribly of a world of loss and institutional cruelty.

Songs of Experience

paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a

melancholy tone.

Marriage of Heaven and Hell

The book of Urizen

The Book of Los

The Four Zoas

Milton

7.

Language Character: he writes his poems in plain and direct language. His poems often carry the lyric

beauty

with

immense

compression

of

meaning.

He

distrusts

the

abstractness

and

tends

to

embody

his

views

with visual images. Symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.

B.

William Wordsworth(1770-1850)

In 1842 he received a government pension, and in the following year

he succeeded Southey as Poet Laureate.

Lyrical Ballads:

But

the

Lyrical

Ballads

differs

in

marked

ways

from

his

early

poetry,

notably

the

uncompromising

simplicity of much of the language, the strong sympathy not merely with the poor in general but with particular,

dramatized examples of them, and the fusion of natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.

Short poems:

According to the subjects, Wordsworth

’

s short poems can be calssified into two groups: poems about nature

and poems about human life.

Wordsworth

is

regarde

as

a

“

worshipper

of

nature.

”

He

can

penetrate

to

the

heart

of

things

and

give

the

reader

the

very

life

of

nature.

“I

Wandered

Lonely

as

a

Cloud

”

is

perhaps

the

most

anthologized

poem

in

english literature, and one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth

’

s poetic beliefs. It

’

s nature that gives him

“

strength and knowledge full of peace.

”

Wordswoth

thinks

that

common

life

is

the

only

subject

of

literary

interest.

The

joys

and

sorrows

of

the

common people are his themes.

“

The Solitary Reaper

”

and

“

To a Highland Girl

”

use rural figures to suggest the

timeless mystery of sorrowful humanity and its radiant beauty. In its daring use of subject matter and sense of

the authenticity of the experience of the poorest,

“

Resolution and Independence

”

is the triumphant conclusion

of ideas first developed in the Lyrical Ballads.

Wordsworth is a poet in memory of the past. To him, life is a cyclical journey. Its beginning finally turns out

to be its end. His philosophy of life is presented in his masterpiece The Prelude.

Wordsworth deliberate simplicity and refusal to decorate the truth of experience produced a kind of pure and

profoud poetry which no othr poet has ever equaled. He maintained that the scenes and events of everyday life

and the speech of ordinary people were the raw material of which poetry could and should be made.

Main Works:

Descriptive Sketches, and Evening Walk

Lyrical Ballads.

The Prelude

Poems in Two Volumes

Ode: Intimations of Immortality

Resolution and Independence.

The Excursion

Poets:

The

Sparrow’s

Nest,

To

a

Skylark,

To

the

Cuckoo,

To

a

Butterfly,

I

Wandered

Lonely

as

a

Cloud( is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English literature.), An Evening Walk, My Heart Leaps up,

Tintern Abbey

The Thorn

The sailor’s mother

Michael,

The Affliction of Margaret

The Old Cumberland Beggar

Lucy Poems

The Idiot Boy