context Flashcards
augustan/classical era details
- epic poem era (story style chapters)
- rigid structure to poems about education
wordsworth famous romantics era quote
‘real language of men’
romantic era
- ‘real language of men’
- ideas of unrest: american and french revolutions
- rise in republicanism
- industrial revolution
- enlightenment
enlightenment
- logical, thoughtful, educational era
- more repression as individuals started gaining more power
which revolutions influenced the romantic period?
american and french
what are four words to describe how wordsworth became politically motivated?
polemic
diatribe
political
caustic challenge
what did wordsworth and co. stand up for?
- the individual
- social justice and responsibility
- nature in the face of aggressive industrialisation
- integrity
polemic
outspoken
diatribe
rant
caustic challenge
aggressive
wanderer abre a sea of fog
(photo of man on a mountain looking out over the clouds)
- anonymised man (universal representation of unity with nature)
- looking onto eternity and the divinity of nature
- an immortal power greater than we can understand (the haze on the horizon)
- fragility of mankind
- the sublime
the sublime
beauty vs destructive power of nature
what is romanticism?
- writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century
- celebrated emotion, wildness and nature above science and reason
- gothic was the dark side of romanticism
- reference to the supernatural, themes of madness, death and extreme passion
victorian morals and values
- strict social morals and values
- strict and rigid class system
- patriarchal except in domesticated roles
industrial revolution
- growth of commercialism
- urbanisation led to the loss of the individual (Blake)
- city was the source of corruption on the soul - crime, greed and dirt
ideas of nature
- the sublime
- nature can rely and build upon itself
- a desire to be free from the mundane mechanical world
- a retreat from the past, connected the poet to eternity whilst keeping them humble
ideas surrounding religion and science
- rational through and understanding arose
- science explained creation of life, away from god
- darwin’s origin of species 1859
- people felt lost - ideas away from religion where people had found meaning in life
- frankenstein
- questioning of god and authority/divine authority led to questioning of natural order
ideas around philosophy and politics
- radical thinkers arose
- rousseau (philosopher) ‘man is born free but is found everywhere in chains’
- man is born into natural state of the good, but civilisation corrupts the individual
the french revolution details
- opposition towards corrupt and secretive old regime of the french monarchy
- mass rebellion happened
- louis was beheaded by guillotine
- bastille happened
- the great terror
- napoleon rules, head of empire
- revolution lasted 10 years
bastille meaning
- imprisonment without trial for those who rebelled in the FR
the great terror
- ## period where kings supporters would be executed for crimes against the FR
what effect did teh french revolution have on english poems/political ideas
- romantic poets salvaged in ideas of romanticism from chaos of revolution, channelling ideas about corruption and the effects it has (fear of dramatic change embedded in society)
- art made from revolutionary philosophy, giving ideas a human face
what ideas does romanticism hold
- love of nature
- individualism
- feelings more important than logic or experience
- nostalgia
- utopian thoughts
- escapism
- ideas of simpler lives was being mourned: rural/pastoral/bucolic
what are the key features in romanticism
- the relationship between nature and humanity
- spontaneous emotion over rational thought
- belief that without imagination you are not man
problems with romanticism
- the desire to appeal to the common man was hard as many were uneducated
- many common people felt alienated from arts
- not all believed in romanticism - political upheaval saw desire for conservatism and the past
- class consciousness - industrial revolution saw an emphasis on class division.
occult
talking to the dead
rhythm
pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line
feet
units of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line
metre
amount of repeated feet in a line
hetronyms
words that change the meaning depending on where the stress is placed
iambic
ti tum
x /
unstressed + stressed
natural speech, soothing
shakespeare natural speech
trochaic
tum ti
/ x
stressed + unstressed
abrupt beat, dynamic opening syllable
spondaic
tum tum
//
stressed + stressed
emphasis/shouting
irregular meter
not always a reason for it
anapestic
(a three beat syllable)
ti ti tum
x x /
unstressed + unstressed + stressed
melodic, soft opening, emaphatic on final word
a waltz
dactylic
(a three beat syllable)
tum ti ti
/ x x
stressed + unstressed + unstressed
explosive opening, powerful emphasis, can be repetitive/waltzing
charge of the light brigade
catalexis
usually in the last foot of a line in metrical verse, lacking a syllable at the end
tum ti, tum ti, tum ti, tum ti, tum
list counting meter
monometer
dimeter
trimeter
tetrameter
pentameter
hexameter
heptameter
8 feet = go back to 4
