History of English

Literature Spring Term

English Romanticism (1789-

1832)

Three criteria: imagination for the

view of poetry; nature for the view

of the World; symbol and myth for

poetic style.

A Poet a great power of

imagination, a man, but better

from other men

Religion/Spirituality personal

experience

The beautiful - causes positive

pleasure. When we frame

something, it is under control.

The perspective matters.

Beautiful is coherent, framed,

organized. Bright colours... So, it

gives positive pleasure. Beautiful

is in the landscape. We see it and

pronounce it beautiful.

Topographical painting. A passive

feeling.

The sublime / sblm/

movement

Of very great excellence or

beauty; in aesthetics, the sublime

(from the Latin sublmis) is the

quality of greatness, whether

physical, moral, intellectual,

metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual

or artistic. The term especially

refers to a greatness beyond all

possibility of calculation,

measurement or imitation.

Imagination, Nature,

Individualism, Spirituality,

Gothic (thrill), rebellion against

classical spirit in Art (first

generation)

Byronic hero - exhibits several

characteristic traits, and in many

ways he can be considered a

rebel. The Byronic hero does not

possess "heroic virtue" in the

usual sense; instead, he has many

dark qualities: moody by nature or

passionate about a particular

issue. He also has emotional and

intellectual capacities, which are

superior to the average man.

These heightened abilities force

the Byronic hero to be arrogant,

confident, abnormally sensitive,

and extremely conscious of

himself. Sometimes, this is to the

point of nihilism resulting in his

rebellion against life itself. In one

form or another, he rejects the

values and moral codes of society

and because of this he is often

unrepentant by society's

standards.

William Wordsworth Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Presenting incidents and

situations from common life;

ordinary things should be

presented in an unusual

aspect (colouring of

imagination)

Showing something that is

very well known in unusual,

fresh way

The language is simple

used by men

Nature, rural life

Conveying feelings and

notions in simple and

unelaborated expressions

Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.

overflow of emotions

thinking, contemplation,

then, starting writing

First, we have the emotion, then,

we evoke this emotion, emotion

recollected in tranquility, the

poem, and then, we retrieve the

first feeling but it should also

induce this feeling in the reader.

W. Wordsworth Daffodils

Form

The four six-line stanzas of this

poem follow a quatrain-couplet

rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each

line is metered in iambic tetrameter.

What meaning do daffodils have

in this poem?

When the poem imagines

daffodils, it evokes emotions of joy

and pleasure. In fact, it is what

daffodils evoke.

that inward eye imagination.

The last stanza is an explicit

definition of emotion recollected

in tranquility. Moreover, the past

tense of the verbs which

indicates that this is the emotion

recollected. The translation of the

experience imagined. The use of

personification, simile, metaphor

translation of poetry into poem.

The rhythm and rhyme. Poetry

spontaneous feeling, into a poem,

which evokes pleasure and joy.

When you read it aloud, it is

pleasant sounding; the desire to

fuse the poem and music. Rhythm

and meter signs of recollection,

as perfect formal features.

Mathematically sublime

daffodils, their great numbers.

Yellow spreads. About the

colour. The person standing,

being surrounded with daffodils,

sees ten thousand of them. The

feeling of being overwhelmed is

controlled, the refusal to be

subjugated with nature. He

encompasses them, which

indicates the theme of extension of

mind - by trying to face and

understand the sublime.

This moment when he was

crashed with them is no longer

here. I saw ten thousand at a

glance if he can count, he can

control. I wandered as a cloud

he is superior, in the context of the

mathematically sublime, it gives

him control. The poem is a

simulacrum of the actual

experience, but is no longer

spontaneous. The simile suggests

infinity continuous as the stars

that shine and twinkle on the

Milky Way, but the speaker gives

the borders to this very particular

place, he already controls it. the

infinity is in the simile. So the

sublime is in the way the nature is

perceived, so it is the matter of the

mind, it is in the mind.

Q: Think about the speaker. Who

is he? What mood does he project?

Lonely Wanderer,

Observer; meditative kind of

person; he admires nature, his

mood is imaginative and calm.

Compares himself to the cloud

While laying among the

flowers he feels calm; from

loneliness to harmony; Poets

heart fills with joy and dances with

the daffodils.

Q: This poem serves as an example

of the creative process described

in the Preface. How it is

illustrated here?

This creative process is

being called tranquility and it

illustrated by reproduction of the

emotion memory, experiences,

and feelings

Q: Look closely at the daffodils.

What they are like?

Beautiful; personification

(daffodils that grow beside the

lake are like dancing crowd

movement, dynamism, harmony;

comparison to the stars that shine.

Also, infinite numbers of stars

(overwhelming) SUBLIME

The Nature reflects the mood of

the speaker.

Spirituality, Infinity, Nature

We are Seven genre: literary ballad

The poem is an interesting

conversation between a man and a

young girl. It is especially

intriguing because the

conversation could have been less

than five lines, and yet it is 69 lines

long. The reason for this is that

the man cannot accept that the

young girl still feels she is one of

seven siblings even after two of

her siblings have died, and even

though she now lives at home

alone with her mother.

The speaker begins the poem with

the question of what a child should

know of death. Near the beginning

it seems as if the little girl

understands very little. She seems

almost to be in denial about the

deaths of her siblings, especially

because she continues to spend

time with them and sing to them.

By the end of the poem, however,

the reader is left with the feeling

that perhaps the little girl

understands more about life and

death than the man to whom she is

speaking. She refuses to become

incapacitated by grief, or to cast

the deceased out of her life.

Instead she accepts that things

change, and continues living as

happily as she can.

Ordinary language

Ordinary situation

Contemplation,

different moods of

perception; debating

on the subject of life

and death.

Speaker an experienced adult,

who is reasonable and rational.

(logic, reason, rationality).

Attitude of the speaker: above

the girl, more experienced,

amazed by her beauty

The girl talks about death like

about something that is natural,

normal.

Don Juan Canto I, Lord Byron

Genre: mock-heroic, satirical, epic

poem

Informal language, irony,

repetitive pattern; rhymed

stanzas, no blank verse.

Byronic stanza (Ottava rima) - An

eight-line iambic stanza rhyming

abababcc. Byron uses iambic

pentameter.

Parody of an epic hero Don

Juan

Lack of important

mission; not active

Don Juan is very

passive and doesnt

have agency at all;

Unexperienced;

cowardly

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Bildungsroman: a novel

presenting the maturing of the

character, history of one person

from childhood to adulthood.

First stage: the rise of expectations

Stage two: the fulfilment of

expectations, Pip as a gentleman.

Stage three: the fall of expectations,

when it turns out that his

benefactor is not Mrs. Havisham.

Extra diegetic (all knowing, past

tense) or homo diegetic, story about

himself? Pip is an adult, he is

remembering, recollecting his

past life, he does know everything,

but does not reveal it. As an adult

narrator, he is reconstructing his

perceptions as a kid. Extra

diegetic he knows everything

(Pip).

My Last Duchess by Robert Browing

Dramatic monologue

- the Speaker in a dramatic

monologue is always a

creation (but may be a mask

of the author)

- a poem written in the form

of a speech of an individual

character; it compresses

into a single vivid scene a

narrative sense of the

speakers history and

psychological insight into

his character.

In My Last Duchess

Speaker the Duke of Ferrara The

poem starts with the painting of

his late wife, and ends with a

bronze statue of Neptune. The

Duke is planning to marry the

daughter of someone else.

Listener a servant of the court

who wants to marry his daughter

Where? In Dukes

personal gallery; the Duke

shows his collection of arts

to the visitor; they talk

about the portrait of Dukes

late wife, the Duchess.

The Duchess was killed by Dukes

servants, on his orders. During the

monologue he essentially

confesses to murdering his wife,

even though he never expresses

his guilt outright.

I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together.

Why? Because in his opinion

she didnt respect him. The Duke,

values himself highly, up to the

point of arrogance, conceit.

Because his wifes guilt was that

she was not thankful enough for

the title and position he gave her,

and smiled at everyone in the

same way.

The Duke proud, selfish, treats

women like objects, everything he

does is motivated by pride, not

love.

He is happier with the painting

more than he ever was with his

wife; he can control the painting

better than his wife.

The problem with the painting:

she is still smiling from the

portrait. And the artist captured

the smile, for which she was

executed.