romantic poetry Flashcards
byron
compare to lines in dejection (shelley)
on this day
ways the individual is presented (despairing, lonely)
importance of individual as a romantic, free spirit, rebellious
role of natural world as source of solace/insight
use of juxtaposition + varying perspective
structure and form typical of romantics
on this day
byron
context
a roving
29 when writing
lived a life of extravegance + sleeping around
bisexual, illegal relationships with men
a roving
byron
form + structure
a roving
3 stanzas
ABAB rhyme - soft, lullaby-like tone
a roving
byron
key analysis
a roving
“the moon still be as bright” - typically personified as female, sign of fertility - too old for a suitable lover but still years for romance
“roving” - journeying with no fixed end point, his relationships w/ no final goal
“the sword outwears its sheath” - phallic imagery, body is losing ability to enjoy itself but still desires more
“the night was made for loving and the day returns too soon” - contrast between night and day, darkness of night suggests hidden love - relationships with men?
a roving
shelley
form
dejection near naples
sonnet - opposite meaning to show absence of love/joy, abandoned romantic desire
lyrical - introspective, first person
dejection near naples
shelley
structure
dejection near naples
altered spenserian stanzas (tetrameter not pentameter, mirrors heartbeat - mortality)
intricate spenserian rhyme scheme (ABABBCDCDD) allows for complex themes/emotion
final line alexandrine (6 syallable hemistichs + caesura/syntactic break) - complex emotions
dejection near naples
shelley
contrasting imagery
dejection near naples
concrete nouns (“earth, moutains, waves”) - grounded in reality
vs abstract ideas (“transparent might, light dissolved, lightning”) corrupt dreamscape of nature - no longer feels in harmony w/ beauty of nature
dejection near naples
shelley
feelings of loss/despair
dejection near naples
negation (“nor hope nor health, nor peace, nor calm…”)
polysyndeton - labourois to read as it is for him to live
polysyndetic listing - each conjunction equally emphasised, each equally felt
dejection near naples
shelley
conditional tense
dejection near naples
“till death like sleep might steal on me”
“and i might feel in the warm air”
suicidal ideation, fantasising how he could die at any moment
dejection near naples
shelley
“and hear the sea/breathe o’er my dying brain in its last monotony”
dejection near naples
sarcastic/bitter tone
beauty his romantic contemporaries would see in nature/tide replaced for him with “monotony”, lack of belief in romantic ideals, beauty turned dull
dejection near naples
