romantic poetry

RomanticismColeridge’s “Kubla Khan”

Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” Shelly’s “To a Skylark”

Keats’ “Ode to Autumn”

Course Title: Poetry Course Code & NO.: LANE 447Course Credit Hrs.: 3 weekly Level: 7th Level Students

Instructor: Dr. Noora Al-MalkiCredits of images and online content are to their original owners.

This Presentation

• Discusses the emergence of Romanticism as a significant literary movement.

• Presents a survey of the poetry written by some of the major Romantic poets of the 19th C.

• Focuses on the presentation of themes related to the expression of heightened emotions and the portrayal of natural elements.

Dr. Noora Al-Malki 2012 [email protected] 2

Romanticism


Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Rather, it is an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world.The early Romantic period thus coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions"--including, of course, the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions--an age of upheavals in political, economic, and social traditions, the age which witnessed the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution.

(1770s- 1870)(1998-1832)

Romanticism


•Emotion vs. Reason •Nature (leads to truth)•Imagination•Symbolism & Myth•Individualism: The Romantic Hero (genius) •the Exotic

Major Elements

Adapted from Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature , ©English Department,

Brooklyn College.

English Romanticism


Coleridge


Coleridge Kubla khan




In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round:And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

First stanza



But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slantedDown the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!A savage place! as holy and enchantedAs e'er beneath a waning moon was hauntedBy woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,A mighty fountain momently was forced:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river.Five miles meandering with a mazy motionThrough wood and dale the sacred river ran,Then reached the caverns measureless to man,And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

Second stanza



And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from farAncestral voices prophesying war!



The shadow of the dome of pleasureFloated midway on the waves;Where was heard the mingled measureFrom the fountain and the caves.It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!



A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw:It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora.Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight 'twould win me,That with music loud and long,I would build that dome in air,That sunny dome! those caves of ice!



And all who heard should see them there,And all should cry, Beware! Beware!His flashing eyes, his floating hair!Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dread,For he on honey-dew hath fed,And drunk the milk of Paradise.



• The poem evokes romanticized Oriental landscapes (13th C China)• the setting contains contrasted images of wild nature and man-made dome.• It is a verse representation of Coleridge's theories of the imagination•“Kubla Khan” as a poem that relates the account of its own creation, thus stressing its tendency to foreground itself as a work of Romantic art.



-What predominant images we find in “Kubla Khan”? Comment on a few of them.

- Coleridge depicted nature in a peculiar way in “Kubla Khan”. Discuss with sufficient illustration from the poem.

-Critics point out that “Kubla Khan”, although a fragment, is a masterpiece representation of the elements of Romantic poetry. Justify this statement with adequate illustration from the poem

-The symbolic dimension of “Kubla Khan” has been discussed by many critics. Present a symbolic reading of the poem.


She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes:Thus mellow'd to that tender lightWhich heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,Had half impaired the nameless graceWhich waves in every raven tress,Or softly lightens o'er her face;Where thoughts serenely sweet expressHow 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!

Lord ByronShe Walks in Beauty

Hebrew Melodies

"mad, bad, and dangerous to know.“

•a lady in mourning wearing a black dress•Meeting of opposites•Not an expression of love

romantic poetry

Documents

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kubla khandr

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major romantic poets

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early romantic period

emergence of romanticism