英国浪漫主义文学EnglishRomanticism

1、English RomanticismIntroduction English Romanticism begins in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge's The Lyrical Ballads and ends in 1832 with Walter Scotfs death. William Blake and Robert Burns also belong to this literary genre, though they live prior to the Romantic period* E

2、nglish Romanticism is a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason. The French Revolution of 1789-1794 and the English Industrial Revolution exert great influence on English Romanticism. The romanticists express a negativeattitude towards the existing social or political condi

3、tions They place the in dividual at the center of art, as can be seen from Lord Byrorfs Byronic Hero. The key words of English Romanticism are nature a imagination. English Romantic tend to be national! defending the greatest English writers They argue poetry should be free from all rules.Overview o

4、f Romantic literature08 阿 lAm©1rorr wMfwCaftuotodi lot- The romantic period is an age of poetry. Wordsworth and Coleridge are the most representative writers. They explore new theories and innovate new techniques in versificatioit They believe that poetry could purify in dividual souls and soci

5、ety拿 The Lyrical Ballads & Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.Lake poets拿 Wordsworth. Coleridge and Southey were known as Lake Poets because they lived and knew one an other i n the last few years of the 18th century in the district of the great lakes in Northwestern England The former two pub

6、lished The Lyrical Ballads together in 1798. while all three of them had radical inclinations in their youth but later turned conservative and received pensions and poet laureateships from the aristocracyPositive Romantic Poets Other greatest Romantic poets are: John Keats, P.B. Shelley and G. G Byr

7、on. They are referred to as Satanic Poets by Robert Southey for their violent imagination and rebellious spiritFeminist works Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Gothic novel is a type of romantic fiction that predominates in the late 18th century and continues to

8、 show its influence in early 19山 century. Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural. Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe are masterpieces of English gothic novel.Romantic Fictions English fiction gropes its way amidst the o

9、verwhelming Romantic poetry It revives its popularity in the hands of Jane Austen & Walter Scott Walter Scott is noted for his historical novel based on Scottish history and lege nds. He exerted great influence on European literature of his time Jane Austen is the first and foremost English wome

10、n novelist Following theneoclassical tradition, she is unsurpassed in the description of uneventful everydayEssayists in English RomanticismEssayistsRepresentative worksWilliam HazlittFamiliar essaysCharles LambEssays of Elia; Tales from ShakespeareColeridgeBiographia Literaria=William Wordsworth Wo

11、rdsworth is the most representative poet of English Romanticism He was born into a lawyer s family in 1770 at Cockmouth, Cumberland. His parents died when he was very young.拿 He was taken care of by his relatives He got his education at the Grammar School of Hawkshead ard then at St. Johrfs College,

12、 Cambridge. He was a worshipper of nature from his childhood He frequently visited places of beautiful seenery A walking tour of the Swiss Alps heightened his addiction to nature.William WordsworthHe had great sympathy with the French Revolution He paid 2 visits to France, during the second visit he

13、 fell in love with Annette Vallon. who bore him a daughter.Wordsworth was totally disillusioned by the Jacobin dictatorship and the French invasion of other European countries He became conservative in politics He was labeled as negative Romantic poet by Karl Marx and was severely criticized by Byro

14、nIn 1795 he and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth settled down in Racedown. Dorsetshire. In 1797 he made friends with Coleridge The three persons became three people with one soul in literary historyWilliam Wordsworth Lege nd has it that Wordsworth and his sister lived a kind of incestuous life during t

15、his period Dorothy helped Wordsworth turn his eyes to “the face of nature and preserved the poet in him She served as Wordsworth s confidarite and inspirer As Wordsworth put it in his poem:She gave me eyes. she gave me ears:And humble cares. and delicate fears:A heart. the fountain of sweet tears:An

16、d love. and thought, and joyWilliam Wordsworth In 1798. Wordsworth and Coleridge published their Lyrical Ballads. In 1798 and 1799, he made a tour around Germany Upon his return to England he and his sister moved to Dove Cottage in Grasmere, the most beautiful place in the Lake District. Coleridge &

17、amp; Robert Southey lived a stone s throw from their dwelling place. The three poets came to be known as Lake Poets. In 1802. Wordsworth got married to Mary Hutchi ngson. In 182 3. he got a sin ecure job as distributor of stamps/7MWilliam Wordsworth* In 1842, he received the go ver nment pension and

18、 in the following year, he succeeded Southey as Poet Laureate.* He died at Rydal Mountin 1850 and was buried in the Grasmere churchyard.Wordsworth5s major worksWordsworth fame lies chiefly in his short poems His short poems fall into 2 categories poems about nature and poems about human life.He is a

19、 "worshipper of n ature" .It is nature that gives him "strength and knowledge full of grace"His best known poems of nature include: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Tintern Abbey, To the Cuckoo, My Heart Leaps up, To a Butterfly, An Evening Walkf & The Sparrow's Nest.His bes

20、t known poems about human life in elude: Lucy Poems, The Solitary Reaper, The Old Cumberland Beggar, Michael. & To a Highland GirlWordsworth's major works Wordsworth wrote many sonnets His famous sonnets are: Earth Has Not Anything to Show More Fair. On the Extinction of the Venetian Republi

21、c. & Thought of a Briton on the Subjugation of Switzerland His best known long poem is The Prelude In this poem Wordsworth analyses the growth of his poetic genius during his childhood and youth. and recalls the lessons he owes to n ature. Wordsworth s greatest contribution to English literature

22、 is his poems and his Preface to The Lyrical Ballads.Preface to Lyricalallads« Though The Lyrical Ballads is known as the collaborated work of Wordsworth and Coleridge, all the poems but one (The Rime of The Ancient Mariner) are written by Wordsworth Most of his most quoted poem are taken from

23、this collection Wordsworth s Preface (1800) to Lyrical Ballads is the manifesto of English Romanticism. It is 'one of the revolutionary works of criticism, helping usher in the Romantic Age in literature" (Dutton, 1984:50).« He is primarily concerned to justify the kinds of his poems w

24、hich he had contributed to Lyrical Ballads.Key points in his Preface* Definition of a poet He ( poet) is a man speaking to men: a man. it is true. endowed with more lively sensibility. more enthusiasm and tenderness. who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehe nsive soul, th a n

25、 are supposed to be comm on among man kindKey points in his Preface拿 Creative process of authentic poetryPoetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction. the tranqinlity gra

26、dually disappears, and an emotion, kindred (similar) to that which before was the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced. and does itself actually exist in the mind In this mood successful compositi on gen erally beginsKey points in his Preface拿 Subject matter & poetic IanguageThe princ

27、ipal object was to choose incidents and situations from com mon life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of Ianguage really used by men . and at the same time, to throw over them a certain coloring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be prese

28、nted in an unusual aspectKey points in his PrefaceHumble and rustic life was generally chosen. because in that condition. the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturityThe language, too of these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to

29、 be its real defects. from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derivedBrief Comments Wordsworth is the representative poet of English roma nticism* Wordsworth's poetry

30、isdistinguished by the simplicity and purity of his language. Wordsworth's theory on versification has exerted profound in fluence on later poets (mimesis-imaginative recreation)The Solitary ReaperBEHOLD her. single in the field. Yon solitary Highland Lass?Reaping and singing by herself： Stop he

31、re, or gently pass!Alone she cuts and binds the grain.And sings a melancholy strain： 0 listen! for the Vale profoundIs overflow!ng with the soundThe Solitary ReaperNo Nightingale did ever chauntMore welcome notes to weary bandsOf travellers in some shady hauntAmon g Arabian san ds:A voice so thrilli

32、ng neer was heardIn spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird、Breaking the silence of the seasAmong the farthest Hebrides.The Solitary ReaperWill no one tell me what she sings?Perhaps the plaintive numbers flowFor old, unhappy, far-off things.And battles long ago:Or is it some more humble lay.Familiar matter

33、 of to-day?Some natural sorrow. Ioss. or pain. That has been. and may be again?The Solitary ReaperWhate er the theme. the Maiden sang As if her song could have no ending;I saw her singing at her work.And o*er the sickle bending:I listen d motionless and still;And. as I mounted up the hill.The music

34、in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.Samuel Taylor Coleridge« Coleridge was born into a clergyman's family in 1772. He was a great genius. At the age of six, he had read the Bible, Robinson Crusoe and Arabian Nights. He was a men tally precocious boy, full of fantasy and drea

35、ms in his mind. During his Cambridge years, he made friends with Charles Lamb, the great essayist of English Romanticism.Samuel Taylor Coleridge* But the campus life bored him. He ran away from the university and enlisted in the army but discharged after a few months and he returned to Cambridge. He

36、 joined Robert Southey in a utopian plan of establishing an ideal democratic comm unity (named Pantisocracy) in America. The plan resulted in nothing but his marriage to Sara Fricker, which turned out to be an unhappy marriage.Samuel Taylor Coleridge In 1797 he began his friendship with Wordsworth.

37、In 1798 they published The Lyrical Ballads. In 1798 he 廿aveled to Germany with Wordsworth and began to take to Germany philosophy. Upon his return to England9 he became addicted to opium with a view to relieving his headache He quarreled seriously with Wordsworth in 1810. Though they were reconciled

38、 to each other later, their friendship had never reached its former intimacy. In his later years, he turned conservative and resorted to theology for his spiritual supportMajor works Demonic poems拿 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner拿 Kubla Khan Christabel Conversational poems Frost at Morning Dejection

39、: An Ode« Essays* Biographia Literaria« Lectures on ShakespeareThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner It is Coleridge*s contribution to The Lyrical Ballads. It tells us a strange story in ballad meter. Three guests are on their way to a wedding party when an ancient mariner stopped one of them. T

40、he mariner tells of his adventures on the sea. When his ship sails towards the South Pole, an albatross （信天翁） comes through the snow-fog and alights on the rigging.The Rime of the Ancient MarinerThe mariner shoots at it quite thoughtlessly. Then misfortune befalls. The whole crew, with the only exce

41、ption of the old marinerf die of thirst as punishment for the act of in hospitality. The spell breaks only when the mariner repents his cruelty. The poem is famous for its beautiful cadence （音韵）and wonderful imagery. The combi nation of the n atural and super natural, the ordinary and extraordinary

42、makes it one of the masterpieces of Romantic poetry.Kubla Khan During an illness in 1797 Coleridge retired to a Ionely farmhouse One day he fell asleep as he was reading a passage about Kubla Khan from Pilgrimage by Purchas While dreaming he composed a poem about 200 or 300 lines 0n waking he began

43、to write down the poem But he was interrupted by a person on business from Porlock and the vision faded. He left a fragment of only 54 lines and never finished the poem.Christabel It tells a story of a sorcerer （男巫）who casts a spell over a pure young girl. It is written in ballad meter. Its mysterio

44、us atmosphere and the Gothic horror may freeze our blood. It is not wholesome to read the poem.Biographia Literaria （文学传记） It is Coleridge s most in flue ntial book of literary essays. The main ideas can be summed up as follows.« A poem should not be judged as a mirror of truth as we judge scie

45、nee-but as a thing in itself, almost as a living organism.Biographia Literaria （文学传记）« Poets are born and not made. Poems should be judged only according to their own lights and not accordi ng to any established precept or precede nt. Coleridge envisages that the poet as a man of great integrit

46、y as well as of special gifts, producing poems which would offer profo und in sights into man's imaginative, psychological, and ultimately, moral being.Comments Coleridge is a great Romantic poet. His poetic imagination is unique He is fond of unusual and super natural things. Coleridge is one o

47、f the first critics to pay close attention to Ianguage of poetry. He maintains that the true end of poetry is to give pleasure "through the medium of beauty：Despair The worst, the World can wreak on me-the worstThat can make Life indifferent. yet disturbWith whisper d Discontents the dying pray

48、er-I have beheld the whole of all. whereinMy Heart had any interest in this Life.To be disrent and torn from off my HopesThat nothing now is left Why then live on 9Despair* That Hostage. which the world had in its keeping Given by me as a Pledge that I would live That Hope of Her. say rather that pu

49、re Faith In her fix'd Love, which held me to keep truce With the Tyranny of Life-is gone ah ! whither ? What boots it to reply ? tis gone I and now Well may I break this Pact. this League of Blood That ties me to myself-and break I shall!Robert Southey* Robert Southey (12 August 1774 -21 March 1

50、843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called Lake Poets： and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843. Although his fame tends to be eclipsed by that of his con temporaries and trie nds William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Southey s verse enjoys en

51、during popularityRobert Southey* Moreover, he was a prolific letter writer, literary scholar essay writer, historian and biographer. His biographies in elude the life and works of Joh n Bun yan. Joh n Wesle y. William Cowper. Oliver Cromwell and Horatio Nelson. The latter has rarely been out of prin

52、t since its publication in 1813 and was adapted for the screen in the 1926 British film. Nelson He was also a renowned Portuguese and Spanish scholar, translating a number of works of those two countries into English and writing both a History of Brazil (part of his planned History of Portugal which

53、 was never completed) and a History of the Peninsular WarRobert Southey Perhaps his most enduring contribution to literary history is the immortal children's classic, The Story oj the Three Hears, the original Goldilocks story, which first saw print in 1834 in Southe/s novel, The Doctor.Go, Vale

54、 ntine* Go, Valentine. and tell that lovely maid Whom fancy still will portray to my sight. How here I linger in this sullen shade. This dreary gloom of dull monastic night: Say. that every joy of life remoteAt evening's closing hour I quit the throng. Listening in solitude the ring-dome s note.

55、 Who pours like me her solitary song;Go, Vale ntine拿 Say, that of her absenee calls the sorrowing sigh.Say that of all her charms I love to speak.In fancy feel the magic of her eye.In fancy view the smile illume her cheek.Court the lone hour when silenee stills the grove.And heave the sigh of memory and of loveGeorge Gordon Byron(1788-1824) Byron was bom into an aristocratic family. His father is a profligate. His mother was a passionateScotswoma n. He was bom with a clubf