英美文学学习笔记-The_Romantic_Period-EL1

Chapter 3 The Romantic Period-the English LiteratureA basic introduction to the romantic period.1) Began in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott's death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament.2) what are the characxteristics of the Romantic literature? A) In poetry writing, the Romantics employed new theories and innovated new techniques, for example, the preface to the second edition of the "Lyrical Ballads"acts as a manifesto for the new school B)The Romantics not only extol the faculty ofBallads acts as a manifesto for the new school. B) The Romantics not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also elevate the concepts of spontaneity and inspiration. C) They regarded nature as the major source of poetic imagery and the dominant subject. D) Romantics also tend to be nationalistic.3) The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, shelley and Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution.4) We can say that Romanticism actually consitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer 1) Literarily Blake was the first important Romantic poet , shwoing a contempt for the rule of reason,i th l i l t diti f th 18th t d t i th i di id l'i i ti)y y gworld of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. In essence it designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience.William Blakeopposing the classical tradition of the 18th century, and treasuring the individual's imagination.2) The Songs of Innocence is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings; his Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery,poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone .3) particularly the practice of selling young children into apprenticeships, a practice which provides the context for the opening lines of the "Chimney Sweeper." The two "Chimney Sweeper" poems are good examples to reveal the relation between an economic circumstance,i.e.the exploitation of child labor,examples to reveal the relation between an economic circumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor,and an ideological cir cumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making people compliant to exploitation. The poem from the Songs of Innocence indicates the conditions which make religion a consolation, a prospect of "illusory happiness;" the poem from the Songs of Experience reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor children.4) Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell marks his entry into maturity(天堂与地狱的结合一诗标志着他创作上的成熟).5) The Bok of Urizen, The Book of Los, The Four Zoas, and Milton (尤来森之书，洛斯之书，四个左义斯，弥尔顿）。

The TygerThe ChimneySweeper ( fromSongs ofInnocence/Experience)William Wordsworth1) Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the two poets became very good friends. They ll b d b k f i l d L i l B ll d fi bli h d i 1798collaborated on a book of poems entitled Lyrical Ballads, first published in 1798.2) the poet Robert Southey as well as Coleridge lived nearby, and the three men became known as the "Lake Poets." in 1802, Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, who is portrayed in the charming lyric as "a Phantom of Delight."3) in 1843, he succeeded Southey as Poet Laureate.4) His first volumes: Descriptive Sketches, an Evening Walk.5)According to the subjects Wordsworth's short poems can be classified into two groups:poems about 5) According to the subjects, Wordsworth s short poems can be classified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about human life.6) Wordsworth is regarded as a "worshipper of nature."7) "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English literature, and one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth's poetic beliefs.8) Wordsworth is a poet in memory of the past. To him, life is a cyclical journey. Its beginning finally turns out to be its end. His philosophy of life is persented in his masterpiece The Prelude. It opens with a literal journey whose goal is to return to the Vale of Grasmere.9) William Wordsworth is the leading figure of the English romantic poetry, the focal poetic voice of the period.1) I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Wordsworth wrote this beautiful poem of nature after he came across a long belt of gold daffodilstossing and reeling and dancing along the waterside.2)Composed upon Westminster Bridge September 31802;Samuel Taylor Coleridge1) He wrote Kubla Khan, Ancient Mariner, began writing Christable, and composed This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," "Frost at Midnight," and "the Nightingale," which are considered to be his best "conversational "poem s2) Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 ;（威斯敏斯特桥上有感）3) She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways (I) (她住在人迹罕至的小路间）4) The Solitary Reaper （孤独的收割者）George Gordon Byron conversational poem s.2) Coleridge's actual achievement a s poet can be divided into two remarkably diverse groups: the demonic and the conversational.3) The demonic group includes his three masterpieces: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christable and Kubla Khan. Mysticism and demonism with strong imagination are the distinctive features of this group.4) Among the conversational group, "Frost at Midnight" is the most important.1) According to Shelley, everything he did was affected by his club-foot which made him feel sore and angry all his life.2) Don Juan is Byron's masterpiece, a great comic epic of the early 19th century. It is a poem based on a traditional Spanish legend of a great lover and seducer of women.3) As a leading Romanticist, Byron's chief contribution is his creation of the "Byronic hero," a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers,g ythis Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies.1) song for the Luddities (卢德工人之歌)-- this is one of the two poems written by Byron to show his support of the Luddites, who destroyed the machines in their protest against unemployment.The poet's great sympathy for the workers in their machines in their protest against unemployment. The poet s great sympathy for the workers in their struggle against the capitalists is clearly shown. ( As the Liberty lads o'er the sea/ Bought their freedom,and cheaply/ with blood, So we, boys, we/ Will die fighting, or live free,/ And down with all kings but King Ludd!/ When~~~/......2)Th I l f G (f D J III)D J h i f B i l i i lPercy Bysshe Shelley1) The Spirit of Solitude came out in 1861, which is a record of Shelley's intense consciousness of his l li i lif d i l i f h f d hwon loneliness in life and a passionate contemplation of the mystery of death.2) During the remaining four years of his life, he prodeuced all his major works: Julian and Maddalo, the Revolt of Islam, The Cenci, Prometheus Unbound, Adonais, Hellas, scores of magnificent lyrics, and the major prose essay. A Defence of Poetry. On his tombstone was inscribed "Persy Bysshe Shelley, Cor Cordium, which means "the heart of all hearts."3) Shelley expressed his love for freedom and his hatred toward tyranny in several of his lyrics such as "Ode to Liberty ""Ode to Naples ""Sonnet:England in 1819"and so on One of Shelley's greatest Ode to Liberty, Ode to Naples, Sonnet: England in 1819 and so on. One of Shelley s greatest political lyrics is "Men of England." It is not only a war cry calling upon all working people of England to rise up against their political oppressors, and addressed to them pointing out theintolerable injustice of economic exploitation. The poem was later to become a rallying song of the British Communist Party.5) Best of all the well-known lyric pieces is Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" here Shelley's rhapsodic and declamatory tendencies find a subject perfectly suited to them. The autumn wind, burying the dead Men of England, wherefore plough/ For the lords who lay ye low? /Wherefore weavewith toil and care/ The rich robes your tyrants wear?......year, preparing for a new spring, becomes an image of Shelley himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive potential, its universality. The poem is written in the terza rima form Shelley derived from his reading of Dante.6) Shelley's greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama, Prometheus Unbound.A Song: Men of EnglandOde to the West 1) Shelley eulogized the powerful west wind and expressed his eagerness to enjoy theboundless freedom from the reality. He gathered in this poem a wealth of symbolism,employed a structural art and his powers of metrical orchestration at their mightiest.2) What are the two functions of the west wind in Shelley's Ode to the West Wind?---The west wind is both a destroyer and a preserver. It destroys the dead leaves, thesymbol of old rotten society, and it preserves the seeds, the symbol of new-born things Ode to the West Wind and a new world.3) "Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below/ The sea-blooms and the oozywoods which wear/ The sapless foliage of the ocean, know/ The voice, and suddenlygrow grey with fear,/ And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!"--- It describesthe power of the wind, even the vegetation at the bottom of the seagrow grey when itcomes. In this poem, the author expressed his eagerness to enjoy the boundlessf d f th lit th th P B h Sh llJohn Keatsfreedom from the reality. the author, Percy Bysshe Shelley.1) Keats's first important poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" was published in 1816 in the paper, Examiner, run by Hunt.2) in July 1820, the third and best of his volumes of poetry, Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, was published. the volume also contains his four great odes: "Ode on Melancholy," "Ode on a Grecian Urn ""Ode to a Nightingale ""Ode to Psyche;"his lyric masterpiece "To Autumn"and the on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Psyche; his lyric masterpiece To Autumn and the unfinished poem "Hyperion."3) the odes are generally regarded as Keats's most important and mature works.4) Ode to a Nightingale expresses the contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness and human world of agony.5) "Ode to an Grecian Urn" shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion. (希腊古瓮颂） The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on p (p f f y the antique Grecian urn: the lovers, musicians and worshippers on the urn exist simultaneously and for ever in their intensity of joy. But in the last stanza, the urn becomes a "Cold Pastoral," which presents his ambivalence about time and the nature of beauty.1) In her lifelong career, Jane Austen wrote altogether 6 complete novels, which can be divided into two di i i dJane Austendistinct periods. 1.1 Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, tells a story about two sisters and their love affairs;《理智与情感》1.2 Pride and Prejudice, the most popular of her novels, deals with the five Bennet sisters and their search for suitable husbands; and1.3 Northanger Abbey satirizes those popular Gothic romances of the late 18th century. 《诺桑觉寺》14Mansfield Park presents the antithesis of worldliness and unworldliness; 1.4 Mansfield Park presents the antithesis of worldliness and unworldliness;《曼斯菲尔德花园》1.5 Emma gives the thought over self-deceptive vanity; and 《爱玛》1.6 Persuasion contrasts the true love with the prudential calculations.《劝告》1.7 Several incomplete works were published long after Austen's death. These include The Watsons,Fragment of a Novel, and Plan of a Novel.2) Austen's main literary concern is about human beings in their personal relationships." Because f hi h l h i l i ifi If k b 'lof this her novels have a universal significance. ---If one wants to know about a man's talents, one should see him at work, but if one wants to know about his nature and temper, one should see him at home.3) According to their different attitudes: those who would marry for material wealth and social position,those who would marry just for beauty and passion, and those who would marry for true love with a consideration of the partner's personal merit as well as his economical and social status. In another word,Jane Austen tries to say that it's wrong to marry just for money or fror beauty but it's also wrong to marry Jane Austen tries to say that it s wrong to marry just for money or fror beauty, but it s also wrong to marry without it.4) Pride and Prejudice, originally drafted as "First Impressions" in 1796, is the most delightful of Jane Austen's works. The title tells of a major concern of the novel: pride and prejudice. If to form good relationships is our main task in life, we must first have good judgement. Our first impressions, according to Jane Austen, are usually wrong, as is shown here by those of elizabeth. In the process of judging others, Elizabeth finds out something about herself: her blindness, partiality, prejudice and absurdity. In time she discovers her own shortcomings. On the other hand, Darcy too learns about other people and himself. In the end false pride is humbled and prejudice dissolved.5) The comic characters in Pride and Prejudice are : Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins and that monstrous snob Lady Catherine de Burgh, who make us laugh even as they parody erroneous views of marriage and class.6) Generally speaking, Jane Austen was a writer of the 18th century, though she lived mainly in the 19th t B d h iti di J A t 't t t ib ti t E li h lit tcentury. Based on her writings, discuss Jane Austen's greatest contribution to English literature. ---6.1 Jane Austen is one of the most important Romantic novelists in English literature. She creates six influential novels.---6.2 Her main literary concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. She makes trivial daily life as important as the concerns about human belief career and salient social event. Thant is what makes her important in English literature.---6.3Jane Austen has brought the English novel,as an art of form,to its maturity because of her 6.3 Jane Austen has brought the English novel, as an art of form, to its maturity because of her sensitivity to universal patterns of human behavior and her accurate portrayal of human individuals. ---6.4 She describes the world from a woman's point of view, and depicts a group of authentic and common women.。