- Blake (Innocence Introduction, Experience Introduction, NA 1410, 1416-7)
- William Wordsworth (Tintern Abbey, NA 1491-5)
- Baurbauld (Rights of Woman, Washing-Day, NA 1393, 1395-6)
- Dorothy Wordsworth (Grasmere, Thoughts on my Sick-Bed, NA 1606-9)
- Hemans (Casabianca, Homes of England, NA 1812-4)
The Romantic Period (generally dated 1785-1830, but the edges can be somewhat loosely defined) is often associated with the poetry produced during those years, and for quite a while, it was associated with six male poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, William Blake, Percy Shelley, and John Keats. Over time, though, a number of women poets, some of whom were more popular among their contemporaries than the men, have been added to the discussion, including Anna Barbauld, Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, Felicia Hemans, and Letitia Landon. The period also includes the popular fiction of figures like Horace Walpole, Jane Austin, Sir Walter Scott, Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe, and Maria Edgeworth. This period was heavily influenced by two major revolutions, the American and the French, which inspired the English to react with policies intended to prevent such resistance at home.
Romantic Poets and Poetry
The Romantic poets used their writing to produce another sort of revolution as they resisted the conventions of 18th-century poetry and instead encouraged writing that represented the feelings and sensibility of the poet. Wordsworth described this as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” and for many of the poets, nature was an important inspiration for such overflows of emotion. The emotional response of the poet is reflected in the natural landscape around him. In addition to the focus on nature, many Romantic poets explored the beauty and a sense of wonder in familiar or ordinary things. Some also explored supernatural topics, which also appeared in the fiction of the period (which we’ll see in Frankenstein starting tomorrow). You can read more on Romantic poetry in the introduction to the period in the NA on pages 1370-1378, which is summarized here.
William Blake and Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Blake was both an artist and a poet, so it is important to consider the illustrations with his poetry. He published Songs of Innocence in 1789 and then added more poems to create Songs of Innocence and Experience, published in 1794. We are reading the introductory poem for each of the two sections on innocence and on experience. The title pages are included with the poems in the NA, so I encourage you to take some time to look at them. As the footnote on page 1410 explains, the poems in the innocence section are said to be “happy songs,” but they also take up issues of “injustice, evil, and suffering.” The poems of experience depict a “state of the soul that…is an ugly and terrifying one of poverty, disease, prostitution, war, and social, institutional, and sexual repression, epitomized in the ghastly representation of modern London.”
William Wordsworth and “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”
In this poem, we can see the importance of a natural landscape as it inspires the poet’s reflection on life. Wordsworth is visiting the ruins of Tintern Abbey and reflects on the changes to the landscape since a previous visit five years earlier. The changes lead him to reflect on other changes during that time.
Anna Barbauld and “The Rights of Woman” and “Washing-Day”
In addition to her poems, Barbauld also wrote political pamphlets criticizing England’s war against France and took strong positions about education (she and her husband also ran a school) and beliefs about women. As the footnote on page 1393 explains, “The Rights of Woman” is a response to Mary Wollstonecraft’s famous A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which Wollstonecraft argues for the education of women and for their equal treatment as partners to men and educators of the nation’s children. Barbauld’s “Washing-Day” is another poem that takes up the place of women, but this one does do in considering the work of women. This poem can be read as a version of the Romantic trend of reflecting on familiar and ordinary topics.
Dorothy Wordsworth and “Grasmere” and “Thoughts on my Sick-Bed”
Dorothy Wordsworth is the younger sister of William Wordsworth and was his regular companion through much of their adult lives. Though her writing wasn’t published during her lifetime, Dorothy Wordsworth wrote poetry and journals of reflections. In “Grasmere—A Fragment,” Dorothy’s poetic techniques are similar to William’s as she uses the landscape to inspire reflection on life. The poem was composed only a few years after “Tintern Abbey.” The other poem, “Thoughts on My Sick-Bed,” includes reflections on life and memory during a period of illness.
Felicia Hemans and “Casabianca” and “Homes of England”
Hemans was a popular poet in the 19th century and began publishing poetry at age 15. “Casabianca” tells the story of a boy on a burning ship and takes up issues of obedience and loyalty. The narrative style of this ballad was common for Hemans, as it relates a tale while subtly questioning the very qualities it seems to praise. “The Homes of England” focuses its attention on the domestic, where the home is distinguished from the problems of the outside world and protects its inhabitants from them. The homes included range from the “stately Homes” to the “Cottage Homes” and praise all for the way they contribute to the nation as a whole.
Questions for Thinking and Discussion
- What similarities and differences do you notice when reading the poems of the Wordsworth siblings? In particular, how do “Tintern Abbey” and “Grasmere” employ similar strategies? Do you notice any significant differences?
- “Washing-Day” and “The Homes of England” both focus on ordinary aspects of domestic life and duty. Do you think that they offer similar representations of the domestic? Or are they different? How so?
- Take a few minutes to look over a poem or two from the innocence and experience sections of Blake’s poetry. What are the some of the topics of the poems in each? What about the innocence poems seems less than innocent? What kinds of emotions and actions make up Blake’s representation of experience?
No comments:
Post a Comment