Romantic Period: Odes, Elegies, and Lyric Poetry

• The Romantic Period, beginning around 1798 and lasting until 1837, prioritized feelings, nature, and personal freedom.
• Emotions and imagination were valued more than reason and logic, especially in response to industrial changes.
• Writers like Wordsworth and Byron, and composers like Beethoven, focused on deep emotions and the beauty of nature.
• Individual expression was key, marking a time of creativity, rebellion, and exploring human spirit and experience.

Odes, Elegies, and Lyric Poetry

• Odes, elegies, and lyric poetry were prominent forms of expression.

Ode

• Odes formally address and praise someone or something highly respected or meaningful.

Elegy

• Elegies are poems of mourning lamenting the death of a loved one, loss of love, or other losses.

Lyric Poem

• Lyric poems express the speaker's deep, personal feelings on a subject with intense emotion.
• Lyric poems are often written in a song-like form and may have rhythm and rhyme patterns.

"Ode to the West Wind" by P. Shelley

• This poem, written in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley, is among his best-known works.
• The West Wind's strong imagery explores themes of nature, revolution, and transformation.
• Stanza 1 opens with vivid imagery, portraying the West Wind as a "wild" and "swift" force.
• The wind drives leaves before it, scattering dead leaves across the landscape, symbolizing the end of autumn and the approach of winter.
• Stanza 2 compares the wind to a "tuft of snow" and a "winged seed" carrying seeds to their winter resting place.
• This comparison suggests the potential for future life hidden within apparent destruction.
• In Stanza 3, the speaker addresses the wind directly, asking it to "make me thy lyre" to express his thoughts and feelings.
• Stanza 4 includes lines that allude to the political turmoil of Shelley's time with lines such as "O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?", suggesting hope for change even in dark times.
• Stanza 5 climaxes with the speaker pleading for the West Wind to "drive my dead thoughts over the universe" to spread his ideas and poetry, even if now they are currently considered insignificant.
• "Ode to the West Wind" is written in terza rima (ABA, BCB, CDC, DED, EE), a rhyme scheme where the first and third lines of each stanza rhyme, with the middle line rhyming with the first line of the following stanza.
• Key Romantic themes include the power of nature, the individual's connection to the natural world, and the desire for personal expression and social political change.
• Symbolically, the West Wind is a powerful symbol of change, revolution, and the creative spirit.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by W. Wordsworth

• Originally published in 1807.
• The author was William Wordsworth.
• William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, and died on April 23, 1850.
• Stanza 1 describes wandering lonely as a cloud above valleys and hills, then seeing golden daffodils beside a lake, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
• Stanza 2 speaks of the daffodils, noting their continuous stretch along a bay's margin, like stars on the Milky Way.
• The speaker saw ten thousand daffodils at a glance, tossing their heads.
• Stanza 3 notes the waves beside these daffodils that danced; but the daffodils outdid the sparkling waves in glee.
• The poet felt gay in such company, gazing (but thinking little of what wealth the show had brought).
• Stanza 4 speaks of how the daffodils flash upon the inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude, when lying in a vacant or pensive mood.
• At these times, the speaker's heart fills with pleasure and dances with the daffodils.
• Noted symbolism includes daffodils and clouds.
• Themes include nature, memory, and spirituality.

"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by T. Gray

• Originally published in 1751.
• Thomas Gray was the author.
• Thomas Gray was born on December 26, 1716, in Cornhill, London, United Kindgom, and died on July 30, 1771 (age 54 years).
• Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' belongs to the genre of elegy, generally written to mourn a person's death.
• Gray wrote the poem in 1742.
• Gray published it in 1751.
• He wrote the poem after the death of his friend Richard West.
• Symbolism includes the following:
  • The churchyard symbolizes death.
  • Gravestones show people's lives.
  • The nightingale represents lasting beauty even after we are gone.