British Literature from 1800, "The Mythmakers"

William Holman Hunt, Romeo and Juliet  Keats' poem, The Eve of St. Agnes , is like his own version of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner if he married it to a half-remembered version of Romeo and Juliet. In fact, you might think of this poem as Shakespeare as retold by the Romantics, since many elements of Romeo and here (forbidden love, two young lovers, an old nurse maid who assists them, even an old priest who watches over them), but the actual romance, and the background of the story, couldn't be more different than Shakespeare. But it sounds very familiar to those who have read The Rime ! These questions cover the entire poem, but feel free to stop somewhere in the middle if you're having trouble with it.   Answer TWO of the following, even though I gave you five this time: Q1: Keats, like Coleridge, tries to create the feel of an ancient poem set in a quasi-medieval world using words like "sooth" and "amort." Yet the poem still sounds utterly differen...

Of all the mighty world Of eye, and ear—both what they half create, And what perceive (Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey) Wordsworth and Coleridge did everything together—including writing poems. Wordsworth often took credit for Coleridge’s best ideas (the albatross), and Coleridge did the same (the Lyrical Ballads). Keats was a superfan of the Romantic poets and lived in their shadow, possibly even beating them at their own game. All of them were inspired by each other, borrowed from each other, and if we want to be catty, stole from each other as well. That’s what makes Romantic Poetry such a rich and important movement—it speaks with so many of the same ideas in very similar language. For your first paper, I want you to choose TWO passages from TWO different poems (each poem a different poet) where one seems to steal from the other. You can look up the dates if you want to see who came first, but even publication dates can be tricky, since poets often sit on work...

Be sure to finish the poem for Monday, or ideally, read it again. The poem makes more sense (or is more familiar, at least) if you read it with an awareness of what's generally going on. Then you can focus on the small details, and hear the strange music of the poem. As with any longer poem, there's simply too much to take in at once--or twice--or fifty times (I've been reading this poem since 1994, when I first picked it up, and am still rethinking it!).  Answer TWO of the following: Q1: In many ways, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner mirrors J.M. Turner's later painting, The Slave Ship that we viewed in class (here's the post about it below:  British Literature from 1800, "Monsters and Madmen" (Fall 2021): Links for Turner's Slave Ship (1840) (grassobrit2.blogspot.com) ). How might both works be trying to disguise their message underneath sublime imagery and general misdirection? Do you think Coleridge could also have an anti-slavery or humanitarian me...

  NOTE: No questions for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , since I want you to concentrate on simply reading (and enjoying?) the poem. It's basically a Romantic ghost story, with a lot of Wordsworth's ideas about innocence and experience baked in. Read it for the sounds (so many amazing sounds!) and the story first, and then think about how it relates to Wordsworth's ideas--as well as Turner's painting, The Slave Ship (see the post below on that: ). You only have to read parts I-IV for Friday, since we can't possibly cover the entire poem in a single class (we certainly couldn't cover much of Tintern Abbey on Wednesday, could we?). Below are some ideas to consider as you read, and we'll talk more about these on Friday: * The Plot : the poem is basically about a man (the Mariner) who crashes a wedding party and hypnotizes three Wedding Guests with his weird eyes and strange tale. He tells a story about being on an expedition to the South Pole, and how on the ...

NOTE: This is a longer poem, but it's really like a verse-letter to his sister, Dorothy, who was a writer herself (famous for her journals). Keep all the poems we've already read in mind, especially "My heart leaps up" and "We Are Seven," since this poem develops them in a more autobiographical way. Below, I've broken up the poem into several parts to help you follow it easier: PART I : (First Look at a Beloved Place from Childhood) "Five years have past; give summers, with the length" TO "The Hermit Sits alone" PART II: (The Importance of Childhood Memories) "Those beauteous forms" TO "How often has my spirit turned to thee!" PART III : (Why It's Not the Same Anymore) "And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought" TO "Unborrowed from the eye" PART IV : (What It Means to Me Now) "That time is past" TO "Of all my moral being" PART V: (What It Can Do For You) "...

  If you recall from our second class, we wrote about Turner's 1840 painting, The Slave Ship , which you can see below: Keep your in-class writing, since it might come in handy on our first paper assignment, where you can use art as one of your sources! For more information on this painting, see the following:  From Museum of Fine Arts Boston (where it's held):  https://collections.mfa.org/objects/31102 In-Depth discussion from Joy of Museums:  https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/united-states-of-america/boston-museums/museum-of-fine-arts-boston/the-slave-ship-by-j-m-w-turner/ A Short Video from Khan Academy:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoCW80MEGXY

[English Romantic Poetry]: Wordsworth, We Are Seven(23-25), Strange fits of passion (30-31), She dwelt among the untrodden ways (31-32), Lucy Gray (33-34), My heart leaps up (35), In London, September 1802 (41) Answer TWO of the following questions based on the poems above in a short response (a few sentences--but let me see you thinking, not just answering questions). Do your best, and don't be afraid to think out loud rather than give definitive answers. When in doubt, read the poems out loud and consider the sounds, the repetition, the imagery, and the speaker (who are they? who are they writing to? why are they writing?) Q1: How might many of these poems, esp. "We Are Seven": and "My heart leaps up" trying to capture the same sense of childhood and innocence as Blake's The Tyger ? What does Wordsworth seem to think is the advantage of the perspective of innocence/childhood? Likewise, what do we seem to lost in adulthood, that the narrator in "We Are...

Welcome to our class blog for British Literature from 1800, "Monsters and Madmen."  This course charts the evolution of ‘British’ literature from the explosion of the Romantic/Gothic movement, through the haunted decades of Victorianism, and to the shell-shocked ruins of the twentieth century. Just as technology was rapidly changing the face of modern life, so, too, literature was undergoing a severe metamorphosis that would forever change what we read—and how we read it. This exciting period of literature gave birth not only to Horror and Fantasy literature, but also Science Fiction, as writers struggled to find stories and metaphors to mirror the rapidly changing (and decaying) state of the British empire . Our class will chart these changes through three novels and numerous works of poetry, as well as the artworks of the period, which help us ‘see’ the inner landscapes of the books themselves. Not everything we read will be horrific…but I promise you, most of it will! Be s...