ROMANTICISM

Janice Laxamana, Lauren Butao, Justin Reyes,

Alyanna Maliksi

ROMANTICISM R

omanticism is an emotional response to the Neoclassical Era• Neoclassical is revival of a classical style (in art or literature , architecture,

music) but from a new perspective or with a new motivation• While the neoclassical era had strict laws of balance and restraint, the

Romantic era moved away from that by allowing artistic freedom, experimentation, and creativity

I

t rejected the order and restrictions of neoclassicism in favor of individual freedom of

expression and greater emphasis on feeling – not only love , but intense emotions

such as hate, depression, pain, etc.

I

t emphasizes both nature and human imagination; Intuition over reason

F

avored more natural, emotional and personal artistic themes

THEMES AND TECHNIQUES

Emotion Involves subjects

such as death, love, hate, despair, or dream.

Conflict Conveys a sense

drama or tragedy

Ex: life – death , love –hate , dream – vision.

Exoticism Conveys a sense

of strangeness

Irony Emphasizes message of

the poem Imagery

Illustrates the emotional setting and situation of a poem

Allusions Reference to exotic history

or culture, such as Greece.

Tone shift + Paradox Emphasizes emotional

message Metaphors, Similes,

comparisons. Emphasizes imagery or

emotion Personification

L

ived from May 31, 1819 to March 26, 1892.

S

econd son of Walter Whitman.

F

amily consisted of nine children.

L

ived in Brooklyn and Long Island.

A

merican poet, essayist, journalist.

W

orked as a journalist, teacher, government clerk & in addition

to publishing poetry was a volunteer nurse during American

Civil War.

O

ften called “father of free verse”.

F

ounded a weekly newspaper, Long-Islander.

WALT WHITMAN

NOTABLE WORKS

F

ranklin Evans (1842)

L

eaves of Grass (1855)

D

rum-Taps (1865)

M

emoranda During the War

D

emocratic Vistas (1871)

A NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER (1871)

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood, isolated,

Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament out of itself,Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,

Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my Soul.

ANALYSIS A

lliteration: “vacant vast surrounding” “It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself”

P

ersonification: “O my soul where you stand”

A

postrophe: Soul

T

one: Dark, lonely

P

OV Shift: From spider to soul.

T

heme: Hopelessness

M

etaphor: Comparing a spider to a human.• The spider is trying to find something to build and connect a web and the human/soul is trying to build connections to the world to

find a place in the universe.

H

ow it fits into movement:• Speaker uses the spider as a symbol of himself. He is emotional and feels lonely/isolated from the world.• Connects universe to nature.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLY

L

ived from 1792-1822 in Horsham, Sussex, England

E

xpelled from Oxford University for his atheistic views

and became

estranged from his father – his rough times was

where his

controversial philosophical and works developed

S

helley found friendship with notable Romanticist poets

 John Keats and

Lord George Gordon Byron, and was

influenced by

William Wordsworth

P

ercy and Byron inspired Mary Shelly for her most famous novel Frankenstein, which Percy wrote the introduction for.

H

e died in one of his sailing ventures at age 29

NOTABLE WORKS

Q

ueen Mab: A Philosophical Poem (1813)

O

zymandias (1818)

M

asque of Anarchy (1819)

O

de to the West Wind (1820)

N

ote: Shelley often attracted criticism and controversy for his outspoken challenges

to oppression, religion, and convention

LOVES PHILOSOPHY (1819)

T

he fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the Ocean,

The winds of Heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

Why not I with thine? --

S

ee the mountains kiss high Heaven

And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth

And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

If thou kiss not me?

ANALYSISF

irst Stanza: Shelley uses elements of nature – river , ocean, winds, etc. – puts them in pairs, and depicts their dependence

on one another

• All the beauty in this world is connected as one and balance each other – same goes for humans &what connects individuals is love• He connects nature and humans by personifying them “fountains mingle with the river”• Everything in this world has a pair and dependence on one another• Humans are dependent creatures who needs these connections with their pair and needs love for survival ‘Nothing in the world is single All things by a law divine In anothers being mingle – why not I with thine”• Therefore, the speaker states he shouldn’t be single – the speaker is unable to find a bond, therefore his Love is unrequited.

S

econd Stanza: Shelley depicts how elements in nature unite • Diction: uses words like “mingle” “clasp” and “kiss” – love needs to be spiritual as well as physically

connected• The word "clasp" suggests that the speaker wants to physically join together with his pair / beloved• In order for the speaker to secure and view the love to be real, he must receive a kiss “what are all these

kissingsWorth, if thou not kiss me?

Finding love is perceived natural, but it is actually a very difficult task

WILLIAM WORDSWORTHW

ordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumbia, England.

H

e attended Hawkshead Grammer School, where his love of poetry was established.

S

tudied at St. John's College in Cambridge, but before his final semester he decided to tour around Europe, an experience

that has enhanced his poetic and political sensibilities.

During his tour, he came into contact with the French Revolution, this

experience

brought about Wordsworth interest in the life, troubles,

and speech of the

"common man".

W

ordsworth’s most famous poem is the Prelude(1850), it is

considered to be

the crowning achievement of English romanticism.

NOTABLE WORKS

T

he Prelude(1850)

A

n Evening Walk(1793)

D

escriptive Sketches(1793)

B

orders(1795)

ANALYSIS

T

he poem is apostrophe, Wordsworth is speaking to someone who isn't there.

H

e personifies a plant with love "Is thy love a plant of such weak fibre that the treacherous air of absence withers what was once so fair?" -instead of growing like

plants do their love is withering away.

"

Be left more desolate, more dreary cold than a forsaken birds-nest fill'd with snow" -He uses a simile to compare the feeling of being neglected to an abandoned

birds-nest.

H

e talks about how he is vigilant and bound service

W

hen a bird abandons their nest the eggs will die

A

lso words like cold and snow symbolize death = passion/love is dying

A

t the end he says "Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know." He wants them to speak and let him know if his doubts have been true.

D

uring the movement there was a heightened interest in nature and in this poem Wordsworth relates his feelings to nature.

H

e is addressing his peers who aren't returning his feelings and is unsure of what to do.

W

ordsworth questions why they are silent and why there is no return in affection.

SPEAK! (1800)

WHY art thou silent! Is thy love a plant

Of such weak fibre that the treacherous air

Of absence withers what was once so fair?

Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant?

Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant--

Bound to thy service with unceasing care,

The mind's least generous wish a mendicant

For naught but what thy happiness could spare.

Speak -- though this soft warm heart, once free to hold

A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,

Be left more desolate, more dreary cold

Than a forsaken bird's-nest fill'd with snow

'Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine--

Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know.

JOHN KEATS 1795-1821

Five siblings, Two parents.

His father died in an accident, and his mother

died of Tuberculosis, a common disease in the

Romantic era.

Intended to become a medic

After officially becoming a published poet, he disposed of all his older poems.

Diagnosed with Tuberculosis, unable to associate with his loved one, Fanny

Brawne

Passed away at the age of 25

His experiences in life can be seen in his poetry.

NOTABLE WORKS

1818-Endymion: A Poetic Romance

1819-Ode to. . . a Psyche, on a Grecian Urn, a Nightingale, Indolence, Melancholy -The Fall of Hyperion (incomplete) -(Drama) - Otho the Great

1820-Lamia

A DRAUGHT OF SUNSHINE (1818)

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port,

Away with old Hock and madeira,

Too earthly ye are for my sport;

There's a beverage brighter and clearer.

Instead of a piriful rummer,

My wine overbrims a whole summer;

My bowl is the sky,

And I drink at my eye,

Till I feel in the brain

A Delphian pain -

Then follow, my Caius! then follow:

On the green of the hill

We will drink our fill

Of golden sunshine,

Till our brains intertwine

With the glory and grace of Apollo!

God of the Meridian,

And of the East and West,

To thee my soul is flown,

And my body is earthward press'd.

ANALYSIS (1)

B

egins as happy, sunshine.

S

unshine is a metaphor for alcohol. Alcohol makes pain go away

M

any of allusions to Greek mythology

R

hyme scheme starts off s ABAB, then shifts to AABB. Foreshadows the shift in tone, featured in the second half of the poem.

V

arious examples of imagery.

ANALYSIS (2)

T

one shift, from happy and optimistic, to sad and pessimistic. Take note of the emotion.

S

imile comparing the author’s life to a mother’s natural instinct to protect her

young. Author is suffering from his wants and needs

A

llusions to Greek mythology

S

harp imagery emphasizes emotion of the Romantics.

ROMANTICISM QUIZ

1

. Romanticism is an emotional response to what era?• A. Neoclassical Era• B. Medieval Era • C. Renaissance Era• D. New Era

2

. What types of themes were mainly favored during the romanticism era? • A. Emotional • B. Personal Artistic• C. Both B&C• D. None of these

3

. True of False: Romanticism emphasizes both nature and human

imagination.

4

. Which one of these poems is William Wordsworth’s most famous

poem?• A. The Prelude• B. An Evening Walk• C. Descriptive Sketches• D. Borders

5

. Who was often called the "father of free verse"?• A. John Keats • B. Walt Whitman• C. William Wordsworth• D. Percy Shelley

RESOURCES

h

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

h

ttp://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126

h

ttp://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/66

h

ttp://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/179

h

ttp://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/296

R

omanticism is an art / literature / poetry movement that

emphasizes on individual freedom of expression and feeling

– not only love, but hatred, despair, depression, etc. Create

a poem / write a paragraph about a situation that evoked

intense emotions as the ones listed above.

T

hree brave students that present will receive a prize.

LESSON