What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared

to what lies within us. 

~ by Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

ROMANTIC POETRY

THE ERA OF ROMANTIC POETRY• Romantic Poetry is a nineteenth-century English and American

poetic mode that breaks with earlier neo-classical ideas about poetry

• Specifically emphasizing that these poems were:

• - “the real language of men” – language resembling that of real life

• - “common life” – emotional, enthusiastic, and the force of nature

• Type of poetry is emotional and often enthusiastic in its embracing of the large, impressive forces of nature, and the apparently infinite sources of the human imagination. These poems are often used on the AP exam because of their strong thematic content.

• Romanticism a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era which began in the mid-late 18th century as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day, which influenced poetry.

• Romantics favored more natural, emotional and personal artistic themes.

• Famous for having given us imagery of tormented poets strolling over moons, looking through their wind-whipped hair at a tulip, etc.

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE PROMPTS• Prompt #1

• Write a well-organized essay in which you compare and contrast the poems. Analyzing the poetic techniques, such as point of view and tone, that each writer uses to make his point about the importance of nature.

• Example:

• - Ralph Waldo Emerson

• - William Wordsworth

• Prompt #2

• In the following poem analyze how the poet Lord Byron uses the literary devices such as imagery, simile, and metaphor to explain his poem “She Walks in Beauty”

JOHN KEATS• Born on October 31, 1795, in London. The oldest of

four children, he lost both his parents at a young age.

• When Keats was fifteen, he was withdrawn from the Clarke School, to apprentice with an apothecary-surgeon and study medicine in a London hospital. In 1816 Keats became a licensed apothecary, but he never practiced his profession, deciding instead to write poetry.

• Keats met Leigh Hunt, an influential editor of the Examiner. Hunt introduced Keats to a circle of literary men, including the poet William Wordsworth. The group's influence enabled Keats to see his first volume, Poems by John Keats, published in 1817

• Notable Works:

• - Endymion (1818)

• - Lamia (1884)

“WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE”• When I have fears that I may cease to be

Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high piled books, in charactry,

Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;

When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I may never live to trace

Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,

That I shall never look upon thee more,

Never have relish in the faery power

Of unreflecting love; -- then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think

Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

POEM ANALYSIS

• Title: “When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be”

• Literary Devices: diction, imagery, metaphor, repetition, personification, simile

• Theme: You have to stay optimistic in order to achieve and not fail

• Relationship To Movement: Follows the “language of real men” and has emotional content along with human imagination

WALT WHITMAN• Born on May 31, 1819, was the second son

of Walter Whitman, a house builder, and Louisa Van Velsor. The family, which consisted of nine children, lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820s and 1830s.

• At the age of twelve, Whitman began to learn the printer's trade, and fell in love with the written word. Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible.

• Notable Works:

• - Leaves of Grass (1855)

• - Passage to India (1870)

• - Good-Bye, My Fancy (1891)

“O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!”• O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;• The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;• The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,• While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:• But O heart! heart! heart!• O the bleeding drops of red,• Where on the deck my Captain lies,• Fallen cold and dead.• O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;• Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; 10• For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;• For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;• Here Captain! dear father!• This arm beneath your head;• It is some dream that on the deck,• You've fallen cold and dead.

• My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

• My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

• The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

• From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20

• Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

• But I, with mournful tread,

• Walk the deck my Captain lies,

• Fallen cold and dead.

POEM ANALYSIS

• Title: “O Captain! My Captain!”

• Literary Devices: repetition, rhyme, metaphor

• Theme: A great leader will always be remembered even in death

• Relationship To Movement: Follows the “language of real men” and “common life” with emotional content.

LORD BYRON• Born in 1788, was born with a club-foot and

became extreme sensitivity about his lameness. Byron spent his early childhood years in poor surroundings in Aberdeen, where he was educated until he was ten. After he inherited the title and property of his great-uncle he went on to Cambridge, where he piled up debts and aroused alarm with bisexual love affairs

• Famous in his lifetime for his personality cult as for his poetry. He created the concept of the 'Byronic hero' a defiant, melancholy young man, brooding on some mysterious, unforgivable event in his past. Byron's influence on European poetry, music, novel, opera, and painting has been immense, although the poet was widely condemned on moral grounds by his contemporaries.

• Notable Works:

• - Lament Of Tasso (1817)

• - Heaven And Earth (1821)

“SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY” • She walks in beauty, like the night

• Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

• And all that's best of dark and bright

• Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

• Thus mellowed to that tender light

• Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

• One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace

• Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face;

• Where thoughts serenely sweet express

• How pure, how dear their dwelling place And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The

smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose

love is innocent!

POEM ANALYSIS

• Title: “She Walks In Beauty”

• Literary Devices: simile, metaphor, imagery, rhyme

• Theme: Beauty is the balance of optimism and innocence

• Relationship To Movement: Follows the “common life” with emotional content and human imagination.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH• On April 7, 1770, born in Cockermouth,

Cumbria, England. Wordsworth's mother died when he was eight this experience shapes much of his later work. 

• Wordsworth attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and, it is believed, he made his first attempts at verse.

• Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution. This experience as well as a subsequent period living in France, brought about Wordsworth's interest and sympathy for the life, troubles and speech of the "common man".

• Notable Works:

• - An Evening Walk (1793)

• - Descriptive Sketches (1793)

“LUCY” • THREE years she grew in sun and shower; Then Nature said, 'A

lovelier flower On earth was never sown; This child I to myself will take;

• She shall be mine, and I will make A lady of my own.‘ She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; And hers shall be the breathing balm, And hers the silence and the calm Of mute insensate things. 

• 'The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the storm Grace that shall mould the maiden's form By silent sympathy.

• 'The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound Shall pass into her face. 

• 'And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell; Such thoughts to Lucy I will give While she and I together live Here in this happy dell.'

• Thus Nature spake -- The work was done --

• How soon my Lucy's race was run! She died, and left to me This heath, this calm and quiet scene; The memory of what has been, And never more will be.

• No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees.

POEM ANALYSIS

• Title: “Lucy”

• Literary Devices: simile, symbol, personification, tone, imagery

• Theme: Love is so powerful that when we love something or someone we treat it like it’s the last greatest thing on earth

• Relationship To Movement: Follows the “common life” with emotional content and human imagination along with the forces of nature.

Jerelrey Lacerna

Adam Lareza

Aubrey Natividad

Raihannah Taylor

THANK YOU

INTERNET RESOURCES

http://www.online-literature.com

http://www.poets.org

http://www.wikipedia.org

“Creating a poem using theme”

INTERACTIVE LESSON

THEME TOPIC• “Sacrifice for Love”

• Incorporate the following literary devices in your poem:

• - Imagery

• - Metaphor

• - Personification

• - Simile

• - Symbol

“Romantic Period & Romantic Poets”

QUIZ

SCORING RUBRIC• 5/5 right = A+

• 4/5 right = B

• 3/5 right = C

• 2/ 5 right = D

• 1/5 right = F