Welcome Back

Getting the best from the web

Internet marketing, SEO, Social
Networks and more
November 2009

John Keats

"To Autumn" is a poem by English

Romantic poet John Keats (31
October 1795 23 February 1821).

"To Autumn" is the final work in

a group of poems known as
Keats's "1819 odes".

"To Autumn" is a poem of three

stanzas, each of eleven lines. Written
in 1819, the structure is that of an
odal hymn, having three clearly
defined sections corresponding to
the Classical divisions of strophe,
antistrophe, and epode

The imagery is richly achieved

through the personification of
Autumn

Poem

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves

run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees ,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the

core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the

hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will

never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy

cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store ?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind

Or on a half-reapd furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its

twind flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou

dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings,

hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy

music too,

While barrd clouds bloom the

soft-dying day

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small

gnats mourn

Among the river-sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

sinking

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from

hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats

"To Autumn" is a poem by English

Romantic poet John Keats (31
October 1795 23 February 1821).

"To Autumn" is the final work in

a group of poems known as
Keats's "1819 odes".

"To Autumn" is a poem of three

stanzas, each of eleven lines. Written
in 1819, the structure is that of an
odal hymn, having three clearly
defined sections corresponding to
the Classical divisions of strophe,
antistrophe, and epode

The imagery is richly achieved

through the personification of
Autumn

Poem

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves

run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees ,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the

core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the

hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will

never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy

cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store ?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind

Or on a half-reapd furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its

twind flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou

dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings,

hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy

music too,

While barrd clouds bloom the

soft-dying day

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small

gnats mourn

Among the river-sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

sinking

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from

hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Romanticism

Historical and Social

Background
The industrial town
The industrialization changed radically
the landscape of Great Britain. In the
first half of the XIX century the
Midlands had already gained the name
of nack country. It was an area of
gloomy buildings, small towns full of
smoke, streets that created a sense of
confusion and dismay and canals to
which the railway was added.
The Industrial Revolution caused an
uncontrolled growth of the city. Small
towns called mushroom towns were
constructed for the workers. They were
called in this way because they sprang
up suddenly and multiplied rapidly
around the factories.
For workers, living in the city meant
long working hours and appalling living
conditions. Industrial cities lacked
elementary public services (water
supply,
sanitation,
street-cleaning,
open spaces). The air and the water
were polluted by smoke and filth. The
houses, built in endless rows, were

BRITISH SOCIETY
POLITICAL REFORMS

Prosperity and confidence in

1700s
American and French revolutions
disappointment in bitter and
violent ends - Napoleon
Industrial Revolution
dirty, unorganized cities emerge
huge class shift

British Society
The population was
divided into three social
classes:
THE LANDOWNERS
AND ARISTOCRACY:
this class had ruled the
country for centuries and
held most of the wealt.
THE BUSINESSMEN
AND INDUSTRIALISTS:
thanks to their hard
work the british economy
was thriving.
THE MASSES:
they worked in the
factories and were poor.

Historical and Social

Background

Political Reforms

The Factory Act of 1833 limited working hours and children

under nine could not work.
In 1825 Trade Unions were recognized.Factory owners
formed their own associations
Businessmen and industrialists were given the vote in 1832.
A police force was established in 1829.
A local government was established in every town.
A system of national primary education was set up in
1834.

Historical and Social

Background

The French Revolution

as the French Revolution started, the whole

idea of nationalism changed, and so did the
romantic view; it consisted then in selfdetermination and a pride in the national
origins and unity; they said that every
human being should be pride of his origins
and nation, but at the same time he should
develop as an individual; they claimed that
there should be a balance in the
development of each person between the
common interest of the nation and his own
personal goals
the accent was put on the national history
and folklore, and furthermore, the values of
tradition and customs were put at the center
of the romantic movement
inspired by this view upon the country, the
peoples of Europe had the power to redraw
the map of their continent and free
themselves

English Romanticism can be understood as a return to Renaissance (to the

poetry of Spencer, Shakespeare and Milton). This return is anticipated by
Cowper, Gray, Collins and Thomson.
CHARACTERISTICS:
-Revival of instinctual life (reason was not so important).
- The search of the love and the beauty.
- Importance of Revolutions (American, French, the figure of Napoleon).
- New role of imagination.
- The realization of the sublime, the half way between real and supernatural
world, time and space.
- Nature as a source of inspiration.
- Revaluation of myths.
- Philosophers: J.J Rousseau is the first to use the word romantique in one
of his works (Reveries
du promemuer solitaire). Romance has french
origins.
Schlegel used the word romantisch speaking about creativity and
sentimental themes, in a critic work Sturm und Drang (in English: Storm
and Stress, in which there is an exaltation of nature, uniqueness and
freedom of the individual, ideal of genius).

Menu

Selected Works & Analysis of

 FIRST GENERATION
SECOND GENERATI
ON

Menu

WILLIAM BLAKE

WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH

SAMUEL T.
COLERIDGE

Romantic Poets

William Blake
Blakes life was spent
in rebellion and the
restrictive influences
of institutions such as
government and the
church. Blake was
aware of the negative
effects of the rapidly
developing industrial
and commercial
society.
The Lamb
And
The Tyger

Menu Poets

To see a World in
a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven
in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the
palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake was born in London, where he

spent most of his life. His father was a successful
London hosier and attracted by the doctrines of
Emmanuel Swedenborg. Blake was first educated
at home, chiefly by his mother. His parents
encouraged him to collect prints of the Italian
masters, and in 1767 sent him to Henry Pars'
drawing school. From his early years, he
experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks,
- Auguries of Innocence
William Blake
he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the
Virgin Mary, and various historical figures.
Auguries of InnocenceFull Poem
Independent through his life, Blake left no debts
at his death
on August 12, 1827.
He was buried in
Back to Index
Onward to Byron
Analysis ofAuguries of Innocence
an unmarked grave at the public cemetery of
Bunhill Fields.

The Lamb and The Tyger

Blake wrote two books:
Songs of Innocenceand
Songs of Experience.
In The Lamb from the
Songs of Innocence Blake
presented with an image
of a gentle, benevolent,
loving God.
In The Tyger from
Songs of Experience, God
is vindictive and
terrifying.

I travelled among unknown men,

In lands beyond the sea;
Nor England did I know till then,
What love I bore to thee.
'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time, for still I seem
To love thee more and more.
Among thy mountains did I feel
the joy of my desire;
And she I cherished, turned the
wheel,
Beside an English fire.
Thy mornings showed, thy nights
concealed
the bowers where Lucy played;
And
thine isAmong
too the
last green
- I Travelled
Unknown
Men
field
William Wordsworth
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

William Wordsworth was born on April 7,

1770, at Cockermouth on the River
Derwent, in the heart of the Lake District
that would come to be immortalized in his
poetry. The son of a lawyer named John
Wordsworth, he was the second of five
children. His father was the personal
attorney of Sir James Lowther, Earl of
Lonsdale, the most powerful (and perhaps
the most hated) man in the area. His first
formal education was at Anne Birkett's
school at Penrith, where one of his
classmates
his future
wife
Mary Men
Analysis of Iwas
Travelled
Among
Unknown
Hutchinson. Wordsworth died on April 13,
1850.
Back to Index

Go to Analysis
Index

William Wordsworth
William Wordsworths
poetry emphasies the
value of childhood
experience an the
celebration of nature.
He glorifies the spirit
of man, living in
armony with his
natural environment,
far from the spiritually
bankrupt city. Him
being pantheistic
identified the nature
with god.

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

Menu Poets

Romanticism in Literature (cont.)

There is pleasure in
beauty, Wordsworth
writes. And in this
sense, poetry should
gratify the senses.
In striving to capture
the eternal beauty, the
poet gives rise to
romantic expression in
all human beings.

 Wordsworth
is
best
known as a nature poet
who
found
beauty,
comfort
and
moral
strength in the natural
world. If he were alive
today
he
would
probably be a member
of an organisation that
campaigns to protect
the evironment. For
him the World of nature
is free from corruption
and stress, and offers
man
a
means
of
escape
from
industrialised society.

Samuel T. Coleridge
Coleridges poetry often
deals with the
mysterious, the
supernatural and the
extraordinary. While
Wordsworth looked for
the spiritual in everyday
subjects, Coleridge
wanted to give the
supernatural a
colouring of everyday
reality.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Menu Poets

 Coleridge describes
the natural and
supernatural events
that occur during
the adventurous
voyage.The events
of the poem take
place in an eerie,
ghostly atmosphere
and the reader
often feels he is
moving from a real
to an unreal world
and back again.

 GEORGE
BYRON

PERCY
BYSSHE
SHELLEY

JOHN
KEATS

Romantic Poets

George Byron
Byron was the
prototype of the
Romantic poet. He
was heavily involved
with contemporary
social issues. He like
the heroes of his long
narrative poems, was
a melancholy and
solitary figure whose
actions often defiend
social convections.

Don Juan

Menu Poets

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

The most notorious Romantic poet and Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
satirist. Byron was famous in his
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
lifetime for his love affairs with
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
women and Mediterranean boys. He
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
created his own cult of personality, the
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
concept of the 'Byronic hero' - a
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
defiant, melancholy young man,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
brooding on some mysterious,
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
unforgivable in his past. Byron's
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
influence on European poetry, music, And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
novel, opera, and painting has been
- The Destruction of Sennacherib
immense, although the poet was
George Gordon Byron
widely condemned on moral grounds
Analysis of
by his
Backcontemporaries.
to Index
Onward to Poe
The Destruction of Sennacherib

Don Juan
Don Juan is seduced by
the beautiful and older
Donna Julia. She is
typical of Byrons
splendid female
portraits: sensual and
apparently innocent;
always on the verge of
tears or ready to faint
and yet strong and
aggressive. Above all,
she is much more
intelligent and cunning
than the average man
(especially if he is a
husband). No character,
not even Don Juan, is
free of narrators irony.

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Percy Bysshe Shelley was an
Stand in the desert. . . Near them, on the sand, English Romantic poet who rebelled
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, against English politics and
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, conservative values. Shelley was
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read considered with his friend Lord
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
Byron a pariah for his life style. He
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
drew no essential distinction
And on the pedestal these words appear:
between poetry and politics, and his
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
work reflected the radical ideas and
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
revolutionary optimism of the era.
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare.
Like many poets of his day, Shelley
The lone and level sands far away.
employed mythological themes and
- Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Analysis of Ozymandias

figures from Greek poetry that gave

to
an exalted
tone for his Onward
visions.
Back to Index
Wordsworth
Shelley died July 8, 1822.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley was the most
revoluctionary and nonconformist of the
Romantic poet. He was
an individualist and
idealist who rejected
the istitutions of,
family,church, marriage
and the Christian faith
and rebelled against all
forms of tyranny.

Defence of Poetry

Menu Poets

Defence of Poetry
Defence of poetry contains some
of the finest quotes about the
anture of poetry and the role of the
poet in the English language.
A poet is the author to others of the
highest wisdom, virtue, pleasure
and glory

John Keats
Keatss life makes his
literary achievements
even more astonishing.
The main theme of his
poetry is: the conflict
betwenn the real world
of suffering, death and
decay and the ideal
world of beauty,
immagination and
eternal youth.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Menu Poets

Ode on a Grecian Urn

The Ode describes an ancient greek
urn decorated with classical motifs:
A Dionysian festival with music and
ecstatic dances, a piper under the
trees in a pastoral setting, a young
man in love pursuing a girl and
almost reaching her, a procession
of townspeople and priest leading a
cow to the sacrifice.
Keats is fascinated by the fact that
art is able to present an ideal world
because it can freeze actions and
emotions: the lover depicted on the
urn will never actually reach the girl
he is following, the pipers will never
end their song, the streets of the
little town will always be desert and
silent. The beauty of the girl, the
ardent passion of her lover, the
pleasure of the music and the
boughs in bloom will never fade.

Hugo and the Romanticism

Hugo was the one who wrote the

literary manifesto of the
romanticism in the preface to his
tragedy called Cromwell
he says that the new doctrine is the
liberalism in literature and that
there are neither rules, nor models
for romantics
as Hugo presents it, Romanticism
evolves as an opposition to
Classicism and Romantic
Parnassianism, offering literature
freedom of expression through the
dismission of norms.

Classicism
presents an ideal, static,
objective world
has ideal categories and
eternal types of characters
has an abstract, equilibrated
and dominated by morals
character
simply observes the nature
preaches rationality
the rule of the 3 entities: of
time, space and plot

Romanticism

presents a universe determined

by the movements of history,
which is fantastical, subjective
the nature overwhelms the
character
has a dynamic, sentimental
hero, who is in a constant
search for the absolute
artists reinterpret the nature
through their own subjectivity
emphasizes sentiments,
passions
abolishes the rule of the 3
entities

Romantic character
is an exceptional character put in exceptional
situations(hero, genius)
is confused, unsatisfied
is continually fighting himself and his limits
can belong to any social class
has good and bad traits, like any human being
the artist is the supreme being, who doesnt have to
comply to the rules

Characteristics

promotes antithetical constructions, contrasts, extremes

distinguishes artistic values in the less esthetical parts of reality and
therefore anticipates the Symbolism which will found a true esthetic
of the ugly
symbols: the sky, the stars, the ocean, the sea, the lake, the spring, the
woods
rediscovers the folkloric creation, the history and the nature
has a predilection for the fantastic, tragic, grotesque, macabre,
mystery, occult, diseased and even satanic
places the individual at the centre of all things, of life and of all
experiences

Romanticism & painting

Eugne Delacroix,
Liberty Leading the
People

Romanticism & sculpture

Franois Rude, La
Marseillaise

Romantic
From Roman a poetic or prose heroic
narrative, in late medieval literature
Term is revived to describe a movement
or set of shared beliefs and themes
growing out of late 18th and early 19th C
and present as a continuing influence or
tendency

Four Principal Ideas

Nature
Equality/egalitarianism
Imagination
Sensibility

Nature
In Nature, Humanity is
Inspired
Informed
Redeemed
Transformed
Idealized

Equality
Egalitarian view of society
The social union among people
Nationalism (loyalty to nation
v. rulers)
Revolution and reform
Humanity can be perfected

Sensibility
Idealism
Intensity of emotions
Significance of actions
Worthiness of common person
Humanitys best is glorified in the
Classical
Medieval

Imagination
Power of imagination to
transport
Mind heals, condemns itself
Subjective nature of truth
Spontaneous response

Perhaps the most striking feature of

the poets of the Romantic Movement
is their attitude to nature. The
solitude of real nature is alien,
immeasurable, inhuman; the
Romantic solitude is a vision of
nature which reflects the solitude of
the poet. The Romantic finds
everywhere in nature his own image.
-Stephen Spender

The [Romantic] poet. . .loves

to escape from the heat and
pressure of humanity, and so
from himself as a social being,
and to lose himself in
the freedom of lonely places.
- Joseph Warren Beach

What the Romantics beheld when they looked at life was

a radical difference between the world of appearances
and the world of reality. What seemed important in the
world of appearances (the world as it looks to the
ordinary man, the man of common sense) was revealed
as unimportant or false when it was observed by the man
of true imagination. ... Thus freed from unimaginative
blindness, the Romantic saw Nature and Man in their
true light, their essential character, and in their genuine
worth. - Ernest Bernbaum

The most universal image [in Romantic

poetry] is perhaps that of light, a fit
symbol of spiritual illumination, of the
transcendental vision, of the work of the
imagination, of the ideal to which the
poet aspires.
- R.A. Foakes

Romanticism - Characteristics:
The predominance of
imagination over reason
and formal rules
Primitivism
Love of nature
An interest in the past
Mysticism

Interest in the Gothic

Individualism
Human rights
Idealization of rural
life
Enthusiasm for the
wild, irregular, Gothic
or grotesque in nature
Enthusiasm for the
uncivilized or natural

Principles of Romanticism:
Romanticism was a reaction against convention.
Romanticism asserted the power of the individual.
Romanticism reflected a deep appreciation of the
beauties of nature.
Romanticism emphasized the importance of the
subjective experience.
Romanticism was idealistic.

Romanticism was a reaction against

convention:
As a political movement, this reaction was
reflected in the new democratic ideals that opposed
monarchy and feudalism.
In art, it meant a turn away from Neoclassicism
and the ancient models of Greek perfection and
Classical correctness.
Philosophically, romanticism would contend with
Rationalismthe belief that truth could be
discerned by logic and reason.

Romanticism asserted the power of

the individual:
Romanticism marked an era characterized by an
idealization of the individual.
Politically, the movement influenced democratic ideals
and the revolutionary principles of social equality.
Philosophically, it meant that the idea of objective
reality would give way to subjective experience; thus,
all truth became a matter of human perception.
In the art world, romanticism marked a fascination
with the individual genius, and elevated the artist,
philosopher, and poet above all others.

Romanticism reflected a deep

appreciation of the beauties of
nature:

For the romantics, nature was how the spirit was

revealed to humankind.
The romantic philosophers believed in the metaphysical
or spiritual nature of reality.
They thought that a higher reality existed behind the
appearance of things in the physical world.
Nature appeared to people as a material reality; however,
because it evoked such strong feelings in humankind, it
revealed itself as containing a higher, spiritual truth.
Romantic artists tried to capture in their art the same
feelings nature inspired in them.

Romanticism emphasized the

importance of the subjective
experience:

The romantics believed that emotion and the senses

could lead to higher truths than either reason or the
intellect could.
Romantics supposed that feelings, such as awe, fear,
delight, joy, and wonder, were keys that could unlock the
mysteries of the world.
The result was a literature that continually explored the
inward experiences of the self.
The imagination became one of the highest faculties of
human perception, for it was through the imagination
that individuals could experience transcendent or
spiritual truths.

Romanticism was idealistic:

On one hand, romanticism was philosophically rooted in
idealism.
Reality existed primarily in the ideal worldthat is, in the
mindwhile the material world merely reflected that
universe.
In other words, the ideal world was more real than the
real world.
On the other hand, romanticism was literally idealistic; it
tended to be optimistic in its outlook on life.
Political and social romantics asserted that human beings
could live according to higher principles, such as the
beliefs in social equality, freedom, and human rights.

Philosophical Roots of
Romanticism

The French philosopher Jean Jacques

Rousseau (1712 1778) argued that
civilization was creating a race that was
out of step with nature.
Civilization stripped people of their
natural instincts.
Everything is good when it leaves the
creator, he argued, everything
degenerates in the hands of men.
Rousseau believed human beings had
innate intuitive powers; that is, they
instinctively knew how to deal with the
outside world.
He felt that so-called primitive
people, those who lived closer to and in
harmony with nature, had a greater,
more refined intuition than civil
human beings.

Rousseau believed that there were basic

principles, such as liberty and equality,
which were innate to human beings.
Civilization and governments, however,
had conditioned man to endure life
without them.
Rousseaus ideas were influential to
many, from the American and French
revolutionaries to romantic writers.
His ideas of nature and intuition were
taken even further in the philosophy of
Kant.

Philosophical Roots of Romanticism

(cont.)
Philosophy before Kant was largely based on rationalism
and empiricism.
Rationalism was the belief that knowledge of the world
could be obtained only through reason.
Reason could know reality independently from sense of
experience; that is, logic, not emotion led to truth.
Empiricism was the exact opposite. English philosophers,
such as John Locke and David Hume, argued that sense
was the only way of arriving at knowledge. To get at the
truth, one had to go by experienceby scientifically
weighing the evidence.

Romanticism in the Visual Arts

In the visual arts, English artists such as J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)

and John Constable (1776-1837) established the visual romantic genre
through their landscapes of sea and countryside.
Using rich, almost impressionistic colors and tones, they painted with
a deep appreciation of the beauties of nature.
Both reflected the contemporary literary and romantic movements in
Europe.
Their art conveyed the romantic ideal; that is, they supported the
romantic belief that reflections on the beauty of nature could initiate a
heightened personal awareness of the senses, and thus approach the
spirit of the divine.

Romanticism in Literature
In literature, romanticism was dominated by
the English poets William Wordsworth
(1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834).
In 1798 Coleridge and Wordsworth
published a joint volume of poetry called
Lyrical Ballads and in doing so launched the
English Romantic Movement.

Romanticism in Literature (cont.)

In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth
professes all the basic principles of romanticism:
he announces the break with tradition; he exults
the power of the romantic poet to give voice to
individual feeling; he speaks of the power of
nature to show the way of the spirit; he praises the
faculty of the imagination to give voice to the
subjective experience; and he speaks of the
ennobling effects poetry has on the moral
condition of humankind.

Romanticism in Literature (cont.)

Wordsworth felt the imagination could take the experiences of everyday men
and women and turn them into art.
By thus highlighting the ordinary, Wordsworth points to the deeper spirit that
lives in all things; the problem, as he sees it, is that human habit has made these
wonders too familiar.
Unlike Coleridge, who saw the imagination as the living power and prime
agent of all human perception, Wordsworth felt language and poetry were
secondary to the actual experiences of human beings. In other words, it was the
object of poetry to uncover these realities, not to pose as realities themselves.
Wordsworth defends the romantic poets reliance on personal feelings and, like
Rousseau, claims that human beings have become too distant from their nature.
Civilization has stolen their insight into nature away. In other words, the overstimulation of the senses (even in an age without video games) keeps men and
women from appreciating the quiet beauty of nature, and with it the
opportunity for meditative thought and introspection.

 Voices and Visions

Literature and Anthology in the
English Language

Menu

Where are we?

Targetometer

Agenda

Part One
Introduction and background
Search Engine Optimisation (on site)
Generating Traffic Online (but off site)

Break

Part Two
Social Networking (on and off site)
Proactive Traffic Generation (Offline)
Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Question time

What is Web 2.0 & Social Media?

Hype (or jargon)?

Technology?
Change in attitude of users or the attitude of Web
managers?
A web cop out or a way to give freedom to users?
A good thing or a bad thing?
Just another thing?
A fad?

Influential Opinions

Web 2.0 & Social Media & Social Networking

Hard to define
Favourite human interaction in a virtual world
Technology / Attitude / Free
Web 2.0 technology provides instant communication
This technology and new attitude allows user generated
content (UGC)
Social Media are the new online tools
Social Networking is what we do

Get on board now or be left behind

Get aboard or be left behind

Loads x Lots of people

We say
Dont ignore it
Great opportunity
Dont let it dazzle
Keep a business focus and marketing perspective

Remember the Golden Rules

Whos using Social Networks?

(Ofcom)
30% of British adults have a Social Networking profile
(up from 21% in 2007)
50% of users have a Facebook account 6 hours per
month from 4 hours last year
BUT
5% drop in 15 24 year olds using Social Network sites
Usage is increasing and getting older

User types (Forrester Sean Corcoran)

Creators
Collectors
Critics
Joiners
Spectators

Strengths
Personal
Validated
Credible
Engaging
Viral

Increasing importance in SEO

of:
External Linking
Web Footprint / Presence
Authority
Theme and Relevance
Social Networking sites are seen to rank highly

What do we use Social Networks

for?
Collaboration
Recruitment
Marketing and Focus groups

Marketing
Traffic generation and search
Marketing
Brand positioning
PR
Leads
Sales
Customer interaction
Retention and reinforcement
Feedback

Some (Social) Networks

Blog (with links to your site)

Squidoo lens
MySpace
Facebook group
LinkedIn
Tagging (delicious, stumbleupon, Digg)
You Tube
Slideshare
Flickr
Twitter
Article Sites
PR Sites
Tradespace
Niche - Home Business Network / Mothers / etc..

StumbleUpon

digg

delicious

Blog and blogging

Easy to build - Wordpress
On site or off site?
Blog Directories/ Other blogs/ Your own
site
Be interesting and not too salesy
Searchable Content
Couple of times a month

Facebook
Business to Consumer
Mass market
Give me a poke or Throw me a
sheep, dude
Fan Pages and Group Pages
Highly targeted advertising
Be personal but reflect your brand
Be interactive and get visitors involved

Linked in
Older, but less well known?
Professionals
Business to Business
Company Profile Page
LinkedIn Answers
Market Research
Sales

Twitter for business

Young(er), professional, new media savvy

Tweets: 140 characters, @username
Follow and Followers
Search and Retweet
Network!
Be first to know
Brand building, Support
Island bridge
Bio, reply to people, add links
Promote your feed

Tweetdeck

Innocent Facebook
Search

Innocent facebook
videos

Innocent on facebook

M&S Network Links

M&S Facebook

M&S facebook
discussions

M&S facebook offers

M&S Twitter

Dell Community
Pages

Dell Social Network

Links

Dell Linkedin

Dell Twitter Groups

Dell Outlet Twitter

Dell Facebook

Dell facebook

Dell flickr

E&Y Careers
facebook

GM Blog

Marmite Facebook

Marmite Facebook

Marmite facebook
games

Marmite facebook
promos

Marmite Website

Marmite on Youtube

Youtube
All you need
Camera
Aston Martin
Pair of trainers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yURa9T0Rjk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/user/blendtec?blend=1&ob=4

What does this tell us?

Problem driven
Objectives
Creative
Relevance
Resource
It Works!!

Who
Fans
Interested customers
Regular users
Niche
We turn them into advocates

A Small Holiday Company

Website
Rich Content
Pages for long tail Search Terms
Blogs relating to this
Links from relevant blogs
Videos on YouTube
Adwords
Directories
Tags
Facebook
Articles sites
PR Sites

Tail wagging the dog?

Were not talking about a Website anymore

were talking about a Web Presence

How to start

Remember these are SOCIAL networks

Try before you buy!
You may be experimenting
You will need to be committed
You need objectives
You need relevance and places to link to
Team of enthusiasts
Measure

Groundswell Forrester Research - POST

Groundswell Forrester Research - POST

People
Objectives
Strategy
Technology

MBL Solutions WEBSITE

Watch
Evaluate
Become an active believer
Strategy
Implementation
Technology
Evolve

Web Promotion Off Line

Carly Herron

Now where are we?

Targetometer

Lets go get em

Lets just ring them?

A typical decision process

Aftersales
and support
Awareness
of the need
Awareness
of suppliers
Build relationship
with suppliers
(brands)
Detail
information
stage

SALE!
Confirmation
and
reassurance

Advertising

Cold DM traditional +

Email DM

Responsive
Cost effective
Directs traffic
to your site
Builds
membership
Fantastic stats

Public Relations
Regular website review
columns

News editorial

Exciting picture
Web traffic news
Changing trends
Feedback
New web service

Incentivise the visit

Information or
white papers
Join club
Offers and
discounts
Opinions and
blogs
Editorial and
comment

Marketing Rule Number 1

Marketing now is very much about good data and building
relationships
Good data beats everything
Best data is the data you collect (websites [and events] are
great at this)
Then youre in control of communications and relationship
building

Registration

Campaign elements
Initial Communications and traffic generation
Online and offline
Keywords and Adwords

Targeted landing page

Data Capture
Registration page

Action
Follow up
Measurement
Review

Sainsburys Business Direct

Targeted Adwords &
SEO & SM

Email shots

Sale!
and ongoing
communications

Summary of our journey

Searching:
SEO
Adwords

Passing By

Social Networks
Bookmarking
Blogs
Affiliate

At Home

Email
Direct mail
Advertising
PR

Simple Summary

Relevance
Content
Interaction
Connections

Actions

This takes time and focus

Make someone responsible
Make sure that there is a team involved
Have an agreed timescale to review and
change
Measure the results

Thank You
Any questions?

The Golden Dozen

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Define your Site objectives

Who, What, Where, Action
Search Engine Optimisation = Visitor Optimisation
Benchmark your best competitors
SEO takes time so get it right asap
Remember that a website is dynamic keep it changing
Make sure your site caters for each stage of the decision process
Dont forget to be proactive in your website promotion
Make your site integral to your campaigns use offline methods as well
online and offline are not exclusive
10. Make sure your campaigns are circular no dead-ends
11. Capture prospect data, register visitors and use email (at least) to
continue the communications
12. Plan your site management and measurement

A typical decision process

Aftersales
and support
Awareness
of the need
Awareness
of suppliers
Build relationship
with suppliers
(brands)
Detail
information
stage

SALE!
Confirmation
and
reassurance

Campaign elements

Initial Communications and traffic generation

Online and offline (press ads, mailshots, email shots, PR)
Social Networking
Keywords and Adwords

Targeted landing page

Data Capture
Registration page

Action

Follow up

Measurement
Review

Sainsburys Business Direct

Targeted Adwords ,
SEO, Social

Email shots

Sale!
and ongoing
communications

Simple Summary

Objectives
Relevance
Content
Interaction
Connections

Thank You
Any questions?

John Keats

"To Autumn" is a poem by English

Romantic poet John Keats (31
October 1795 23 February 1821).

"To Autumn" is the final work in a

group of poems known as Keats's
"1819 odes".

"To Autumn" is a poem of three

stanzas, each of eleven lines. Written
in 1819, the structure is that of an
odal hymn, having three clearly
defined sections corresponding to
the Classical divisions of strophe,
antistrophe, and epode

The imagery is richly achieved

through the personification of
Autumn

Poem

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves

run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees ,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the

core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the

hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will

never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy

cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store ?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind

Or on a half-reapd furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its

twind flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou

dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings,

hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy

music too,

While barrd clouds bloom the

soft-dying day

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small

gnats mourn

Among the river-sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

sinking

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from

hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Romanticism

Historical and Social Background

The industrial town
The industrialization changed radically
the landscape of Great Britain. In the
first half of the XIX century the
Midlands had already gained the name
of nack country. It was an area of
gloomy buildings, small towns full of
smoke, streets that created a sense of
confusion and dismay and canals to
which the railway was added.
The Industrial Revolution caused an
uncontrolled growth of the city. Small
towns called mushroom towns were
constructed for the workers. They were
called in this way because they sprang
up suddenly and multiplied rapidly
around the factories.
For workers, living in the city meant
long working hours and appalling living
conditions. Industrial cities lacked
elementary public services (water
supply,
sanitation,
street-cleaning,
open spaces). The air and the water
were polluted by smoke and filth. The
houses, built in endless rows, were

BRITISH SOCIETY
POLITICAL REFORMS

Prosperity and confidence in

1700s
American and French revolutions
disappointment in bitter and
violent ends - Napoleon
Industrial Revolution
dirty, unorganized cities emerge
huge class shift

British Society

The population was

divided into three social
classes:
THE LANDOWNERS
AND ARISTOCRACY:
this class had ruled the
country for centuries and
held most of the wealt.
THE BUSINESSMEN
AND INDUSTRIALISTS:
thanks to their hard work
the british economy was
thriving.
THE MASSES:
they worked in the
factories and were poor.

Historical and Social

Background

Political Reforms

The Factory Act of 1833 limited working hours and children

under nine could not work.
In 1825 Trade Unions were recognized.Factory owners
formed their own associations
Businessmen and industrialists were given the vote in 1832.
A police force was established in 1829.
A local government was established in every town.
A system of national primary education was set up in
1834.

Historical and Social

Background

The French Revolution

as the French Revolution started, the whole

idea of nationalism changed, and so did the
romantic view; it consisted then in selfdetermination and a pride in the national
origins and unity; they said that every
human being should be pride of his origins
and nation, but at the same time he should
develop as an individual; they claimed that
there should be a balance in the
development of each person between the
common interest of the nation and his own
personal goals
the accent was put on the national history
and folklore, and furthermore, the values of
tradition and customs were put at the center
of the romantic movement
inspired by this view upon the country, the
peoples of Europe had the power to redraw
the map of their continent and free
themselves

English Romanticism can be understood as a return to Renaissance (to the

poetry of Spencer, Shakespeare and Milton). This return is anticipated by
Cowper, Gray, Collins and Thomson.
CHARACTERISTICS:
-Revival of instinctual life (reason was not so important).
- The search of the love and the beauty.
- Importance of Revolutions (American, French, the figure of Napoleon).
- New role of imagination.
- The realization of the sublime, the half way between real and supernatural
world, time and space.
- Nature as a source of inspiration.
- Revaluation of myths.
- Philosophers: J.J Rousseau is the first to use the word romantique in one
of his works (Reveries
du promemuer solitaire). Romance has french
origins.
Schlegel used the word romantisch speaking about creativity and
sentimental themes, in a critic work Sturm und Drang (in English: Storm
and Stress, in which there is an exaltation of nature, uniqueness and
freedom of the individual, ideal of genius).

Menu

Selected Works & Analysis of

 FIRST GENERATION
SECOND GENERATION

Menu

WILLIAM BLAKE

WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH

SAMUEL T.
COLERIDGE

Romantic Poets

William Blake
Blakes life was spent
in rebellion and the
restrictive influences
of institutions such as
government and the
church. Blake was
aware of the negative
effects of the rapidly
developing industrial
and commercial
society.
The Lamb
And
The Tyger

Menu Poets

To see a World in
a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven
in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the
palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
- Auguries of Innocence
William Blake

Auguries of Innocence
Full Poem
Analysis of
Auguries of Innocence

William Blake was born in London, where he

spent most of his life. His father was a successful
London hosier and attracted by the doctrines of
Emmanuel Swedenborg. Blake was first educated
at home, chiefly by his mother. His parents
encouraged him to collect prints of the Italian
masters, and in 1767 sent him to Henry Pars'
drawing school. From his early years, he
experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks,
he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the
Virgin Mary, and various historical figures.
Independent through his life, Blake left no debts
at his death
on August 12, 1827.
He was buried in
Back to Index
Onward to Byron
an unmarked grave at the public cemetery of
Bunhill Fields.

The Lamb and The Tyger

Blake wrote two books:
Songs of Innocenceand
Songs of Experience.
In The Lamb from the
Songs of Innocence Blake
presented with an image
of a gentle, benevolent,
loving God.
In The Tyger from
Songs of Experience, God
is vindictive and
terrifying.

I travelled among unknown men,

In lands beyond the sea;
Nor England did I know till then,
What love I bore to thee.
'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time, for still I seem
To love thee more and more.
Among thy mountains did I feel
the joy of my desire;
And she I cherished, turned the
wheel,
Beside an English fire.
Thy mornings showed, thy nights
concealed
the bowers where Lucy played;
And
thine isAmong
too the
last green
- I Travelled
Unknown
Men
field
William Wordsworth
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

William Wordsworth was born on April 7,

1770, at Cockermouth on the River
Derwent, in the heart of the Lake District
that would come to be immortalized in his
poetry. The son of a lawyer named John
Wordsworth, he was the second of five
children. His father was the personal
attorney of Sir James Lowther, Earl of
Lonsdale, the most powerful (and perhaps
the most hated) man in the area. His first
formal education was at Anne Birkett's
school at Penrith, where one of his
classmates
his future
wife
Mary Men
Analysis of Iwas
Travelled
Among
Unknown
Hutchinson. Wordsworth died on April 13,
1850.
Back to Index

Go to Analysis
Index

William Wordsworth
William Wordsworths
poetry emphasies the
value of childhood
experience an the
celebration of nature.
He glorifies the spirit
of man, living in
armony with his
natural environment,
far from the spiritually
bankrupt city. Him
being pantheistic
identified the nature
with god.

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

Menu Poets

Romanticism in Literature (cont.)

There is pleasure in
beauty, Wordsworth
writes. And in this
sense, poetry should
gratify the senses.
In striving to capture
the eternal beauty, the
poet gives rise to
romantic expression in
all human beings.

 Wordsworth
is
best
known as a nature poet
who
found
beauty,
comfort
and
moral
strength in the natural
world. If he were alive
today
he
would
probably be a member
of an organisation that
campaigns to protect
the evironment. For
him the World of nature
is free from corruption
and stress, and offers
man
a
means
of
escape
from
industrialised society.

Samuel T. Coleridge
Coleridges poetry
often deals with the
mysterious, the
supernatural and the
extraordinary. While
Wordsworth looked for
the spiritual in
everyday subjects,
Coleridge wanted to
give the supernatural a
colouring of everyday
reality.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Menu Poets

 Coleridge describes
the natural and
supernatural events
that occur during
the adventurous
voyage.The events
of the poem take
place in an eerie,
ghostly atmosphere
and the reader
often feels he is
moving from a real
to an unreal world
and back again.

 GEORGE
BYRON

PERCY
BYSSHE
SHELLEY

JOHN
KEATS

Romantic Poets

George Byron
Byron was the
prototype of the
Romantic poet. He
was heavily involved
with contemporary
social issues. He like
the heroes of his long
narrative poems, was
a melancholy and
solitary figure whose
actions often defiend
social convections.

Don Juan

Menu Poets

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

The most notorious Romantic poet and Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
satirist. Byron was famous in his
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
lifetime for his love affairs with
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
women and Mediterranean boys. He
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
created his own cult of personality, the
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
concept of the 'Byronic hero' - a
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
defiant, melancholy young man,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
brooding on some mysterious,
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
unforgivable in his past. Byron's
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
influence on European poetry, music, And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
novel, opera, and painting has been
- The Destruction of Sennacherib
immense, although the poet was
George Gordon Byron
widely condemned on moral grounds
Analysis of
by his
Backcontemporaries.
to Index
Onward to Poe
The Destruction of Sennacherib

Don Juan
Don Juan is seduced by
the beautiful and older
Donna Julia. She is
typical of Byrons
splendid female
portraits: sensual and
apparently innocent;
always on the verge of
tears or ready to faint
and yet strong and
aggressive. Above all,
she is much more
intelligent and cunning
than the average man
(especially if he is a
husband). No character,
not even Don Juan, is
free of narrators irony.

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Percy Bysshe Shelley was an
Stand in the desert. . . Near them, on the sand, English Romantic poet who rebelled
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, against English politics and
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, conservative values. Shelley was
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read considered with his friend Lord
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
Byron a pariah for his life style. He
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
drew no essential distinction
And on the pedestal these words appear:
between poetry and politics, and his
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
work reflected the radical ideas and
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
revolutionary optimism of the era.
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare.
Like many poets of his day, Shelley
The lone and level sands far away.
employed mythological themes and
- Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Analysis of Ozymandias

figures from Greek poetry that gave

to
an exalted
tone for his Onward
visions.
Back to Index
Wordsworth
Shelley died July 8, 1822.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley was the most
revoluctionary and
non-conformist of the
Romantic poet. He was
an individualist and
idealist who rejected
the istitutions of,
family,church,
marriage and the
Christian faith and
rebelled against all
forms of tyranny.

Defence of Poetry

Menu Poets

Defence of Poetry
Defence of poetry contains some
of the finest quotes about the
anture of poetry and the role of the
poet in the English language.
A poet is the author to others of the
highest wisdom, virtue, pleasure
and glory

John Keats
Keatss life makes his
literary achievements
even more astonishing.
The main theme of his
poetry is: the conflict
betwenn the real world
of suffering, death and
decay and the ideal
world of beauty,
immagination and
eternal youth.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Menu Poets

Ode on a Grecian Urn

The Ode describes an ancient greek
urn decorated with classical motifs:
A Dionysian festival with music and
ecstatic dances, a piper under the
trees in a pastoral setting, a young
man in love pursuing a girl and
almost reaching her, a procession
of townspeople and priest leading a
cow to the sacrifice.
Keats is fascinated by the fact that
art is able to present an ideal world
because it can freeze actions and
emotions: the lover depicted on the
urn will never actually reach the girl
he is following, the pipers will never
end their song, the streets of the
little town will always be desert and
silent. The beauty of the girl, the
ardent passion of her lover, the
pleasure of the music and the
boughs in bloom will never fade.

Hugo and the Romanticism

Hugo was the one who wrote the

literary manifesto of the
romanticism in the preface to his
tragedy called Cromwell
he says that the new doctrine is the
liberalism in literature and that
there are neither rules, nor
models for romantics
as Hugo presents it, Romanticism
evolves as an opposition to
Classicism and Romantic
Parnassianism, offering literature
freedom of expression through the
dismission of norms.

Classicism

presents an ideal, static,

objective world
has ideal categories and
eternal types of characters
has an abstract, equilibrated
and dominated by morals
character
simply observes the nature
preaches rationality
the rule of the 3 entities: of
time, space and plot

Romanticism

presents a universe determined

by the movements of history,
which is fantastical, subjective
the nature overwhelms the
character
has a dynamic, sentimental
hero, who is in a constant
search for the absolute
artists reinterpret the nature
through their own subjectivity
emphasizes sentiments,
passions
abolishes the rule of the 3
entities

Romantic character
is an exceptional character put in exceptional
situations(hero, genius)
is confused, unsatisfied
is continually fighting himself and his limits
can belong to any social class
has good and bad traits, like any human being
the artist is the supreme being, who doesnt have to
comply to the rules

Characteristics

promotes antithetical constructions, contrasts, extremes

distinguishes artistic values in the less esthetical parts of reality and
therefore anticipates the Symbolism which will found a true esthetic
of the ugly
symbols: the sky, the stars, the ocean, the sea, the lake, the spring, the
woods
rediscovers the folkloric creation, the history and the nature
has a predilection for the fantastic, tragic, grotesque, macabre,
mystery, occult, diseased and even satanic
places the individual at the centre of all things, of life and of all
experiences

Romanticism & painting

Eugne Delacroix,
Liberty Leading the
People

Romanticism & sculpture

Franois Rude, La
Marseillaise

Romantic
From Roman a poetic or prose heroic
narrative, in late medieval literature
Term is revived to describe a movement
or set of shared beliefs and themes
growing out of late 18th and early 19th C
and present as a continuing influence or
tendency

Four Principal Ideas

Nature
Equality/egalitarianism
Imagination
Sensibility

Nature
In Nature, Humanity is
Inspired
Informed
Redeemed
Transformed
Idealized

Equality
Egalitarian view of society
The social union among people
Nationalism (loyalty to nation
v. rulers)
Revolution and reform
Humanity can be perfected

Sensibility
Idealism
Intensity of emotions
Significance of actions
Worthiness of common person
Humanitys best is glorified in the
Classical
Medieval

Imagination
Power of imagination to
transport
Mind heals, condemns itself
Subjective nature of truth
Spontaneous response

Perhaps the most striking feature of

the poets of the Romantic Movement
is their attitude to nature. The
solitude of real nature is alien,
immeasurable, inhuman; the
Romantic solitude is a vision of
nature which reflects the solitude of
the poet. The Romantic finds
everywhere in nature his own image.
-Stephen Spender

The [Romantic] poet. . .loves

to escape from the heat and
pressure of humanity, and so
from himself as a social being,
and to lose himself in
the freedom of lonely places.
- Joseph Warren Beach

What the Romantics beheld when they looked at life was

a radical difference between the world of appearances
and the world of reality. What seemed important in the
world of appearances (the world as it looks to the
ordinary man, the man of common sense) was revealed
as unimportant or false when it was observed by the man
of true imagination. ... Thus freed from unimaginative
blindness, the Romantic saw Nature and Man in their
true light, their essential character, and in their genuine
worth. - Ernest Bernbaum

The most universal image [in Romantic

poetry] is perhaps that of light, a fit
symbol of spiritual illumination, of the
transcendental vision, of the work of the
imagination, of the ideal to which the
poet aspires.
- R.A. Foakes

Romanticism - Characteristics:
The predominance of
imagination over reason
and formal rules
Primitivism
Love of nature
An interest in the past
Mysticism

Interest in the Gothic

Individualism
Human rights
Idealization of rural
life
Enthusiasm for the
wild, irregular, Gothic
or grotesque in nature
Enthusiasm for the
uncivilized or natural

Principles of Romanticism:
Romanticism was a reaction against convention.
Romanticism asserted the power of the individual.
Romanticism reflected a deep appreciation of the
beauties of nature.
Romanticism emphasized the importance of the
subjective experience.
Romanticism was idealistic.

Romanticism was a reaction against

convention:
As a political movement, this reaction was
reflected in the new democratic ideals that opposed
monarchy and feudalism.
In art, it meant a turn away from Neoclassicism
and the ancient models of Greek perfection and
Classical correctness.
Philosophically, romanticism would contend with
Rationalismthe belief that truth could be
discerned by logic and reason.

Romanticism asserted the power of

the individual:
Romanticism marked an era characterized by an
idealization of the individual.
Politically, the movement influenced democratic ideals and
the revolutionary principles of social equality.
Philosophically, it meant that the idea of objective reality
would give way to subjective experience; thus, all truth
became a matter of human perception.
In the art world, romanticism marked a fascination with
the individual genius, and elevated the artist, philosopher,
and poet above all others.

Romanticism reflected a deep

appreciation of the beauties of
nature:

For the romantics, nature was how the spirit was revealed
to humankind.
The romantic philosophers believed in the metaphysical or
spiritual nature of reality.
They thought that a higher reality existed behind the
appearance of things in the physical world.
Nature appeared to people as a material reality; however,
because it evoked such strong feelings in humankind, it
revealed itself as containing a higher, spiritual truth.
Romantic artists tried to capture in their art the same
feelings nature inspired in them.

Romanticism emphasized the

importance of the subjective
experience:

The romantics believed that emotion and the senses could

lead to higher truths than either reason or the intellect
could.
Romantics supposed that feelings, such as awe, fear,
delight, joy, and wonder, were keys that could unlock the
mysteries of the world.
The result was a literature that continually explored the
inward experiences of the self.
The imagination became one of the highest faculties of
human perception, for it was through the imagination that
individuals could experience transcendent or spiritual
truths.

Romanticism was idealistic:

On one hand, romanticism was philosophically rooted in
idealism.
Reality existed primarily in the ideal worldthat is, in the
mindwhile the material world merely reflected that
universe.
In other words, the ideal world was more real than the
real world.
On the other hand, romanticism was literally idealistic; it
tended to be optimistic in its outlook on life.
Political and social romantics asserted that human beings
could live according to higher principles, such as the
beliefs in social equality, freedom, and human rights.

Philosophical Roots of
Romanticism

The French philosopher Jean Jacques

Rousseau (1712 1778) argued that
civilization was creating a race that was
out of step with nature.
Civilization stripped people of their
natural instincts.
Everything is good when it leaves the
creator, he argued, everything
degenerates in the hands of men.
Rousseau believed human beings had
innate intuitive powers; that is, they
instinctively knew how to deal with the
outside world.
He felt that so-called primitive
people, those who lived closer to and in
harmony with nature, had a greater,
more refined intuition than civil
human beings.

Rousseau believed that there were basic

principles, such as liberty and equality,
which were innate to human beings.
Civilization and governments, however,
had conditioned man to endure life
without them.
Rousseaus ideas were influential to
many, from the American and French
revolutionaries to romantic writers.
His ideas of nature and intuition were
taken even further in the philosophy of
Kant.

Philosophical Roots of Romanticism

(cont.)
Philosophy before Kant was largely based on rationalism
and empiricism.
Rationalism was the belief that knowledge of the world
could be obtained only through reason.
Reason could know reality independently from sense of
experience; that is, logic, not emotion led to truth.
Empiricism was the exact opposite. English philosophers,
such as John Locke and David Hume, argued that sense
was the only way of arriving at knowledge. To get at the
truth, one had to go by experienceby scientifically
weighing the evidence.

Romanticism in the Visual Arts

In the visual arts, English artists such as J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)

and John Constable (1776-1837) established the visual romantic genre
through their landscapes of sea and countryside.
Using rich, almost impressionistic colors and tones, they painted with
a deep appreciation of the beauties of nature.
Both reflected the contemporary literary and romantic movements in
Europe.
Their art conveyed the romantic ideal; that is, they supported the
romantic belief that reflections on the beauty of nature could initiate a
heightened personal awareness of the senses, and thus approach the
spirit of the divine.

Romanticism in Literature
In literature, romanticism was dominated by
the English poets William Wordsworth
(1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834).
In 1798 Coleridge and Wordsworth
published a joint volume of poetry called
Lyrical Ballads and in doing so launched the
English Romantic Movement.

Romanticism in Literature (cont.)

In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth
professes all the basic principles of romanticism:
he announces the break with tradition; he exults
the power of the romantic poet to give voice to
individual feeling; he speaks of the power of
nature to show the way of the spirit; he praises the
faculty of the imagination to give voice to the
subjective experience; and he speaks of the
ennobling effects poetry has on the moral
condition of humankind.

Romanticism in Literature (cont.)

Wordsworth felt the imagination could take the experiences of everyday men
and women and turn them into art.
By thus highlighting the ordinary, Wordsworth points to the deeper spirit that
lives in all things; the problem, as he sees it, is that human habit has made these
wonders too familiar.
Unlike Coleridge, who saw the imagination as the living power and prime
agent of all human perception, Wordsworth felt language and poetry were
secondary to the actual experiences of human beings. In other words, it was the
object of poetry to uncover these realities, not to pose as realities themselves.
Wordsworth defends the romantic poets reliance on personal feelings and, like
Rousseau, claims that human beings have become too distant from their nature.
Civilization has stolen their insight into nature away. In other words, the overstimulation of the senses (even in an age without video games) keeps men and
women from appreciating the quiet beauty of nature, and with it the
opportunity for meditative thought and introspection.

 Voices and Visions

Literature and Anthology in the
English Language

Menu