5V Literature - Romanticism Part 2

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A Survey of English Literature

Romanticism -the poets 

Part 2

The Romantic poets - the first generation

• 1789: publication of Lyrical Ballads  (William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
• Goal: bring poetry within reach of ordinary people
  
• Form: simple poems > normal, everyday language
  
• Subjects: ordinary country folk and their (highly idealized) pure lives in the country
  

The Romantic poets - the first generation

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

• Probably England's greatest nature poet
  
• Inspired by the Lake District
  

Famous for:

• short, lyrical poems
  
• Immortality Ode
  
• The Prelude (long autobiographical poem
  

The Romantic poets - the first generation

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Famous for his art ballad

• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
  

The Romantic poets - the second generation

George, Lord Byron  (1788-1824)

• Notorious life-style!
  

Best known for two long narrative poems

• Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
  
• Don Juan
  

The Romantic poets - the second generation

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)

• Unconventional life
  
• Husband of Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein)
  

Most famous for:

• shorter verse - Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind
  
• masterpiece - Adonais (long elegy on the death of John Keats)
  

The Romantic poets - the second generation

John Keats (1795 - 1821)

• Early death from tuberculosis
  
• Neglected during life-time
  
• Now one of England's most beloved poets
  

Famous for:

• Three famous odes: On a Grecian Urn, To A Nightingale, To Autumn
  
• Art ballad: La Belle Dame Sans Merci
  

Early 19th Century Novel

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

• immensely popular in Britain and abroad
  
• "Father of the historical novel"
  
• Many books based on Scottish history
  
• Most famous work: Ivanhoe (1819)
  

Early 19th Century Novel

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)

• Most important novelist of early 19th century
  
• "Mother of the romance novel"
  
• Elegant + witty studies of young women
  
• Focusing on love and common sense

Most important novels:

• Sense and Sensibilty / Emma /  Persuasion 
  
• Pride and Prejudice