ENGLISH-AMERICAN

AMERICAN LITERATURE MODULE 2

LESSON 2: LITERATURE IN THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Objectives:

 Identify the types of literature that

th rose during the Romantic period
 Recognize the prominent poets/authors during this era
 Analyze the works of this era’s prominent/authors

ABOUT THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

The first third of the nineteenth century saw the dominance of a literature which we characterize as
romantic. The Romantic Period began roughly around 1798 and lasted until 1837 (Source: Eastern Connecticut
State University). There was a lot of social change during this period. Writers wrote more openly about their
objections and their convictions against slavery. Romanticism was also o a reaction against the spread of
industrialism, as well as a criticism of the aristocrat social and political norms and a call for more attention to
nature. Writers during this time did not actually think of themselves as Romantics but Victorian writers later
classified them in this way because of their ability to capture the emotion and tenderness of man. (Source: Eastern
Connecticut State University)

Romantic literature may be considered as expressing in general. It is far less restrained and is much more
m
persona, expressing often the turmoil in the heart of the poet rather than the sentiments of the world about him.

Characteristics of Romanticism (Source: thoughtco.com)

1. celebration of nature
2. focus on the individual and spirituality
3. celebration of isolation and melancholy
4. interest in the common man
5. idealization of women
6. personification and pathetic fallacy

Prominent Writers/ Poets in the Romantic Age

 William Wordsworth (1770-1850)1850)

William Wordsworth was England’s greatest poet of nature. There
are three things we notice in his poems: (1) he loved to be alone and was never
lonely when with nature; (2) he felt the presence of some living spirit in nature, real
though unseen, companionable though silent; (3) the impressions he recorded in his
poems are similar to our own ad are delightfully familiar.

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 Among the lyrics of Wordsworth that are high in poetic excellence are: Tintern Abbey,
Abbey Ode to
Duty, Ode on the Intimations of Immortality,
Immortality She was a Phantom of Delight, and I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,
among others.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud The waves beside them danced; but they
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, Out-did
did the sparkling waves in glee:
When all at once I saw a crowd, A poet could not but be gay,
A host, of golden daffodils; In such a jocund company:
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, I gazed—and gazed— —but little thought
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. What wealth the show to me had brought:

Continuous as the stars that shine For oft, when on my couch I lie
And twinkle on the milky way, In vacant or in pensive mood,
They stretched in never-ending line They flash upon that inward eye
Along the margin of a bay: Which is the bliss of solitude;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, And then my heart with pleasure fills,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. And dances with the daffodils.

MIND CHALLENGE

1. What is the theme or central idea of William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
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2. Describe the emotion/s being expressed by Wordsworth in this poem.
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 John Keats (1795-1821)

John Keats was born of poor parents who at his birth lived in a
stable. Toward the end of his school days, he was set dreaming by his reading of
poetry, and he decided on a poetic career. His first poems were bitterly
attacked by the literary reviewers, but this did not prevent Keats from continuing
to write.
rite. Keat’s literary career was very brief; all his important poems were written
in the span of four years. He died of tuberculosis at age twenty-five.
twenty His last
sonnet, “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”, written when he was dying,
laments the fact
act that he had so much more to give the world, but there was no
time left for him to do so.

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 Best of his poems are: On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer
Homer,, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Ode
to a Nightingale, To Autumn, Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn,
Urn, and To Sleep. He also wrote
the epic Endymion and the fragment Hyperion.

To Sleep
by John Keats
(1) O soft embalmer of the still midnight,
(2) Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
(3) Our gloom-pleas’d
pleas’d eyes, embower’d from the light,
(4) Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
(5) O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
(6) In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
(7) Or wait the “Amen,” ere thy poppy throws
(8) Around my bed its lulling charities.
(9) Then save me, or the passed day will shine
(10)Upon
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,—
woes,
(11)Save
Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
(12)Its
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
(13)Turn
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
(14)And
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.

MIND CHALLENGE

1. What does “Sleep”

leep” in this poem symbolize?
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2. In your opinion, what could be the meaning of lines 9 and 10?
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 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

1822)
Shelley,, like Wordsworth, was a great nature lover; but while
Wordsworth found hope and faith in his kinship with nature and God,
Shelley dwelt on nature’s beauty. Shelley, who drowned at age thirty while
boating in the sea of Italy, was like a wanderer following a vague vision,
forever sad and forever disappointed.
disappoi He was a violent rebel in his early
youth: he wrote a carefully reasoned pamphlet on atheism, for which he was
expelled from Oxford. After the death of his first wife, he married Mary
Godwin or also known as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of
Frankenstein.

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 Percy Bysshe Shelly, dubbed as “mad Shelley”, in his early years produced Queen Mab, Alastor,
and The Revolt of Islam.. Later on, he produced his magnificent poetic drama Prometheus Unbound.
Unbound He
also wrote Ode to the West Wind and The Indian Serenade among others.

The Indian Serenade

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright:
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Hath led me—who knows how?
To thy chamber window, Sweet!
The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream—
The Champak odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The Nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart;—
As I must on thine,
Oh, belovèd as thou art!
Oh lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;—
fast;
Oh! press it to thine own again,
Where it will break at last.

MIND CHALLENGE

1. Based on your own understanding, why is the poem entitled “The Indian Serenade”?
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2. Does the poem end in a happy tone? Justify your answer.
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3. In your opinion, when is melancholy or sadness bad? Explain your an
answer.
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 Jane Austen
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
1817) was one of the first women to
win literary fame. She was an English novelist whose works of
romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a
place as one of the most widely read writers in English
literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing
her historical importance among scholars and critics. (Source:
goodreads.com) She published four novels during her
lifetime: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and
Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In these and in Persuasion and Northanger
Abbey (published together posthumously, 1817), she vividly depicted English
English middle-class
middle life during the
early 19th century. Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners,, but they also became timeless classics

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 that remained critical and popular successes for over
over two centuries after her death. (Source:
britannica.com)

MIND CHALLENGE

Read the plot overview of Pride and Prejudice in https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/summary/ and answer the
following questions:

1. Compare the women’s role in the novel to the women’s role in this this generation. What are the
significant changes?
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2. Elizabeth, the protagonist in the novel, believes that she can never marry a man she dodoes not love
regardless of how much this man could help her family. Do D you agree with herr principle,
p yes or no?
Explain your stand.
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4. What is the message of this novel to the women of today?
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 RESOURCES:

Books:

Lapid, M.G. & Serrano, J.B. 2018. English Communication Arts and Skills through Anglo-American
Anglo and
Philippine Literatures. Quezon City: The Phoenix Publishing House, Inc.

Rollins-Natividad, V. 2017. English in Perspective: Anglo-American

Anglo Literature.. Philippines: ABIVA
Publishing House, Inc.

Websites:

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/summary/

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/plot
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/plot-analysis/

https://englishsummary.com/summary
https://englishsummary.com/summary-indian-serenade-shelley/

https://poemanalysis.com/john-keats/to
keats/to-sleep/

https://www.easternct.edu/

https://www.thoughtco.com/