History of English Literature

I. Anglo-Saxon Period
(449---1066)
II. Medieval Period
(1066---1485)
III. English Renaissance
(1485---1625)
Elizabethan Age (1558---1602)
IV. 17th Century (Period of English Bourgeois Revolution; Puritan Age)
(1625---1660)
V. Neoclassical Period (Restoration and 18th century) (1660---1798)
VI. Romantic Period (1798---1832)
VII. Victorian Age (1833---1901)
VIII. 20th century
What and How to Learn in This Course?
1. Historical background and literary trends in every period
2. Representative writers and their important works in each literary trend
3. How to appreciate and analyze literary works
4. Necessary literary terms
5. Extensive reading outside class
Part I. Anglo-Saxon Period
(449---1066)
1. Historical Background:
Making of England
2. Old English literature: Beowulf
Making of England
The Britons: the early inhabitants
The Roman Conquest
(55 B.C.- 410 A. D.)
The English Conquest
2.
Beowulf ,
National Epic of England
Protagonist
Subject matter (main incidents)
Theme
Poetic Form
Alliteration()
Repetition of consonants, esp. at the beginning of words or stressed syllables. Like any other forms of
repetition, alliteration serves 2 purposes: (1), it is pleasing to the ear and can produce a distinct musical
quality; (2), it can emphasize the words in which it occurs. It is a great help to memory. Alliteration is an
important poetic device in Anglo-Saxon poetry.
For example:
sweet smell of success;
poor but proud;
green as grass;

Money makes the mare go;

And sings a solitary song /That whistles in the wind(Wordsworth);
And heathens only hope, hell(Beowulf
Epic
A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from
which it originated. It has historical root. Meanwhile, it incorporates myth, legend and folk tale.Many epics
were transmitted orally by song and recitation before they were written down. Among the great epics of the
world may be mentioned Homers Iliad and Odyssey, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and John Miltons
Paradise Lost.
Part II. The Anglo-Norman Period (1066---1485)
Historical Background
Literary Types
1.Medieval Romance
2. Popular Ballads
Representative Poet:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Norman Conquest and its Influence
1. On English Language
2. On English Society
Literary Type 1: Romance
Social Background
Content of Romance
Romance Cycles
Social Background:
Feudal England
Middle Ages was a period of great warfare. Lack of strong government divided the people into feudal states.
Because of the constant warfare between these states, the concept of the knight came into being. A knight is
simply a mounted warrior. Young men were taught to wear heavy armor, ride a war-horse, and fight with sword
and lance . With the rise of the knight came the rise of chivalry, the knightly code of behavior. The chivalrous
knight was supposed to be loyal to his
feudal state and God, virtuous, brave,selfless, and protector of the weak.
Literary Type 2:Popular ballad
Ballad in literature: short, narrative poem usually relating a single, dramatic event. Two forms of the ballad are
often distinguishedthe folk ballad, dating from about the 12th cent., and the literary ballad, dating from the late
18th cent.
The Folk Ballad
Primarily based on an older legend or romance, this type of ballad is usually a short, simple song that tells
a dramatic story through dialogue and action, briefly alluding to what has gone before and devoting little
attention to depth of character, setting, or moral commentary. It uses simple language, an economy of
words, dramatic contrasts, epithets, set phrases, and frequently a stock refrain. The familiar stanza form is
four lines, with four or three stresses alternating and with the second and fourth lines rhyming.
The Literary Ballad
The literary ballad is a narrative poem created by a poet in imitation of the old anonymous folk ballad.

Usually the literary ballad is more elaborate and complex; the poet may retain only some of the devices
and conventions of the older verse narrative. Literary ballads were quite popular in England during the
19th cent.
Ballad Stanza: A ballad stanza has 4 lines: the 1st and 3rd lines have 4 stressed words or syllables; the 2nd and 4th
lines have 3 stresses and rhyme.
Refrain
A repeated line, phrase or group of lines, which recurs at regular intervals through a poem or song, usually
at the end of a stanza. The less technical term is 'chorus'.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 -1400)
Life
Major Works
The Canterbury Tales
Chaucers Contribution to English Literature
The Canterbury Tales
Outline of the Story
The General Prologue
Social Significance of the Work
Language and Form
Image
Words or phrases or any expressions that create pictures in the readers mind are images. Images can
appeal to senses: seeing, hearing, touch, taste, smell and movement.
Spring
---Thomas Nashe
Spring, the sweet spring, is the years pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring.
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The palm and May make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear ay birds tune this merry lay:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The palm and May make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear ay birds tune this merry lay:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The non-literal uses of language such as similes, metaphors, personifications, apostrophe, allusion and
other figures of speech are also images.
Fog
---Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city

on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Images can create atmosphere/mood and convey theme through verbal pictures.
Image is the soul of the significance of a poem.

These are the opening lines with which the narrator begins the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales.
The imagery in this opening passage is of springs renewal and rebirth. Aprils sweet showers have
penetrated the dry earth of March, hydrating the roots, which in turn coax flowers out of the ground;
Zephyrs, the warm, gentle west wind, have breathed life into fields and wood; The sun is shining brightly
and genially; and the birds chirp merrily. These fresh and vigorous images combine to provide readers with
a picture of the return of spring.
The Knight:
I am of the highest social standing of the pilgrims. I am the epitome of chivalry. Chaucer idealizes me. I am always
modest and never boorish. I am going to Canterbury to give thanks to God for keeping me safe during all my
exploits.
The Squire:
I am the son of the Knight and am quite a ladys man. I am twenty years old and very proud of my appearance.
(Some call me a dandy.) I will be a candidate for knighthood. I sing lusty songs, compose melodies, and ride a
horse well.
The Yeoman:
I am the attendant to the Knight and the Squire. I look like Robin Hood. I am also an expert woodsman and an
excellent shot with a bow and arrow.
The Nun (Prioress):
I am the first Church figure and the first woman to be mentioned. My Christian name is Madame Eglante. I am a
gentle lady well-educated and well-mannered. I try to imitate the ladies at Court. I am very tender hearted,
especially toward animals. I have three hound dogs whom I treat very well. I try never to drop food on My clothes.
You can tell from my description that I secretly long for a more worldly life.
The Wife of Bath:
Bath is an English resort city. I am somewhat deaf because my 5th husband hit me (14th c. wife abuse). I am an
excellent seamstress and weaver. I have been on pilgrimages to Jerusalem,Rome, etc. I am gap-toothed which is a
sign of luck. You decide if Im lucky Ive had 5 husbands! I enjoy a good joke. I give love advice. Im always first
at the alter to give my offerings. I love to wear bright crimson stockings and wrap heavy sashes about my body. I
told the story that had the
moral that husbands should obey their wives..
Major Elements for Analyzing Poetry
Genre
Structure
Image
Tone
Musical Characteristics
1) Rhythm
2) Rhyme
3) Other Sound Effects
language

Theme
Musical CharacteristicsMetrical Rhythm
Rhythm refers to the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. In poetry, the rhythm of Lines is
described through two terms: meter and foot.
Meter
The regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Usually a stressed syllable is marked with , and an
unstressed syllable is marked with . Names for some common Meters:
Iamb(iambic ):
She walks| in beau|ty, like |the night
Of cloud|less climes |and star|ry skies;
---Byron
Shall I |compare |thee to |a sum|mers day?
Thou art |more love|ly and |more tem|perate:
---Shakespeare
trochee(trochaic):
Tell me |not in |mournful |numbers,
Life is |but an |empty |dream!
For the |soul is |dead that |slumbers,
And things |are not |what they |seem.
---Longfellow
anapest(anapestic):
As I came| to the edge |of the woods.
The Assy|rian came down |like a wolf |on the fold,
And his co|horts were gleam|ing in pur|ple and gold.
dactyl(dactylic):
Just for a |handful of |silver he |left us,
Just for a |riband to |stick in his |coat.
Foot
A unit of poetic meter of stressed and unstressed syllables is called a foot.
Names for some feet:
trimeter: 3 feet
tetrameter: 4 feet
pentameter: 5 feet
hexameter: 6 feet
heptameter: 7 feet
octameter: 8 feet
The number of feet in a line, coupled with the name of the foot, describes the metrical qualities of that line.
Rhyme
The repetition of the same vowel sound in words, including the last stressed vowel and all the speech
sounds following that vowel: gay, day, play; wall, fall; bowed, proud; season, treason. It includes end
rhyme and internal rhyme.
End Rhyme
If the rhyme occurs at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme.

Example 1:
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
---William Blake

Example 2:
With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.
---Housman
Rhyme Scheme
The pattern of rhymes in a poem is called rhyme scheme, indicated by small letters such as abcb or aabb or abab or
abba.
Internal Rhyme
Internal rhyme occurs within the verse-line.
Spring, the sweet spring, is the years pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing.
---T. Nashe
Structure
No. of Lines

What Its Called

What It Is

Rhymed couplet

2 lines with identical rhymes

Heroic couplet

2 iambic pentameter lines with

identical rhymes

Triplet or tercet

3 linesany rhyme scheme or

meter

Terza rima

Rhyme schemeaba bcb cdc

ded

quatrain

4 lines-any rhyme scheme, any

length and meter

Ballad stanza

Rhyme scheme---abcb

sestet

6 lines

octave

8 line stanza

Ottava rima

8 linesiambic pentameter;
rhyme schemeabab abcc

Spenserian stanza

14

sonnet

Tone: It is the mood and attitude of the poet or speaker towards his subject. Tone is decided by overall analysis of
all the elements involved in the poem(diction, sentence patterns, images, and so on). It is described in ordinary
language, such as cold, melancholy, cynical, calm, confident, angry, serious, ironic , solemn ,
objective , humorous , boastful, etc.
Chaucers Contribution
Historical Background
Renaissance and Humanism
Summary of Literary Creations
1) Thomas More
2) The Flowering of English Literature
Poetry
Prose
Poetical Drama
Old England in Transition: Political, Religious, Economic, Commercial
Thomas More(1478-1535)
The Flowering of English Literature
Poetic Genre
Poems, according to their forms and contents, can be divided into several categories. Obviously, these
categories are not absolutely clean-cut ones, each sharing some elements with others. Conventionally,
poetry is classified into three major domains: Lyrical, Narrative and Dramatic. But there are poems
which belong to none of the domains.
Any poem is in a sense lyrical. In Greek a lyric is a song to be accompanied with a lyre. Usually, a lyric is short,
within 50 or 60 lines. Lyrics treat the thoughts and feelings, usually powerful emotions of the poet or some invented
speaker. They include sonnet, elegy, ode, pastoral and many others.
Sonnet
A sonnet is a lyric of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme.
Narrative Poem
If a poem mainly tells a relatively complete story, it is called a narrative poem. There are three major subclasses of
narratives: Epic, Metrical Romance, and Ballad.
Dramatic Poetry
Poetic utterance in drama written in verse.
Poets: Philip Sidney
Edmund Spenser
William Shakespeare
Poets Poet :Edmund Spenser
AMORETTI, SONNET #75
By Edmund Spenser
One day | I wrote | her name | upon | the strand,
But came | the waves | and wash | ed it | away:

Agayne | I wrote | it with | a sec | ond hand,

But came | the tyde, | and made | my paynes | his pray.
Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
1594
The Shepherds Calendar
Pastoral: It deals with the simple and unspoiled life of the shepherds or countryside.
The Faire Queene
Allegory: A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral
qualities. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning, and a symbolic meaning.
Spenserian Stanza
Each stanza has 9 lines. Each of the first 8 lines is in iambic pentameter form and the ninth line is in iambic
hexameter (alexandrine ). The rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc.
Prose
Francis Bacon()
John Lyly()
Bacons Of Studies: A Brief Summary
The text focuses on one controlling idea---studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. And
closely around the focus are five major issues:(1) the proper or improper ways of studies;(2) different men
have different ideas about studies;(3) ways of reading;(4) different characters coined by studying various
subjects;(5) the conquest of human defect through effective studies. Forceful & persuasive compact &
precise Of Studies reveals to us Bacons mature attitude towards learning. Bacons language is neat
precise & weighty. It is wellarranged & enriched by (Biblical) allusionsmetaphors &cadence.
Drama
The highest glory of the English Renaissance
Christopher Marlowe
William Shakespeare
Ben Johnson
Christopher Marlowe
the first great English Dramatist
famous tragedies:
Doctor Faustus
The Jew of Malta
Tamburlaine
He perfected the blank verse & made it the principal medium of English drama
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus about 1589 generally considered his best play was based on a

medieval legend of a man selling his soul to the devil. The play's dominant moral is human rather than
religious. It celebrates the human passion for knowledge power & happiness it also reveals man's
frustration in realizing the high aspirations in a hostile moral order.
Tamburlaine is a play about an ambitious & pitiless Tartar conqueror in the fourteenth century who rose
from a shepherd to an overpowering King. By depicting a great hero with high ambition & sheer brutal
force in conquering one enemy after another Marlowe voiced the supreme desire of the man of the
Renaissance for infinite power & authority.
Achievements Marlowe's greatest achievement lies in that he perfected the blank verse & made it the
principal medium of English drama.
His second achievement is his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama. The theme of his works is
the praise of the Renaissance spirit.
His influence A man of wide learning Marlowe was one of the extra ordinary poets & playwrights of
his time. "Marlowe's mighty line" as Ben Jonson called his blank verse was one of the most important
contributions to the art of English literature.
1564--1616
Brief Introduction
Life
Works
Periods of Dramatic Composition
Great Comedies
Great Tragedies
Histories
Sonnets
Brief Introduction
The greatest writer of plays who ever lived.
His friend & fellow playwright Ben Jonson said that Shakespeare was "not of an age but for all time."
The 18th-century English essayist Samuel Johnson described his work as "the mirror of life."
The 19th-century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge spoke of "myriad-minded Shakespeare."
The 20th-century English dramatist George Bernard Shaw stressed his "enormous power over language."
4 Periods of Shakespeares Dramatic Composition (textbook)
Great Comedies
Great Tragedies
Summary of Hamlet
Act I: The Ghost Sets Events in Motion
King is dead
Claudius marries Gertrude
Kings ghost appears
Hamlet must avenge his fathers murder
Act II: Plots Within Plots and A Play Within a Play
Hamlet acts strangely
Hamlet plans to trap Claudius
Act III:Evidence, Hesitation and A First Death
Hamlet rejects Ophelia
Actors perform the play within a play

Claudius is guilty
Hamlet doesnt kill Claudius
Hamlet kills Polonius
Act IV: Ophelia Goes Mad and Everything Falls apart
Queen thinks Hamlet is Crazy
Ophelia dies
Claudius and Laerties plot against Hamlet
Act V: A Pile of Corpses
Hamlet and Horatio discuss death
Laertes and Hamlet duel
Both are poisoned
Queen is poisoned
Hamlet kills Claudius
Only Horatio lives to tell the story
Hamlet
Generally regarded as Shakespeares most popular play on the stage for it has the qualities of a "bloodand-thunder" thriller & a philosophical exploration of life & death. And the timeless appeal of this mighty
drama lies in its combination of intrigue emotional conflict & searching philosophic melancholy.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Background of the Soliloquy
His father, the King, has died.
His mother, the Queen, has remarried within two months of the King's passing, an act which has disturbed
young Hamlet.
To make it worse, she has married the King's brother, Hamlet's uncle, who is now the King of Denmark.
As Hamlet's despair deepens, he learns (through the appearance of his dead fathers ghost) that the old
King was murdered by the new King.
Hamlet's growing awareness of the betrayal of his mother and evil of Claudius leads to a deepening
depression and madness.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take armsagainst a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To dieto sleep
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, andthe thousand natural shocks

Summary
This speech connects many of the plays main themes, including the idea of life and death, the difficulty of
knowing the truth in a spiritually ambiguous universe, and the connection between thought and action.
In addition to its crucial thematic content, this speech is important for what it reveals about the quality of
Hamlets mind. His deeply passionate nature is complemented by a relentlessly logical intellect, which
works furiously to find a solution to his misery. Here, he turns to a logical philosophical inquiry and finds
it equally frustrating.

Six Aspects of Hamlet's character (also see the textbook)

His Introspection
His "Madness"
His Puns and Paradoxes
His Thoughts of Death
His Delay
His Thoughts about Women
Goethe
Hamlet represents the type of man whose active energy is paralysed by excessive intellectual activity:
Sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought.
Freud And Oedipus Complex
Legend of Oedipus
Oedipus, the son of king of Thebes, is exposed as a suckling, because an oracle had informed the father that his son,
who was still unborn, would be his murderer. He is rescued, and grows up as a kings son at a foreign court, until,
being uncertain of his origin, he, too, consults the oracle, and is warned to avoid his native place, for he is Destined
to become the murderer of his father and the husband of his mother. On the road leading away from his supposed
home he meets King of Thebes, and in a sudden quarrel strikes him dead. He comes to Thebes, where he solves the
riddle of the Sphinx,who is barring the the way to the city, whereupon he is elected king by the grateful Thebans,
and is rewarded with the hand of queen. He reigns for many years in peace and honour, and begets two sons and
Two daughters upon his unknown mother, until at last a plague breaks out which causes the Thebans to consult
the oracle anew. The messengers bring the reply that the plague will stop as soon as the murderer of the king Is
driven from the country. It is Gradually displayed that Oedipus himself is the murderer and he is the son of the
Murdered king and the queen. Shocked by the abominable crime which he has unwittingly committed, Oedipus
blinds himself, and departs from his native city.
Freuds Interpretation of Hamlet
What is it, then, that inhibits him in accomplishing the task which his fathers ghost has laid upon him? Here the
explanation offers itself that it is the peculiar nature of this task. Hamlet is able to do anything but take vengeance
upon the man who did away with his father and has taken his fathers place with his mother the man who shows
him in realisation the repressed desires of his own childhood. The loathing which should have driven him to
revenge is thus replaced by self-reproach, by conscientious scruples, which tell him that he himself is no better than
the murderer whom he is required to punish. I have here translated into consciousness what had to remain
unconscious in the mind of the hero;
Sonnet
Two Basic Sonnet Patterns
1) English (or Shakespearean)
2) Italian (or Petrarchan)
Structure
An Italian sonnet is composed of an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet.
A Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three four-line quatrains and a concluding two-line couplet.
The thought and feeling expressed in each sonnet form typically follow the divisions suggested by their
structural patterns.
Thus an Italian sonnet may state a problem in the octave and present a solution in its sestet.
A Shakespearean sonnet will usually introduce a subject in the first quatrain, expand and develop it in the
second and third quatrains, and conclude something about it in its final couplet.

Rhyme Scheme
A Shakespearean sonnet is rhymed ababcdcdefefgg.
An Italian sonnet is rhymed abbaabba in the octave, and the sestet has various rhyme patterns such as
cdecde or cdcdcd.
Commentary on Sonnet 18
The poet makes his beloved immortal by means of his poetry. This theme is a conventional one in
Elizabethan sonnets. But Shakespeare and Spenser treat it in an original and individual manner. Spenser
starts from a concrete situation and uses dialogue to make his point. Shakespeare writes a monologue in the
form of an address. It contains a carefully reasoned argument which, as in many of Shakespeare's sonnets,
moves in a series of steps.
The first line, a question, proposes a comparison between Shakespeare's beloved and a summer season.
Summer is chosen because it is lovely and pleasant. In the second line the comparison is restricted: in
outward appearance and character the beloved person is more beautiful and less extreme than summer. The
reasons for the restriction are given in the next four lines which describe the less pleasant aspects of
summer. In the seventh and eighth lines Shakespeare complains that every beauty will become less one
day. The ninth line takes up the comparison with summer again: summer has by now become the summer
of life. The comparison turns into a contrast by referring back to the seventh. The poet's assurance becomes
even firmer in lines eleven and twelve, which contain a promise that death will be conquered. 'Eternal
lines' refers to lines of poetry but also suggest lines of shape. It points forward to the triumphant couplet
which explains and summarizes the theme: poetry is immortal and makes beauty immortal.
Because of the step by step arguments Shakespeare's conclusion makes the impression of great certainty.
His method is more rational and logical than Spenser's. Spenser does not try to argue or prove his theme.
Shakespeares Literary Achievements
1 Characterization
His major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones they are individuals
representing certain types. Each character has his or her own personalities meanwhile they may
share features with others. The soliloquies in his plays fully reveal the inner conflict of his characters.
Shakespeare also portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his
characters.
The women in the plays are vivid creations each differing from the others. Shakespeare was fond
of portraying "mocking wenches" such as Kate of the Taming of the Shrew Rosaline of Loves Labors
Lost & Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing but he was equally adept at creating gentle & innocent
women such as Ophelia in Hamlet Desdemona in Othello & Cordelia in King Lear. His female
characters also include the treacherous Goneril & Regan the iron-willed Lady Macbeth the witty &
resourceful Portia the tender & loyal Juliet & the alluring Cleopatra.
2 Plot Construction
Shakespeares plays are well known for their adroit plot construction. He seldom invents his own
plots instead he borrows them from some old plays or storybooks or from ancient Greek & Roman
sources. There are usually several threads running through the play thus providing the story with
suspense & apprehension.
3 Language
In Shakespeares time English grammar & spelling were not yet formalized so Shakespeare
could freely intercharge the various parts of speech using nouns as adjectives or verbs adjectives as
adverbs & pronouns as nouns. Such freedom gave his language an extraordinary flexibility which

enabled him to express his thoughts as easily in poetry as in prose.

Most of Shakespeares dramatic poetry is in blank verse. His blank verse is especially beautiful &
mighty

He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary & idiom. His coinage of new words & distortion of the
meaning of the old ones also create striking effects on the reader.
Quotations from Shakespeare
The memory be green.
Hamlet, 1. 2
A little more than kin, and less than kind.
Hamlet, 1. 2
Frailty, thy name is woman!
Hamlet, 1. 2
I will speak daggers to her, but use none; (Act III. Scene II.)
O! speak to me no more; These words like daggers enter in mine ears;(Act III. Scene IV.)
The course of true love never did run smooth". ( A Midsummer Nights Dream. Act I, Scene I)
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet
( Romeo and Juliet. Act II, Sc. II)
The Merchant of Venice
Act IV. Scene I.
Youll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
Three thousand ducats: Ill not answer that:
But say it is my humour: is it answerd?
What if my house be troubled with a rat,
And I be pleasd to give ten thousand ducats
To have it band? What, are you answerd yet?
Some men there are love not a gaping pig;
Some, that are mad if they behold a cat;
And others, when the bagpipe sings i the nose,
Cannot contain their urine: for affection,
Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes, or loathes. Now, for your answer:

I bear Antonio, that I follow thus

A losing suit against him. Are you answerd?
Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
Ben Johnson()

Part IV. 17th Century
Historical Background
Literary Characteristics

1) Puritan literature
2Metaphysical Poetry
3Cavalier Poets
4) Literature in Restoration period
Puritans
Puritans was the name given in the 16th century to the more extreme Protestants within the Church of England who
thought the English Reformation had not gone far enough in reforming the doctrines and structure of the church;
they wanted to purify their national church by eliminating every shred of Catholic influence. Eventually the
Puritans went on to attempt purification of the self and society as well.
Puritanism (textbook)
Puritan Literature --- John Milton (1608-1674) ()
Life and Works
Masterpieces:
Paradise Lost
Paradise Regained
Samson Agonistes
His Life and Works: 3 Stages
1. Cambridge Days(Allegro & IL Penseroso) ; Private Study at Horton; Travel on the Continent.

2. Entry into Political Conflict (1639-1660); In 1652 he suffered great personal tragedy with the total loss
of his eyesight & the death of his wife & infant son : Pamphlets, Prose Work(Areopagitica) and Sonnets
(On His Blindness, On His Deceased Wife, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont).
3. After the Restoration: 3 Masterpieces.
Paradise Lost
1. Story
2. Image of Satan
3. Interpreting Themes
Satan, hero or devil?
A Hero
What though the field be lost?
All is not lost: the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
Blake claimed that Milton had unconsciously, but justly, sided with the Devil (representing rebellious
energy) against Jehovah (representing oppressive limitation).
Lecturing in 1818 on the history of English poetry, Hazlitt named Satan as the most heroic subject that
ever was chosen for a poem and implied that the rebel angels Heaven-defying resistance was the mirror
image of Miltons own rebellion against political tyranny.
A year later, Percy Shelley maintained that Satan is the moral superior to Miltons tyrannical God, but he
admitted that Satans greatness of character is flawed by vengefulness and pride.
A Devil
The progression, or, more precisely, regression, of Satans character from Book I through Book X gives a
much different and much clearer picture of Miltons attitude toward Satan.
For Milton, Satan is the enemy who chooses to commit an act that goes against the basic laws of God.Satan

commits this act not because of the tyranny of God but because he wants what he wants rather than what God
wants. Satan is an egoist. His interests always turn on his personal desires. A true Promethean / Romantic hero has
to rebel against an unjust tyranny in an attempt to right a wrong or help someone less fortunate. If Satan had been
Prometheus, he would have stolen fire to warm himself, not to help Mankind.
Similarly, Satans motives change as the story advances. At first, Satan wishes to continue the fight for
freedom from God. Later glory and renown. Next, the temptation of Adam and Eve is simply a way to disrupt
Gods plans. And, at the end, Satan seems to say that he has acted as he has to impress the other demons in Hell.
This regression of motives shows quite a fall.
Satan also regresses or degenerates physically. Satan shifts shapes throughout the poem: cherub ravening
cormorant in the tree of life (an animal but able to fly) lion and tiger (earth-bound beasts of prey, but magnificent)
toad and snake (reptilian and disgusting)
These changes visually represent the degeneration of his character.
Satanic Hero
In his depiction of Satan, Milton unintentionally created a heroic type (villain-hero), after which many later writers
patterned their protagonists.
Characteristics
1. Majestic
2. Noble/Dignified
3. Energetic/Charismatic: persuasive and seductive
4. Egotistical: self-glorification, pridehe is proud of his great abilities
5. Defiant of Natural Order: over-reaches himself
6. Fallen and Corrupted: delights in evil as a means of revenge and self-glorification
7. An Outcast: pitiable, noble being who has fallen and is isolated
Theme?
The Importance of Obedience to God
In essence, Paradise Lost presents two moral paths that one can take after disobedience: the downward
spiral of increasing sin and degradation, represented by Satan, and the road to redemption, represented by
Adam and Eve.
Mans Fall as Fortunate Fall
then wilt thou not be loth
to leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
paradise within thee, happier far.
(Paradise Lost)
Good and evil1 we know in the field of this World grow up together almost inseparably; and the knowledge of good
is . . . involvd and interwoven with the knowledge of evill. . . . And perhaps this is that doom which Adam Fell
into of knowing good and evill, that is to say of knowing good by evill. As therefore the state of man now is; The
knowledge and survey of vice is in this
world . . . necessary to the constituting of human vertue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth.
(Areopagitica )
John Miltons Sonnet-On His Blindness
Enjambment
A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from
one line into the next.
An enjambed line differs from an end-stopped line in which
the grammatical and logical sense is
completed within the line.

Summary of Milton
Puritan Literature --- John Bunyan()
Ch. 1 Christian flees from the City of Destruction
Ch. 2 Christian is pursued by Obstinate and Pliable
Ch. 3 Christian and Pliable converse along the way
Ch. 4 Christian and Pliable at the Slough of Despond
Ch. 5 Christian encounters Mr. Worldly-Wiseman
Ch. 6 Christian seeks after the Town of Morality
Ch. 7 Christian arrives at the Wicket-gate
Ch. 8 Christian is instructed at the House of Interpreter
Ch. 9 Christian arives at the Place of Deliverance
Ch. 10 Christian overtakes Simple, Sloth, and Presumption
Ch. 11 Christian converses with Formalist and Hypocrisy
Ch. 12 Christian ascends the Hill Difficulty
Ch. 13 Christian is approached by Timorous and Mistrust
Ch. 14 Christian meets lion-sized opposition
Ch. 15 Christian resides at the Palace Beautiful
Ch. 16 Christian enters into battle with Apollyon
Ch. 17 Christian confronts the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Ch. 18 Christian overtakes and converses with Faithful
Ch. 19
Christian and Faithful converse with Talkative
Ch. 20
Evangelist reappears to give timely warning
Ch. 21
Christian and Faithful on trial at Vanity Fair
Ch. 22
Christian and Hopeful converse with By-ends
Ch. 23
The silver mine at the hill Lucre
Ch. 24
The monument to Lot's wife
Ch. 25
Christian and Hopeful are captured by Giant Despair
Ch. 26
Christian and Hopeful at the Delectable Mountains
Ch. 27
Christian and Hopeful first encounter Ignorance
Ch. 28
The terrifying end of Turn-away
Ch. 29
The colorless testimony of Little-faith
Ch. 30
Christian and Hopeful are snared by the Flatterer
Ch. 31
Christian and Hopeful meet returning Atheist
Ch. 32
Christian and Hopeful cross the Enchanted Ground
Ch. 33
The comforting delights of Beulah Land
Ch. 34
Christian and Hopeful encounter the River of Death
Ch. 35
Christian and Hopeful are welcomed into Heaven
Ch. 36
The fearful end of Ignorance
Ch. 37
Conclusion
Allegory
A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities.Thus an
allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning, and a symbolic meaning. Some other elaborate and
successful specimens of allegory are:Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub;
Aesop 's Fables.

Theme The Pilgrims Progress is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. Its purpose is to
urge people to comply with Christian doctrines & seek salvation through constant struggles with their own
weakness & all kinds of social evils. It is not only about something spiritual but also beats much relevance to the
time. Its predominant metaphor-life as a journey-is simple & familiar.
"Vanity Fair" is the most famous part of The Pilgrims Progress. It tells how Christian & his friend
Faithful come to Vanity Fair on their way to heaven" a fair where in should be sold all sorts of vanity &
that it should last all the year long therefore at this fair all such merchandise sold as houses lands
trades places honors preferments titles countries kingdoms lusts pleasures & delights
of all sorts as harlots wives husbands children masters servants lives blood bodies
souls silver gold pearls precious stones & what not." As they refuse to buy anything but truth
they are beaten & put in a cage & then taken out & led in chains up & down the fair. They are sentenced to
death-to be put to the most cruel death that can be invented." Vanity Fair" is a satirical picture of English
society law & religion in Bunyans day.
Metaphysical Poets
Name given to a group of English lyric poets of the 17th cent. The term was first used by Samuel Johnson
(1744). Metaphysical poetry typically employs unusual verse forms,
elaborate and surprising metaphorical
conceits, and learned themes discussed according to eccentric and unexpected chains of reasoning. The finest
works of the metaphysical poets combine intellectual subtlety with great emotional power. Although the imagery
of metaphysical poetry is frequently strained the language is often as natural & direct as ordinary speech. Their
work has considerably influenced the poetry of the 20th cent.
Conceit
A conceit is a metaphor or simile that is made elaborate (far-fetched), often extravagant. It also means any fanciful
poetic image. A conceit may strike the reader as weird at first glance, but proves appropriate in the end.
Samuel Johnson described their conceits as
a combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike. The most
heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together.
the metaphysical poets were men of learning, and to show learning was their whole endeavor.
Metaphysical Poets
John Donne
George Herbert
Henry Vaugham
Edward Herbert
Thomas Carew
Richard Crashaw
Andrew Marvell
Richard Lovelace
Sir John Suckling
Metaphysical Poetry---John Donne(,1572-1631)
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; ..any man's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls
for thee.
The Flea
MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
In the same way that virtuous men die mildly and without complaint, he says, so they should leave without "tearfloods" and "sigh-tempests," for to publicly announce their feelings in such a way would profane their love.
The speaker says that when the earth moves, it brings "harms and fears," but when the spheres experience
"trepidation," though the moving is greater, it is innocent.
The love of "dull sublunary lovers" cannot survive separation, for it removes that which constitutes the love itself;
but the love he shares with his beloved is so refined and "Inter-assured of the mind" that they need not worry about
missing "eyes, lips, and hands."
Though he must go, their souls are still one, and, therefore, they are not enduring a breach, they are experiencing an
"expansion"; in the same way that gold can be stretched by beating it "to aery thinness," the soul they share will
simply stretch to take in all the space between them.
If their souls are separate, he says, they are like the feet of a compass: His lover's soul is the fixed foot in the center,
and his is the foot that moves around it. The firmness of the center foot makes the circle that the outer foot draws
perfect: "Thy firmness makes my circle just, / And makes me end, where I begun."
Commentary
"A Valediction: forbidding Mourning" is one of Donne's most famous and simplest poems . Donne
professed a devotion to a kind of spiritual love that transcended the merely physical. Here, anticipating a
physical separation from his beloved, he invokes the nature of that spiritual love to ward off the "tearfloods" and "sigh-tempests" that might otherwise attend on their farewell. The poem is essentially a
sequence of metaphors and comparisons, each describing a way of looking at their separation that will help
them to avoid the mourning forbidden by the poem's title. First, the speaker says that their farewell should
be as mild as the uncomplaining deaths of virtuous men, for to weep would be "profanation of our joys."
Next, the speaker compares harmful "Moving of th' earth" with innocent "trepidation of the spheres,"
equating the first with "dull sublunary lovers' love" and the second with their love, "Inter-assured of the
mind." Like the rumbling earth, the dull sublunary (sublunary meaning literally beneath the moon and also
subject to the moon) lovers are all physical, unable to experience separation with losing the sensation that
comprises and sustains their love. But the spiritual lovers "Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss,"
because, like the trepidation (vibration) of the spheres (the concentric globes that surrounded the earth in
ancient astronomy), their love is not wholly physical. Also, like the trepidation of the spheres, their
movement will not have the harmful consequences of an earthquake. The speaker then declares that, since
the lovers' two souls are one, his departure will simply expand the area of their unified soul, rather than
cause a rift between them. If, however, their souls are "two" instead of "one", they are as the feet of a
drafter's compass, connected, with the center foot fixing the orbit of the outer foot and helping it to
describe a perfect circle. The compass (the instrument used for drawing circles) is one of Donne's most
famous metaphors, and it is the perfect image to encapsulate the values of Donne's spiritual love, which is
balanced, symmetrical, intellectual, serious, and beautiful in its polished simplicity. Like many of Donne's
love poems (including "The Sun Rising" and "The Canonization"), "A Valediction: forbidding Mourning"

creates a dichotomy between the common love of the everyday world and the uncommon love of the
speaker. Here, the speaker claims that to tell "the laity," or the common people, of his love would be to
profane its sacred nature, and he is clearly contemptuous of the dull sublunary love of other lovers.
How does Donne distinguish between physical and spiritual love? Which does he prefer? (Think especially
about "The Flea" and "A Valediction: forbidding Mourning.")
"Physical love" is love that is primarily based upon the sensation or the presence of the beloved or that
emphasizes sexuality; in "The Flea," Donne celebrates the physical side of love when he tries to convince his
beloved to sleep with him. In the "Valediction," Donne describes a spiritual love, "Inter-assured of the mind,"
which does not miss "eyes, lips, and hands" because it is based on higher and more refined feelings than
sensation. In the "Valediction," Donne is critical of "dull sublunary" physical love, which could not survive in
the absence of the beloved, and expresses a profound preference for spiritual love, which is much rarer--it is
not the love of the common men and women. But there are certainly erotic moments in Donne's writing (The
graphically sexual "To His Mistress, on Going to Bed" comes to mind) when he would seem to prefer the erotic
to the intellectual.
Literature in Restoration PeriodAge of Dryden
John Dryden: a classicist
Part V.
The 18th Century Literature
Social and Cultural Background
Achievements in Literature
1) Neo-Classicism:
Poetry, Essay,
Rise of realistic novel,
Drama
2) Sentimentalism
3) Gothic Novel
4) Pre-Romanticism
Page 126
It may be defined as the displacement of hard labor by machine power in many of the processes of manufacture and
mining. Vast economic and social changes were made by which a medieval agricultural society was transformed
into a modern industrial society. It was to break up the harmony of the social order and to bring new classes into
being. The population of the middle class greatly expanded.
18th Century Middle Class
With the development of capitalism, the social and moral values of the middle-class people became
dominant in the society. They believed in self-restraint, self-reliance and hard work. For them the whole
meaning of life was to work, to economize and to accumulate wealth.
Enlightenment
The 18th-century England is known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. The Enlightenment
Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France & swept through the
whole Western Europe at the time. The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance of the 15th & 16th
centuries. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modem philosophical & artistic
ideas. The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality equality & science. They advocated universal
education.

They believed that human beings were limited, dualistic , imperfect, and yet capable of rationality
and perfection through education. Literature at the time, heavily didactic and moralizing, became a very
popular means of public education. Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great
writers like Pope, Addison, SwiftJohnson.
Neo-Classicism
In the field of literature the Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical
works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism. According to the neoclassicists all forms of literature were to be
modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek & Roman writers Homer Virgil & so on& those of
the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order logic restrained emotion
& accuracy & that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity. This belief led them to seek
proportion unity harmony & grace in literary expressions in an effort to delight instruct & correct human
beings. Thus a polite urbane witty & intellectual art developed.
Characteristics of Neoclassical Literature (See page128)
Poet
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
one of the first to introduce rationalism to England
the greatest poet of his time
strongly advocated neoclassicism
Perfected heroic couplet
Good at satire and epigram
major works:
Satire
Satire is a particular use of humor for overtly moral purposes. It seeks to use laughter to expose those
moral excesses, those corrigible sorts of behaviors, which transgress what the writer sees as the limits of
acceptable moral behavior. Satire became the fashion for all forms of writing in 18th century England.
Pope and Swift are the two masters of satire. It answers well the purpose of the enlightenment in public
education in moral, social and cultural life. It is also an effective weapon for arguments of all kinds and
verbal attacks on enemies of both the partys and the personal. The best satires of the age are noted for all
their wittiness of remark and adeptness of technique.
Richard Steele
(1672-1729)
Joseph Addison
(1672-1719)
Rise of Realistic Novel
Realistic Novel and its Social Background
Kinds of Novel in 18th Century
Representative Novelists
The Realistic Novel
The mid-century was predominated by a newly rising literary form the modern English novel
which contrary to the traditional romance of aristocrats gives a realistic presentation of life of the
common English people. This-the most significant phenomenon in the history of the development of
English literature in the eighteenth century - is a natural product of the Industrial Revolution & a symbol
of the growing importance & strength of the English middle class.
Realistic Novels

Pioneering efforts of British novel

John Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress (a prose work, but in some ways it resembled the first form of British
novel.)
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
Jonathan Swift: Gullivers Travel
Maturity of novel
Samuel Richardson: Pamela
Henry Fielding: Tom Jones

Defoe
Robinson Crusoe
An adventure story very much
in the spirit of the time.
Robinson Crusoe is here a real hero: a typical 18th century middle-class man.
He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. In describing Robinson Crusoes life
on the island, Defoe glorifies human labour and the puritan fortitude.
Classification of Novels: Picaresque Novel
Picaresque novels originated in Spain where the novel about the rogue or picaro was a recognized
form. The characteristic of a picaresque novel are loosely linked episodes, intrigue, fights,amorous adventures. The
driving force comes from a wild or a roguish rejection of the settled bourgeois life, a desire for the open road, with
adventures in inn Bedrooms and meetings with questionable wanderers.
Jonathan Swift
generally considered the greatest prose satirist in English literature
Novel: Gullivers Travels
Pamphlet: A Modest Proposal
Art of Swifts Satire
Gullivers Travels A satire by Jonathan Swift. Lemuel Gulliver, an Englishman, travels to exotic lands,
including Lilliput (where the people are six inches tall), Brobdingnag (where the people are seventy feet tall),
the flying land of Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms (where horses are the intelligent beings, and
humans, called Yahoos, are mute brutes of labor).
The Lilliputians symbolize humankinds wildly excessive pride in its own puny existence.
Some aspects of Brobdingnagians are disgusting, like their gigantic stench and the excrement left, but
others are noble, like the queens goodwill toward Gulliver and the kings commonsense views of politics.
The Brobdingnagians symbolize a dimension of human existence visible at close range, under close
scrutiny.
The Laputans represent the folly of theoretical knowledge that has no relation to human life and no use in
the actual world.
The Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rational existence, a life governed by sense and moderation of
which philosophers since Plato have long dreamed. Gullivers intense grief when he is forced to leave
them suggests that they have made an impact on him greater than that of any other society he has visited.
As a whole the book is one of the most effective & devastating criticisms & satires of all aspects in the
English & European life - socially politically religiously philosophically scientifically &
morally. Its social significance is great & its exploration into human nature profound.
A Modest Proposal
An essay by Jonathan Swift, often called a masterpiece of irony. Swift emphasizes the terrible poverty of

eighteenth-century Ireland by ironically proposing that Irish parents earn money by selling their children as food.
The phrase a modest proposal is often used ironically to introduce a major innovative suggestion.
Samuel Richardson
Pamela, Virtue Rewardeda new thing in several ways.
Clarissa
Classification of Novel: Psychological Novel
Novels that dwell on a complex psychological development and present much of the narration through the
inner workings of the characters mind.
Classification of Novel: Epistolary Novel
It consists of the letters the characters write to each other.
Henry Fielding(1707-1754
His major novels
The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, comic epic in
prose
The History of Jonathan Wild the Great, pointing out the Great Man is no greater than a great gangster.
His masterpiece on the subject of human nature
The History of Amelia, the story of the unfortunate life of an idealized woman.
Fieldings achievement in English novel (see textbook)
Dramatist: Sheridan
The only important English dramatist of the 18th century

The Rivals and The School for Scandal, two comedies of manners, are regarded as important links
between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw. Morality is his constant theme.
Samuel Johnson(1709-1784)
Samuel Johnson commonly called Dr. Johnson was one of the greatest figures of 18th-century
English literature. He was an energetic & versatile writer. He had a hand in all the different branches of
literary activities. He was a poet dramatist prose romancer biographer essayist critic
lexicographer & publicist.
Sentimentalism
1. The nature of Sentimentalism (or see textbook)
One of the important trends in the middle and later decades of the 18th century.
It presented a new view which prized feeling over thinking, passion over reason, and personal instincts of
"pity, tenderness, and benevolence" over social duties.
Literary work of the sentimentalism, marked by a sincere sympathy for the poverty-stricken,expropriated
peasants, wrote the "simple annals of the poor.
Writers of sentimentalism justly criticized the cruelty of the capitalist relations and the gross social
injustices brought about by the bourgeois revolutions.
But they attacked the progressive aspect of this great social change in order to eliminate it and sighed for
the return of the patriarchal times which they idealized.
2. Social background of Sentimentalism
Sharp social contradictions began to take shape and to threaten the short-lived social stability in the early
decades of the 18th century.
The continuous, large-scale enclosures of land resulted in rural bankruptcy.
The poverty and misery of the exploited and unemployed labouring masses in the cities increased.

 The Enlightenment which believed in educating the people to be kind and righteous and upheld reason as
the cure-all for all social wrongs and miseries declined.
All this led to skepticism and disbelief in the myth about the bourgeois society as the best of all possible
worlds.
Lack of a better or more sound substitute for reason as the instrument to reform the none-too-satisfactory
or even highly unsatisfactory society, sentiment was indulged in at least as a sort of relief for the grieves
and heart-aches felt toward the world's wrongs.
Hence sentimentalism in literature.
Literary Forms in Sentimentalism
Prose Fiction: By Laurence Sterne
Oliver Goldsmith
Poetry: By Thomas Gray
Oliver Goldsmith
Lawrence Sterne
A Sentimental Journey
Tristram Shandy()
Oliver Goldsmith(1730?-1774)
Poem: The Deserted Village
Novel: The Vicar of Wakefield
Comedies: She Stoops to Conquer
Collection of Essays: The Citizen of the World
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
Major Elements for Analyzing Poetry
Genre
Structure
Image
Tone
Musical Characteristics
1) Rhythm
2) Rhyme
3) Other Sound Effects
language
Theme
Genre: Elegy: Poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual. An elegy is a type of Lyric poem, usually
formal in language and structure,and solemn or even melancholy in tone.
Commentary: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray ranks high among the most popular
English poems in the 18th century.The whole poem is full of the gentle melancholy which marks all early romantic
poetry. It contains altogether 32 quatrains of iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme of abab for each stanza.
In order to create the atmosphere of melancholy, Gray uses his own techniques: 1. In the first three stanzas, the
poet with great art selects those natural phenomena which cast additional gloom upon the scene. He presents us a
picture of twilight in a country churchyard: the lowing herd, the droning flight of the beetle, the drowsy tinklings
from a distant fold, the moping owl in an ivy-mantled tower. All these natural objects, either directly or by contrast,
reflect the mood of man---romantic melancholy. Here, nature is background for the display of emotion. 2. The poet

also chooses some long vowels and diphthongs to create its own melancholic tone which permeates the whole
elegy.
These sounds make the poet meditate upon the lives of the common people who are buried there. 3.
Furthermore, Thomas Gray uses end-stopped lines which sound firm and finished. The termination of the endstopped lines beautifully enacts the completion of the things. This technique of writing here hints that the lives of
the poor come to an end. In all, it is for the sake of the Sentimental mood.
Throughout the whole poem, the author shows his great sympathy for the poor, the lowly and the unrenowned in
these graves, while he expressed his unmistakable censure upon the great, thepowerful and the wealthy who in their
lifetime have contempt for the common people or brought havoc to the country. He stresses the fact that death is
inevitable and that everyone is equal before death no matter who he is.
Language: The poem abounds in images & arouses sentiment in the bosom of every reader. Though the use of
artificial poetic diction & distorted word order make understanding of the poem somewhat difficult the
artistic polish---the sure control of language imagery rhythm & his subtle moderation of style & tone--gives the poem a unique charm of its own.
Gothic Novel?
Pre-Romanticism
Pre-romanticism
Representatives: William Blake
Robert Burns
Preromanticism covers the years from approximately the middle of the eighteenth century to the early 1790s.
In this period rigid notions about style and the absolute authority of religion and science began to yield to an
emphasis on personal thoughts and feelings, often triggered by observation of nature. Before that people thought
of themselves mainly according to their set roles in society rather than as individuals.
Interest in the uniqueness of individuals also extended into respect for folk culture, and an area that gained
great attention was the collection and preservation of folk songs. Robert Burns, for example, devoted much of his
later life to transcribing and editing old Scottish airs.
William Blake
Auguries of Innocence
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
The complete 1794 collection was called Songs of Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of
the Human Soul. Broadly speaking the collections look at human nature and society in optimistic and pessimistic
terms, respectively - and Blake thinks that you need both sides to see the whole truth.
The Lamb
from Songs of Innocence
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice:

Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Psalm 23 (Psalm of David)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the
still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord for ever. from The Old Testament
Tyger (see textbook)
Hints to understand this poem:
The capitalization of the second Tyger, the alliteration of the hard consonant sounds, indicate strength.
burning bright," "burnt the fire of thine eyes," "twist the sinews of they heart," and "furnace was they
brain," is figurative language, it is an intentially exaggerated image of the tyger creation.
The poem contains six stanzas, each containing two pairs of rhyming couplets (pair of successive lines or
verse). This creates a sense of rhythm and continuity throughout the poem. From my point of view, I
believe that William Blake writes this poem in this particular rhythm to mimic the motion of the tiger he is
describing and to add a more dramatic effect.
hammering beat
In the final stanza, Blake repeats the original burning question, creating a more powerful awe by
substituting the word dare for could:
The Chimney Sweeper
From Songs of Innocence
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet; and that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Experience (Textbook)
Analysis of "The Chimney Sweeper"
William Blake wrote "The Chimney Sweeper" of "Songs of Innocence" in 1789. In the next to last line of
the first stanza, the cry "'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!" is the child's attempt at saying "Sweep! Sweep!,"
which was the chimney sweeper's street cry. This poem shows that the children have a very positive
outlook on life. They make the best of their lives and do not fear death.
This is quite the opposite in its companion poem in "Songs of Experience" which was written in 1794.

In this poem, the child blames his parents for putting him in the position he was in. He is miserable in his
situation and he also blames "God & his Priest & King". This point of view is different from that of its
companion poem because the chimney sweeper has been influenced by society and has an "experienced"
point of view.
Robert Burns
Auld Lang Syne
by Robert Burns
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
Well take a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!