Transcript ROMANTICISM: The Second Generation Poets

ROMANTICISM
The Second
Generation
Poets:
Byron
Shelley
Keats
This second generation of romantics rebelled
even more strongly against British
conservatism, and as cultural figures,
Byron, Shelley, & Keats became like punk
rock stars in England.
Live fast, die young.
This would be an apt motto for Byron,
Shelley, & Keats since all three died
tragically in their youth.
George Gordon, Lord Byron
(1788-1824)
Member of the
House of Lords,
Byron was
handsome,
egotistical, and
aloof, the darling
of elegant society.
• Byron was considered highly attractive
and affable
• Shelley said of him “scarcely have I seen
such a beautiful countenance.”
• Yet, Byron was hindered by being born
with a clubbed foot, something for which
he would be highly self-conscious &
determined to overcome…
Byron lived a flamboyant life; he
was fashionable, prone to
debauchery, and given to affairs of
the heart.
He ran around with married women,
married and divorced a cousin, had
a romance (and child) with his half
sister, and engaged in homosexual
experiences.
Although, Byron never considered
himself to be defined by a sexuality.
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”
—Lady Caroline Lamb
Shocked by his radical politics and
scandalous love affairs, Byron was shunned
by London society, so he left Britain in 1816,
never to return.
The Irresistible Bad Boy:
The Byronic Hero
Devastatingly Attractive yet
Fatally Flawed
A man proud, moody, cynical,
with defiance on his brow,
and misery in his heart, a
scorner of his kind,
implacable in revenge, yet
capable of deep and strong
affection.
In short, a Byronic Hero is the
“bad boy” that women’s
mothers warn them about.
Action not Words
Byron’s friendship with Shelley led him to
come to find words (i.e. poetry) were
insufficient in bringing change about…
Hence, Byron started to become involved in
causes. Specifically, he addressed the
struggle in Greece against the Ottomans.
Lord Byron died of a fever at age 36
while fighting for Greek
independence.
To this day, Byron is revered in
Greece as a national hero.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792-1822)
• Byron’s friend, also an aristocrat and
political radical, more radical than Byron.
• Shelley urged England’s lower classes to
rebel.
• Shelley was expelled from Oxford for writing
an essay called “The Necessity of Atheism”
• He was said to have a calm demeanor but
his motives were always questioned…
Shelley remarked that despite his “good
intentions”, his world seemed to
continually fall into chaos and
trouble…which likely led his first marriage
collapsing.
Shelley had numerous affairs on Harriet,
including running away with Mary. In the
end, am ashamed and broken Harriet
committed suicide.
Shelley’s second marriage to Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin(author of
Frankenstein) would last until the poet’s
death in 1822.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792-1822)
Byron was so fond of Shelley,
he said “he was the best
and least selfish man…I
never knew one who wasn’t
a beast in comparison.
Shunned for his radical ideas,
Shelley left England for
good in 1818
Shelley died in a
boating accident just
before his 30th
birthday. Foul play
has always been
suspected.
In his coat pockets
were two books: the
Bible and book of
Keats’ poems.
John Keats (1795-1821)
• A master of lyrical
poetry
• Born outside of
upper-class society
• Contracted
tuberculosis and,
hoping to recuperate
in a warmer climate,
moved to Italy where
he died shortly after.
Keats never married and of the
Big 3 Second Gen Romantics, he
died the youngest.
He knew he was ill and knew, too,
that he would succumb and die
from the consumption.
Therefore, Keats’ verse has an
intensity and drive that perhaps
had not been seen in poetry prior
to him. In fact, his entire body of
work was composed in about one
year.
John Keats
wrote
“Here lies
one whose
name was
writ in
water.”
“She Walks in Beauty”
by Lord Byron
This sonnet vividly describes a
woman’s beauty, capturing its
essential power and linking it to
universal images.
“Ozymandias”
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
This poem provides an ironic comment on
human pride and ambition. A traveler
describes the ruins of an ancient statue of a
ruler. On its base is an arrogant inscription;
however, what is left of the statue stands in
an empty desert, for the works of
Ozymandias have crumbled under the
onslaught of time and nature.
“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Political Commentary
Poetry became also specifically
political and socially critical.
Offered opinions on political
issues, built arguments on
evidence and assumptions
The Reaction to Society’s Ills (Byron
and Shelley)
• Lord Byron’s speech to the House of Lords
(1817) was in defense of workers who had
sabotaged factory equipment that had put
them out of work.
• Shelley’s “A Song: ‘Men of England’” (1820)
is an angry response to news of the growing
economic suffering and political oppression
of the working classes in England.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”
John Keats
• Keats found in beauty the highest value our
imperfect world could offer, and he put its
pursuit at the center of his poetry.
• He explored the beauty he found in the most
ordinary circumstances.
Ode
A lyric poem characterized by
heightened emotion, that pays respect
to a person or thing, usually directly
addressed by the speaker
While other poets described objects,
Keats PRESENTED them…
Keats’s Use of the Ode
Keats created his own form of
the ode, using 10-line
stanzas of iambic
pentameter, beginning with a
heroic quatrain (4 lines
rhymed abab) followed by a
sestet.
“When I Have Fears That I May
Cease to Be” by John Keats
The speaker expresses fears that he
will not live to fulfill his potential.
Keats died less than three years
after he wrote it.
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats
Keats comes to an understanding about
the nature of truth and beauty as he
gazes at an ancient Greek urn. The
scenes, frozen in time, eternally
beautiful and unchanging, symbolize
that the urn’s beauty embodies the
eternity of truth.
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by
John Keats
Who
addressed
Stanza II
Stanza III
Stanza IV
What it can’t
do/be
What it can
do/be
“Thou still unravished bride of quietness
Thou foster child of silence and slow
time...”
“Ode to a Nightingale”
by John Keats
Keats’s poem is not about or on the
nightingale, but to the bird. The
speaker passes beyond the limit of
ordinary experience and becomes too
happy in the experience conveyed in
the bird’s song.
The poem consists of a series of
propositions, each containing its own
rejection as to how the speaker might
imitate the “ease” of the song. Each
time, the speaker is drawn back to his
“sole self,” to a preference for poetry
as a celebration of human life as a
process of soul making.
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=14854
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
by John Keats
An unidentified passerby asks the knight
what is wrong. The knight answers
that he has been in love with and
abandoned by a beautiful lady. But
what does it mean? What is the
meaning of the knight’s experience?
Was the knight deluded by his beloved,
or did he delude himself?
1. What is the most important word in the
descriptions of the woman, and why?
2. Who are the two speakers?
3. How do the poem’s images help you
visualize the knight and the time of year?
4. Interpret the dream in stanza 10.
5. What does the knight realize has happened
when he awakes?