The Romantic Poets: Living outside of existing concepts

1. The Romantic Poets: Living outside of existing concepts English IV: AP and Dual Credit

2. Key Characteristics • Absolute originality • Poetry is “prior” to other theological or moral philosophies • Unlike other periods of literature that were meaning dependent upon theology, history, philosophy • Artistic inspiration by the individual genius • “creation from nothingness” • “the institution of originality”—John Milton pioneered the concept (though he would likely be horrified by the results) • Became a cult of sensibility (not reason, SENSES) • Focused more on women, children, “noble savage”, “pure” nature, the common man. • Sentimentality, exoticism, nature, human aspiration • Shake off oppression: Prometheus Rising!

3. Rousseau’s “Noble Savage” • Goodness is innate/natural • “goodness in the sense that one has not been exposed to evil” • Think the Creature BEFORE his understanding of absolute and utter alienation. • For the Romantics, this underscores the notion of celebrating the dignity and goodness of the common man. • Not that man is necessarily moral if left to his own devices—hence, the social contract. • Rousseau is responding to Hobbes who believed man had no natural or innate goodness

4. British Romanticism • Typically, the British Romantic period is listed as beginning in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (Coleridge and Wordsworth) • However, a number of poets were already investigating many of the ideas that would shape the movement in the coming years. • One such poet is William Blake. • Writes in the tradition of Spencer and Milton (though they were Christian, and the Romantics were not) • Blake thought of himself as a Christian, but was not a theist in any orthodox sense.

5. William Blake: The Early Romantic

6. Songs of Innocence—1789 • Songs of Experience—1794 • The full title of the 1794 edition: Songs of Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul • Poems should be read together in order to grasp true meaning. A one-sided reading will produce the wrong answer/analysis • Here, Blake demonstrates a consciousness towards the Miltonian idea of how/why good and evil exists in world presumably ruled by a benevolent God.

7. Blake’s modes of perception • Became very popular for the Romantics • Childhood--a time of protected innocence, but it is not immune to the fallen world, to evil • Here, the human spirit blossoms because it is unfettered, the imagination is not tempered by rules Experience—marked by the loss of childhood vitality, innocence, awareness of evil, fear, and inhibition • Here, the human spirit withers because of the addition of rules, doctrines, traditions

8. Infant Joy The Lamb The Chimney-Sweeper The Blossom Infant Sorrow The Tyger The Chimney Sweeper A Poison Tree Contrary States

9. How do both exist? And, do they have the same Creator? Do these two entities speak to the nature of man?

10. Written to imitate biblical prophecy Written in prose except for the opening argument Depicts the poet’s visit to Hell, imitating both Dante and Milton Blake depicts hell not as the home of Satan, but rather the place where the repressed live, those who are striving to overcome authoritative constraints (a truly Romantic ideal) Became a fierce proclamation to shake off tyranny The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: William Blake

11. Famous quotes from Marriage • “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom” • “the tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction” • "Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell."

12. Born in 1795 (3 years old when Coleridge/Wordsworth publish Lyrical Ballads) Studied to be a physician, but then learned he was dying—so he took up the pen. His work is characterized by sensual imagery, and a preoccupation with the idea of mortality Often described as having the “healthiest” imagination of all the Romantic poets John Keats

13. --passionate love affair with Fanny Brawne; many of his poems are written to her --dies in Feb. of 1821, relatively unknown and unread --Keats become one of the most influential and beloved writers of the latter half of the Romantic period. “A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever” --Keats

14. Remember. . . • Romanticism was a revolt against • Industrialization • Enlightenment (not perceived through human senses) • The Romantics valued • Imagination over logic • Nature • Sensation/senses • Shaking off tyranny/opposition • Common man/rejection of aristocratic ideas (though Byron did love his title)

15. The Ideals of the Time • Walter Pater: “It is the addition of strangeness to beauty that constitutes the romantic character in art” • William Blake: “I must create a system or become enslaved by another man’s” • William Wordsworth: “In nature and the language of the sense/The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse/ The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/ Of all my moral being.” • Percy Shelley: “the great instrument of moral good is the imagination”