Romanticism

By: Leila Walker

Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic movement in which artists and writers drew their inspiration from the idea of the fantastic or the marvelous i.e. nature or the imagination The artists of the romantic era, called romantics, included painters, poets, composers, sculptors, and architects The movement was not based on the idea of romantic love Occurred from 1798-1832 Centered in England and Germany, but also took place all over the world

 Nature Writers and painters drew inspiration from and filled their material with notions of the natural world, but held a different view of nature than their predecessors. During the romantic movement there were no rules of the natural world; it was organic and not rational. Myths/Symbolism/the Supernatural The romantics relied on myths, symbolism, and the supernatural to explain the vast and mysterious concepts in which they delved into. They also intertwined nature with symbolism, using nature as symbolism. Imagination The romantic ideal of imagination, like nature, emphasized the idea of having no rules and no designated structure to the writing. Imagination meant that the writers freely expressed their inspirations without conforming to the old rational and logical way of writing. Imagination was also essentially the concept of free thinking.

Inspiration

Significance
Revolutionized all forms of art (poetry, painting, music etc.) Free thought Writers could write in any format; werent restricted to certain styles Contrasted with ancient ideals of logicality and rationality expressing nature Themes that included the supernatural, nature, and the exotic became popular

Starting Lineup

The Romantics

Starting off we have the oldest member of the Romantics. Born 1757 and best known for The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; number 27 William Blake

 Up next born 1795 and this years rookie of the year, known for his works Hyperion and Endymion; number 21 John Keats

Next up the deadly duo of the Romantic era:

Number 34 born 1772 best known for Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

And his partner in crime number 50 born in 1770 and best known for The PreludeWilliam Wordsworth

Next up born in 1792 and best known for Prometheus Unbound, Adonais, and Ode to the West Wind; number 22-Percy Bysshe Shelley

And last but not least born 1788 best known for Don Juan, Childe Harolds Pilgrimage and She Walks in Beauty like the night- Number 24 the infamous Lord Byron

John Keats

Early Life
Born October 31, 1795 in London The oldest of four Both parents died when he was very young After his parents died, his grandmother placed under the tutelage and guardianship of two merchants, Richard Abbey and John Rowland Sandell Studied mostly with Abbey, who was an apothecary surgeon and became an apothecary in 1816 Decided to be a poet instead

Early Career
Published On First Looking into Chapmans Homer and O Solitude in The Examiner The influence of the great romantic poets Shelley and Wordsworth led him to publish his first volume of poetry- Poems by John Keats-in 1817 In 1817 he also published the Greek- influenced Endymion He got several poor reviews in his early career, but continued writing

Later Life
Fell in love with Fanny Brawne while he was nursing his brother Tom, who was suffering from tuberculosis From 1818-1819 he wrote several hits, the most substantial of which was Hyperion, which like Endymion was inspired by a Greek myth After his brother died, he changed the story from Hyperion to The Fall of Hyperion In 1820 he published another volume of poetry called Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems This volume, unlike earlier attempts, was met with rave reviews He then contracted the disease himself Never married Fanny because he was too sick and at one point began to write to her mother instead of her Died in Rome on February 23, 1821 at age 25

Major Works
In his brief but accomplished career, Keats composed many poems as well as several longer odes. He began publishing in 1817 with the help and encouragement of an editor at The Examiner and two other romantic poets. His heaviest works are Hyperion and Endymion, which are both lengthy romances based on Greek myths. Endymion, as previously mentioned, was not praised among critics and Hyperion was written during a tumultuous time for Keats. His third volume is thought to be his finest achievement. The volume contained several poems of ancient and mythical inspiration as well as several of his most well known pieces such as Ode on a Grecian Urn and a piece of Hyperion.

Legacy
Though his life was short, Keats poetry lived on for many years Would go on to be known as one of the major poets of the romantic era Included in a group of six poets thought to be the leaders of the romantic movement that included the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley A latecomer to the romantic scene, but a leader nonetheless as a result of his small but ingenious repertoire

Letter to Fanny Brawne

Keats wrote a plethora of letters to his love Fanny Brawne, one of which was written in Newport on July 3, 1819 In the letter Keats first describes how he prefers that Fanny is receiving the letter he wrote in the morning, as opposed to the letter he wrote at night, in which his passion gets entirely the sway He worries that if she reads the letter he wrote at night, she will think he is angry or depressed, suggesting that he tends towards more passionate writing during the night He goes on to express how much he misses her and how the supposedly beautiful location at which he is residing is not as beautiful as it could be because she is always on his mind He woefully discusses how I have never known any unalloy'd Happiness for many days together: the death or sickness of some one has always spoilt my hours and that she has been cruel for causing him distress Although this accusation may seem to suggest he doesnt love her, it is most likely an expression for the enormity of his feelings for her as well as a subtle suggestion of his guilt for not being able to marry her He calls upon her to make him feel better by writing to him soon

Letter continued
He grandly proposes that there are no words good enough to describe his devotion to her He supposes that he would rather be a butterfly who only lived for three days with her because he could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain He worries that she does not love him as much as he loves her In the lines In case of the worst that can happen, I shall still love youbut what hatred shall I have for another!, Keats is pondering what would happen is she married someone else He implies that he would still be devoted to her and the another that he would hate would presumably be whomever she was with He frets that his letter has been too cold, which most likely refers to his accusations that she has cruelly entrammelled him To concluded, the letter he sends his love and greetings to her family, whom he perhaps is fond of because he never had a real family of his own

In Ode on Grecian Urn, Keats is describing several scenes that he notices while observing a Grecian urn, which he calls the foster child of silence and slow time. This translates to mean that the urn manages to tell a story without words, and that the images will be frozen in time forever. He also believes that the urn can depict a story even more clearly than our rhyme, meaning written word. Throughout the opening stanza Keats emphasizes both the silence of the urn and the power that it has to evoke such wondrous stories. He is curious of the various stories being told and wants to know more about each, wondering What men or gods are these? and What mad pursuit?

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Ode cont.
The first scene on the urn that Keats goes into detail with is of a youth playing a song on pipes. He curiously states that heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter, which is to say he believes that the song being played by the piper which he will never hear is more beautiful that any song of which his ears will actually experience the notes. This could be interpreted differently but one way to see it is that because the viewer is imagining the song, it therefore is perfect as opposed to some other tune that the viewer might hear which can never be exactly like his own personal and perfect imagined song. The other aspect of the scene is that the piper is playing the song to his lover. Keats addresses the piper and bids him not to worry for although he will never be able to kiss his love because they cannot move, she cannot fade and she be fair meaning that her beauty will not fade.

Ode cont.
In the third stanza Keats describes how the piper and his lover will be For ever panting, and forever young;/All breathing human passion far above. He then notes the symptoms of such passion such as a heart highsorrowful. In these lines he is suggesting that it is more romantic to be perpetually frozen while caught up in the passionate pursuit of love than actually in one another's arms. In addition to further speculation of the couple, Keats also notes how it will always be spring on the urn as the leaves cannot fall off the trees. In the fourth stanza, Keats describes a scene on the urn of a priest who is leading a heifer, or goat. He wonders to what green altar the priest is going, a line in which the meaning of the adjective green is unclear but it is possible that a green altar is a form of symbolism. He also describes a town emptied of this folk on a pious, or religious, day and he wonders as to where they have gone. Because the urn is frozen in time, the missing people can never return to their homes.

Ode cont.
The last stanza of the poem addresses the urn as a whole, bemoaning that it dost tease us out of though /As doth eternity. This means that he feels the perfect but silent world of the urn is more ideal than the world he lives in. When old age shall this generation waste, he says, thou shalt remain, meaning that when we are old and ugly the urn will still be beautiful and unchanged. The line Beauty is truth, truth beauty could be a comment on the way society views beauty. The poem has several rhyme schemes but they are varied and inconsistent. The similarities between the five stanzas are that they each have ten lines and that in each Keats details a specific aspect of the urn by describing it directly then by delving onto his own thoughts on the significance and meaning of each scene.

How ode oN a GrecIaN urN Is Romantic

The idea that time is suspended is not rational, which goes along with the basic romantic principle of the irrational and the illogical Keats uses his imagination to talk to the characters in the scenes and to imagine their stories, freely expressing his interpretations of the scenes Symbolism is used in the poem more than once The green altar could possibly be a form of symbolism The urn itself symbolizes the unchangeable things in life that remain beautiful as we get old and loose beauty

Bright Star
The focus of the poem Bright Star by John Keats is the description of the various ways in which starlight is beautiful, specifically when it is on the body of the authors lover. The poem is also an attest to the poets love for said lover, who is presumably Fanny Brawne. The poem directly addresses the star from which the light is coming, and admires its various and wondrous forms of beauty. Keats describes how the moon hangs in the sky, how it reflects on the water, and how it reflects in the snow on the mountains. Keats also compares himself to the star, and wishes that he could be as steadfast as it. He then likens the star to Natures patient sleepless Eremite; in other words he describes it as the nocturnal hermit of the natural world.

Bright Star continued

.

After this series of eloquent descriptions of nature, Keats moves on to describe a simple breath of his lover under the starlight, which he writes is pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast. He longs to hear her breath, and should he hear it he writes that he will either live forever or die. The fact that a simple breath has such an impact on him is a testimony of Keats deep feelings for his lover. He gives much importance to this single breath and details it in several lines. It is difficult to tell from the poem whether or not his lovers body beneath the starlight is something he longs to see or something he longs to see again. It is most plausibly the former as it was improper for an unmarried couple to live together at the time.

How BrIGHt star Is romaNtIc

Keats poem Bright Star is romantic because it embodies several of the basic principles that are the foundation of the romantic movement. First, Keats is evidently inspired by nature and heavy emphasis is laid upon it throughout out the poem. Much of the poem consists of various descriptions of starlight dancing on scenes in nature that exhibit the qualities of the vast and fantastical natural world that romanticism is inclined to. For example, in describing the starlight on the ocean, he notes the waters task of pure ablution round earth's human shores. The poem also uses the romantic ideal of symbolism, for the effect on the author of the simple breath of the lover could perhaps represent the life that she breathes into him.

Works based on Keats

In 2012, the composer John Mitchell arranged a few pieces based on Keats Ode to a Nightingale.

Works based on Keats

The movie Bright Star (2009), although it was a biographical film and not based on any of his poems, did take the name of one.

Bibliography
Brago-Mitchell, Vicky, and John Mitchell. "CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS."

John Mitchell, Composer. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. <http://www.abmenterprises.net/works_chronolist.html>. "British Romantic Era Poets." British Romantic Era Poets. 2007. Web. 16 Mar.2012. <http://www.mariahecarter.com/>. "John Keats- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/ prmPID/66>.

"Romanticism." Brooklyn College, 12 Feb. 2009. Web. 16 Mar. 2012.

<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html>.