The Romantics Flashcards
Who wrote Ozymandias?
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Who wrote London?
William Blake
Who wrote The Prelude?
William Wordsworth
Who wrote She Walks In Beauty?
Lord Byron
Who wrote To Autumn?
John Keats
What is the context for London?
- Critique of corruption of industrial rev.
- Rev. mobs marching into Paris to overthorw king, written at time of overthrowing things
- Political RADICAL
- Proposed new social order
- Songs of Innocence = reveres nature
- Songs of Experience = hatred of establishment and lack of freedom
What is the form and structure for London?
Blake
- Regular form (like song)
- Clear AB rhyme scheme, childlike/nursery rhyme
- Begins in Iambic tetrameter but lines fall out of pattern, representing failing hope in establishment????
What is the context for The Prelude?
Wordsworth
- Great autobiographical poem
- Published after death
- Critique of corruption caused by Industrial revolution
- Modern condition = dangerous, need to revert to child like eyes
- Humans should follow ideals rather than rules
- Innocence of child encapsulates romantic PREOCCUPATION with PRELAPSARIAN state of WONDER
What is the form and structure of The Prelude?
Wordsworth
- Free verse (reserved for epics, making childhood epic)
- Unrhymed, iambic pentameter highlights FREEEDOMM
- First person speaker = personal and empathetic
What is the context for She Walks In Beauty?
lord Byron
- Patriarchal society and mysogenistic view of women
- Allegedly written after Byron saw mourning woman at party
- Sensual imagery evokes sense of sublime
- Closer with nature closer to beauty???
- Elevated style conveys transendental power of imagination
What is the form and structure of To Autumn?
- Odal hymn
- Rhyming couplet to finalize each stanza and giev a sense of peace and harmony
- Symbolism of Autumn overfilling world with joy and nature
- Or impending / unfinished awkwardness
(11 line stanzas rather than the classical 10 -abundance of nature)
What is the form and structure of She Walks in Beauty?
- Triptych stanza evokes cohesive beauty
- Iambic tetrameter -> natural /rhythmic
- Fits natural flow and movement of bodies (heartbeat)
What is the form and structure of the prelude?
- Iambic pentameter
- Appropropriates epic form for a narrative about childhood freedom
- Blank verse
What is the form and structure of Ozymandias?
- fragmented (pentameter) sonnet form
Highlights power of poet as he can fragment /appropriate classic form and his confidence of his power as a poet
Subverts classical form
What is the from and structure of London?
- Regular form
- Loose iambic tetrameter mimics walking rhythm
- Monosyllabic, childish rhyme scheme like a nursery rhyme
