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Europe : In Neoclassicism Era i.) Massive industrialization and urbanization – During this period, London became the urban centre of industrial development and huge masses of people migrated to the cities in search of jobs. Village/countrysides were neglected.
PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS It simply means....Dos & Dont’s of Writing Poetry It is a text of literary criticism It is considered the Manifesto of Romanticism It deals with: • The content of poetry • The language of poetry • The features of the poet • The definition of poetry
Wordsworth and Coleridge set out to overturn what they considered the priggish, learned, and highly sculpted forms of 18th-century English poetry and to make poetry accessible to the average person via verse written in common, everyday language. These two major poets emphasize the vitality of the living voice used by the poor to express their reality. This language also helps assert the universality of human emotions. Even the title of the collection recalls rustic forms of art – the word "lyrical" links the poems with the ancient rustic bards and lends an air of spontaneity, while "ballads" are an oral mode of storytelling used by the common people.
THE CONTENT OF POETRY • The poet chooses to relate and to describe incidents and situations from common life. • Everything expressed implies the use of the imagination. • Interest is added by tracing events and situations in the way people associate ideas in a state of excitement. • Common/ordinary and rustic life is chosen. • Poetry should present ordinary things in an unusual way.
THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY • The poet should use a selection of language really used by men and women. • The language has to be familiar, plain and simple. • The poet should convey feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. • The language of common people should be purified from defects and pretentions.
THE FEATURES OF THE POET • He is a man speaking to men. • He has a more lively sensibility, enthusiasm and tenderness than common men. • He has got a greater knowledge of human nature and a more comprehensive soul. • He contemplates volitions and passions in the Universe. • He creates passions where he does not find them.
THE DEFINITION OF POETRY • It is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. • It is originated from emotion recollected in tranquility. • Its ultimate goal is pleasure. • It is based on experience.
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads • The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further, and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement.
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads • Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings, and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and, lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads • The language, too, of these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived; and because, from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions.
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads • Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it by Poets, who think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and their art, in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression, in order to furnish food for fickle tastes, and fickle appetites, of their own creation.
1. William Wordsworth, ‘My heart leaps up’ My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die …
2. William Wordsworth, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze …
3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Frost at Midnight’. The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits Abstruser musings: save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully …
John Keats, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: ’Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness,— That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease …
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE- Along with William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge is credited with founding the Romanticism movement in England. In 1797, the two friends broke the decorum of neoclassical verse with daring original poetic works which laid emphasis on emotion and glorification of nature. The following year their collection of poetry Lyrical Ballads was published. Though the immediate reaction to Lyrical Ballads was modest, it is now considered a landmark work which changed the course of English literature and poetry by launching the influential Romantic movement. Coleridge is one of the most important figures in English poetry who deeply influenced the major poets of his era including Wordsworth. Among other things, he is credited with utilizing everyday language to express profound poetic images and ideas.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the leading “second generation” Romantic poets and he created some of the best known works of the movement. He was a controversial writer whose poems are marked by uncompromising idealism and great personal conviction. Though he produced works throughout his life, most publishers and journals declined to publish them for fear of being arrested for either blasphemy or sedition. As a result Shelley couldn’t gather a mainstream following during his lifetime. However, his popularity grew steadily following his death and ultimately he achieved worldwide fame and acclaim. Apart from being an idol for later generation of poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley also exerted influence on such prominent figures as the German philosopher Karl Marx and the Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi. He is considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.
Robert Burns -Also known as the Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet, Robert Burns is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. He is considered a pioneer of Romanticism who had a major influence on the movement. The poetic style of Burns is marked by spontaneity and sincerity; and it ranges from love to intensity to humour and satire. His best known works include Scots Wha Hae, which served as an unofficial national anthem of Soctland for many years; A Red, Red Rose, among the best known love poems; and Auld Lang Syne, which is widely sung in the western world at the stroke of midnight on New Year. Robert Burns is the most widely read Scottish poet and he is celebrated not only in his country but around the world. He remains a cultural icon in his nation and in 2009, he was voted as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.
Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats was one of the most prominent figures of the second generation of English Romantic poets. Keats died due to tuberculosis in 1821 at the age of only 25. His work was in publication for only four years and it was not generally well received by critics during his lifetime. However, his reputation grew after his death and by the end of the 19th century, he became one of the most beloved of all English poets. The most famous and acclaimed poems of Keats are a series of six odes known as the Odes of 1819. The most highly regarded among these is To Autumn, which has been called one of the most perfect short poems in the English language. Through his 1819 odes, Keats created a new type of short lyrical poem, which influenced later generations.
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, commonly known as just Lord Byron, was one of the leading figures of the Romantic Movement in early 19th century England. Byron first achieved fame with the publication of the first two cantos of his narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in 1812 and his reputation further enhanced with his four highly successful poems referred to as the “Oriental Tales”. Lord Byron is often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics due to his indulgent life and numerous love affairs. Many of his poems are autobiographic in nature and much of his work is pervaded by the Byronic hero, an idealised but flawed character capable of great passion and talent but rebellious, arrogant and self-destructive. Lord Byron is considered the leading second generation Romantic poet and he continues to be influential and widely read. FAMOUS POEMS:- POEM PUBLISHED Don Juan 1824 She Walks in Beauty 1813 Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 1818
Wordsworth,along with Coleridge, launched the Romantic Age in English literature with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798. From 1799 to 1808, he lived at the Dove Cottage in the village of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. Here he became friends with another prominent poet, Robert Southey. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey were the three main figures of the group known as Lake Poets, as they all lived in the Lake District. The years 1797 to 1808 are now recognized as the best years of Wordsworth and are known as his Great Decade. After struggling initially, Wordsworth became one of the most renowned poets in his later years and was appointed Poet Laureate of Britain in 1843. The Prelude, an autobiographical epic, is widely regarded by critics as his greatest work though his most popular poem is perhaps I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, commonly known as Daffodils. William Wordsworth is considered a pioneer of Romanticism and one of the greatest poets in English literature. FAMOUS POEMS:- POEM PUBLISHED Daffodils 1807 Tintern Abbey 1798 The Prelude 1850
Widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential and famous figures of American literature. His poems appear throughout popular culture and lines from them are often quoted. Poe is celebrated as the supreme exponent of Dark Romanticism, a genre which focuses on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement, punishment and the demonic; as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin. One of the prominent theme in his poems is the death of a young, beautiful and dearly loved woman; which he called “the most poetical topic in the world”. The best known poem of Poe is The Raven. It influenced numerous later works including the famous painting Nevermore by Paul Gauguin. Apart from being one of the most famous poets, Edgar Allan Poe is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and an important contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.
William Blake remained largely unknown during his lifetime but rose to prominence after his death and is now considered a highly influential figure in the history of poetry and one of the greatest British artists. Blake’s most renowned work in poetry is Songs of Innocence and of Experience, considered one of the leading poetic works of the Romantic era. The collection often contains poems with similar themes, and at times the same title, to contrast the innocent world of childhood in Songs of Innocence with the corruption and repression of the adult world in Songs of Experience. Blake claimed to experience visions throughout his life. He revered the Bible but was hostile to the Church of England and organized religion in general. His poetry and art often created mythical worlds full of gods and powers, and sharply criticized industrial society and the oppression of the individual. Blake is considered a key figure in Romanticism for his emphasis on subjective vision and the power of the imagination. He is also highly regarded for his expressiveness and creativity as well as for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents in his work. In 2002, William Blake was placed 38 in BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. FAMOUS POEMS:- POEM PUBLISHED The Tyger 1794 London 1794 And did those feet in ancient time 1808
