1.

Background notes on Romanticism:

a. From 1798 - 1850, direct reaction to excesses of science
b. 3 Revolutions:
i. American Revolution (successful)
ii. French Revolution (not successful) - overthrew monarchy but their despot
was even worse, bloody revolution
iii. Industrial Revolution - solve things using reason
c. Emotion Over Logic - should act on what we feel, we are made of emotions
d. Wild Over Civilized
i. respect ocean for its power
ii. whats wild is more real than what we have developed
e. Nature vs. Technology
i. caution of trying to conquer nature
ii. technology is devalued an living in the woods is normal
iii. inspired Thoreau, Emerson, Poe (British did)
f. Freedom and Rebellion
i. because of revolutions, freedom and rebellion are brought in
g. Man’s Connection with nature
i. what can you control or leave alone
ii. nature should be left alone
h. Supernatural (Byron and Shelley)
2. Wordsworth:
a. Background: father of English Romanticism, in France when french revolution
broke our, started writing on how this revolution affected him, writing had pure
emotion and not structure, revolutionized poetry
b. Elements of Wordsworth Writing Style: simplicity or directness of language,
expression of spontaneous intensified feelings, profound responses to nature,
nature appears to reflect the soul
c. The Prelude

d. London 1802
i. apostrophe: “Milton!” directly addresses him and wasn't afraid to speak
out (we need Milton b/c we have become corrupt {church, military, press})
ii. you light up (Milton enlightened others) “if we’re able to turn ourselves
over, god will help us change things”
e. The World is too much with us
i. modified petrachan sonnet
ii. he doesn't approve of getting and spending, had got us out of tune with
nature and out of tune with ourselves
 iii. he said he would rather be a pagan if he could see God in nature, no
rules
iv. about love of mother earth
f. Lines composed Tinturn Abbey
i. The full title of this poem is “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on
Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798.” It opens with the speaker’s
declaration that five years have passed since he last visited this location, encountered its
tranquil, rustic scenery, and heard the murmuring waters of the river. He recites the
objects he sees again, and describes their effect upon him: the “steep and lofty cliffs”
impress upon him “thoughts of more deep seclusion”; he leans against the dark sycamore
tree and looks at the cottage-grounds and the orchard trees, whose fruit is still unripe. He
sees the “wreaths of smoke” rising up from cottage chimneys between the trees, and
imagines that they might rise from “vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,” or from the
cave of a hermit in the deep forest. The speaker then describes how his memory of these
“beauteous forms” has worked upon him in his absence from them: when he was alone, or
in crowded towns and cities, they provided him with “sensations sweet, / Felt in the blood,
and felt along the heart.” The memory of the woods and cottages offered “tranquil
restoration” to his mind, and even affected him when he was not aware of the memory,
influencing his deeds of kindness and love. He further credits the memory of the scene
with offering him access to that mental and spiritual state in which the burden of the world
is lightened, in which he becomes a “living soul” with a view into “the life of things.” The
speaker then says that his belief that the memory of the woods has affected him so
strongly may be “vain”—but if it is, he has still turned to the memory often in times of
“fretful stir.”Even in the present moment, the memory of his past experiences in these
surroundings floats over his present view of them, and he feels bittersweet joy in reviving
them. He thinks happily, too, that his present experience will provide many happy
memories for future years. The speaker acknowledges that he is different now from how
he was in those long-ago times, when, as a boy, he “bounded o’er the mountains” and
through the streams. In those days, he says, nature made up his whole world: waterfalls,
mountains, and woods gave shape to his passions, his appetites, and his love. That time
is now past, he says, but he does not mourn it, for though he cannot resume his old
relationship with nature, he has been amply compensated by a new set of more mature
gifts; for instance, he can now “look on nature, not as in the hour / Of thoughtless youth;
but hearing oftentimes / The still, sad music of humanity.” And he can now sense the
presence of something far more subtle, powerful, and fundamental in the light of the
setting suns, the ocean, the air itself, and even in the mind of man; this energy seems to
him “a motion and a spirit that impels / All thinking thoughts.... / And rolls through all
things.” For that reason, he says, he still loves nature, still loves mountains and pastures
and woods, for they anchor his purest thoughts and guard the heart and soul of his “moral
being.” The speaker says that even if he did not feel this way or understand these things,
he would still be in good spirits on this day, for he is in the company of his “dear, dear (d)
Sister,” who is also his “dear, dear Friend,” and in whose voice and manner he observes
his former self, and beholds “what I was once.” He offers a prayer to nature that he might
continue to do so for a little while, knowing, as he says, that “Nature never did betray / The
heart that loved her,” but leads rather “from joy to joy.” Nature’s power over the mind that
seeks her out is such that it renders that mind impervious to “evil tongues,” “rash
judgments,” and “the sneers of selfish men,” instilling instead a “cheerful faith” that the
world is full of blessings. The speaker then encourages the moon to shine upon his sister,
and the wind to blow against her, and he says to her that in later years, when she is sad or
fearful, the memory of this experience will help to heal her. And if he himself is dead, she
can remember the love with which he worshipped nature. In that case, too, she will
remember what the woods meant to the speaker, the way in which, after so many years of
 absence, they became more dear to him—both for themselves and for the fact that she is
in them.
Form: “Tintern Abbey” is composed in blank verse, which is a name used to describe unrhymed lines in iambic
pentameter. Its style is therefore very fluid and natural; it reads as easily as if it were a prose piece. But of
course the poetic structure is tightly constructed; Wordsworth’s slight variations on the stresses of iambic
rhythms is remarkable. Lines such as “Here, under this dark sycamore, and view” do not quite conform to
the stress-patterns of the meter, but fit into it loosely, helping Wordsworth approximate the sounds of
natural speech without grossly breaking his meter. Occasionally, divided lines are used to indicate a kind
of paragraph break, when the poet changes subjects or shifts the focus of his discourse.
Commentary: The subject of “Tintern Abbey” is memory—specifically, childhood memories of communion with
natural beauty. Both generally and specifically, this subject is hugely important in Wordsworth’s work,
reappearing in poems as late as the “Intimations of Immortality” ode. “Tintern Abbey” is the young
Wordsworth’s first great statement of his principle (great) theme: that the memory of pure communion with
nature in childhood works upon the mind even in adulthood, when access to that pure communion has
been lost, and that the maturity of mind present in adulthood offers compensation for the loss of that
communion—specifically, the ability to “look on nature” and hear “human music”; that is, to see nature with
an eye toward its relationship to human life. In his youth, the poet says, he was thoughtless in his unity
with the woods and the river; now, five years since his last viewing of the scene, he is no longer
thoughtless, but acutely aware of everything the scene has to offer him. Additionally, the presence of his
sister gives him a view of himself as he imagines himself to have been as a youth. Happily, he knows that
this current experience will provide both of them with future memories, just as his past experience has
provided him with the memories that flicker across his present sight as he travels in the woods. “Tintern
Abbey” is a monologue, imaginatively spoken by a single speaker to himself, referencing the specific
objects of its imaginary scene, and occasionally addressing others—once the spirit of nature, occasionally
the speaker’s sister. The language of the poem is striking for its simplicity and forthrightness; the young
poet is in no way concerned with ostentation. He is instead concerned with speaking from the heart in a
plainspoken manner. The poem’s imagery is largely confined to the natural world in which he moves,
though there are some castings-out for metaphors ranging from the nautical (the memory is “the anchor” of
the poet’s “purest thought”) to the architectural (the mind is a “mansion” of memory). The poem also has a
subtle strain of religious sentiment; though the actual form of the Abbey does not appear in the poem, the
idea of the abbey—of a place consecrated to the spirit—suffuses the scene, as though the forest and the
fields were themselves the speaker’s abbey. This idea is reinforced by the speaker’s description of the
power he feels in the setting sun and in the mind of man, which consciously links the ideas of God, nature,
and the human mind—as they will be linked in Wordsworth’s poetry for the rest of his life, from “It is a
beauteous evening, calm and free” to the great summation of the Immortality Ode.
3. Coleridge:
a. Background: references supernatural of nature, opium addict - tried to control
tuberculosis, wrote ghost stories most likely because he dreaded death, he
thought ghosts visited him at night
b. Rime of Ancient Mariner:
i. Find these devices in the poem:
1. alliteration - repetition of consonant sound at beginning of words
2. consonance - repetition of similar final consonant sounds in
stressed syllables
3. assonance - repetition of a vowel sound in stresses syllables
4. internal rhyme - use of rhymes with poetic lines
ii. background: influenced by his dream, character in this tries to conquer
something in nature but has gone too far, starts wedding and mariner tels
a young guest of how he gets blown off course in the south pole
iii. PART 1
 1. mariner sits wedding guest down to hear the story, the guest does
not really want to hear it, mariner says he had been in a ship that
was blown off course because he was in the storm, ship gets
stuck in the ice, Albatross comes frees them from the ice and then
the mariner shoot him (fun?) , he now is haunted by the killing b/c
this was in humane
2. alliteration: “he holds him with his skinny hand”
3. internal rhyme: “the guests are met, the feast is set”
iv. PART 2
1. Mariner is being ostracized for killing the bird and they end up
feeling like they are chased by the spirits underwater, they are
surrounded by stagnant waters and no wind (stuck), men are
losing their minds - no drinking water, blame Mariner for shooting
Albatross
v. PART 3
1. mariner sees a “ship” (deathship) as it approaches, 2 skeletons re
on it laughing and gambling with lives, Mariner is the only one still
alive
vi. PART 4
1. on the ship alone for 7 days and nights, he sees all the dead men
staring at him, he wants to die, ho honors nature b/c he sees
snakes and admires them (sea snakes are electric), he blesses
them and the curse goes away, he is now able to pray (albatross
falls off from his neck = “guilt”
vii. PART 5
1. the wind starts to blow and the ship starts moving, the (blessed
spirits) on the boat arise, they have become angels and they start
to sing, the lonesome spirit from the south pole (albatross) pushes
the rudder from beneath, Mariner falls into a faint and hears 2
voices in his head (should he go to heaven or hell?)
2. assonance: “breeze did breathe”
viii. PART 6
1. spirits of the dead men and albatross are steering ship, also wind
is blowing ship very fast, when he gets to the harbor the dead
bodies are lying on the deck and each man has a glowing light in
it, another boat is coming towards him and he starts to hear real
human voices, he says he hopes the priest will forgive him
ix. PART 7
1. the ship sinks like lead and he is now on the pilot’s boat, the ship
goes down and creates a whirlpool (pilot thinks Mariner is the
devil), he tells wedding guest to love everything in nature because
God loves you
2. alliteration” “laughed loud and long”
c. Kubla Khan
 i. Background: it was a dream of his but was interrupted and was unable to
complete the poem, about a founder of the great Mongol dynasty
ii. Khan wanted to build a palace to control everything, nature, people, etc. -
it was 10 miles large
iii. he says nature is capable in its holiness to do many things
iv. assonance: amid, swift
v. they have an earthquake and a geyser erupts
vi. “ancestral voices” - he hears these prophesying war
vii. the pleasure dome is floating away
viii. paradox - “a sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice”
ix. he says if he could he would create a dome that floats
x. “drunk the milk of paradise” - allusion to forbidden fruit in the garden, has
more knowledge then he should have
4. Percy Shelley:
a. Background: apprentice of Godwin and studied his ideas hoping to bring a
revolution to the British, get involved with Mary Godwin (Shelley), while he is
married - he divorces and marries her, ladies’ man, poet who wants to be a
politician/revolutionary, died in a boating accident at age 29, got into trouble for
writing pamphlets and got exiled to Switzerland, best friend’s with Byron - said he
was very unselfish, waned to see a change in government and having it
reshaped to conform to the will of the people
b. To a Skylark
i. focusing on the height of the bird and the sound of its voice
ii. simile: “like a cloud of fire” - visual imagery, allusion: cloud led moses to
the promise land
iii. simile: “like an unbodied joy” - touch imagery
iv. simile: “like a star of heaven” - visual imagery, allusion: a light in the
darkness that leads like Jesus did
v. his freedom is a ray of hope behind a cloud
vi. “as from thy presence showers a rain of melody” - visual and sound
imagery
vii. “like a poet hidden” - alluding to himself in exile
viii. “sang hymns unbidden” - no one can hear him
ix. “like a high born maiden” - visual imagery, resembling freedom, freedom
is worth fighting for
x. “like a glowworm” - visual imagery, resembles freedom, you try to chase it
when it flashes you know its there and you want it
xi. “like a rose embowered” , freedom is kept and the wind is blown to get the
scent of the rose, freedom takes over all of your senses
xii. when we get this freedom it will be happy, ‘triumphal chant”
xiii. “praise of love or wine” - taste imagery, idea that freedom is sweet
xiv. refers to ‘fountains” - flowing of inspiration
xv. he is explaining freedom so much b/c he is longing for it, if he had it he
wouldn’t be so descriptive about it
 xvi. “teach me” - so that the world will listen too
c. Ode to the West wind
i. ode = a tribute, apostrophe in the first line, 5 parts to the poem each have
4 tercets and a couplet
ii. PART 1
1. the government is dead leaves and he wants the wind to blow in
order to have a budding revolution, starts in Autumn and goes to
spring, pestilence - stricken multitudes = people being ruled,
winged seeds = revolutionaries, a revolution is going to take time,
a wild spirit (destroyer - corrupt gov. and preserver - morals)
iii. PART 2
1. the wind is now a full fledged storm (black rain, fire, hail) and it
sounds like storm of epic proportions, people and ideas die in the
revolution (“there will be sacrifices but it is necessary”), it will cost
us
iv. PART 3
1. calm before the storm, Mediterranean sea was peaceful place but
a monster came out of it (Napoleon)
v. PART 4
1. asking wind to life him up on its back (inspire him), asking for the
energy of his boyhood and says he is hurting for the idealism, he
says we have all been enslaved by this government
vi. PART 5
1. “allow me to be your lyre and trumpet” (wake people up), let my
words scatter and see people on fire and be a revolution starter
d. Ozymandias
i. background: based on Ramses II
ii. message - his reign has ended and all of his work has crumbled (nothing
lasts)
iii. physical things don’t equal immortality
iv. slaves built the statue
v. parallels napoleon and ramses
5. Byron:
a. Background: bad boy of the group, womanizer, had a club foot, original Byronic
Hero (Edward Cullen), into political rallies, died in Greece during a revolution
(soldier) he was 35, actually fought in revolution, born into an aristocratic family
and inherited his title from his uncle (family very irresponsible and lost most of
the wealth), a gutsy, baisy writer, women gave him money and he also got paid
for some of his writing, he was moody, wreckless, mad, bad, and dangerous,
1816 exiled from England into the Alps
b. She Walks in Beauty
i. Background: about Byron’s first meeting with Lady Wilmot Horton (his
cousin by marriage), about looking at her from a distance, she is wearing
a mourning gown and they meet at a funeral
 ii. there is a “tender light” - it is dusk, you can see the stars, its dark and
bright
iii. b/c of how the light is hitting her face he believes she is graceful, serene,
pure
iv. this poem is more about natural light than about the woman
v. he assumes she is eloquent, Innocent, calm, and she has a happy life all
b/c of the light
c. Don Juan
i. It represented Byron reevaluating his own life.
ii. Don Juan had wasted his energy and youth away and had nothing to
show for it, like Byron.
iii. Now instead of chasing women his new hobby is avarice.
iv. DON JUAN: He used to follow his heart but now he can't. He has nothing
to show for his life so far.
d. Apostrophe to the ocean
i. PART 1 - The ocean can offer answers. If you respect nature it will be
good to you.
ii. PART 2 - Everyone is at the oceans mercy ship wreckage is the mark of
the power, man is minuscule compared to the ocean, if you are buried at
sea your are gone forever
iii. PART 3 - ocean can spit you back out as fats as it took you in, it plays
with human like a rag doll/toy, humans do not have the ability to leave
their mark on the ocean
iv. PART 4 - humans are unimportant in comparison to the oceans, The
ocean has helped to determined the fate of man( The British Navy
defeating the french)
v. PART 5 - All of the empires of the world are gone but the oceans is still
here, The oceans is unchanging, It has the power to make and destroyed,
just as it helped to make those empires big
vi. PART 6 - everything else is formed in the oceans image, molded and
shaped, can be both angry and forgiving, The ocean is unpredictable
vii. PART 7 - youthfulness gave Byron the love of the oceans, it has a playful
love and enjoyment, With age he learned to respect and appreciate the
ocean, The ocean can be compared to a wild beast, untamed but
beautiful.

6. Keats:
a. Background: died of tuberculosis at age 25, most of his poetry was about death,
studied with percy shelley, idealist with women, born to working class londoners,
intended to become a doctor, but became a pharmacist instead and started his
poetry, engaged to Fanny Brawne but became sick and dies, wrote his own
epigraph
b. When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
i. shakespearean sonnet
 ii. metaphor: his words are like grain and he cannor finish the harvest (his
work), the silos are the paper
iii. “fair creature of an hour” - his fiance
iv. “shadows he will never be there t chase” “huge, cloudy symbols” - doesn’t
know the meaning of his relationship
v. stands alone on the shore - doesn’t think his name will stay, he thinks he
is going to get lost in all of the grain in the sand
c. Ode on a Grecian Urn
i. Keats wants to be perseved like this urn
ii. PART 1
1. “faster child of silence” - the images of the urn tell a story
2. questioning the meaning of what’s on the urn
iii. PART 2
1. the unheard melodies are sweeter - to your own imagination
2. the lovers cannot kiss but they don’t grieve (his and his fiance)
iv. PART 3
1. the branches leaves never fall (forever young) - he is jealous
about this b/c he is dying
v. PART 4
1. a cow being led by a priest to sacrifice, but never actually getting
there (his marriage will never happen - reference)
vi. PART 5
1. eternity teases us
2. “beauty is truth, truth beauty”
a. we aspire to beauty
b. hoping he will be remembered by the beauty of his works
c. beauty is necessary for enjoying living
d. Ode to a Nightingale
i. Background: has a friend named Charles Brown, he loved Charles’
nightingale (who sings at night) - can lead people in darkness, beauty in
darkness, Keats then hides pages he wrote (very personal?), this was not
common with Keats
ii. WHy would he hide this poem? it hints at death and is very personal, he
was being very honest
iii. I STANZA
1. Keats feels pain, empitness, his heart is numb, he feels like he is
almost drugges and he cannot feel anything, b/c the bird is so
happy the bird distracts him
iv. II STANZA
1. “for a draft of vintage (wine” - taste imagery, will take him away
from his pain and soothe his parched throat
2. “hippocrene” - amuse, the bird inspires him to write, hopes the bird
will take him away from his pain
v. III STANZA
 1. envious about the bird b/c it doesn’t know what pain is, he says
old would just be as bad as he is now
vi. IV STANZA
1. he says he will fly away with poetry and not with wine, visual
imagery - talking about how the light is being filtered by the trees
(the moon is coming down)
vii. V STANZA
1. he can identify the flowers but cannot see them b/c it is night but
he can smell them (lost in the scent) - scent imagery
viii. VI STANZA
1. “called death soft names in many a mused rhyme”
2. “still wouldst thou sing” - sound imagery, bird singing his death
song
3. “now more than ever seems like it rich to die” - he is okay with
death at the moment
ix. VII STANZA
1. the bird is immortal - “heard in ancient days by the emperors”
2. he is saying this bird is almost supernatural (in “fairyland” and
“charmed magic”)
x. VIII STANZA
1. keats questions it this is even real and the song fades as the bird
flys farter away
7. Mary Godwin Shelley (Novelist) - writes Frankenstein when 18 years old while in
Switzerland, marries Percey Shelley at age 16, had kid but child dies after 3 days old
8. William Godwin (Philosopher) - early anarchist and believed in human rights, good friend
of Wordsworth and Coleridge, married to Mary Walston Craft a reformer and pushed for
women’s rights, remarries after wife dies and kicks mary and percey out of the house
9. Mary WallStonecraft (Reformer) - married to Godwin, not married until whe was
preganat, she dies when he daughter is 3 days old