Warm Up

1. Warm Up • In what way can nature inspire artists and writers?

2. Daily Objective • Today I will explain the relationship between the essential concepts of Romanticism in Wordsworth’s poems by writing a paragraph that identifies and explains three of these essential concepts

3. Romanticism at a Glance

4. Birth of Romanticism • In general, scholars claim that “romanticism,” in the arts, began around the French Revolution in 1789 • Like the liberty and individualism expressed in the ideals of the French Revolution (and consequently throughout Europe), Romantic poets also stressed individual expression and experimentation

5. Key Elements of Romanticism • The idea that poetry is “new.” That is, poetry is something created anew by each individual writer on his/her personal experience. • Spontaneity and Freedom: Poetry should flow from the individual, as free as an act of nature. As Shelley claims in “Ode to the West Wind” : “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!” • Love of Nature: Nature is often a subject of writing for the Romantic poets. However, more often than not, Nature is used as a stimulus to an individual’s own thinking and a connection to the “divine within.”

6. Reaction to Neoclassicism Neoclassical Writers Romantic Writers Stressed reason Wrote about issues concerning the whole of society Believed in divine order of all things Exercised controlled wit Followed formal rules and diction in poetry Stressed emotion and imagination Wrote about subjective experience, such as desire, hopes and dreams Believed in spontaneity and experimentation Celebrated intense passion and vision Sought a more natural poetic form

7. Wordsworth • Born in 1770, William Wordsworth was sent to the finest schools in England, including Cambridge University. However, he found school life stifling and artificial and preferred the spontaneity of nature. • Wordsworth is often referred to as a “nature poet,” since he saw nature as a prime source of inspiration. • Wordsworth’s romantic philosophy valued imagination and emotion over reason and stressed the importance of the individual. It also placed poetry at the very center of human experience.

8. Wordsworth We will next read two poems by Wordsworth. As we read you will identify and then explain how he uses the following key concepts in his writing. • The concept that nature is holy, and we can experience the Divine through nature • The concept of individual expression • The concept of personal introspection and personal creation of meaning, rather than a universal and objective classical order