NEOCLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM

Neoclassicism or Enlightenment (the Augustan Age) the model is the Antiquity; Aristotle (Poetics) and Horace (the principle of dolce et utile and the idea of golden mean (zlatni rez) are very important in the English society there is a certain class, very urban, their centre is London, they are noble people but not real nobility; they are called gentility a high middle class the key word is the sense of refinement everything is supposed to be refined, polite like the fine society the difference between the classicism and romanticism is in the expectations from the literature, they are not as high in classicism as in romanticism and later. The classicist writer is seen as a registrator of his world, while the romanticist poet has a much greater role in the social life, he is seen as a prophet of his society the aim of the poetry is to concern itself with general human nature, they understand the human nature as frozen, eternal, never changing - there is no need to redefine it, it was once and for all defined by the Ancients. The author is supposed to imitate the original nature. In romanticism nature is to go out and watch the daffodils, they will be consolation, the real experience of nature, in classicism it means human nature the preset standards which are frozen and do not change the writers should find the source in the ancient authors and talk about the human nature the way they did ideally, they need to tend to reach the ancient ideal. A. Pope wrote about human nature: First follow the Nature (refers to human nature) and your judgement frame. Cartesian thought Descartes 17th century Cogito ergo sum. - I think, therefore I am. cognition, logical thinking, cognitive thinking based on logic thinking and feeling did not go together the disassociation of sensibility (T. S. Eliot) the 18th century language was regarded as something transparent, just a vehicle for ideas and thoughts. The man who thinks and the man who feels are not together, 1

You cannot at the same time convey thoughts and feelings dry language, no complexity. The idea of thought is individual, I think, I am responsible for myself the most appropriate form for the expression of the individual is the novel. The plot should not be invented but worked out; it is not based on a pre-existing plot but on the personal experience. in the 18th century the time became ripe for the French revolution (1789), a different class was to take over; Don Quixote was the last of nobility, after that the novels are written by Sancho Pansa - the mentality of Sancho is the middle class mentality (very self-asserted). Neoclassicism contributed to the rise and education of the middle class, before there were three classes the nobility, the clergy and the peasants, now there is also a forth class tradesman, merchants, factory owners, manufacturers the middle class. 1711 The Spectator started coming out editors Addison and Steel a sort of a magazine about everything lower classes were educated through the novels published in magazines an informal education.

Alexander Pope
(1688-1744) works: Essay on Criticism the Poetics of the period, obeying the poetic rules of that time, but his lines are not filled mechanically, he plays with his poetic form. The sound must seem an echo to the sense the importance of the transparency of the signifiers, to paint as clearly as possible to the sense, there was a lot of mechanical writing at that time people used words because they rhymed and not because of the idea they carried and thought they expressed everything is predictable (the words and rhymes) so the reader is bored: The readers threatened (not in vain) with sleep. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance poets need to have knowledge, art is like dancing developed skill of dancing with words. Pope does not believe in chance, in romanticism it is completely different, spontaneity is 2

very important; they think education is dangerous because it distorts imagination. Classicist poetics is based on education, skilfulness. Windsor forest he grew up in Windsor forest, Extremely skilful, objective detached attitude, the poetic subject does not project itself in the text it is completely withdrawn from the poem, a very controlled description, never declaring any joy or pleasure. The poem is composed orderly, there is a systematic composition there is an introduction announcing his topic the description of the forest, the landscape. Windsor is his Eden if they are alike in beauty, they should be equal in fame. Pope here illustrates the aesthetic principle of order in variety; the beauty of the forest is its organised variety Not chaos-like together crushed and bruised, But, as the world, harmoniously confused: Where order in variety we see, And where, though all things differ, all agree. Though he is talking about a particular landscape, he is not giving its direct description, but one mediated by classicist poetics a typical classicist scene. Eloisa to Abelard a 12th century story about a forbidden love between a scholar Abelard and his student Eloisa. They were forcibly separated and both entered religious houses, he was castrated. Pope presents Eloisas passionate conflict, caught between heavenly and earthly love, responding in a heroic epistle, in the manner of Ovid, to a letter from Abelard. The story is already known and not from life (as it should be) but he is not interested in the story itself, but in Eloisas inner struggle. The moral pattern is the same as in classical Greek drama, but in Greek drama the question is what is moral to do and in Popes work there is no such question, she knows what she must do, she just struggles whether to do it or not. There is no question about moral choice because the choice is known, the question is do we have enough inner strength to do right thing. The drama is based on human weakness, the celebration of moral human strength.

 The Rape of the Lock a mock-heroic epic imitates heroic style (damsel in distress, gallants coming to help), written in comic manner, dealing with vices of his time and class. He was a member of Scriblerus Club (Martin Scriblerus somebody whose knowledge is not practical, useful). They used to ridicule, satirise the writers who were writing mechanically. Logocentrizm is the opposite thing the accurate and logical usage of words saying things that make sense, this is usable knowledge. They believed in human nature, if man is a part of nature he should be good, beautiful, moral, man is defined by human intellect and reason. When they see the abuse of human reason, of human nature or of knowledge they point to that by M. Scriblerus. Pastorals descriptions of nature in idyllic tone, Arcadian setting and mood An Essay on Man and the four Moral Essays epistles to friends, important to come to terms of understanding moral good and evil (from a rationalist point of view) explain by reason the choice to be good or bad. Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot made fun of the writers and fashionable people of the period, it stands as the prologue to his satires. The translation of Homers Iliad not a scholarly success, he did not deal with every detail, criticized by the classicists, but had a great success with the general public very readable, good with words, fluent.

Lady Mary Wortley Montague

now best remembered for her letters worldly, open-minded, and intelligent an example of cultural endeavours of that time politically biased theme

Letter to Sarah Ceswell o the way she describes Turkish women more beautiful than English (not biased that everything English is the best), their moral is more patriarchal, their clothes seem like disguise

o inoculation against smallpox invented by the women in Turkey, not by western society o we tend to forget that the West was created by the East

Ian Watt
The Rise of the Novel o 18th century the constitution of the novel as the genre: novels of character from picaresque novels do not have a coherent narrative, plotting is not very careful. The character itself is important, not the plot. The character is not analyzed psychologically but sociologically. The 19th century novel is realist and 20th century psychological (stream of consciousness). o the rise of the novel is connected with the rise of the middle class the commodity culture take what you have and sell it at the best price. Defoes Moll Flanders has only her beauty and she is selling it (a novel about a prostitute). Money justifies everything; there is ambiguity towards morality and social success.

Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders the plot of the novel: a fictional autobiography of Moll Flanders. She is disadvantaged from the beginning born in prison by a criminal, adopted by first one and then another gentle woman to get a proper education, 2nd gentle womans son seduces her, she goes to London on her own, turn to prostitution, marries, becomes poor, turns to crime, sent to Virginia, finds her mother and a husband incestuous brother, her mother dies, she gains some land, succeeds, returns to England and writes about the wicked lives they led the moral is ambiguous we are told that her life is wicked, but somehow we are not convinced it was all wrong she used what she had to succeed in life and she did, she became rich, so the crime pays! The style of writing is confessional metareflection, meta-comment like in autobiography, first an event is told and then

there are reflections and comments about it (like St Augustine). The language of the novel is completely transparent no additional explanations are needed, there are no complex images, the language is not symbolic - it is not pointing to anything outside itself - it is the everyday speech. The novel is well organized, documenting what she was doing, it is very realistic, plastic, palpable, real it precedes realism. She is not very much psychologically analysed but we see her as a possible real person. Her morality is trying to justify the way poor people behave, she cannot be blamed for what she is doing, it is all a result of circumstances her behaviour is socially predetermined. Robinson Crusoe is a novel in a form of a diary of a traveller. If we compare it to a novel of the same type Swifts Gullivers Travels, we can see that these two novels are completely different from each other. The main difference is in Defoes almost documentary prose as opposed to Swifts fantastic novel. Robinson is very realistic, very detailed. The stress is on the individual effort and the understanding no desire for a change, he desires profit. He is trying to rebuild the civilisation on a desert island a civilisation similar to one he left very colonial, there is no understanding for something different, he is applying his own model of civilisation on everything else (London is the ideal). Friday although Friday has a name in his language, Robinson doesnt care to try to learn it, but gives him a new English name. This is a symbol for trying to force ones own pattern of cognition on this wild part of land, language is the way to put things into categories, to name, organize experience he is not trying to learn Fridays language, but he is renaming things, he is not open to accept any differences. Robinson tries to adjust the things to his needs and not to adjust himself to the new environment. He is a typical practical, self-made man; he is trying to do the best of the situation, goes on the moment he recovers from the shipwreck.

Samuel Richardson
(1689-1761) Pamela his first novel, very important in the 18th century, it provoked many reactions (Fieldings Shamela), today it is marginalized. Pamela is a young woman who goes to a house of a very protective lady, her son tries to seduce Pamela but she tries to preserve her chastity. In the end she is rewarded for her virtue by marrying the ladys son. Marriage is class determined and it has the most important effect on the social status of women. The ideal way for a woman to succeed in life is to get married to an aristocratic man Pamela is poor, the man wants to seduce her not to marry her, but she manipulates him into marriage, she in fact sells her beauty, just like Moll Flanders, only at a much better price. She writes letters to her family she writes about her helplessness towards him but also about clothes and about commodities of the ladys house. These are the symbols of social class. The middle classs rise depended only on their education, hard work and individual effort. These self-maid men (Robinson) worked hard to earn more money to improve their social status the noveaux riches and they showed their status with beautiful clothes and better housing trying to imitate the aristocracy.

Henry Fielding
Joseph Andrews a novel of character, Joseph is Pamelas virtues brother, his situation is the same as his sisters a lady is trying to seduce him. He preserves his chastity but he is not rewarded for that by marriage, the lady does not fall in love with him for his chastity, but she hates him for it. The male and female chastity was not equally valued in the 18th century. The novel is modelled on the Spanish picaresque tradition, there is no elaborate plot, the main character gets from one adventure to another so we get episodes that describe these adventures (the most famous example Don Quixote). Joseph is accompanied by Parson Adams who is as nave and well-meaning as Joseph, he lives as he preaches; he does not belong to the surrounding world of homo economicus but lives in the world of Christianity which causes constant misunderstandings. 7

 Shamela the immediate satirised reaction to Pamela. The situation is the same, their master is in their bedroom disguised as a maid watching them undress and trying to seduce her, only she is encouraging him to do so and he is not so persistent showing the hypocrisy of Pamela she is calculated and insincere. Tom Jones an archetypal folk theme of a foundling, a very comic work. It has three parts 1 Tom as a baby, 2 Tom on the road meeting people, conflict of his naivety and the world, 3 Tom in London finds his identity, happy end.

Jonathan Swift
(1667-1745) works: Gullivers Travels it pretends to be a description of real travels but it is fantastic, not real and represents a satire of English society. Travels through different countries first through Lilliput the land of little people a very severe satire about functioning of the English court the ministers are chosen by some criteria irrelevant for the job. It also shows the insignificance of the details to which so much attention is given (the conflict of high and low heels, the egg). Then Brobdingnag the land of giants - shows the relativity of the size, how small we are and how big, important and mighty we consider ourselves. In the land of Laputa and Balnibarbi we see the criticism of new scientific achievements the knowledge and inventions that are not practical or useful. The last country he visits is the land of Houyhnhnms an ideal country of horsepeople, the utopia of a country where there are no crimes, no lies, there is only reason and righteousness or a distopia of a world deprived of emotions, everything is dull, black and white boring. He exaggerates this is how the classicist texts are turned into parody. It is a bitter satire of complete inhumanity of human behaviour, if someone is weak and unable to defend himself it is justifiable to invade. Wars are fought because of greed. The context of the word civilize it means to improve the standard of life, but in this picture of colonial England it means kill half and enslave the others, they are not improving, but 8

destroying peoples and their cultures anti-colonial discourse. The Battle of the Books a debate on two ways of learning - ancient or modern learning. He criticized the knowledge and learning for its own sake, this is the age of reason, and reason is something natural to human nature. He was a satirist and well known for his criticism and irony. A Tale of a Tub an allegory of Christianity about a man who has three sons by one wife and no one could tell which of them was the eldest who would inherit everything they were all equal. They represent 3 Christian teachings Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and the Church of England none of them is superior to the other two. A Modest Proposal an anti-colonial work which describes the economic relations between England and Ireland Ireland is not granted the freedom to trade, they become a colony used as a source of cheap food and raw materials which were sold back at much higher price as industry goods produced in England.

Jane Austen
She is not a classicist, moves from it, but she is neither a romanticist. The most important quality of her writing is her irony towards her subjects, which is not typical for romanticism. Her life is uninteresting, dull, but although without much experience, she is still able to understand the human nature. Her novels are about one subject, small places, relationships between two or more families in a village, etc. Human nature is best formed and seen within the basic social unit a family. What is important is that she has a plot a plot and a character are inter-depended similarity with realism. In classicism characters were determined by social circumstances, with Austen they rise above these circumstances. Mansfield Park The main character Fanny Price is poor and laughed at by her well-educated rich cousins for her poor education, but she manages to rise above these social circumstances and in the end she is the only one who succeeds in life. The character is not outside the social circumstances, but he is also not totally 9

dependant on them, success is determined by the inner qualities of a person, not their social circumstances. Describes the money-determined society market economy the best price for being pretty a woman can get is to marry well. Fannys cousins are generous enough to give her their least valued toys, but they do not give her anything important to them very symbolic she is below them; it is a gesture of middle class in general. The only person who approaches her is her cousin Edmond who helps her write letters to her family. Edmund is the younger son and therefore determined to become a clergyman so he has more compassion for other peoples feelings. Edmund and Fanny get married in the end, after he is refused by Mary Crawford when she realizes that he will become clergy. Fanny and Edmund are very similar understanding, trying to help In the beginning he is the only person to support Fanny but in the end she becomes his only consolation and only person to rely on to. Other characters: Sir Thomas a typical patriarchal authority, absent, establishes the order in the house, but while he is absent there is chaos, when he gets back he restores the order. Mrs. Norris a poor relative, the only person a little bit mean towards Fanny because she sees her as competition. The two sisters are a contrast to Fanny not so well-natured, educated but superficial a critic to the education of the time.

William Blake
(1757-1827) He would never consider himself a poet but a prophet whose mission is to deliver the message how to be a real man. He did not write his poems on paper, but engraved and illustrated them on copper plates. The theme of his poems it to live fully, he is a predecessor of romanticism, between the classicism and romanticism. He does not question human intellect, but says that real man is imaginative man human creativity is most important, more important than reason, he accepts reason but stresses the imagination. Blake goes back to pretradition of the Bible and Milton. He abolishes the ornate style of classicism; he is interested in metaphysical good and evil. In his attitude towards nature he differs both from the classicists and the romanticists. For him human nature (class.) is absurdity man is not natural, but divine, nature is for him only the

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source of poetic images, not a reflection of his own self (rom). Another difference from romanticists is in the questions he asks himself his questions are not about understanding, self questioning, defining but about being, the essence of our existence, what is good and what is evil, social injustice, His style and tone also differ from romanticists he is extremely objective, completely withdrawn from the poem, his tone is very controlled, not emotional or pathetic, very comprised in a few symbolic images. He is against any institutions and institutional oppressions, every man is supposed to be free personal not social freedom. He supported the ideas of French revolution. The liberation should start in our mind, because we are not imprisoned from the outside but from our own mind. In a post-Eden state we were punished but also gained the responsibility for ourselves, to go in the right direction. He is against the institutionalized society which supports social injustice Prisons are built by bricks of law. There should be no law imposed, but everyone should be responsible for him/herself, mature. works: Poetic Sketches The Songs of Innocence The songs of Experience (never meant to be read on their own, but with The Songs of Innocence) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell express the main idea of his poetry without contraries there is no progression The lamb three instances of the same principle goodness: the lamb, the child, the divine image Christ mild, meek. The poem is talking about the blessed state of harmony, Eden pastoral setting, his voice is like a shepherds, in the centre of Eden there is a lamb. The important question is about the being of the world. The Tiger contrast to the lamb, talks about the symmetry of good and evil one needs the other, asks who made the tiger presumably also God, but was He glad when he made him, did he smile, did he even know what he was making? Maybe it was not God but some evil demon that made the tiger? The tiger represents 11

activity, evil, energy without contraries there is no progression evil is needed as the opposition to good, by reaching his maturity man can face the forces of evil. The Sick Rose very short but very complex. The worm attacks the rose and it dies. This poem is an allegory of secret love and female innocence. It represents the image of love as something destructive and deadly a decadent image of dark and secret love which destroys life. Symbols rose as the most traditional symbol of a woman, worm not a very heroic male symbol with the merging of those two principles the female withers and is destroyed. Crimson joy suggests the fullness of life, maturity (not innocence). It is about two metaphysical principles joy, beauty vs. evil, secrecy and destructiveness. He achieves his images by a much comprised, economic language. Nothing is more important in life than love and death, an oxymoronic connection of love and death. To The Evening Star it is like a Painting, he had a vision of sunset, the eternal existence of good and evil. The Evening star is the symbol of the goddess of love Venus; he draws her attention to the world. The importance of the colours blue, silver, white they are not suggesting love but Eden the need for peace. The symbolic image of the flock Arcadian, quiet, biblical connotation shepherd, lamb symbols of Christ often in Blakes poetry. The confrontation of good and evil, timidity and violence. Everything is nice and quiet but soon everybody will fall asleep and start dreaming and the sub-consciousness will become alive the idyl is superficial, something alive and dangerous is suppressed under the surface our psyche, thin balance between peacefulness and suppressed violence. Ah! Sunflower 3 times the word where every time a different meaning, influence of metaphysical poets, not contemporaries. It is the most aesthetic poem in Blakes poetry. Rephrases a known motive of sunflower Ovids Metamorphosis, the story of Clethia an ordinary girl who falls in love with sun-

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god Helios, she wanted to follow him, but could not and then she was metamorphosed in a sunflower human striving to achieve the idyllic state. The sunflower is weary of time it moves always in circles trapped in perpetual cycle. The sunflower will never reach the ideal, utopian place. The 2nd stanza almost decadent images a young man and a pale virgin deprived of love, of this idyllic state, of experience, of this utopian place they aspire. Through denial and self-sacrifice they try to get to that place. How can we reach the fullness of existence, the ideal? It is always restricted and we are always prevented to get there, we are aspiring but never getting there. Three where refer to utopian place to which all aspire to go to. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The Introduction to the Songs of Innocence and The Introduction to the Songs of Experience he relays on mythological representation of nature not on education, he is a bard, a prophet. A child asks him to sing the poem of the lamb (Christ) it is his poetics. His representation of nature is mythologized, the Arcadian nature, as represented by other authors, he does not relay on reason. The Little Black Boy about social injustice.

Romanticism
Abrams division classicism = lamb objective, portrays the society of their typical occurrences, patterns in behaviour; romanticism = mirror change in the subject of poetry, very symbolic images, very subjective, the poem is always about the poet and his feelings whatever be the subject. Main topics of romanticism are growing up, maturing and introspection, self-examination, self-recognition, writing becomes a process of selfdefinition write in order to understand yourself (1st person). Time and changes are very important, poets talk about themselves and their changes. Romanticism starts with Goethe and Schillers Sturm und Drang they refused to follow the prescribed rules of classicism and tried to write according to their inspiration. Following the German philosophers T. S. Coleridge introduces the notion of organic form poets should write according to their inspiration not by prescribed rules, rhythm and rhyme make one whole 13

and they should not be premeditated. The poem should grow like a plant, like a living organism from poets inspiration. Education and reason are not important anymore, just the poets inspiration. Romanticism is the time of rediscovering folk traditions, folklore, going back to peasants. Attitude towards language also changes, language is supposed to be natural, poetry is man talking to man therefore the natural medium is supposed to be used.

William Wordsworth
(1770-1850) Wordsworth is the major English romantic poet, from 1843 officially considered poet laureates. He lost his parents when he was still very young and was very close with his sister who is mentioned in his poems and gave explanations of his work. He had a very good education, was very close to nature, landscape, lakes almost religious worship of nature (started by J. J. Rousseau), deistic attitude never questioning the existence of God who they saw as a part of nature God and nature are seen as two sides of one whole. In the first phase of his poetry his topics are beggars, his poetry is politically engaged. His second phase starts when he meets Coleridge and spends a lot of time on walking tours with him, discussing poetry. Coleridge encourages him to start writing lyrical poems short lyrics are what makes his poetry most remembered. Together they write big lyrical ballads and try to formulate their programme of breaking the predefined decorum of neo-classicist verse and trying to introduce a completely new style. In 1798 they published anonymously a small but successful pamphlet called The Lyrical Ballads and a Few Other Poems which questioned the diction and the decorum of neo-classicist verse. In 1800 they published its second edition, this time with their names and Wordsworths preface the manifesto of romanticism, a new period started romanticism. They introduce new style, new vocabulary and new subjects. They try to trace in their poems the primary laws of our nature. the other consequence of their walking tours was the idea to write an enormous poem in which he would treat all science, philosophy and religion, answer all the 14

questions that can be asked. Coleridge gave up this idea, but Wordsworth wrote the prelude Growth of a Poets Mind a massive autobiography (13 books) which was published posthumously. Its topic is the description of the ways in which imagination dominates over the reason. He says there are three human faculties imagination, sensual experience and reason and the world of senses emerges as a predominant human faculty. He takes imagination as the controlling power over both reason and senses. It is also very important because up till than the genres were strictly prescribed and now we get a mixing of genres (Coleridges notion of organic form everything has to spring from poets inspiration, there are no prescribed rules). He started a loosely composed poem, without structured form, reflexive poem, states of mind, diary in verse. After the death of his favourite brother he starts writing a bit differently (more like Milton). There is elevation of tone and poetic maturity in his works Tintern Abbey the best of his early works. His later poems are about the sense of loosing sight and painful recognition of growing old (early poems about nature). The nature so close in his early works must now be reached in a different way. In his early poetry he formulated a new attitude towards nature, a fresh view of organic relation between man and nature rendered through metaphors which express merging of nature and human mind. Later he defines poem as an act of self-exploration and self-recognition. His attitude towards language was revolutionary in two ways introducing natural language really used and a different relation between language and subjectivity. He recognized that the diction of post-Miltonic poetry was incapable of accounting on human subjectivity because it was excluded of persons. He uses language for self-recognition, close to psycho-analysis, to reach beyond consciousness. Language is there to express your subjectivity, to attain, to grasp, to understand the subjectivity. The structure of poems asking questions and answering them. Wordsworth was the firs to place poetry in the centre of human experience poetry is the first and last of all knowledge, immortal as the heart of man.

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 Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Poetry is to be written in the real language not colloquial language but also not specific diction for poetry, words and phrases from real, ordinary language. Poetry is written in a state of vivid sensation a process of creativity bringing different meters, structures which make it different from everyday language. The difference from ordinary language is not in the words and expressions, but in form meter and structure. The principle topics are to be found in everyday life but presented in an unusual aspect, using the imagination. (Coleridge about extraordinary as usual, Wordsworth about ordinary in an unusual way). He says that the language of peasants is more philosophical than the one of his colleagues because they express their feelings strongly, not tinted by social vanity, natural language nature is mirror of our feelings, country life is communicating with nature, expression of feelings while in society we repeat the same formulas over and over again not reflecting ourselves. Good poetry is for him a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings not learned, skilful like in classicism, it is uncontrolled more than usual organic sensibility and reflexivity. The myth of memory past emotions by time become thoughts and in relation with new emotions they result in poetry. Poetry is a complex union of poets thoughts of past feelings and present emotions which are united in the myth of memory. Daffodils past emotions counteracting with present sadness, by thoughts of past happy emotions he is able to overcome present sad emotions. Lyrical Ballads the most important book of poetry after Shakespeare, brought about simple language of peasants, new freshness, new ideology and new notion of subjectivity, poet becomes the subject of his poetry. What Freud did in psychology Wordsworth did in poetry. Expostulation and Reply a poem about a conversation between two friends who have two different attitudes towards human knowledge and understanding. There are two ways of obtaining knowledge through culture and through nature.

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One friend asks the other where his books are, he represents neoclassicism, learning through culture, his idea is that men are blind until they acquire the knowledge that enlightens them, they should acquire this knowledge on the basis of their culture. The reply represents romanticism, the way we acquire knowledge is different, not by books; we need to expose ourselves to nature, to the powers our mind represses. We do not need to strive, try, intervene in nature, but let our minds be passive and open to nature. Pantheistic attitude god and nature are one. Tables Turned the true, genuine art is in nature not in books. The wisdom and creativity in nature are stronger than the powers within cultures. Birds that sing beautifully birds are symbol of poet in romanticism. He is against analytical reason and rational approach; experience comes through feelings, not knowledge or reason. The World Is Too Much With Us one of Wordsworths more mature poems with more complex language and iambic meter. He introduces Greek mythology Proteus, Triton. The poem is about the relationship of man and nature, man has alienated himself from nature, he has become a burden to nature, he has caused misbalance in nature, one of the two (man or nature) will have to be eliminated. Stress is not on the ecology but on cohabitation of man and nature in harmony, he says he would rather be a pagan than to belong to his culture that is alienated from nature. In the end there is pastoral setting Greek mythology. Daffodils / I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud In the first three stanzas the description of landscape is very vivid and suggestive, but that is not the point, the point is the myth of memory. Everything starts with feelings, when we remember we have thoughts about feelings remembering the image of the dancing daffodils and the joy and pleasure of seeing them helps him to get through the pensive mood of the city. His attitude towards past is not nostalgic thinking about past does not sadden him, but makes him happy and able to overcome the present sadness (different from Proust).

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 Tintern Abbey again the myth of memory, he revisits the place after five years and compares the memory of it and the present situation. The other important topic is the insight into personal experience, personal growing up and growing old, his personal change of attitude. In the first stanza there are two motives the passing of time and the description of nature. He is very precise about the time and in describing nature, the description is very mimetic, very precise, almost palpable, he is not using the images of pastoral setting that are always the same. There is a different procedure of using language he corrects himself these hedgerows, hardly hedgerows poem is a process. The second stanza describes different effects that nature has on man. The memory of beautiful landscape gives him consolation, but nature is also a moral teacher nature makes one a better person who acts kindly, nicely not for a purpose but spontaneously. In the third stanza comes recognition, understanding of mystical experience by becoming almost asleep in body, but alive in soul. The memory brings us joy and understanding. Man is a part of nature, belongs to the process, logos that exists in nature and human mind is apart of it. The imagery is changed first concrete images and now cosmic, an extension of human mind. My Heart Leaps Up Pious attitude towards nature adoration of nature. Rainbow is a symbol of joy, of wishes fulfilled, of joy of life The Child Is Father of the Man our birth is just a process of forgetting, man is alienated through the process of existing in life. Child is the closest to God; man should stay as close as possible to his childhood experience needing piety (adoration) towards nature which is the moral teacher. The Solitary Reaper a new concept of female beauty, a new construction of ideal woman (Lotta in Werthers Sorrows) no more comparisons to the expensive objects (gold, pearl, coral), the new woman is simple, modest, humble, nice, difficult to notice, she is one with nature, working in field. Myth of

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memory he listens to her poem and after the music has ceased he can still feel it in his heart a consolation later in a pensive mood. Poets feel that painters and musicians deal with uncontaminated media, language is contaminated by some phrases that are constantly used. Resolution and Independence simple in narrative structure. He is a traveller walking in the moors, encounters a very old man, a leach-gatherer, they talk we should learn from humble people who are close to nature, being close to nature, being a part of it is enough. The primal harmony of man and nature is broken by the industrial revolution that is why existential anxiety appears in romanticism we are now out of nature; we have to find our own meaning, answers a substitute for nature culture. Meeting the leach-gatherer gives him consolation, in the end he was physically weak but his mind was firm and that was important. The Immortality Ode has three parts: first part stanzas 1-4, second part stanzas 5-8 and third part stanzas 9-11. Stanzas 1-4 were written first, the rest were written two years later. The tone is pessimistic a feeling of loosing a home, a compromise is achieved a new home is found in the comforting nature, maturity is just a new force, not a loss of power or talent, but another form. 1st stanza he is not able to see anymore the contrast of past present and nature subject. 2nd stanza a contradiction - nature is still there in all its beauty the glorious birth of sunshine and the passed away glory how to resolve this contradiction? The inglorious feeling is his he cannot read into nature anymore, earths glory is still there. The keyword is glory subjectively the subject cannot see it. 3rd stanza most disputed. Stress on the pastoral setting, not grieving as in 2nd stanza. He finds his relief but it does not come from nature, but from human artefact: timely utterance what does it refer to? Timely belongs to time the difference in time human and timelessness nature. Utterance man-made, not belonging to nature for the first time nature is not enough, he is alienated from nature and to recuperate from that he needs a timely utterance (it is treated differently by critics). For the first time that

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utterance has brought relief and strength. Nature and culture are in juxtaposition. 4th stanza strong melancholy note at the end, pain for something that is passed. More readings tree and field as symbols of French revolution that was a disappointment; the other reading tree and field as symbols of difference between man and nature nature is eternal, immortal, cyclic while human beings are mortal, it is impossible to duplicate them. 5th stanza a new topic, written two years later. Pessimistic, we do not belong to nature, we come from the same divine source and through our life we go through a process of alienation, slowly the abilities to be one with nature fade away the light and glory fade away. Birth is almost like expulsion from Eden. 6th stanza our life on earth is not authentic but second best it is like living as a fosterchild of nature; nature is not our mother but our nurse, we are not from this world. Pantheistic tone he does not separate nature from god. 7th stanza child is seen as the best philosopher, the process of growing up is alienation, loosing touch with our true inner self we become just actors on the stage in these endless imitations 8th stanza end of first answer 9TH stanza change of tone, a new answer if we cannot see, we can still remember and through this ability we belong to immortality recollections are the new light making him able to see being able to maintain the connection of present and present containing the past and announcing future cyclostyle time. 10th stanza repeat of pastoral setting, resignation at the end through ages you acquire philosophical mind capable of contemplation, but it is not natural child is best, we just have to settle with what we have. 11th a very critical end, coming on term with different conditions of life. Too deep to cry when we are able to cry it brings us relief, some pains cannot be relieved from cannot cry. Four different readings of the poem 1st New criticism theory Cleanth Brooks they never contextualise the text, they do not go anywhere outside the text to explain it and they use close reading. The stress is on celestial light juxtaposition of divine and common; cosmic images which prevail in the

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poem glory comfort to humans, earth, sun and moon comfort to glory; child how to understand the supernatural origin of the child close to nature or divine and thus unnatural? The poem does not answer if the child, divine, when born is bound to the second best, less divine earth or is the child divine because it is natural, by growing up we alienate from nature, we are less divine, less natural. 2nd Marjory Levinson a new historian uses the archives other texts, studies, criticism on paintings, journals of that time with an insight into dominant discourses of that time. She deals with the poems in the context of their time. She views the poem in the context of Wordsworths disappointment with the French revolution, his problem with Enlightenment, why he turned conservative. She thinks that tree and field are symbols of French revolution, the title The Ode strongly suggests that the poem is in the occasion of an important national event. She switches our attention from the personal to the more general political claims of the poem. The poem also deals with the relationship of enlightenment and romanticism. It is the critique of reason. She argues that his notion of time is that of regression, a decadent mode, nostalgia, he prefers past over present, he does not turn to future. Myth of memory acceptance of loss. She offers a very good analysis of his style: abstract, pictorial, emblematic, as a function to create the nostalgic sentiment of the poem. 3rd reading Hartman, deconstruction taking apart to see hoe the mechanism behind it works. It is the most creative method of reading a text. but limiting because the text is used for an allegory for reading in general can be done only with romanticist poems. He plays with the idea of reading reading is something different than before the language of science and politics should be transparent but of poetry vague. Timely utterance takes us to the Bible, creating by words the word became flesh refers to turning words into images. The importance of pastoral mood it points to the connection of man and nature. The importance of passion it is a marriage between man and nature, when it is imbalanced the slit starts between the two. The importance of now it is a wishing word because it never happens melancholic. 4th Coleridges poem Dejection: An Ode linked to Wordsworths written in a letter and later redone in verse and published. Coleridge was loosing his talent, he had an unhappy marriage, he was ill and given opium which caused hallucinations. He undertook to write

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the ordinary with extraordinary elements. The storm brings the change, the creative power is lost forever; the moon has two sides the old and the new one. Talks about his own despair, sense of alienation, his language is different than Wordsworths, more palpable not so abstract. He also cannot see, but in a different way than Wordsworth I see but I cannot feel, my heart has grown old man is completely separated from nature. He sees what really matters is our subjectivity, we do not take consolation from nature, we reflect our emotions, our moods in nature.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(1772-1834) The idea of organic form brought from Germany where he studied. Coleridge was offended by the way German critics treated Shakespeare as a savage because of his interplay of high and low (Hamlet two servants discussing Hamlets faith, fools commentary more important) and not accepting the unity of time and place. In his defence Coleridge claims that a play cannot be formless, form comes from within and it is not form that makes a play a work of art. He distinguishes two kinds of poetic forms 1 mechanical form you take already prescribed acts, problems, forms and try to follow them phrases to fill the pattern not thought (Pope) 2 organic form used by real genius, it is natural work of imagination, the work forms itself. Fancy vs. imagination fanciful has a slightly more negative connotation than imaginative, it does not move you, it seems artificial. Fancy is imagining which runs wild by using strong metaphors (dead metaphors a leg of a table not seen as metaphors; strong metaphors two completely unrelated fields of meaning put together, comparing something that is not usually done so. T. S. Elliot disassociation of sensibility no more strong metaphors which are artificial, fanciful and demand intellect, knowledge. Imagination is created out of mystical experience, almost like religious trans; corporeal frame is almost suspended, extrasensory, extra-real, extra-physical experience, a living soul. Romantic poet ascribes to imagination, not pour intellectual capacity, but more profound, it has

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to do with creativity, coming from intercourse with nature. The willing suspense of disbelief

Christabel the world of fantastic, a work of his psychedelic imagination (opium). Has a very careful structure, a kind of a gothic poem, good and innocent vs. evil. It is the most difficult to interpret of all his works because of many ambiguities. There are five different readings SF, autobiography, feminist, illustration of ones psyche, psychological disintegration. It has a typical pattern of most romances a very attractive and clever evil person (Geraldine) dominates and manipulates everybody and a good person which cannot stand on his/her own and is not able to be heard (Christabel) non-energetic goodness and manipulative evil. It is obvious that Geraldine is disguised evil but the atmosphere is such that Christabel beauty, white, innocence, nave, will not recognize evil when it is there. There are three signs that Geraldine is a witch when she arrives the mastiff bitch moans announcing death, she cannot pass the threshold Christabel carries her in, she refuses to pray under the excuse of weariness. The spirit of her mother who died after her birth tries to protect her. Her father has lost the will for life and his beautiful daughter is his only consolation, but inexplicably he turns against her he is under Geraldines spell. Christabel herself under fascinated with evil invites Geraldine into her room and bed. By the end there is no more only good or bad characters, all of them contain the contradictions of themselves Geraldine is not as bad, and Christabel is not as good they are the projection of each others inner self, opposite of their normal self. The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner he returned to the poetry of myth, his most important work, symbolizes his work and introduces an important change in English poetry. Mythical imagination it is almost impossible to understand the poem, to participate in it is to open yourself to the impact it has on you, not through the story but through the images his poetry is close to symbolism. Coleridge: A symbol is characterised by the translucence of the universal in the general, eternal through temporal. talk about general terms without personal

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qualities the Mariner is not described as tall or short, blue eyes or green, he is not a person, he is an emblem, an illustration of universal. His language is of a balladic quality rhythmical, lots of repetitions, as to be sung in pubs the need for redundancy). The main protagonists are the Mariner and the Albatros (Baudelaire albatross is a symbol of a poet, on the ground a funny figure, but in the air, in freedom, flying, it reaches its full beauty). Coleridges poem is not symbolic, but archetypal, mythical, it resembles a ballad. The structure is of a religious poem talks about sin, punishment, repentance and (incomplete) salvation. Romantic pattern God is replaced with nature albatross. Mariners life in death, not death but worse stillness, wasteland, sterility of human existence is his punishment. Life in death is worse than death itself; he will repent his sin every day. The poem is based on the juxtapositions of killing and blessing, soul-sickness and recovery, an act of violence and a great act of blessing. The sun is a symbol of heat, dryness, thirst, lack of water and life, it burns, it is not represented as a source of light, Rain and wind are represented as principles of life, movement; water is the source of life. The moment of the change and salvation is when he can pray again and the wind and rain come as soon as he starts praying. He can never completely recover, he repents his sin every, he feels the compulsive need to tell hi story over and over again. You have to sin, be lonely, guilty, to be able to reach the higher state of cognition. Kublai Khan - a poem written during his opium reveries, reading about Kublai, had a dream that somebody came but he forgot the dream - fragmentary structure of the poem - on the level of images he renders the structural unity of the 3 parts 1st - the image of the stately pleasure - dome which unites 2 principles - fountains and caves; sunny and ice - erotic pleasure, sexual energy oriental image, almost like the begging of Christabel waiting for her lover. Male, sexual power balanced by caverns measureless to man Kublai penetrating the forests, ground, fierce, fire sun, pleasure. The symbolic name of the river Alph the sacred river alpha the beginning of the alphabet, culture, sacred language. 2nd image war tumult, kingdom being destroyed, the dome floating down the water,

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the shadow of the dome of the pleasure Plato- world of shadows and ideas. 3rd image of Abyssinian maid on mount Abora religious connotations 2 kinds of creation: Kublais dome and the poets not the real thing but built on image in the air. Art seems to prevail over reality, lasts in time from Alpha to Omega. Through these images the poet renders the world of exotic life, pleasure, and poetry which prevails over it.

George Gordon Lord Byron

He is the most influential eng. writer, became a model for modern writing - considered to be a classicist, despised romanticism and claimed that eng. literature died with Pope. There are two ideas of Byron: one in Europe who was considered the most typical romanticist and the other in Britain who despised romanticism and was thought poorly by other authors. Prometheus extremely typical character that follows his free will, hero that was also treated by Shelley shares character with rebelled Satan, non-servant. Shelleys Prometheus is better than Satan is, his rebellion is not motivated by pride but he wished to help mankind. Byrons Prometheus is different, has romantic qualities of rebellion. 1st stanza Titan immortal, regeneration of his lives, the same suffering every day, punished for helping mankind, he gave them fire and he should not have done that because gods punished mankind fire power, creativity, knowledge, light, enlightenment. The stress is on Prometheuss (immortality) wish not to be heard, he doesnt want others to know that he suffers Byronic hero proud, never lets others know he is suffering. 2nd reaction to protestant and Calvinistic understanding of punishment. Zeus thunder defied by silent suffering, Prometheus a moral conqueror of the gods he defies the punishment. 3rd Prometheus defies, disobeys, in a way he resembles human kind and what mortals are a troubled stream of pure source man is part divine because he has his own will typical for 20th century will to power - Nietzsche Byron celebrates this quality of

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mankind Don Juan based on a picaresque tradition, a Spanish folk hero, dissolute gentleman, loose in behavior. Byrons Don Juan is based on his personal experience, don Juan is being seduced - his destiny of early age to maturity his mothers companion Dona Julia becomes his lover. There is no real story, episodes just happen one after the other, unfinished epic, last episodes in a Turkish harem, then Ekaterina the great in Russia adores him - through different adventures we come across different social groups husbands are obstacles, women are selfish, manipulative, he portrays social hypocrisy. The play is written in ottava rima, ends with a couplet- a conclusion anticlimax his comment appears in the last 2 lines, 3rd person narrative, introduces himself as a non romantic hero and warns us not to take him seriously. Narrator plays a game of hide and seek with the readers reveals or holds back something, a symbolic disorientation of time and place. Donna Julia, don Juan young woman married to an older man; a love of an elderly woman for a very young man, she desires natural human feelings, the social morality is loose, unstable. His poem is his own personal revenge to society, he was a victim of social hypocrisy, he mocks the society, develops a comedy of manner. He is writing a comedy using epic/ narrative procedure. Antiscientific spirit the new scientific age alienates man and nature definition of man, very superficial tone, man is sublime, the invention of the 18th century, philosophical and social awareness of human individuality, man is different from the rest of the world. Pleasure is sin and sometimes sin is pleasure shows the double morality which is his real topic. Pleasure interferes with hierarchy of virtue in the high class, nobody expects to suffer in after life high class idea that after the French rev. they would never have to face reality, they were not aware of the poor people. Description of nature not romantic, more concrete, not natural, pastoral setting, very romantic image topos of the storming sea is domesticated by people gathering for the 5 oclock tea- measuring life with coffee spoons. Comical part stereotype situation. Byrons style farfetched metaphors, unnatural language. This work is romantic because he celebrates natural

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feelings, expresses liberal views; he hints the artificiality of human behavior, divorce of man and nature. Hours of Idleness early lyrics Childe Harolds Pilgrimage published after return from Greece Manfred gothic atmosphere, self questioning of Manfred in his loneliness, attempt to pursue his free will

Percy Byss Shelley

(1792-1822) Involved in politics, like Byron, expelled from Oxford because of a pamphlet - The necessity of atheism. In Ireland wrote a pamphlet against England got scared because the English secret service followed him. He had a very adventurous life. He traveled with Mary, her half sister and Byron in Europe; he drowned in storm in Italy maybe not an accident. Ode to the west wind interpreted in different ways, a symbolic poem which foresees revolutionary changes, it goes together with Coleridges Dejection: Ode and Wordsworth, sense of having failed ones own creativity, non realized potentials, looking for consolation in nature. It has two parts - 1st are the first three stanzas and the 2nd are the fourth and fifth stanza (each in different tone: 4th pessimistic, 5th optimistic). First he states problems, questions then gives two possible answers. Shelleys imagery cosmic energy in his images, images are general, not precise, about elements, classical images Shakespeare and Alighieri as his predecessors. This ode is inspired by natural phenomenon in Florence the river Arno in which he noticed the changes of seasons in water. It is written in the combination of terza rima, from divine comedy and has a sonnet form 5 terzas rimas + couplet. He is structuring his poem on the change of the seasons wind brings changes, destruction, death. Azure sister of spring; a sunny Mediterranean day, spring wind as a symbol of rebirth, recreation of the universe, in the change of seasons we find consolation. 3rd stanza is almost apocalyptic corps in graves; then spring rebirth of the universe. 27

4th stanza a change in tone, the poetic persona is introduced - I for the first time in poem, comparison between nature and poetic subject, romantic notion of the self. Biblical images thorns of life, I bleed, his life path is a martyrdom. The last image is almost promethean chained, man forged manacles, wind is free, alienation of man from nature. 5th unit- change of relationship between the poet and nature, he is expressing his desire to become one with nature again, to find his strength in the nature. The most important metaphor dead thoughts before leaves as apart of nature. He sees wind as energy, moving force. His lyre is an instrument of nature represents him, he is a part of nature, it is possible to regain new energy, he hopes that change of season is the fate of a poet as well. To a skylark birds have symbolic meaning, skylark represents the poet. Relationship between the poet and the skylark is not simple, represents the split between a poet and nature. He goes one step further than Wordsworth, he tries to understand the powers hidden behind nature and its functioning. The bird is already out of sight, he only hears its song - estrangement of the poetic persona from the enjoyment of the bird. He is not the same as the bird 1st stanza description of the bird, feeling that his song is different, at the end he desires to identify himself with the bird innocent union of man and nature. All words are important bird is almost a spirit, something mythical, a part of heaven. Nature produces art, this art is unpremeditated, nature is a great artist. 2nd stanza poet is bound to earth; bird belongs to sky, closer to heaven, at the end oxymoron harmonious madness bird and poet. Art belongs to the bird but to the poet as well, the bird is happy because it can sing, he wishes that he can utter the same kind of happiness so that the world would listen. Adonais his most successful work. Based on the name of Adonais a traditional mourning song in old Greek cultures (in roman cultures elegy); inspiration to Milton in his days. Mourning for modern Adonais John Keats from a socially different class, very poor. The poem turns to an epistemological song, trying to come to terms with death, ones own mortality, meaning of life,

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death, art can art overcome death, give new meaning to life. A symbol of Orpheus tamed wild beasts, helped Eurydice to get out of Haad he wants to express the power of art which is stronger than death itself. The poem is written in neo-platonic terms privilege of art over life, of spirit over materialism, his understanding is platonic, idealistic. His images are strong, relies on Shakespeare. Adonais is not dead, his art justifies his life in the way that our life is not our human life- very pessimistic, not romantic stanza (baroque) decay, corpses in channel, fear, grief, cold hopes swarm like worms, living clay oxymoron. Though we are alive we are future corpses, we should attend to spirituality, but in our life we should achieve something that will last after our life. Juxtaposition of uncreative human life sparkles ashes, unlamented urn. Somebody who is creative by its creativity overcomes death. Our spiritual existence matters, it is achieved through our creativity, with it we achieve the oneness with nature - unity with nature achieved through poetry, merging of the poet and nature, both of them active and passive at the same time, interaction is important for his understanding of poetry. A defense of poetry poetry is always accompanied with pleasure, poet is a nightingale cheers us with sweet sounds a turn of the century statement. Yeats on his essay on Shelley most important for him when older is the impact for understanding of poetry and what it meant to a poet. Poetry is a sort of alchemy transforming solitude and darkness into sweet sounds and beautiful melodies, overcoming human suffering and turning into beauty. Prometheus unbound - courageous and compassionate, not greedy for power, the time of the highest perfection, purest motives, best ends in the preface. 2. imagery he used in the play drawn from the operation, from the human mind or how theyre expressed. An objective correlative Dante found an image which would express the state of mind which it describes. Lovers two birds thrown around by the wind. 3. - poetry as a mimetic art a product of nature and art. His understanding of

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how poetry works it does not invent but takes what is in nature, it creates by combination and representation. He use allegory in the real world to represent emotions and thoughts. He is not Platonist all the way, he does not believe that art mirrors only art, but also not very romantic he doesnt believe that art comes only from direct contact with nature, but by combination and mimetic art.

John Keats
(1795-1821) He belongs to a different class than Shelly, self educated, poor, tuberculous and unhappily in love with Fanny. William Butler Yeats wrote a poem about him Ego Dominus Tuus a poor boy with his face and nose pressed to a shop window he is only looking, but not tasting any joys of life. He wrote collections of poems Lamia, Isabelle, The Eve of St Agnes and other poems, epic poems Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. His letters to his brother were considered insufficiently manly by his contemporaries. the concept of negative capability we do not have to try to resolve the contradictions, but to accept them. The most important quality of human creativity is beauty (even more than truth). His views of the poet poet is not a unique voice, there is a split between the poet and the poetic person in the poem it is assumed only in the poem, it does not exist outside the poem, it has no identity. His most famous poems are the four odes Ode to Psyche, Ode to Nightingale, Ode to Autumn and Ode on a Grecian Urn. Ode to Psyche Psyche is the name of a mortal loved by the god of love Eros, she was afraid of his mother Venus and had to hide in dark symbolizes the inner self. The god of love carries a bright torch and in the end finds Psyche a happy ending, loves warmth. The poem describes the inner landscape, not the objective world or outside forces interiorization of images of nature. Garden a product of a working brain, newer the same flowers always creative imagination. Ode to Nightingale Split between the Nightingale and the Poet, a description of

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the effects of the Nightingales song, it has an effect of enchantment too happy in happiness, as drunk of hemlock (as poisonous herb) of his poem. NIGHTingale night dark, hidden close to Psyche, suppressed, not exposed to a mortal eye. Describes the strong discrepancy (being at variance) of the everyday world, love cannot find its place in such a world. The only way to bring together the beauty and the everyday world is by the invisible wings of Poesy poetic alchemy turn gray, ugly into beautiful, Nightingale is the symbol of that mysterious experience. In the end a feeling of uncertainty, doubt is introduced fancy is not what we think it is dealing with imagination and creativity. Ode on a Grecian Urn about an artistic object combines art and death, its linkage is the topic of the poem. It has five stanzas, in the first he asks rhetorical questions and in the fifth he gives a conclusion. Heard melodies re sweet, but unheard are sweeter celebrates the spiritual, belonging to inner time, subconsciousness, eternity neo-platonic attitude an idea of melody, not marked through physical existence, clear spirit is more important than the sensual ear. There are two main scenes 1st a young lover under a tree trying to find his love and 2nd prayer and sacrifice, priest and his followers going to mountains to celebrate something. He draws attention to the notion of time it cannot always be measured physically there are two times - the everyday time and the time of art which is much slower and closer to eternity. He privileges art over life. Art is timeless and it freezes in one moment, the lovers in the scene on the urn will never be destroyed, they will always love, because that moment is frozen, but they will not materialize because they do not have time, they are timeless and that is equal to lifeless. Urn is a silent form, dead, not alive, not speaking. He is trying to come to terms with life and art. The conclusion explains the role of art through the symbol of urn it contains human ashes inside and art outside it gives meaning to our life. Beauty is truth, truth is beauty. Ode to Autumn celebrating the beauty of autumn ripeness is all, it is very palpable, descriptive, but not boring, plastic immediate language and imagination.

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 On First Looking into Chapmans Homer extremely well received. He was also criticized for his lack of classical education his poem was proclaimed a work of cockney poetic school but he followed his calling without paying attention to this. Endymion was not successful, about a goddess and her love for a mortal shepherd. He changes the perspective shepherd meets Diane in his dream, wakes up and looks for her, meets an Indian girl who lost her love, his sympathy for her turns into love it was an embodiment of Diane. His topic is not the conflict of the opposites but coming on terms with reality by the art which overcomes all, the sense of beauty overcomes all.

Mary Shelly
Second wife of Shelly, daughter of famous parents who she get to know only by reading their books, her father did not spend time with her and her mother died on her birth (like in Frankenstein) she feels she killed her, as well as the children she miscarried, Shelly drowned, she outlived him for 30 years. Frankenstein is he a Prometheus nobody should ever die a promethean urge to give men light, fire life. The first experiment with his family with lightening making fire is similar he may be a promethean man trying to do something for the mankind. The other way of reading it is the feminist theory he plays with the role of women trying to create life from something inanimate, his constant avoidance of sexual, partly incestuous relationship with Elizabeth (an adopted child) who belongs to their household and is his best friend. The choice between his science and normal family relationships he never opens to Elizabeth, he chooses his vocation, even when she comes to him he is not able to share his experience with her. There are three acts of violence on the monster 1 he is left on creation, 2 when he saves a boy he shoots him and 3 when the family sees him they are against him. The monster is seen as his double. His motive to create the monster is to recompensate for his mothers death Oedipal. When he decides to marry Elizabeth he stays outside her room to protect her not a natural 32

thing to do, also a fear of natural sexuality. The request of the monster for his female mate complicates the plot he would leave with her and never come back almost seems like a solution. It is not clear why he stops in his works on that 1 they would couple and bear children monsters, 2 the monster and a woman and natural birth giving psychoanalytical the monster is a double of Victor. The third reading a romantic warning about humans tempering with nature the monster is a creation that destroys the creator he lost control over it, the nature fights back. There are some elements of gothic atmosphere. Victor a winner, a victim of his own victory. The novels composition in form of letters by Robert Walton travelling to the North Pole who meets Victor, their fates are similar, he also risks the lives of his crewmen for his goal, not exposing to danger only himself playing with life. Another important moment is his relationship with his mother when he is to go away (his maturity) she gives him a book The Life of Victor Frankenstein and tells him to fill it with good deeds of a noble life. In Ingolstadt some questions open the aim of the medicine at large think for and of your patients, do not temper with nature too much. Science was then like alchemy, scientists were not accepted at their time, only later, they were first visionaries and than experimentalist. The question opens was his motive just to stop death or was he overambitious he would create a nation to celebrate him? The role of the books and education the reading of books makes them wish to do something. For Mary Shelly herself reading was very important. The monster reads three books Plutarchs Lives a series of biographies of best people of his time, it models him socially, Goethes The Sorrows of Young Werther which is the model love story of romanticism sacrifice for love and Miltons Paradise Lost a question that one is to answer for himself after the expellment; Eve made Adam sin, now they have to take responsibility from innocence to experience. These books form the monsters character; he thinks he is a good person. The question of xenophobia is also important something that was given birth undergoes the process of self-education, it was the time when social progression of lower classes depended on their self-education it is on the verges of being dangerous, self-destructive. The reading of the novels might bring about some ideas which are not fulfilled in real life

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 this happens to the monster. Only the blind accepts him in our society you must be beautiful in and out, social status rich = beautiful the monster is ugly from outside and therefore not socially acceptable, he is the other alienated, different. He has no name by the act of naming one becomes a part of a group (spiritual community). When Victor goes to the magistrate and claims that Justine is innocent, he tries to accuse the monster, but it cannot be accused because it does not have a name it is definitely outside human society, not included, that is why it became violent, evil, brutal whatever evil described in the novel is of mans doing. Scottish Romanticism The most important question for them is the question of national identity. The modern sense of nation was constructed for the first time after the French Revolution. For the 19th century man nation was closely connected with language, the 19th century nationalism was not politically radical but it was culturally strong which is very strongly linked with the ideology of romanticism to rediscover their folk tradition. Before there was a clear division f folk tradition and high-brow literature, in romanticism Wordsworth says you should not try to keep apart the cultures of folk and nobility but to discover ones roots, one should return to the simple language of an ordinary man, rediscover folk poems. This tendency is stronger in stateless countries reconstructing national culture, heritage and identity, Recreate, recuperate the past of the people, their history Franz Fanon to get the sense of identity you have to recover the nations past Scott made an attempt to recover the past of the Scottish nation, landscape poems are important Edward Said first made people aware of the importance of place names in poems imperialism was renaming, re-charting, destroying (Gaelic names in Ireland renamed in English) imagination was restoring it. The question of language in British literature the problem of Irish and Scottish literature was that the influence of English was too strong to go back to Gaelic or Scottish. Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott created an idiom ScottishEnglish an attempt with Allen Ramsay to reconstitute Scottish literature in 18th century, it continued in the next century.

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 Burns is different from Ramsay, he noted down traditions, cultural heritage, for him it was alive. Three languages were spoken Latin for parliamentary discussions, English by more educated and vernacular Scotch in the villages, by peasants and less educated. Burns was mixing vernacular Scotch and English returning to Scottish tradition he was trying to imitate folk poems a poet of commoners, he was accepted as a art of tradition. To a Mouse a naturalistic description of what he did to a muse while ploughing appreciation for nature. My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose more or less in English, very romantic imagery, imitation of folk poems, simplicity. Metaphors from nature something that will never happen the see will never dry, rocks melt with sun his undying love, but simple and charming. the poem (patriotic) to his king fate of a soldier who can must leave his country, homesickness, desire for his country and his loved-one merged into one. Sir Walter Scott started by writing poetry ballads very successful stopped when Byron arrived and switched to novels. He is the creator of the historical romance. He influenced all the English and Russian novelists. All his novels are about bad blood (hate) in Scotland. Lochinvar - chivalry and folk tradition, a young man faithful in love and brave in war, description of the land everything is situated in Scotland, it is not universal. Ivanhoe he dictated it to his secretary, a chivalric novel

Edgar Allan Poe

(1809-1849) An American writer who influenced European writers on the turn of the century like Baudelaire and Mato a new trend in European literature, a new style gothic elements. He was melancholic, suicidal, drunkard, maybe consumed drugs verges of sanity and insanity his biography, personal experience and literature overlap. He wrote numerous poems Annabel Lee, The Raven etc. plus two collections of Tales of Grotesque and 35

Arabesque and Tales (ghost-stories), two essays The Poetic Principle and The Philosophy of Composition (deals with the explanation of the process pf creation of The Raven) and many other works. He is a forerunner of a new kind of literature, Baudelaire sees him as writing art for arts sake, elements of symbolism and decadence. He shares some ideas with romanticists but he does not accept the idea of organic form, he thinks literary works have to be rationally structured. In some stories like A Decent into the Maelstrn a poet of vorticism vortex, it takes you deep down into yourself, to get dizzy a forerunner of sub-consciousness, danger of looking too deep into yourself. D. H. Lawrence, a modernist, said about him Poe is absolutely concerned with the disintegration process of his own psyche. MysteryTales neznam proitat The Raven from his Philosophy of Composition the poem is such that it excites by elevating the soul, beauty is the only legitimate aim of poetry (like O. Wilde, not truth) To achieve beauty you need brevity, suggestiveness to thrill the reader to the soul, construct the work rationally, calculate the effects it has on the reader. Beauty is not a quality but an effect, intense and pure elevation of soul, not heart on intellect. The poem has a melancholy tone, the most poetical subject death allied to beauty, a woman is beautiful only dead the beauty is frozen, it does not change with age. One onomatopoeic word never more pronounced ____________ sounds like a raven croaking. The other explanation is in connection with the poetic persona and gothic elements. The poem is structuralised in a way he explains it, but it turns into his own personal search of his psyche, the search begins before the raven appears, he knows what the answer will be but he cannot stop asking he knows that the raven can not lift the grief from his heart but still he asks. Gothic atmosphere occult search, similarities with Frankenstein, weak and weary pondering over occult science, trying to find the cure for his sorrow in the occult, trying to borrow from his book the ease for the sorrow for Lenore. After peering into darkness he has a dream, later the bird appears a comic relief, the anticlimax. Black raven symbolises the subconsciousness and a messenger of Lenore, looking for consolation, hope that they will meet again the way he asks questions their separation is complete and

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final, he will never reach blessing, the soul cannot be lifted. Annabel Lee balladic form, folklore element to achieve the topic of the death of a beautiful woman. Very sad a young couples perfect, strong love could not live in this imperfect world death is connected with perfect love not to deteriorate in the time, their love had to move to heaven, it cannot live in this world. His soul will never be separated from the soul of beautiful Annabel Lee, she is always beside him as a part of nature, he is not unhappy like in The Raven, more romantic, a transformation of the loved-one into nature he sees their love as too perfect, it is a part of cosmic forces. The Black Cat two levels about black magic cat a symbol of evil force which manages to completely destroy the life of the narrator and a metaphor of ones own psychological disintegration. The time of narrative in jail, waiting for his execution the next day, he accounts for the events that brought him to that situation. Has the quality of the art on the turn of the century art for its own sake. Aesthetic arrangement of horror transforming something ugly into something beautiful, something scary into something aesthetically controlled, structuralised. In the beginning there is there is tenderness of heart, unselfishness and self-sacrificing love (of a brute). Later there is a radical alteration for the worse (alcohol) in his character here the story starts to have two levels. Pluto is the symbol of death and underworld, he makes the narrator behave badly; he cuts one eye out of cats socket, but it seems that Pluto caused it, it slowly recovers but the narrator cannot look at it anymore, his character changes and he hangs the cat because he knew it had loved him. Perverseness evil for evils sake. He keeps on drinking, gets a new cat but it has a mark which later takes the mark of gallows the cat forces him to make the crime, when he tries to kill the cat his wife comes between them and he kills her instead the killing was induced by evil force. He is happy that the cat disappeared, when the police come he detains them, bangs on the wall the cat gives him away its plan to take him to the gallows witchcraft. Second level is about the deterioration of his character drinking. First he got moody, loosing his temper, cut his cats eye out for punishment, later slightly regrets it, the motive of perverseness is very important committing a

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vile crime just because one knows it is wrong a vile side of human nature go against the law, do something just because it is not allowed. The cat is his mirror, reminds him of his evil, he did not make things better, he just went deeper down morally. The fire cannot be rationally accounted for, the mirroring of his psyche, he was the one who saw the rope. His crime was almost ideal, when the police was about to leave the cat gave him away the crime and the punishment, the cat shrieking the metaphor of the other side of himself which could not keep away from crime and being punished, he could not bare the fact that he committed a crime, he had to be punished like Raskoljnikov.

THE END

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