Apuntes Textos Poéticos

Apuntes Textos Poéticos
Británicos e Irlandeses
Filología Inglesa
Universidad de La Laguna (ULL)
24 pag.
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TEXTOS POÉTICOS BRITÁNICOS E IRLANDESES: EXAMEN CONTINUA 2020
Italian form: octave (2 quatrains) and sextet, rhyming Abba Abba cdecde. Thee Volta or turning point occurs in line 9.
English form: 3 quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Thee Volta or turn often occurs in the third
quatrains or in the ending strophe (tercet or couplet).
Based on the Petrarchan tradition, but subverting it (Idealism VS Realism; chaste lady VS dark lady, promiscuous Lady;
lovely boy (not the lady) is the object of praise, love and devotion, etc.
Rhetorical strategy: to elaborate an initial statement to reach a conclusion in the firnal couplet, or to turn the situation
into another direction in the firnal sextet.
Rhetorical devices.
Alliteration: use of several nearby words or stressed Emphasis: highlights a word by placing it in an unusual
syllables beginning with the same consonant: o wild west position in the line.
wind, thou breath of autumn's being.
Hyperbaton: is a derivation from the common word
Anaphora: repetition of words at the beginning of lines, or order in a sentence.
clauses, so that an effeect of emphasis is produced: if I were a
dead leaf thou mightiest bear; Metaphor: a word or phrase that ordinary designates
If I were a swift cloud to flyy with thee; one thing is used to designate another, thus making an
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share implicit, as in “a sea of troubles”.
Epanalepsis: the word/s that occurred at the beginning of a Simil: giants like mills.
line, phrase, or clause is/are repeated at the end of the same
line. Metonymy: involves the substitution of a word or phrase
with another closely associated with it. “sweat” can
Anadiplosis: the repetition of a word of one line or clause at mean “hard labour”.
the beginning of the next.
Symbol: a word that has literal meaning as well as an
Gradatio (climax) : sentence construction in which the last alternative identity or meaning that represents
word of one clause becomes the firrst of the next, through something else.
three or more clauses (like an extended anadiplosis).
Hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration.
Polyptoton: repetition of words of the same root with
diffeerent endings (or prefirxes). Pun: play on words.
Antanaclasis: the repetition of a word whose meaning Irony: when the meaning intended is the opposite of
changes in the second instance. what is said.
Diacope: repetition of words with one or some words in Oxymoron: combination if contradictory words about
between: “she, dear she” (Sidney), “to be or not to be” the same thing.
(Shakespeare).
Paradox: the use of concepts or ideas contradictory to
Epizuxis: repetition of words with no others between. one another.
Asyndeton: joins words or phrases by commas only, the Allegory: transforms a general, abstract concept into a
polysyndeton by conjunctions. concrete image, person or story.
Parallelism: the parallel construction of phrases, is varied by Personifircation: transforms things or abstract concepts
chiasmus, repetition in inverted order. into human agents.
Enjambment: the statement flyows over the end of the line

into the next one.

Types of Poetry
When studying poetry, it is useful firrst of all to consider the theme and the overall development of
the theme in the poem. Obviously, the sort of development that takes place depends to a considerable
extent on the type of poem one is dealing with. It is useful to keep two general distinctions in mind
(for more detailed defirnitions consult Abrams 1999 and Preminger et al 1993): lyric poetry and
narrative poetry.
Lyric Poetry Narrative Poetry
A lyric poem is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a Narrative poetry gives a verbal representation, in verse, of a
single speaker presents a state of mind or an emotional state. Lyric sequence of connected events, it propels characters through a
poetry retains some of the elements of song which is said to be its plot. It is always told by a narrator. Narrative poems might tell
origin: For Greek writers the lyric was a song accompanied by the of a love story (like Tennyson's Maud), the story of a father and
son (like Wordsworth's Michael) or the deeds of a hero or
lyre. Subcategories of the lyric are, for example elegy, ode, sonnet and
heroine (like Walter Scotte's Lay of the Last Minstrel).
dramatic monologue and most occasional poetry:
Sub-categories of narrative poetry:
In modern usage, elegy is a formal lament for the death of a particular
person (for example Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H.). More broadly Epics usually operate on a large scale, both in length and topic,
defirned, the term elegy is also used for solemn meditations, often on such as the founding of a nation (Virgil’s Aeneid) or the
questions of death, such as Gray's Elegy Writteen in a Country beginning of world history (Milton's Paradise Lost), they tend to
Churchyard. use an elevated style of language and supernatural beings take
part in the action.
An ode is a long lyric poem with a serious subject writteen in an
elevated style. Famous examples are Wordsworth’s Hymn to Duty or Thee mock-epic makes use of epic conventions, like the elevated
Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn. style and the assumption that the topic is of great importance,
to deal with completely insignifircant occurrences. A famous
Thee sonnet was originally a love poem which dealt with the lover’s example is Pope's Thee Rape of the Lock, which tells the story of
suffeerings and hopes. It originated in Italy and became popular in a young beauty whose suitor secretly cuts offe a lock of her hair.
England in the Renaissance, when Theomas Wyatte and the Earl of
Surrey translated and imitated the sonnets writteen by Petrarch A ballad is a song, originally transmitteed orally, which tells a
(Petrarchan sonnet). From the seventeenth century onwards the story. It is an important form of folk poetry which was adapted
sonnet was also used for other topics than love, for instance for for literary uses from the sixteenth century onwards. Thee ballad
religious experience (by Donne and Milton), reflyections on art (by stanza is usually a four-line stanza, alternating tetrameter and
trimeter.
Keats or Shelley) or even the war experience (by Brooke or Owen).
Thee sonnet uses a single stanza of (usually) fourteen lines and an Descriptive and Didactic Poetry
intricate rhyme patteern (see stanza forms). Many poets wrote a series
of sonnets linked by the same theme, so-called sonnet cycles (for Both lyric and narrative poetry can contain lengthy and detailed
instance Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Drayton, Barret-Browning, descriptions (descriptive poetry) or scenes in direct speech
Meredith) which depict the various stages of a love relationship. (dramatic poetry).
In a dramatic monologue a speaker, who is explicitly someone other Thee purpose of a didactic poem is primarily to teach something.
than the author, makes a speech to a silent auditor in a specifirc Theis can take the form of very specifirc instructions, such as how
situation and at a critical moment. Without intending to do so, the to catch a firsh, as in James Theomson’s Thee Seasons (Spring 379-
speaker reveals aspects of his temperament and character. In 442) or how to write good poetry as in Alexander Pope’s Essay
Browning's My Last Duchess for instance, the Duke shows the picture on Criticism. But it can also be meant as instructive in a general
of his last wife to the emissary from his prospective new wife and way. Until the twentieth century all literature was expected to
have a didactic purpose in a general sense, that is, to impart
reveals his excessive pride in his position and his jealous
moral, theoretical or even practical knowledge; Horace famously
temperament. demanded that poetry should combine prodesse (learning) and
delectare (pleasure). Thee twentieth century was more reluctant to
Occasional poetry is writteen for a specifirc occasion: a wedding (then proclaim literature openly as a teaching tool.
it is called an epithalamion, for instance Spenser’s Epithalamion), the
return of a king from exile (for instance Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis) or
a death (for example Milton’s Lycidas), etc.

Astrophil and Stella sonnet 15
You that do search for every purling spring a Italian form with variations – two couplets.
Which from the ribs of old Parnassus flows, b
It is writteen to another poet. He gives him the advice
And every flyower, not sweet perhaps, which grows b to not copy others but to write something more
Near thereabouts, into your poesy wring; a personal.
Ye that do dictionary's method bring a He looks for inspiration, and looks for it in the
Into your rimes, running in ratteling rows; b Parnassus where the muses live. Every inspiration
that has is not that sweet or what he is looking for.
You that poor Petrarch's long-deceased woes b Look in the dictionary for words to combine so it is
With new-born sighs and denizen'd wit do sing: a artifircial.
You take wrong ways; those far-fet helps be such c
Petrarch invented the sonnets long ago.
As do bewray a want of inward touch, c
And sure, at length stol'n goods do come to light. d Be true to your nature and you will start to write. If
you become famous people will firnd out that you
But if, both for your love and skill, your name e have copied.
You seek to nurse at fullest breasts of Fame, e
Stella behold, and then begin to endite. d
Shakespeare’s sonnet 130
In this poem Shakespeare subverts the Petrarchan convention by using parody, he mocks the
convention, not the lady.
My mis tress’ eyes are no thing like the sun a Thee poem represents characteristics of the English form,
it rhymes ababcdcdefefgg, it has three quatrains and a
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; b couplet at the end with the volta. Thee poetic foot of this
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; a poem is iambic and the verse length is pentameter.
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. b In this sonnet Shakespeare is mocking the way the lady
is idealized in the Petrarchan convention. He basically
I have seen roses damasked, red and white, c says that his mistress is not what we would call beautiful
or a goddess but the opposite (her eyes are not shiny as
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; d
the sun, her lips are pale and he hair looks like wires).
And in some perfumes is there more delight c But in the end he gives hints that he feels something
Thean in the breath that from my mistress reeks. d towards her.
In the third and fourth lines we see an anaphora. Also,

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know e black wires is metaphor for her curly hair. In the
Theat music hath a far more pleasing sound; f thirteenth and fourteenth lines we appreciate an
enjambment alongside the volta.
I grant I never saw a goddess go; e
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. f
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare g

As any she belied with false compare. g

Metaphysical poetry
‘difficcult, complex, learned and simultaneously intellectual, sensual and feeling’ mix of
feeling and thought. *Blend of emotion and intellectual ingenuity.
➢ A sense of deep disquiet (not only in the growing violence of the Civil War but
the confusing feeling of doubting if believe in what everyone thought they knew
or believe in the new thing that was being discovered)
➢ Lyric forms of love and devotion tend to incorporate the new intellectual
Energies. Departures from the Petrarchan tradition in form and expression.
➢ Classical inflyuence is still present: Lyric, Elegy, Epigram… (imitation…)
➢ Thee poems are analytical and follow a logical order of development.

(specifirc and unique about the metaphysical poems)
➢ Combination of thought and feeling. Reason and emotion
➢ Striking imagery. KEY ELEMENT TO DISTINGUISH THIS POEMS. Ideas

that are not usually compared, the metaphysical poetry links them and makes
them have sense.
➢ Metaphysical conceit: Conceits to illustrate a theme, leading to a wide range of emotions and
subtle analysis of life and love. Often hyperboles.
➢ Direct colloquial language (not the artifircial Elizabethan language BECAUSE

THEY WANT TO PERSUADE THE READER) and irregular stanzas.
➢ Preference of monosyllabic words.
➢ INTELLECT AND WIT BLENDING WITH EMOTION AND FEELING
Thee Reformation. Theree main Christian groups: Anglicans (Episcopalians), Puritans (Calvinists,
Presbyterians (Church of Scotland), etc. "dissenters"), Catholics ("recusants")
Search for colonies, new territories to explore. New cosmology. (Galileo) 1611011620 Thee development
of optics: they could create a telescope and they started to observe the sky.
Thee Commonwealth (period of Cromwell in which the Puritans controlled politics) 1640: Thee Civil
War was very cruel.
Thee Restoration (Charles II, 1660). It is developed the Royal Society institution for the development
of sciences: science was called a natural philosophy)
Neo-Platonism, alchemy: Theey talked of how nature has shown scientists.
Royal or aristocratic patronage: Masques.
It was not usual to publish poetry. When the poet died their poems were gathered and published.
A sense of deep disquiet: Theey were discovering a new knowledge; all the previous knowledge is
being asked. Theey are facing the new understanding of the world.

Lyric forms of love and devotion tend to incorporate the new intellectual energies: departures from
the Petrarchan tradition in form and expression - we are going to firnd elements of other cultures.
Thee poets experiment and explore new ways of poetical expression; they inspire in the classics. Theey
try to imitate the poetical energy of the classics.
Classical inflyuence: Lyric, Elegy, Epigram, etc.
Theey don't copy, they imitate expressing their anxiety.
Theeir poems are analytical and follow a logical order of development to persuade the reader that they
are right.
Theere is a combination of thought and feeling.
Striking imagery: Images would be inappropriate, exaggerated, far-fetched Theis is what made
metaphysical poetry metaphysical. Ben Jonson did not like that but it is actually the feature that
defirnes it.
Thee Metaphysical conceit: Conceits (or extended metaphors) that illustrate a theme leading to a wide
range of emotions and subtle analysis of life and love. Often hyperbole and oxymoron (whatever that
could be striking)
Theey used direct colloquial language (not the artifircial Elizabethan language) and irregular stanzas.
Theey liked to experiment.
John Donne Elegy XIX
Theere is a male speaker in the poem who seduces his mistress to open her clothes so as to have
physical intimacy. Thee poem slowly processes forward as the unclothing processes from top to toe
and from the belly to vulva. Theroughout the poem the speaker praises the beauty of a naked woman
and says that the clothing is just the external adornment. He compares the situation to going to bed
with the situation of a soldier waiting for the war. Thee word ‘standing’ puns with both to the
standing soldier and to the erection of the speaker. He compares her naked body with the newly
found land, America and expresses his unbound joy of watching it.
CONCEIT → related to wit
For him going to bed to have sex is not a sin but an act of innocence. By the imagery of childbirth, he
tries to prove that to have sex is natural and even a pious act as it continues the human race. If the
act of sex is stopped, then there would not be human kind in the earth. So, he wholeheartedly praises
this physical union of male and female with many wits and metaphors. 48 lines of rhyming couplets
with a meter of iambic pentameter. Not an elegy at all in the traditional sense of a poem writteen to
commemorate a death, it instead celebrates the end of a woman's resistance to the speaker's sexual
advances.
Thee poem rhymes couplets with an iambic pentameter. Thee poem is full of erotic imagery, as well as
religious. We have the examples of her being a mystery and her covering, and the topic of geography
(America being discovered). We can firnd as well Neoplatonism, departure from the Petrarchan
tradition, the topic of carnal desire and going to bed seems to be reflyected as a comparison with a
soldier waiting for war. From lines 18 to 19 the speaker praises the body of a woman.
Thee poet compares his naked beloved with the New Found Land, America. If she were a kingdom,
the speaker would be the king. Theis advocates the superiority of male over female, and she silently

appreciates his governance. Equally important is that without the mistress, the speaker would not be
a king.
Thee Sublime
Much is spoken of with regard to that which makes someone or something Beautiful, but very littele
is said these days about what makes something Sublime. In fact, the Sublime is a concept lost in the
twenty-firrst century, though there was much debate on it only two centuries ago.
Thee Sublime is a feeling terrifying yet desired. In this respect it diffeers from a feeling of the Beautiful
which lacks the aspect of terror. Examples of that which cause an experience of the Sublime could
include a vision of the starry universe on a cloudless night, a grand view of the ocean, a powerful
speech that conveys more than can be immediately setteled by the mind, a piece of sober music that
over-awes, a tract about the dark metaphysical, about the eternal, about that which overpowers.
Thee Sublime in essence then is a feeling of delightful awe caused by some terror, at least according to
its most famous proponent, the Irish philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke. His book on the
subject, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, published
in 1757, set a precedent for further discussion – most notably by the Prussian philosopher Immanuel
Kant. Burke’s Enquiry, however, was itself a reaction to William Smith’s 1739 translation of a book
on the Sublime by the Greek literary critic, Longinus, writteen at the start of the firrst millennium.
Burke analyses the Sublime into a number of categories. I list them below with a brief explanation:
– Terror
Burke argues that a perception of terror becomes a feeling of delight when the person subconsciously
realizes that the potential pain or danger is removed. As pain and danger are the most powerful of all
emotions because they are conversant about the preservation of the individual, the relief from these
causes supreme delight. We even delight in the misfortune of others when it does not directly affeect
us, writes Burke. Theis may explain the popularity of hangings in the past, or today’s popularity of
catastrophes in the news, or the prevalence of murder and violence in popular firlms. As Burke writes,
‘terror is a passion which always produces delight when it does not press too close’.
– Obscurity
When we know the full extent of a danger, that perceived danger then diminishes. Theus keeping it
obscure maintains its dread. Darkness can add to terror as we are unaware of what surrounds us.
Despotic governments and religions keep their chief shrouded in mystery as familiarity kills fear.
Burke writes, ‘It is our ignorance of things that causes all our admiration, and chieflyy excites our
passions … A clear idea is therefore another name for a littele idea.’ Because of this, writing can be
more sublime than painting because writing can rouse great and confused images which thus remain
unfirxed and obscure. As an example, he gives a passage from Milton concerning a portrait of Satan.
– Power
Anything that is relatively more powerful than we are can inspire sublimity, but only if this power is
potentially threatening. Theough a donkey is generally stronger than a man, a donkey is not a threat
so its power is not considered sublime. A lion, however, is both powerful and threatening and in this
case can inspire the Sublime.
In Burke’s time, sovereigns were frequently addressed with the title ‘Dread Majesty’ to indicate both
their power and threat. For a believer in God, He is the most Sublime partly for this reason. Thee
theologian Rudolph Otteo wrote a book on this very subject arguing that the term ‘Holy’ originally
connoted the sublime fear of God and only recently came to incorporate a moral dimension.

Thee gods of the pagan religions were often powerful super-humans whose general occupation was
destruction, suggestive of the Sublime. Thee goddesses were often epitomes of the Beautiful in
contrast. Thee king of Gods in the Nordic pantheon, Odin or Wotan, was the god of war and poetry,
for example. His wife Frigg was the goddess of beauty and love. Theis couple thus signify this
distinction between the Sublime and the Beautiful – something to consider on Wednesdays and
Fridays as these days are respectively named after the deities.
– Privation
‘All general privations are great because they are terrible: Vacuity, Darkness, Solitude and Silence’.
Man seems to be a social animal so privations cause terror. A particularly terrifying report of a man
who was revived after clinical death was his description of experiencing a total void and believing
that he would stay there eternally.
– Vastness
A massive expanse or building may cause an entrance of the Sublime. Burke argues that depth can
be more sublime than height, and both are more sublime than length. Vastness strikes us as a power
and danger, not necessarily on a conscious level. Burke also adds that extreme minuteness can also
cause the Sublime, ‘for division must be infirnite as well as addition’. Thee world of microorganisms,
discovered in the 17th Century, must have inspired the Sublime: not only were these creatures vast
in their smallness, as it were, but also obscure in their ways. A whole new universe of life opened up
with this discovery, akin to the feeling of Sublimity that would accompany us were we to discover
extraterrestrial life. Thee obscure, immensely powerful world of subatomic physics could be Sublime.
Theat ‘particles’ change according to whether they are being observed or not, for instance, is so odd
and incredible, that an understanding could provide cause for sublimity.
– Thee Infirnite
Much like vastness, yet bigger! Many things appear to be infirnite as the eye cannot make out the
boundaries. Again, obscurity and a sense of vastness ensue resulting in the Sublime. Thee infirnite vis-
à-vis time and space seem to be themselves infirnite mysteries hence capable of producing the
Sublime. Kant showed that considering both space and time as either firnite or infirnite causes logical
errors, yet it seems to us that it must be one or the other. His response was to say that time and space
were not real but had a mere existence within the mind. Einstein, who had read Kant later in life,
added to the sublimity of the subject by combining time and space and stating that time could
accelerate or decelerate according to spatial speed. In fact, at light speed time slows down to a stop –
physics adding to our bank of sublime causes.
– Difficculty
When any work seems to have required immense labour and ingenuity, the idea has grandeur thus
sublimity. Burke gives as an example Stonehenge which would have still been near impossible to
construct in his age. Thee age of the structure must also contribute to its awe in terms of the vastness
of time that has elapsed since its inception.
– Suddenness
A sudden extreme light, such as lightning, can prove Sublime. Thee shock of this powerful light must
cause delight, so long as we are removed from its immediate danger. Being struck by lightning would
not be sublime but painful, possibly fatal, and also somehow ridiculous.

– Novelty
Theere can be a thin line between the Sublime and the Ridiculous. Thee image of a fantastical creature
could inspire sublimity, but it could also, if slightly offe, cause this sense of ludicrousness. Likewise a
beautiful landscape or seascape can appear Sublime, but also very corny. Sometimes this has simply
to do with the fact that the image is overused. A speech that is a known copy of another Sublime
speech will not cause awe but ridicule.
Thee Sublime can strike us in nature and in cities, and beyond. Perhaps it affeects some more than
others. It is distinct from the Beautiful, yet often conflyated with it. According to Burke the Sublime’s
ultimate cause is our survival and the passions of fear that help us maintain survival. Theere could be
further unknown factors, a possibility which Burke freely accepted. In this sense, the idea of the
Sublime is itself Sublime in its obscurity.
Thee Culture of Sensibility
-Thee rise of the Romantic sensibility is determined by the condition of the age:
-Industrial revolution (a sense of end of the agricultural society).
-Independence of American colonies and the French Revolution (revolution,

independence and freedom).
-Napoleonic Wars.
-Restoration of absolutist monarchies.
-Rise of literary reviews (authors with new feeling of consciousness of being assessed and criticised.
Strong sense of reputation).
On the Preface to Lyrical Ballads
He wrote this to explain his poetical works to literary critics formed in the principles of the 18th
century aesthetics. Preface justifired the new poetry not as experiments but as exemplifying the
principles of all good poetry. It deserves its reputation as a revolutionary manifesto about the nature
of poetry. It denies the traditional assumption that the poetic genres constitute a hierarchy, he also
rejects the traditional principle of "decorum" (he was against the stereotype), according to which the
subject matteer and the level of diction of a poem must conform to the status of the literary kind on
the poetic scale.
He chose to represent "incidents and situations from common life", he translated his democratic
sympathies into critical terms, justifying his use of peasants, children, outcasts, criminals and idiot
boys, he asked himself what can anybody could learn from this people or how can they educate the
society. He also undertook to write in "a selection of language between the language of prose and
metrical composition, doing this, he subverted the neoclassical principle that the language of a poem
must be elevated over standard speech by a special diction and by artful firgures of speech. His views
about the language of poetry are based on the premise "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflyow
of powerful feelings" It is a spontaneous overflyow because it is an idea that has to be told. Thee great
subjects of poetry, he claims, are "the essential passions of the heart" (strong feelings) and the great
and simple affeections" are expressed in a "naked and simple" (its use) language. Wordsworth says in
a memorable phrase, "a man speaking to men'", which is an idea of poetry. Someone tells something
to other person who is at the same level of knowledge.

Daffeodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud a Daffeodils reminds of the arrival of spring. It represents

nature. It is a lyric poem that expresses personal
Theat flyoats on high o'er vales and hills, b emotions or feelings in firrst person. Thee theme of this
When all at once I saw a crowd, a poem can be seen as a collection of human emotions
inspired by nature that we may have not noticed
A host, of golden daffeodils; b because of our busy lives. Thee poet starts with optimism
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, c and ends with pessimism.
Flutteering and dancing in the breeze. c
Thee poet metaphorically compares himself with a cloud
and doing this he shows his profound sentiment of
Continuous as the stars that shine d being alone. Also this is a personifircation as clouds
cannot be alone. Thee could could be seen as lonely but
And twinkle on the milky way, e also as free to gaze upon the daffeodils, and trees to firnd
Theey stretched in never-ending line d other pleasures previously hidden by distraction of
companionship.
Along the margin of a bay: e
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, f Thee presence of stars as compared with flyowers
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. f emphasizes the permanence of memory for the poet. In
the second stanza readers are capable of feeling the
same way as the speaker did. Thee way the speaker
Thee waves beside them danced; but they atteributes his own feelings to parts of nature, shows that
he feels one with his surroundings when he is in that
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: place.
A poet could not but be gay,
In line eighteenth it seems that the sense of peace and
In such a jocund company:
joy worth more to the speaker than money or other
I gazed—and gazed—but littele thought wordly wealth.
What wealth the show to me had brought:
In line nineteenth the speaker comes down from his
imagination and reveals his real state. Below he also
For oft, when on my couch I lie says that he will not ever forget the daffeodils.
In vacant or in pensive mood,
He had a heavenly experience. He remembers the
Theey flyash upon that inward eye daffeodils but he remembers as well how they made him
Which is the bliss of solitude; feel.
And then my heart with pleasure firlls, Thee poem rhymes ababcc dedeffe in iambic tetrameter.
And dances with the daffeodils.
Conversation Poems and Supernatural Poems
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born at Otteery St Mary in Devon in 1772, the youngest of 10 children.
A sickly child, he was given regular doses of laudanum, an opium-based painkiller which was freely
dispensed at this time for a variety of complaints, with littele understanding of its addictive nature. In
1791 Coleridge went to Cambridge, accruing debts and increasing his reliance on drugs (including
alcohol), and women. During his Cambridge years Coleridge met Robert Southey, who encouraged
him to take an interest in radical politics. Together they dreamed of a Utopian society they called
‘Pantisocracy’, an early socialist vision of a commune built on shared responsibilities, and they
believed that America would be an ideal country in which to set it up. Coleridge and Southey became

closer after they married two sisters, Sara and Edith Fricker. Naturally independent, Coleridge found
marriage difficcult, and he separated from his wife in 1804.
Southey was also responsible for introducing Coleridge to Wordsworth. Despite being
temperamentally incompatible, Wordsworth and Coleridge collaborated successfully on a collection
of poems published in 1798 under the title Lyrical Ballads. Together, the two poets walked for miles,
discussing and planning the poems. Wordsworth would write simple ballads of everyday life, using
the ‘language of men’, while Coleridge considered an epic on the theme of Cain’s guilt for the
murder of his brother Abel, which eventually evolved into his masterpiece Thee Rime of the Ancient
Mariner.
Thee Ancient Mariner is writteen in the metre of the old English ballads, and Coleridge utilises their
characteristic alliteration and repetition, adding the occasional archaic word to lend authenticity. Thee
poem is a metaphor for life, as the Mariner is driven through ice and drought at the mercy of the
spirit world after his mindless act of killing one of God’s creatures. He experiences deprivation and
undergoes suffeering both physical and mental before being granted redemption after his spontaneous
outburst of love for the unatteractive snakes of the sea. His penance is to repeat his tale for ever as a
moral lesson to mankind. In later life Coleridge came to identify himself with the Mariner’s plight—
the outsider, alone and prey to supernatural sensations.
Thee poem’s meaning has been hotly debated since it firrst appeared, some critics at the time firnding it
meaningless, others seeing it as a powerful religious poem. For the 21st-century reader, the poem’s
‘green’ message, that man has his place in nature and that wanton destruction of the natural world
will have its consequences, has perhaps the strongest resonance.
After 1804 Coleridge’s friendship with Wordsworth cooled. Theis led to his deeper reliance on opium,
producing bouts of paranoia and erratic mood swings that affeected his poetic output. In 1816
Coleridge became, in effeect, a resident patient with Dr Gillman in Highgate, becoming known as the
Sage of Highgate.
It was while he was in Gillman’s house-hold that he wrote Christabel, which, although inflyuenced by
Chatteerton and by the medieval ballads found in Bishop Percy’s Reliques, is not strictly a ballad
itself. Its chilling Gothic tone is an example of Coleridge’s mastery of creating atmosphere: the poem
exudes fear and horror and an anticipation of evil. Thee beautiful Geraldine seems to challenge the
heroine, Christabel, to choose between good, represented by the memory of her dead mother, and
evil. A dark sexual liaison between the two women is more than hinted at, and the imagery of the
serpent and the forest further increases the overall mood of anxiety and terror. It is a fragment, and
how Coleridge would have developed it is anyone’s guess. Its intensity of mood and Gothic fairy-tale
setteing is a forerunner of Keats’s excursion into the genre with La Belle Dame sans merci.
Thee poem Love, again inflyuenced by Percy’s collection, is a pastiche of the medieval poems of courtly
love. It was writteen shortly after Coleridge met Sarah Hutchinson, Wordsworth’s sister-in-law, in
1799. Despite his being married, Coleridge saw her as an ideal woman, at once unatteainable yet
desired. And in Love there is an air of eroticism—the narrator’s tale of a doomed love, with its
repetitive rhythms, is interrupted by the maiden Genevieve, who clasps him in a sensuous embrace,
vowing that she will not reject him as the maiden in his tale rejects her love. Another unfulfirlled
Coleridge dream.
Coleridge’s ‘conversation’ poems were perhaps his most original contribution to poetry. In these he
developed an intimate conversational tone—quiet, reflyective and confirding. Set in a solitary, often
domestic, environment, these poems are dramatic monologues, in a relaxed style. Thee poet is
indulging in a subjective conversation. In Theis Lime-tree Bower my Prison, for instance, Coleridge is
unable to accompany his friends the Wordsworth and Charles Lamb on a country walk, after his

wife Sara has accidentally spilt boiling milk on his foot. His disappointment created one of his most
congenial poems, in which he imagines and shares in the joy that his friend Lamb, ‘long in the great
city pent’, discovers in the natural wonders of the local landscape, while the poet, ‘imprisoned’ in his
lime-tree bower, in turn rediscovers a joy in the nature that surrounds him there, seeing it with fresh
eyes. Thee poet is confirned physically, but his imagination is free to rove and through this he
experiences a sense of freedom. It is a poem of catharsis.
Theis same overpowering inflyuence of natural forces is felt in another conversation poem: Frost at
Midnight. In the silence of a dark night, the poet muses on education and how that of his child
(sleeping in his cradle) will diffeer from his own. With joy he imagines how his son shall have a more
fulfirlled education through his association with nature, seeing and hearing God in all things. Thee
silence of the night leads to further musings on how, once the day’s occupations are over, the life-
force continues to exert its inflyuence almost imperceptibly, just as the frost ‘performs its secret
ministry’. Both these conversation poems are poems of friendship and—although they were not
writteen for the Lyrical Ballads of 1798—they reflyect the spirit of that collection.
As Coleridge’s poetic output dwindled, his skills as a lecturer and conversationalist increased. Thee
public, however, would always remember him as the author of Kubla Khan. Coleridge claimed that
he only published this poem at the request of Lord Byron who thought it ‘a psychological curiosity’.
Thee poem’s history is well-known. Coleridge explained that he wrote it in 1797 while suffeering from
dysentery for which he was taking opium. Falling asleep from its effeects, having just read about the
great palace of Kubla Khan, he dreamt for three hours of the mighty Khan and envisaged the whole
poem in about two to three hundred lines. On waking he hurried to get those lines on paper, but,
being interrupted by ‘a person on business from Porlock’ who kept him talking for an hour, he found
on his return to the poem that ‘with the exception of some eight or ten scatteered lines and images, all
the rest had passed away.’ As a ‘fragment’ of the product of his fertile imagination, stimulated by
opium, Kubla Khan is full of vivid exotic imagery and sensation in a series of impressions, rather
than being a coherent narrative. It is a sketch for a poem, a work in progress, possibly the beginning
of an Ode, that might be in praise of human invention and the richness of the imagination—Alph, the
sacred river, representing the life-force, and the ‘caverns measureless to man’ being the uncharted
and unfathomable human mind. Many books have been writteen on the meaning of this poem but in
the end its power lies in its strange, surreal and bewitching atmosphere. Charles Lamb, perceptive as
ever, described it ‘as an owl that won’t bear daylight’. It is a dream and maybe that is all we should
consider it to be.
Coleridge’s unique genius was captured by Lamb, in his description of him as ‘an Archangel, a littele
damaged’.
Coleridge’s theory of imagination
Coleridge’s theory of imagination idealizes turning something into an idea (with your discovery of
the knowledge). According to him, imagination has two forms; primary and secondary. Primary
imagination is the power of receiving impressions of the external world through the senses, the
power of perceiving the objects of sense, both in their parts as a whole. It is a spontaneous act of the
mind. It is universal possessed by all. Thee secondary imagination may be possessed by others also,
but is the peculiar and typical trait of the artist; it is what makes artistic creation possible. It is more
active and conscious; it requires an effeort of the will, volition and conscious effeort. It is the power
which harmonizes and reconciles opposites. Thee primary and secondary imaginations diffeerence in
degree. Thee secondary imagination is more active, more a result of volition, more conscious and
voluntary than the primary one. Thee primary one is universal while the secondary is a peculiar
privilege enjoyed by the artist.

Imagination and fancy, however, diffeers in kind. Fancy is not a creative power at all. It only combines
what is perceived into beautiful shapes, but like the imagination it does not fuse and unify. Fancy is
the drapery of poetic genius but imagination is very soul which forms all into one grateful and
intelligent whole.
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a Kubla Khan has ordered the construction of a
A stately pleasure-dome decree: b majestic pleasure palace, near the river Alph, that
nuns through caverns limitless for men and in a
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran a
dark sea where the sun does not penetrate.
Therough caverns measureless to man a
Down to a sunless sea. b To build this palace, ten miles at ground are
enclosed with walls and towers all around. In this
So twice firve miles of fertile ground c palace there were gardens and streams and in these
With walls and towers were girdled round; c gardens, there are blossoming trees.
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, d
Theere are also ancient forest that surrounded grassy
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; e spots that the sun would warm. With this, we are
And here were forests ancient as the hills, d taken to a beautiful place.
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. e
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Theere is described a savage place that was so holy
and enchanted that it looked as if it had been
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! haunted under the warning moon by the spell of
A savage place! as holy and enchanted a witch that laments her demon lover.
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
As if the earth was breathing, there was a
By woman wailing for her demon-lover! fountain that flyoured so violently that it will not
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, throw up huge fragments of rocks that fell to the
ground in all directions like hail stones from the
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, sky or like mashed grain obtained when crushed
A mighty fountain momently was forced: with a flyail.
Amid whose swift half-intermitteed burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffey grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever From this abyss it sprang up the sacred river, Alph, that
It flyung up momently the sacred river. flyoured in a labyrinthine way through the forest and
valleys and then it would reach the limitless caverns and
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion ended in the noise of a lifeless ocean in which Kubla
Therough wood and dale the sacred river ran, Khan heard the war prophecies of the ancestors.
Theen reached the caverns measureless to man,
Thee shadow of Kubla Khan’s building would reach the
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean; waves, and there, the noise can be still heard. Theis place
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far had a strange construction: it had a sunny place
combined with caves of ice (which never melted).
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

Thee shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer

Thee poet had a vision of an Abyssinian maid that would play
In a vision once I saw: the dulcimer and at the same time would sing about Mount
It was an Abyssinian maid Abora. He enjoyed so much her song that if he could
remember it, he would be able to build the palace in the air
And on her dulcimer she played, and the paradoxical nature of it. (In the air means vocally
Singing of Mount Abora. and literally in air).
Could I revive within me Thee illusion would be so real that anyone could be able to
Her symphony and song, understand him, and they would confirne him within a circle
To such a deep delight ’twould win me, three times and would close their eyes with fear so they
would not be enchanted or inflyuenced by his magic.
Theat with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
Theat sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flyashing eyes, his flyoating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Thee poem describes two visions of the poet. In the firrst one it appears a beautiful place in which
Kubla Khan would build a majestic pleasure palace, and the second vision is about an Abyssinian
maid that would play the dulcimer while singing: the speaker is so delighted with the second vision
that it could recreate the palace of the firrst one if he could remember the song of the maid.
*Rhyme and rhythm are very irregular.
Romantic poetry
Romanticism is a movement that has lots of where we see the individual and the imagination. It is
logical that the artist would explain the sort of art that they do. Every poet explains why they do it
(poetic manifesto).
It designates a new conception of art and the artist opposed to the Neoclassical (Augustan)
principles.

"... Romanticism is the result of an astonishing change of sensibility". under the inflyuence of which
we are still living: our ideas about the nature of the individual, the society in which he lives, the
natural world which surrounds him, and the role of art in society" - From J.R Watson, English Poetry
of the Romantic Period.
Thee rise of the Romantic sensibility is determined by the conditions of the age:
Industrial Revolution (a sense of end of the agricultural society) Independence of the American
colonies and the French Revolution (a sense of revolution, independence and freedom). Signifircant
for the Romantic mentality. British citizens rebelled and decided to form a new society. In the French
Revolution they rebelled against the monarchy and the Church. Theey defended the freedom and
human rights. Poets sympathized with the agenda of the romantic revolution (not when they started
to kill people).
Napoleonic Wars and restoration of absolutist monarchies: Napoleon fought against the absolutism
although he became an emperor, he also fought for human rights and freedom.
Poets did not approve napoleon invading Spain, and some other wars.
Napoleonic Wars Restoration came and it was the end of the Cromwell period.
Rise of literary reviews: Reviews to discuss the new literary published so poets know if somebody's
works would criticize them and know if they could continue with their careers or not. It creates kind
of anxiety for poets, because the reputation was important. Periodical publications of information
(newspapers) distributed to spread new ideas in society, for example in pubs so they could talk about
it.
Rise of philosophies against Rationalism
German idealism: Explored the relationship between the mind and the external world. Art began to
be seen as expressive (or feelings, emotions, suffeering, inner conflyicts, etc.) Poets transform their
feelings into poetry with universal signifircance.
Rousseau: emphasis on freedom (defended the French Revolution), natural goodness of man (noble
savage). Ridiculed scientifirc progress: for him science was dealing with nature in the wrong way
(categorizing species, for instance), it was not a path to improve humanity.
Condemned tyranny (absolutist monarchy) and corrupted institutions (they did not want established
churches but that did not mean that they were not interested in the spiritual world). Man was born
educated in the natural environment with no sign of corruption but goodness but society made them
become wicked.
William Godwin (a material philosopher): atteacked social inequality (industrial revolution and its
effeects – people living in slums and labour exploitation, including children) and defended freedom in
a very broad way that nowadays could be scandalous.
General notions
Subjective rather than objective: Thee poet produces something in which he is in a particular situation
and then starts to talk about someone else (sometimes this characters reflyect something about the
author, like Byron)

Fragmentary rather than complete: Thee moment of inspiration was important when they
contemplated something because they appreciated it and maybe some poems would be unfirnished.
Thee idea of fragmentation was also linked with the poets revising their works/compositions.
Organic rather than preconceived in form: Debatable. It illustrates that poets are not interested
anymore with the heroic couplet. Thee idea would be the form of a poem and they would not use the
form of the stanzas that already existed. Thee 1" generation tried to embody the idea of giving the
form to the poem; they experimented with the form. But Wordsworth used the blank verse and
Byron the terse, which are preconceived ideas.
Theey were interested in nature, the self, the wonderful, and the supernatural as well as the confusion,
flyuidity and indeterminacy (world of dreams).
Thee Romantic Poet. English Romantic authors were diffeerent (they did not want to die).
- Thee poet does not escape from the world, but casts a sharp eye on the world around him
Theey did not firt in the melancholic mind; they are in the world trying to do something for the people
around them. Theey were committeed with the problems of society.
- Thee poet has a sense of enjoyment (of life, world and his apprehension and understanding of them).
Shelley, Byron… they enjoyed life even when they were sick or depressed, it is not possible to sense
that in their poetry.
- Extraordinary sense of life and energy, of freshness and excitement: they tried to answer questions
about their individuality, their existence and role in society, about art and politics, about the future…
and struggled to formulate the answers using their own way and own poetic technique.
- Interest in NATURE – the creation and reality (the same concept of nature that we have today).
But also in dreams, fairy tales, legends, Gothic enchantments, and magic, etc.
- Interest in the SELF, that individuality "which imprisons and gives freedom". Thee consciousness and
also the unconsciousness: Dreams were a source of inspiration which meant freedom.
-A new understanding of the poet and his function: they could bring new ideas to the society; they
thought they had a big role in the society because of their mentality so humanity could progress.
Thee Romantic Poet and Nature.
Except Blake, all the Romantics celebrated nature. Blake talked about nature as symbols. Nature was
opposed to cities. Theere is a "genuine pleasure at seeing, hearing, and feeling the freshness of the
natural world" (Wordsworth felt his soul connected with the universe at seeing nature). Thee
landscape is seen for its ability mind" (Wordsworth) Nature is associated with moral and physical
health (Wordsworth). Nature is a site of the numinous, and a source of the SUBLIME.
Thee poet as visionary 3 diffeerent. possibilities
1. Thee poet had visions. Blake had when he was a child angels…)
2. Dreams – real "visions". Theey create something that is not real but has memories of it
3. Idealism of Plato (world of ideas)

Thee imagination enjoys a creative freedom (for revelation, political change, spiritual truth, and for
purely excitement. Thee capacity of creating ideas, something new and bringing it to the world, to
disclose something new to amplify our understanding or just for pleasure. Thee imagination is God-
like (it parallels that of god in creation), and unique to every individual. Thee imagination had power
to create new worlds.
It is escapism, but also domination of the external world. Romantic poets are never detached from
the society. Originality: Because of their use of creating new options and their use of imagination
they were original. Thee Romantic Poet and the Poetic Self. Recognition of power within the
individual. Poetry is more preoccupied with the expression. We want to know what the poet wants
to tell us. Maybe what the poet wants to tell us is more important than the form. Poets were
visionary.
Blake searched for his spirituality, the sense of God is undefirned. Intense use of metaphors and much
more of symbols (Biblical, prophetic language). Shelley was amazed by the Greek mythology.
Symbols are chamaleonic.
Thee moment of inspiration was important, holy, or sacred for them: "is mysterious, natural,
instinctive, and holy, the working of the human spirit inspired by something greater than itself". Thee
Romantics does not think of the Muse but the understanding of another level of the perception of the
reality.
Other aspects.
Thee poet as prophet (like Ezekiel): keeping alive a sense of national identity and encouraging a spirit
of resistance. Higher awareness of history. Illuminating the path towards a betteer future. Poets have
another perception of reality; they can see new ideas and tell them to those who don't understand
them. Shelley was an atheist looking for an answer regarding transcend. In the 2nd generation,
Byron insisted in a catholic education but was not so much a believer. Wordsworth believed in a
transcendental being, and Coleridge believed in one God.
Dreams: private and unexpected workings of the individual mind. To make new worlds,
combinations and things previously unthought-of both beautiful and fearful. Mysterious, freer, and
operation in symbols. Dreams are often seen as symbolic.
Thee Romantics would have mixed feelings towards God.
Ozymandias
Thee speaker has met someone from an ancient place.
I met a traveller from an antique land, a Thee traveller tells the speaker about two pairs of legs
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone b with no body. Thee face lies near the legs but it is
shatteered as the whole statue is.
Stand in the desert… Near them, on the sand, a
Half sunk a shatteered visage lies, whose frown, b Thee statue is shatteered but it is still possible to see the
expression of its face. Horrifired about something
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, a
because he is frowning and sneezing. How the
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read c speaker talks about the sculptor, that has understood
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, d the command of doing the statue.
Thee hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; d Thee passions of the ruler person who commanded the
And on the pedestal, these words appear: e statue are visible in its face that now is shatteered. Thee
sculptor copied in the statue the man’s passions that
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; d have gone from the sculptor’s hand and the boss
heart and viceversa.

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! e In the statue appears an inscription that says who it
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay f is: it is Ozymandias, he calls himself the Kings of
Kings. Theere is nothing equal of his works (other
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare e statues or temples). He tells not to have hope
Thee lone and level sands stretch far away.” f because eventually your statues or works will be
destroyed by time.
Thee poem was writteen after Napoleon was
Nothing last forever; but the shatteered head, the
defeated and it is applied to his time as well.
pedestal and the legs of this colossal wreck. It has to
It is a sonnet that rhymes ababacdcedefef be a huge statue because of Ozymandias’ ambition
with iambic pentameter. It does not firt a → he calls himself King of Kings.
conventional Petrarchan patteern.
He describes a desert that goes on forever the
Thee poem is a metaphor for the ephemeral sounds now are lone → maybe something was near
nature of political power and of the pride of the in the past, but now its gone.
all humanity.
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Today we are reading Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn". Keats is the 'poet of beauty' as much as
Wordsworth is 'the poet of nature'. Keats's poetry was not as popular as Byron's in 1810-1822, but his
poetry will strongly inflyuence Tennyson, the great Victorian poet.
It tells us the type of composition ODE (not musical, but poetical composition). Thee object to be
praised, celebrated, is an urn and this urn is Greek, which implies classical culture and ART. 5
stanzas, 10 lines each, the rhyme is the same for the initial lines, but the scheme of last six lines
varies from stanza to stanza, thus creating a kind of irregularity, a kind of poetical experimentation,
irregularity. Thee rhythm is not always iambic. Many lines are, like the very last one, but we firnd a
great variety of feet. Stanzas 1 and 5: ABABCDEDCE Stanza 2: ABABCDECED Stanzas 3 and 4:
ABABCDECDE. Theis type of experimentation with the rhyme and rhythm (like the one of
Ozymandias) will continue in English poetry throughout until the present. Thee English poetry is
NOT as experimental as the American poetry. Thee experimentation is not so conspicuous, but we
shall see some more experimental poets during the Victorian period.
In the firrst part of the firrst stanza, Keats talks directly to the urn and says (using personifircation) it is
(1) the bride of quietness, (2) the foster child of silence and slow time and (3) a historian who lives in
the forest. Moreover, he introduces the history of the urn, which it can tell betteer than his poetry can.
It has an anaphoric structure. We know that the poet is REPEATING the structure of his statement.
First of all, he repeats the addressee, which is the urn. Notice that the poet is NOT speaking to the
urn. He does not expect to be heard or replied. It suggests a kind of closeness, mental concentration
on the object. It is as if the poet were in a museum, observing a piece of art. His atteention as been
caught by its beauty, and yes, he admires it and speaks in the meantime. We cannot see the object,
but we can picture it in our minds by his words, from the real visual object to the readers' mental
image of the object mediated by the poet's words.
We go back to the firrst four lines. Notice that the 3 statement runs through lines 3 and 4 linked by
the enjambment. So, altogether, we have 3 statements addressed to the urn, describing WHAT THE
URN IS in this poem, ITS ROLE. Thee firrst one is "still unvarnished bride of quietness". Thee firrst
information we receive is Bride, and this bride is pure. I think the firrst line introduces the topic of the
poem, it is going to be about an object which is pure and will be static, unmoved, like pieces of art in
a museum. Lets now focus on the second line. Thee poet mentions the "parents" the foster-parents of
the urn silence and slow time.

Remember that in Ozymandias, time had passed. In the case of the pharaoh, time had destroyed his
works, In the case of the sculptor, time had partially destroyed his work, but something still survived.
Theis is the same in Keats. As pieces of Greek and Egyptian art were brought to the British Museum,
Shelley and Keats when they firrst met were talking about the survival of their art, the works of their
imagination. Theat was specially at the arrival of the so-called Elgin marbles. Keats wrote the Grecian
urn as a piece of art that will be damaged, spoilt, by the passing of time.
We move on to the third line. And we firnd a paradox: he says it is the daughter of silence, but then
he says it is a historian. Thee urn "tells" a story thanks to the paints that decorate it. Silence because it
does not speak, no speech or words, but historian because it tells a history, a short narration through
images. Thee text then is not verbal but visual. Theis element is Romantic. Thee preference for the
primitive and rustic instead of the modern, urban, civilised as in the Augustan poetry. He says that
urn can express this tale more SWEETLY than his rhyme (which is impossible, since Keats's poetry
is the sweetest poetry of English literature ever).
After the (:) we firnd a series of questions. Please notice that these are not rhetorical questions, they
express the poet's doubts: he does not know what those images can be about. Look at the nouns.
Line 5 describes the fringe, the vegetal decoration below and beneath the images in between we have
the legendary, ancient tale in images. He mentions deities, mortals, then men, gods… the poet cannot
discern whether the human shapes are of gods or men… Theere is no sign to know WHERE the story
is taking place, in Tempe in Arcady, it could also be in Theessaly or Lydia. He then focuses on the
firgures: Men or Gods. We do not know: Thee POET does not know. He is our source of knowledge.
Young men chased maidens to get wives. But the pot did not understand this and that is the reason
why he was asking what this or that can be…. in the meantime he is describing the images that he
sees on one of the scene of the urn.
In the second one we see a pleasant scene, in the firrst line. the melodies not heard (imagined) are
sweeter. Possibly if he heard the actual music, it would be rather unpleasant. And the extraordinary,
famous, second part of the stanza as he sees the lover about to kiss the maiden he will never kiss her,
because the image is static. But he will always be full of desire and she always young… the image
will not change, and will always remain in that very position. Thee 3rd stanza is the middle one. It
seems an extension of the second. Happy in repeated 6 times. 3 times in one of the central lines. Thee
poet rejoices at that happiness, music and passion of love. 4th stanza. Theere is a change. a kind of
catastrophe. Theere is going to be a sacrifirce. Everybody has gathered to the service. Streets are
empty. We do not know to which god the priest is sacrifircing. So we do not know the nature of the
disaster. Thee poet can see water, but he cannot discern if it is a river or the sea.
We move to the last stanza. Notice that the poet is not describing any scene now, but offeering a firnal
view of the whole artistic object with men and maidens, branches of forests, etc. 5 th stanza, we have
two parts. In the firrst (up to cold pastoral) the poet offeers a view of the whole object again as a
conclusion to the description. After cold pastoral, we firnd the PERSONAL CONCLUSION of the
poet. What he gathered intellectually from the contemplation of the urn. He says that this generation
of people will die, and there will another generation humanity will be developing generation after
generation, new people, dead people, new people and so on in the COURSE OF TIME for 400 years
in diffeerent building… can you imagine how many people have seen it… most of them dead. Each
generation will have its own conflyict, woe,... struggles, etc. Thee urn remains. And the poet tells the
urn is a friend the urn is a friend to man, because "TO WHOM THOU SAY'ST".
We should pay atteention to and LEARN from the beautiful objects or appearances only… and avoid
going deeper or further. Thee urn offeers the right example enjoy the surfaces, the art, the beautiful
part, the external part do not go deeper, to the inside… that is for the ashes, for the dead, for the ugly,
just to be avoided. And the poem is also an example of Keats's idea of negative capability. He
approached an art object. Theere was no paper tag explaining the author, period, scenes, etc. Thee poet

was, like us, asking questions about what he saw… questions, doubts, mysteries…. about the scenes,
people, place, catastrophe.
He was not looking for answers, for truths, for evidences… and he was ABLE, CAPABLE to showing
that piece of art to us, but he did NOT (negative) give us additional information, he remained in
doubts, mysteries, etc. He enjoyed the beauty of the object, he learned from the object (friend to
man, to whom thou sayst beauty is…), and possibly moved on the next object in the museum. Thee
poetry of Keats will inflyuence Tennyson, the great Victorian poet.
Negative capability
Keats uses the word “negative” not in a pejorative sense, but to convey the idea that a person’s
potential can be defirned by what he or she does not possess – in this case a need to be clever, a
determination to work everything out. Essential to literary achievement, Keats argues, is a certain
passivity, a willingness to let what is mysterious or doubtful remain just that.
Thee Byronic hero
→ Vigour and masculinity: demands war fro freedom, liberalism and story individualism.
→ In his poetry there is essentially one subject: HIMSELF (his characters are his masks).
→ Remorseful characters (incest, suicide of lover). Both Byron and Gothic firction are tainted by
incest.
→ Permanent internal conflyict. Full of contradictions that made him very complicated: cruelty and
benevolence, sincerity and pasturing, seriousness and flyippantly, rationalism and Romantic illusion,
conformity and revolt, courage and self-pity, faith and cynicism.
Thee Darkling Therush
Thee poems by Hardy and Kipling are already 20th century poetry. Theey are somehow transitional
poets. Hardy was a 19th novelist and a full 20th century poet and a very inflyuential one. He was a
very visual writer. Visual poems as lady, Dover beach His capacity to observe and understand the
world around was outstanding. As a child he used to play the firddle with his family at folks'' parties
to which they were hired. Theat has to do with music. As a profession he was an architect
assistant,...which implies a special way of regarding space. Later on, he became interested in
painting. He visited the impressionist exhibition and took notes about the paintings. both his firction
and his poetry show his accurate capacity to observe the world, space and colours, and to express it
in great musicality. He experimented a lot with meters and feet, rhythmical patteerns, etc. In fact
there are many books devoted to the effeects of his meters. He is famous for his scepticism. Thee
Darkling Therush is a good example of all this. Besides, it is a poem about the end of the 19th century
in terms of time and calendar. We focus on the title… Suggestions about the title? Thee Darkling
Therush? Dark bird. Thee content is like a tale full of descriptions. Lets concentrate on the content of
the 1st stanza. In any case, a tale is a narrative. What we get in the firrst stanza is not a narrative but
a description. Maybe this will help you correct the idea of a tale. Thee poem starts by the introduction
of the poetic persona. Thee I and then continues with the description, it is his perception (there is
some romantic note in that atteitude).Thee landscape is described by means of 3 sketches. Which are
they? Thee firrst is the snow the frost and winter. You see this is the image the poet has in front of his
eyes as he leant at the gate leading to the coppice. He also adds another view… when his eyes looks
upwards he sees the tangled-bine sterms. One is the view in front, the second is a view upwards, and
the third? His surroundings. Thee poet tells he cannot see anybody because they are indoors by the
firreplace. Hardy has given us the full, objective, visual landscape as anybody would see it. like a
photograph. but each object has been modifired by an adjective, but the addition of a noun (winter's
dregs), by a metaphor (eye) by a pun (scored) by a simile (like the strings) and this is a meaningful

effeect of desolation and waste that he transmits with words and it is difficcult to transmit with pure
images. Theis is the art of Hardy: his capacity to describe nature in such a way that the realistic
description is always shaped to order to create the right atmosphere, sometimes even giving it an
extraordinary life. It is no surprise that the landscape of a novel such as Thee Return of the Native is
almost another character in the story.
What is new about the second stanza? Thee poet compares the landscape he sees with the 19th
century. It is the poet's personal perception, TO HIM this landscape LOOKED LIKE a corpse. and he
goes on to create a funeral scene by comparing other natural elements (wind, etc) with participants
or actants in a funeral. However, if you read only the firrst stanza of that ode you will understand the
end… when Shelley concluded the stanza with (sorry, I am telling by heart) "destroyer and preserver"
as the wind spread the seeds which are like cofficns out of which a new beginning would take place in
due course (read, spring). However, he cannot see any sign of that rebirth, of hope…. he is not
enthusiastic, he is—he says—fervourless, as every one around him is. It is very important because the
way in which the landscape has been described in the previous stanza can now be applied to the end
of the 19th century and the prospects for the forthcoming century. Thee third stanza. In the third
stanza the poetic persona hears a bird singing, referring to it as old and frail but also joyous while
singing. It is an acoustic image: the firrst half ... the second half is about… the description of the bird.
4th stanza: I think ecstatic has to do with the intensity of the song, not because the poet or the bird
became a kind of mystic beings. In fact Hardy was agnostic or at least very critical with the Anglican
church for personal, intimate reasons. Carols, carol-singing are Christmas songs..songs of the season
of Christmas… that is more popular and folkloric than religious. the poet witnesses the desolate
landscape, a voice (from nature, or maybe—poetically—a supernatural message) brings in full joy, the
poet is sensitive to that perception and read it accurately, but his minds refuses—or at least—doubts.
about the authenticity of the nature's (bird's, supernatural message's) certainty. It is a wonderful
example of Hardy's scepticism.
My Boy Jack
Thee next poem is "My Boy Jack". First, it is already a 1 War World poem, and therefore a full 20th
century poem. Second, it is a kind of ballad. there are littele and words which are repeated several
times throughout (you will see how each time… wind blowing and tide have diffeerent connotations
sometimes they mean their literal meanings, but some other times they mean historical times, war,
ever, etc. We cannot see this but it is interesting that you realise that tide can have other poetical
meanings. it has the form of a ballad, but it is a dramatic poem since we hear a dialogue of two
people talking. We have seen more poems of this kind. We saw in the theory for Coleridge the
conversation poems and "My Last Duchess" the poem by Robert Browning who wanted to write
dramatic pieces, but became a poet… always writing monologues (soliloquies) and dialogues. First
stanza → the poet refers a scene in which a person comes to ask. in which a male speaker comes to
ask for HIS son. we suppose the other person is an officcer which says that he has no news. We see it
is a very realistic scene all the words make sense, they are used to mean their literal meaning.
Second stanza → the meaning moves forward in the lines which are not repeated while the repeated
lines function like a refrain (estribillo). the mother wants to know if he knows something about Jack.
still a common question… but the officcer's reply is that He must be dead because the boat he was on
sank. Theird stanza → the mother asks which conform can get now that she knows her son is dead.
Thee officcer's answer is that Jack died with honour and not as a coward. Fourth stanza → She now
must be proud and walk with the head up.
Dulce et Decorum Est
It belongs to the book Thee War Poems. It is a satire against war and against the fact of transmitteing
from generation to generation the old lie: dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, that is, "it is sweet
and honourable to die for the fatherland". Owen (1893-1918) echoes the great damage that this kind

of propaganda does. He received a solid academic education and entered the University of London.
He was working as a tutor in France when World War I broke out. He joined the army in 1915. After
two horrifirc experiences, he was diagnosed with combat neurosis or combat fatigue which was what
PTSD was then called, he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital and changed his way of
understanding and writing about war.
Thee poem sums up the horrors of being a soldier in World War I. Owen was in that war and
experienced what he talks about in the poem. He writes the poem at a time when military
propaganda to get young men to enlist to firght is still going out. He questions the statement “Dulce
et Decorum Est pro patria mori” at a time when it is not very popular to have it questioned. People
in power wanted to have young British men to feel and think that dying for their country was
honourable. Thee poem is an anti-recruitment poem and when it opens, Owen and the other soldiers
have done their last stunt on the front lines, and they are running away from them to get to their
distant rest zone.
In the firrst lines, Owen shows that the prototype of English soldier as young, clean and upright are
not there, instead, he compares them with beggars. He as well shows that it is not the glorious
English land but a sludge. Theey are decreasing, exhausted, away from the front lines, they have gone
far enough away so they cannot be killed by the gas bombs that fall behind them any more.
But although they were out at range at the artillery, they are not out at a range of the gas bombs, and
one of them falls near the soldiers. Theey managed to put on the gas masks in time but someone does
not make it. Theat soldier staggers towards Owen and calls him out as if he was on firre; he saw him
drowning through the misty green panes of the gas mask, he is unable to help the soldier. He does
not forget this experience. He has nightmares at this soldier staggering him, drowning.
Thee soldiers had picked up the soldier that had breathed the gas, he is not dead yet and they have put
him in the back of a wagon of which Owen is pacing behind. Theey knew he was going to die so they
had “flyung” him there. It seems as if those dreams have smothered the life out him, and he is saying
to the person that he addresses this part that if she/he could go through what he went through, that
agony, watching his hanging faith or his blood gurgling from his lungs as the wagon jointed, she/he
would not be keen to tell young men, kids, who want to be heroes, that it is sure and firtteing to die for
your country because he had seen those young men dying to it, and was nothing glorious about it.
All that Owen asks at the end is to be him, the person who has watched one of his friends die for his
country. It can be said that before the poem was writteen, they would not know what the reality of
war is.
Futility
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker asks for the dead soldier to be moved into the sun in the
hope that it will wake him as it would from sleep. However, faced by the firnality of death, the
speaker breaks down into anger, feeling hopeless about life itself.
Thee firrst stanza of the poem is gentle and tender. Thee sun is characterised as being wise and caring
and the soldier is to be moved into its warmth and light. Thee speaker also remembers the safety of
‘home’ and the intimacy of the ‘whispering’ firelds.
Thee sun is reliable and powerful, waking the soldier ‘even in France’, a foreign country far from the
safety of his home. Yet this reliability makes the sun’s inability to wake him now even more striking
and frustrating. If the sun could always wake him before, why can’t it do so now?

Intriguingly, there is littele hint of war and death. In fact, the firrst real indication comes late in such a
short poem with the line ‘if anything might rouse him now’. After all, the speaker is in denial, still
hoping the soldier will awake in the sun.
Thee mention of France is also the only subtle suggestion of war. Many British soldiers were sent to
firght in France in World War 1. Theis connotation of France as a batteleground rather than a holiday
destination will only really be picked up if the reader is familiar with the context of the poem and
know that Wilfred Owen is specifircally a poet of WW1, himself a British soldier.
However, the tone of the poem changes dramatically in the second stanza, ending with three
frustrated questions that resist resolution. Thee gentle confirdence and predictability of the firrst stanza
is gone.
Thee speaker is in disbelief that although the sun ‘wakes the seeds’ from the ground, it can’t awake a
body that is ‘still warm’. He bitteerly calls the sun ‘fatuous’, or foolish, and rages at the futility of the
sun even bothering ‘to break earth’s sleep’, or rising, ‘at all’.
Thee needless death of the soldier has made the speaker feel so hopeless that he has become
disillusioned with all of life. Overwhelmed with feelings of futility, the speaker asks – what’s the
point of anything if young men can so suddenly and easily lose their lives in war?
It is a short poem. Two stanzas, the metrical patteern is trimeters in the opening and ending lines and
tetrameters in the other lines. Thee poet seems to give orders… move him into the sun… apparently,
the poem is about whether he is dead or not. In the firrst 5 lines, the poet expect that the sun (which
you can associate with life giver or whoever you think gave you life) will revive the soldier. It is of
the two nouns about nature (clearly a symbol, therefore), the other one being firelds (literally firelds to
sow, but also firelds in connection with fertility… the combination of sun and earth, from an English
point of view, which does not need rain!!!). Thee last two lines are about the bitteer realization that the
body will not be revived. Now the group of lines are inverted: the firrst 2 lines are still about hopes of
the benefircial life-giver (or whoever/whatever you think gives life)... the 5 last lines are 3 questions
which are not rhetorical questions. In rhetorical questions, no reply is expected, because they are
only used to express what everybody agrees on… in this case they are philosophical question…
questions which we are still asking and never get an answer. we arrived late to the shooting… but
that is not the climax the poet wants us to see…the actually shot…. but his meditation about the
sense of life, what are we doing on this planet, is war or violence the result of the effeort of nature, or
God, or evolution or cosmic waves/radiation… to end like that? It is also about how especially every
one of you are… as part of nature creation and dwellers of this planet. His philosophical questions
are the eternal questions of humanity…. what are we doing here? What it for THIS that I was born?
In this case this experience of war.
Owen invented this type of rhyme, called half-rhyme some sounds are the same, some not. Theis is
also an atteempt to capture the "aesthetic" of the war by breaking the ornamentation of the traditional
rhyme.
Leda and the Swan
ABAB CDCD EFEGEFE
Thee huge wings of the swan beat the girl, that is staggering. Thee swan caress her tights with its dark
webs. He (the swan) grabs her by the neck with its bill. He holds her, she is helpless, he holds her
breast upon his. 1#RHETORICAL QUESTION How could she have prevented it? She could not (he is
Zeus) because she was terrifired and because of that her firngers were “vague”. 2#RHETORICAL
QUESTION How Leda could help feeling the swan’s heart beating against her chest? Thee swan has
completed the sexual act. Leda becomes pregnant → with Helen of Troy over whom the Trojan war

would be fought “Broken wall”, burning roof and tower” → Trojan war. Leda causes indirectly the
Trojan war. She was still grabbed by the back of her neck when “Zeus” or the bird used his brutality
towards her. Maybe it all happened in the air, while flyying. 3#RHETORICAL QUESTION Did Leda
know about his knowledge? About who he was before he drops her?
Thee poem is about the story from the Greek myth in which Zeus, having adopted the form of a swan,
rapes Leda and impregnates her with Helen of Troy, who brings the Trojan war. Petrarchan sonnet.
Thee Second Coming
It makes reference to the second coming of Christ… In some myths and stories, the hero who dies
will come a second time in full power. What is special about the second coming of Christ (do not
forget that for most of the 20th century, Europe was still a Christian culture area), is that it will
happen at the end of times… the end of the world. Theerefore, the second coming is a synonym of "the
end of the world" which Yeats describes in apocalyptic imagery (images from the book of Revelations
in English, Apocalipsis in Spanish. Apocalyptic writing can be a particular type of literary genre).
Lets see now what the poet tells in the firrst part… the FIRST TWO LINES. Thee falcon flyying in
circles (turning) at each turn moving wider (farther) until the point of not listening the falconer any
more. Both the falcon and the falconer create an image, a trope, a sort of metaphor… we know this
because the next word is "things" a very general, imprecise word. Thee poet is presenting a whole
transformation, a whole change, the end of the world which cannot be restricted to something in
particular, otherwise you restrict the meaning of the poem….. that is why "Thee Second Coming" has
been so much quoted, because it can be applied to great transformative events of the world, at any
time, any place, any culture. Theere are circles… months… etc…as the falcon… but in one of these
"gyres" the falcon moves so far distant that a great transformation is generated. We see the blood-
dimmed tide which is loosed. Thee poet says with the colour of blood… but if you only read "blood", it
is your reading… not what the poets says.
Thee firrst part is what the poet observes… the world around him… described in those terms… in very
general words..so please, do not restrict the poet's vision the second part, then, tells his reaction….
his explanation is that what he sees is a REVELATION so… the poet tries to answer "what does it
reveal? his answer is… yes… the second coming… the beginning of the end of the world and he says
that as soon as that idea comes to his mind…. then another image appears OUT OF spiritus mundi.
In the last two lines… the poet sees the creature… visibly pregnant (its hour come round at last)...
moving towards Bethlehem (Belén, where Jesus was born) and a young a baby beast is going to be
born…. as if starting a new GYRE.
Musée des Beaux Arts
Musée is about human suffeering… yes. but it is especially about the reaction of the other to the
particular suffeering of an individual, his/her personal tragedy or drama while everybody else goes on
doing their activities. Auden seemed to have that "revelation" when he was observing paintings at
the Musée in Brussels. So the firrst part of the poet is about that: the introduction of the topic… "about
suffeering" the firrst two words and he goes on telling that the old masters (of painting) los viejos
maestros… were right, correct… they knew well how to represent human suffeering… and gives some
examples. In the second stanza he concentrates on one particular painting and describes it, but he is
selective… he does not describe all the painting only the elements he needs for his message. We can
learn a lot about the way in which we can select one or two items to make, demonstrate, our point,
to be more effeective. He even adds something which is not in the painting but in his imagination…
the cry… could be heard. Neither the shepherd or the firsherman, even though the "splash" takes place
in front of him.

You see that Auden is tackling a very important aspect of human suffeering… When I am near the
hospital, I often think of this poem… Hospital are buildings of much hope and much suffeering,
anonymous suffeering.

ELIZABETHAN POETRY
Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-liv'd Phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one more heinous crime:
O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen!
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst, old Time! Despite thy wrong
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted

Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY POETRY
To His Mistress Going to Bed
BY JOHN DONNE
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
Until I labour, I in labour lie.
The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,
Is tir’d with standing though he never fight.
Off with that girdle, like heaven’s Zone glistering,
But a far fairer world encompassing.
Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,
That th’eyes of busy fools may be stopped there.
Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime,
Tells me from you, that now it is bed time.
Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.
Your gown going off, such beauteous state reveals,
As when from flowery meads th’hill’s shadow steals.
Off with that wiry Coronet and shew
The hairy Diadem which on you doth grow:
Now off with those shoes, and then safely tread
In this love’s hallow’d temple, this soft bed.
In such white robes, heaven’s Angels used to be
Received by men; Thou Angel bringst with thee
A heaven like Mahomet’s Paradise; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know,
By this these Angels from an evil sprite,
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.
Licence my roving hands, and let them go,
Before, behind, between, above, below.
O my America! my new-found-land,
My kingdom, safeliest when with one man mann’d,
My Mine of precious stones, My Empirie,
How blest am I in this discovering thee!
To enter in these bonds, is to be free;
Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,
As souls unbodied, bodies uncloth’d must be,
To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use
Are like Atlanta’s balls, cast in men’s views,
That when a fool’s eye lighteth on a Gem,
His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them.
Like pictures, or like books’ gay coverings made
For lay-men, are all women thus array’d;
Themselves are mystic books, which only we
(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)
Must see reveal’d. Then since that I may know;
As liberally, as to a Midwife, shew
Thy self: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,
There is no penance due to innocence.
To teach thee, I am naked first; why then
What needst thou have more covering than a man.
A VALEDICTION. FORBIDDING MOURNING
(by John Donne)
As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No:
So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,

Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love

(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,

That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do.
And though it in the center sit,

Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
Sonnet XXII. If this be love, to draw a weary breath
Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)
IF this be love, to draw a weary breath,

To paint on floods till the shore cry to the air;
With prone aspect still treading on the earth.
Sad horror! pale grief! prostrate despair!
If this be love, to war against my soul, 5
Rise up to wail, lie down to sigh, to grieve me,
With ceaseless toil CARE’s restless stones to roll,
Still to complain and moan, whilst none relieve me.
If this be love, to languish in such care
Loathing the light, the world, myself and all, 10
With interrupted sleeps, fresh griefs repair;
And breathe out horror in perplexed thrall.
If this be love, to live a living death:
Lo then love I, and draw this weary breath.
There Is A Garden In Her Face
BY THOMAS CAMPION
There is a garden in her face

Where roses and white lilies grow;
A heav'nly paradise is that place
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.
There cherries grow which none may buy,
Till "Cherry ripe" themselves do cry.
Those cherries fairly do enclose

Of orient pearl a double row,
Which when her lovely laughter shows,
They look like rose-buds fill'd with snow;
Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy,
Her eyes like angels watch them still,

Her brows like bended bows do stand,
Threat'ning with piercing frowns to kill
All that attempt with eye or hand
Those sacred cherries to come nigh,
On my First Son
BY BEN JONSON
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.
Seven years tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I lose all father now! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,
And if no other misery, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say, "Here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry."
For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
Easter Wings
BY GEORGE HERBERT
Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
My tender age in sorrow did beginne

And still with sicknesses and shame.
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel thy victorie:
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
Upon Julia’s Breasts
BY ROBERT HERRICK
Display thy breasts, my Julia, there let me

Behold that circummortal purity;
Between whose glories, there my lips I’ll lay,
Ravished in that fair Via Lactea.
UPON THE NIPPLES OF JULIA'S BREAST
BY ROBERT HERRICK
HAVE ye beheld (with much delight)

A red rose peeping through a white ?
Or else a cherry, double grac'd,
Within a lily centre plac'd ?
Or ever mark'd the pretty beam
A strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream ?
Or seen rich rubies blushing through
A pure smooth pearl and orient too ?
So like to this, nay all the rest,
Is each neat niplet of her breast.
Sonnet 18: Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
BY JOHN MILTON
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold,
Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones;
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese that roll'd
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubl'd to the hills, and they
To Heav'n. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow
O'er all th' Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundred-fold, who having learnt thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
BY RICHARD LOVELACE
Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,

That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,

The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such

As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee (Dear) so much,
Lov’d I not Honour more.
Song: Out upon it, I have lov’d
BY SIR JOHN SUCKLING
Out upon it, I have lov’d

Three whole days together;
And am like to love three more,
If it prove fair weather.
Time shall moult away his wings,

Ere he shall discover
In the whole wide world again
Such a constant lover.
But the spite on’t is, no praise

Is due at all to me;
Love with me had made no stays,
Had it any been but she.
Had it any been but she,

And that very face,
There had been at least ere this
A dozen dozen in her place.
Song: Go, Lovely Rose
BY EDMUND WALLER
Go, lovely rose!

Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that’s young,

And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth

Of beauty from the light retired;
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.
Then die! that she

The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY POETRY
A Red, Red Rose
BY ROBERT BURNS
O my Luve is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve!

And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
Auld Lang Syne
Robert Burns - 1759-1796
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!

And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
Chorus
We twa hae run about the braes,

And pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.
Chorus
We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,

Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.
Chorus
And there's a hand, my trusty fere!

And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
Chorus

Apuntes Textos Poéticos

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Enjambment: the statement flyows over the end of the line

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Lyric Poetry Narrative Poetry

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Shakespeare’s sonnet 130

In the third and fourth lines we see an anaphora. Also,

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare g

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➢ Classical inflyuence is still present: Lyric, Elegy, Epigram… (imitation…)

➢ Thee poems are analytical and follow a logical order of development.

➢ Combination of thought and feeling. Reason and emotion

➢ Striking imagery. KEY ELEMENT TO DISTINGUISH THIS POEMS. Ideas

➢ Direct colloquial language (not the artifircial Elizabethan language BECAUSE

➢ Preference of monosyllabic words.

➢ INTELLECT AND WIT BLENDING WITH EMOTION AND FEELING

Neo-Platonism, alchemy: Theey talked of how nature has shown scientists.

Royal or aristocratic patronage: Masques.

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Classical inflyuence: Lyric, Elegy, Epigram, etc.

Theey don't copy, they imitate expressing their anxiety.

Theere is a combination of thought and feeling.

John Donne Elegy XIX

CONCEIT → related to wit

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Thee Culture of Sensibility

-Industrial revolution (a sense of end of the agricultural society).

-Independence of American colonies and the French Revolution (revolution,

-Restoration of absolutist monarchies.

On the Preface to Lyrical Ballads

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I wandered lonely as a cloud a Daffeodils reminds of the arrival of spring. It represents

Conversation Poems and Supernatural Poems

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Coleridge’s theory of imagination

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Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. e

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A damsel with a dulcimer

*Rhyme and rhythm are very irregular.

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Rise of philosophies against Rationalism

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Thee poet as visionary 3 diffeerent. possibilities

3. Idealism of Plato (world of ideas)

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Thee Romantics would have mixed feelings towards God.

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Thee Byronic hero

Thee Darkling Therush

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Dulce et Decorum Est

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Leda and the Swan

ABAB CDCD EFEGEFE

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