English Romantic Poetry Analysis PDF

**INGLESE** Tema della *natura* per i poeti della seconda 2° gen. romantica inglese, Tema del *beautiful* e *sublime* per i poeti della 2° gen. romantica inglese, Confrontare i poeti della 2° gen. romantica inglese, Confronto tra "*la belle dame sans merci*" e "*the rhyme of the ancient mariner*...

**INGLESE** Tema della *natura* per i poeti della seconda 2° gen. romantica inglese, Tema del *beautiful* e *sublime* per i poeti della 2° gen. romantica inglese, Confrontare i poeti della 2° gen. romantica inglese, Confronto tra "*la belle dame sans merci*" e "*the rhyme of the ancient mariner*", Confronto tra "*ode of the west wind*" e "*ode on a Grecian urn*". **Themes in the Poetry of the Second Generation of English Romantics** **Theme of nature**: Unlike their predecessors, who often viewed nature as a source of solace and divine presence, these poets saw nature as a powerful, dynamic, and, at times, destructive force. **Shelley**, for instance, in \"***Ode to the West Wind***\" presents nature as an agent of change and revolution, emphasizing its role in destruction and renewal. **Byron**, in works such as \"***Childe Harold\'s Pilgrimage***\" portrays nature as a vast and untamed force that reflects the emotions of the individual. **Keats**, in poems like \"***To Autumn***\" captures its transient beauty and inevitable decay, celebrating its sensuous and melancholic aspects. **Theme of the beautiful and the sublime**: The sublime, as defined by Edmund Burke, refers to an overwhelming, sometimes terrifying beauty that inspires awe: **- Shelley's** works often portray nature in this light, emphasizing its power and grandeur, as seen in \"Mont Blanc,\" where he presents the mountain as both awe-inspiring and intimidating. **- Byron**, too, engages with the sublime in \"Manfred,\" where the protagonist confronts the vast and indifferent Alpine landscape, reflecting his own turmoil. In contrast, **- Keats** was more concerned with the aesthetic and sensual experience of beauty, as seen in \"Ode on a Grecian Urn,\" where he explores the idea of eternal beauty frozen in art. His emphasis on the interplay between transience and permanence distinguishes his perspective on beauty from his contemporaries. **Comparison of the Second Generation Romantic Poets** **Byron's** poetry is marked by a deep sense of irony and a Byronic hero who struggles against society's constraints. **Shelley**, on the other hand, was an idealist and a revolutionary, using poetry to advocate for political and social change. **Keats**, in contrast, focused on themes of beauty, mortality, and art, often adopting a more introspective and sensory approach. Their differing perspectives highlight the diversity within the Romantic Movement despite their shared emphasis on emotion and imagination. **Comparison between \"La Belle Dame sans Merci\" and \"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner\"** **Keats**\' \"*La Belle Dame sans Merci*\" and **Coleridge\'s** \"*The Rime of the Ancient Mariner*\" both explore themes of supernatural encounters and the consequences of such experiences. Keats' poem tells the story of a knight bewitched by a mysterious and seemingly otherworldly woman, only to be left desolate and abandoned. The theme of enchantment and subsequent despair mirrors the Mariner's fate in Coleridge's poem, where the protagonist is cursed after killing an albatross and is doomed to wander the earth recounting his cautionary tale. Both poems employ haunting imagery and an eerie atmosphere to highlight the dangers of succumbing to mystical forces beyond human understanding. **Comparison between \"Ode to the West Wind\" and \"Ode on a Grecian Urn\"** Shelley's \"Ode to the West Wind\" and Keats' \"Ode on a Grecian Urn\" both address the passage of time and the role of art and nature, but they do so in contrasting ways. \"Ode to the West Wind\" is dynamic and revolutionary, portraying the wind as both a destroyer and preserver that heralds change. Shelley's vision is one of transformation, where nature is a force that can inspire renewal. In contrast, Keats' \"Ode on a Grecian Urn\" contemplates the permanence of art versus the fleeting nature of human life. The urn's images capture moments of beauty frozen in time, suggesting that while human life is ephemeral, art achieves a form of immortality. While Shelley embraces movement and change, Keats finds solace in the static and eternal beauty of artistic representation. \"Ode to the West Wind\", \"Ode on a Grecian Urn\" Themes addressed in Byron\'s "Manfred" **Ode to the West Wind -- Shelley** Shelley's *Ode to the West Wind* is a deeply passionate and revolutionary poem that explores the power of nature as a force of transformation. The poem is structured in five cantos, using terza rima, a verse form associated with Dante's *Divine Comedy*, which lends the poem a sense of movement and urgency. **Themes in *Ode to the West Wind:*** 1. **The Power of Nature:** The West Wind is depicted as both a destroyer and preserver, symbolizing the cycle of death and rebirth. 2. **Revolution and Change:** The wind is a metaphor for political and social transformation, as Shelley was an advocate for radical change. 3. **Poetic Inspiration:** Shelley identifies himself with the wind, longing for it to spread his ideas like fallen leaves, inspiring others. 4. **Death and Renewal:** The poet yearns for personal renewal, comparing himself to nature's elements that undergo constant cycles of destruction and regeneration. **Ode on a Grecian Urn -- Keats** Keats' *Ode on a Grecian Urn* is a meditation on art's permanence and its ability to capture beauty beyond the limits of human experience. Through detailed descriptions of an ancient urn's engravings, Keats explores the contrast between transient life and eternal art. **Themes in *Ode on a Grecian Urn:*** 1. **Eternal Beauty:** The urn's images are frozen in time, representing beauty that never fades. 2. **Art vs. Reality:** The figures on the urn are locked in a moment of anticipation, never fulfilling their desires, unlike real life, where time brings inevitable decay. 3. **The Nature of Truth and Beauty:** The famous closing lines---\"Beauty is truth, truth beauty\"---suggest that aesthetic beauty and deep truth are one and the same. 4. **Transience vs. Permanence:** While human life is fleeting, art endures across generations, preserving its moment forever. ***Manfred* - Byron** Lord Byron's *Manfred* is a dramatic poem, often considered part of the "Byronic hero" tradition. The titular character, Manfred, is a deeply tormented, guilt-ridden figure who seeks solace in nature and supernatural forces but ultimately finds no redemption. **Key Themes in *Manfred:*** 1. **Guilt and Isolation:** Manfred is haunted by a deep, unnamed sin (often interpreted as an incestuous love) and isolates himself in the Alps, refusing both divine and human aid. 2. **The Power of Nature:** The Alps serve as a sublime backdrop to Manfred's existential struggles, reflecting his inner turmoil and grandeur. 3. **Rebellion Against Authority:** Manfred defies both supernatural beings and God, embodying the defiant, self-destructive spirit of the Byronic hero. 4. **Existential Despair:** Unlike Romantic works that seek redemption, *Manfred* offers no resolution, ending in stoic acceptance of death without divine intervention. **SPORTELLO DI INGLESE** **Byron:** ========== **Manfred**: poema drammatico che si sposa col sublime. Tema del sublime e dell'overreacher (vuole il controllo degli elementi). Chiede agli spiriti l'oblio (dimenticanza), essi gli dicono che non possono, lui vuole dimenticare per dimenticare il segreto terribile di Astarte (sorella di Manfred che amava oltre ogni cosa). Alter ego dell'autore e della sorella. La strega li proporne di farla tornare in vita in cambio che lui diventi suo schiavo, lui si rifiuta perché è orgoglioso. Successivamente trova lo spirito del male che riesce a fargliela rivedere e l'unica cosa che gli dice è che nell'indomani morirà. **Out cast**: Manfred è una sorta di autoemarginato, perché si sente superiore, l'altro out cast è il lettore che non sa mai tutto, lo intuisce da alcuni elementi. **Byronic hero**: ricordando il personaggio irresistibile, eccentrico, esagitato e turbato, anche i suoi personaggi sono così, hanno anche un'altra caratteristica peculiare, tutti nascondono un segreto. **Keats:** ========== In Keats tema della bellezza e della natura. Tema della distruzione dell'amore. Ǫuesta ballata non ha nessun intento morale. - **Fisica**: nella ballata, tende a svanire come la morte del cavaliere. **Spirituale**: bellezza eterna e immortale, come i valori dell'amicizia, dell'amore e dell'arte. Ǫuesto tema traspare in Ode on a Grecian Urn. Mentre l'uomo è costretto a soffrire le pene e i dolori della vita, l'uomo può trovare appagamento nella contemplazione dell'oggetto d'arte. Il messaggio di quest' ode è la soddisfazione che si prova guardando l'urna, perché l'uomo troverà sempre rifugio nella contemplazione dell'arte. "Beato colui che guardando un pezzo di marmo o di pietra vede la bellezza della vita stessa". Potere eternizzante dell'arte. NB: tema: l'attesa del piacere che è più grande del piacere stesso. **Negative capability**: capacità di sentirsi a proprio agio davanti alle difficoltà della vita, senza per forza ricorrere a una spiegazione logica. È considerato il precursore dell'estetismo inglese. Collegabile sia al tema del bello che del sublime, sublime con la storia dell'Elfa e del cavaliere, e il tema della bellezza con quello dell'urna. Dice che c'è molta più gioia e piacere del desiderio che dell'avvenimento stesso \[2-3 strofa\]. **Coleridge:** ============== Ognuno di noi deve amare la natura e non deturparla. Usarlo per collegamenti come "The ballad of the Acient Mariner". Ha un intento morale, distinzione importante da Keats **To the moon.** ================ Theme: natura e amore. La luna guarda con invidia la terra perché vorrebbe raggiungere la terra per trovare qualcuno degno della sua costanza, la Luna è un ente naturale che è personificato, descritto come sofferenze. Probabilmente scritto in un momento di sofferenza per l'autore. ========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================= **Themes:** =========== ### **Outcast (Byron)** Byron often depicted characters who were **isolated, tormented, and alienated from society**. This is especially evident in *Childe Harold's Pilgrimage*, where the protagonist is a world-weary traveler, disillusioned with life. In *Manfred*, Byron presents a hero who is haunted by guilt and sorrow, living in self-imposed exile in the Swiss Alps. His outcast figures are often noble but flawed, finding no place in conventional society and seeking solace in nature or self-destruction. This theme reflects Byron's own **rebellious life**, marked by scandal and exile. ### **Byronic Hero** A defining element of Romantic literature, the Byronic hero is **mysterious, brooding, passionate, and deeply flawed**. He often possesses **a dark past, an intense sense of guilt or suffering, and a rebellious spirit**. Byron's characters, from Childe Harold to Manfred, embody this archetype. They defy social norms, reject authority, and seek meaning in **love, nature, or self-exploration**. Unlike traditional heroes, they are **antiheroes**, attractive but dangerous, admirable but tragic. ### **Beauty** For Romantic poets, **beauty was a fundamental truth** that could transcend human suffering and mortality. Keats, in particular, devoted much of his poetry to the pursuit of beauty, famously stating in *Ode on a Grecian Urn*:\ *\"Beauty is truth, truth beauty.\"*\ Keats saw beauty as fleeting yet eternal---whether in art, nature, or love. Shelley's vision of beauty was more **idealistic and ethereal**, often connected to **the divine and the power of imagination** (*To a Skylark*). Byron, on the other hand, saw beauty as **passionate, sensual, and sometimes dangerous**, often tied to human emotions and desires (*She Walks in Beauty*). ### **Nature as a Reflection of Emotion** In Romantic poetry, nature is not merely a backdrop but an **active force that mirrors the characters\' inner struggles**. - **Byron**: In *Manfred*, the **Swiss mountains reflect the hero's isolation and inner torment**. The grandeur and danger of the Alps symbolize his unreachable aspirations and guilt. - **Shelley**: In *Ode to the West Wind*, nature is a force of **spiritual renewal and revolution**. The wind represents the **power to destroy and create**, reflecting the poet's desire for transformation. - **Keats**: In *La Belle Dame sans Merci*, the withering landscape mirrors the **knight's despair and approaching death**---*\"the sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds sing.\"* This emphasizes the connection between nature's decay and human suffering. ### **Sublime** The **sublime** in Romantic poetry refers to **awe-inspiring, overwhelming experiences** that evoke both **beauty and terror**. This concept is central to Byron's work, where **nature is vast, powerful, and indifferent to human suffering** (*Manfred*). Shelley's *Mont Blanc* explores **the terrifying majesty of nature**, emphasizing its mystery and unknowable power. Keats, though more focused on beauty, also engages with the sublime in poems like *Hyperion*, where the gods face the **awe-inspiring forces of time and change**. ### **Overreacher** The **overreacher** is a character who **seeks ultimate knowledge, power, or transcendence** but is ultimately doomed by their ambition. - **Byron's Manfred** is a classic overreacher: he seeks supernatural knowledge but is consumed by guilt and cannot find redemption. - **Shelley's Frankenstein** (from Mary Shelley\'s novel, influenced by Percy Shelley's philosophy) is the ultimate overreacher---playing God by creating life but suffering the consequences of overstepping human limitations. - **Keats' Hyperion** explores **the fall of the Titans**, beings who once ruled the universe but are overthrown by the new gods---an allegory for the **inescapable forces of change and time**. These themes all reflect the **Romantic obsession with individualism, ambition, and the search for meaning** in a vast and often indifferent universe. Possibili domande: 1. Cos'hanno in comune dal punto di vista stilistico e le tematiche principali ode to the west wind e Ode on a Grecian urn? 2. Scrivi 10 righe sugli aspetti che hanno in comune i 3 autori, su vita (esempio: sono liberali, contro le tirannie, Byron e Shelley hanno una vita caratterizzata da scandali.) 3. Testo con ad esempio la parola bellezza, sapete già dove voglio andare a parare e mi parlate di quel tema li. 4. 5. Potrebbe capitare Endymion (pastore dell'asia minore di cui la luna si innamora). Parla sul tema della bellezza. 6. Legato al testo precisamente c'è un passaggio che è collegato con il sabato del villaggio di leopardi (i due che si rincorrono col messaggio dell'amore), l'attesa del piacere che è più grande del piacere stesso. Possibili risposte: 1. **Commonalities Between \"Ode to the West Wind\" and \"Ode on a Grecian Urn\"**\ Stylistically, both poems are odes, meaning they follow a formal, lyrical structure that conveys deep emotions and reflections. They both use rich imagery and symbolism to explore abstract concepts. Thematically, both deal with **the passage of time**: Shelley\'s *Ode to the West Wind* sees nature (the wind) as a powerful force for change and renewal, while Keats\' *Ode on a Grecian Urn* reflects on **art as eternal** and unchanging in contrast to human mortality. 2. **Common Aspects of Byron, Shelley, and Keats** - They were all part of the **Romantic movement**, valuing emotions and imagination over reason. - **Liberal thinkers**, opposing tyranny and advocating for freedom. - **Love for nature**, seeing it as a source of beauty and inspiration. - **Tragic lives**, with early deaths and personal struggles. - **Interest in the sublime**, the idea of nature and experiences that are overwhelming and awe-inspiring. - **Restless spirits**, often in exile or traveling in search of meaning. - **Byron and Shelley were controversial**, known for their scandalous lifestyles. - **Keats was more introspective**, focusing on beauty and mortality. - **Poetry as a way to reach the eternal**, whether through nature, art, or personal expression. - **Death as a recurring theme**, seen as both tragic and transcendent. 3. **The Theme of Beauty**\ \"Beauty is truth, truth beauty.\" This famous line from *Ode on a Grecian Urn* encapsulates Keats\' view that beauty is eternal and transcendent. Romantic poets saw beauty in **nature, art, love, and fleeting moments of life**. Shelley, in *To a Skylark*, connects beauty with inspiration and the divine, while Byron finds beauty in the passionate, rebellious spirit of individuals. They all believe that beauty, in its many forms, provides meaning to existence. 4. **Nature in Byron, Shelley, and Keats** - **Byron**: Nature is wild, dramatic, and often a reflection of human emotions (*Childe Harold\'s Pilgrimage*). - **Shelley**: Sees nature as **a force of change and revolution**, as in *Ode to the West Wind*. - **Keats**: Focuses on **the sensual beauty of nature**, as in *To Autumn*, where nature is eternal yet fading. 5. **Endymion and \"To the Moon\" -- The Theme of Beauty**\ *Endymion*, a shepherd loved by the Moon, represents **idealized beauty and eternal love**. The moon symbolizes a mystical and unreachable beauty, similar to the themes in Shelley's *To the Moon*, where the moon is depicted as **lonely, distant, and melancholy**. Both texts emphasize the longing for an unattainable, almost divine beauty, a common theme in Romantic poetry. 6. **Connection to Leopardi's \"Saturday in the Village\"**\ Both poems reflect the idea that **the expectation of pleasure is greater than pleasure itself**. In *Ode on a Grecian Urn*, the figures frozen in time are always about to reach happiness but never do---**they live in an eternal moment of anticipation**. Similarly, Leopardi's poem describes how the excitement before a holiday is sweeter than the event itself, emphasizing the fleeting nature of joy. **La Belle Dame sans mercy** Is a ballad; ballads are narrative poems. There are: knights, Kings, princess, mythical, mystical, enchanter and magic all tied into one poem; which can perhaps best be summed up as being thematically concerned with the destructive power of love. The poem uses two separate narrative voices. The first is an unknown speaker who has discovered a knight wandering aimlessly about an autumnal landscape and questions him about his condition. This happens in the first 3 stanzas of the poem. The second voice that we hear is the knight\'s reply, and this takes up the remainder of the poem as he narrates how he came to be in this near-death state. 1 - \"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing.\" 2 - \"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel\'s granary is full, And the harvest\'s done.\" 3 - \"I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever-dew, And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too.\" We have a knight, and he is a knight who appears ready for battle. He is a \"knight-at-arms,\" and yet, curiously, when he is discovered, he appears to be close to death. He is pale, haggard, and woe-begone. In the third stanza of the poem, Keats uses a couple of metaphors to further illustrate the knight\'s condition. He is described as having \"a lily on thy brow,\" and lilies are usually white, which links to that pale and ghostly sense of the knight\'s condition. We also have another flower metaphor being used: \"a fading rose.\" Roses are traditionally red, and so again, we have that sense of the blood draining from the knight's face. This sense of life leaving the knight is mirrored in the landscape. It's a clever structural device that Keats uses. We see in the first three stanzas that \"the sedge has withered from the lake,\" the birds have flown south, and the squirrel is preparing for winter. All of these images or metaphors combine to give us a sense that life is not only being drained away from the knight but is also being drained out of nature as well. The question which the speaker asks twice in this part of the poem is, \"O what can ail thee?\" In other words, what is wrong with you? It is the answer to this question that makes up the rest of the poem. ### The Lady The first thing that the knight tells us is that he met a lady. He describes her as being very beautiful, but there are also early clues in the poem that there is something unearthly about her. She is described as \"a fairy's child\" and has \"wild eyes.\" The knight then goes on to explain how he made a garland for her head and bracelets too. Now, both of these are circular objects, in the same form as a wedding ring. This has led some people to interpret this part of the narrative as the knight striving for some sort of control or power over this lady. He wants to own her as his possession. This can be supported by glancing at the first word of the first three stanzas of the knight\'s story: \"I, I, I.\" It\'s all about him and what he did. One of these actions is to place the girl on his horse, and it is here that we see the first suggestion of an enchantment taking place. He recalls how \"she sang to me a fairy's song\" and how he \"looked at nothing else all day,\" as if he were under some sort of spell or enchantment. ### The Knight The next three stanzas of the poem describe how the knight was given heavenly food: \"roots of relish sweet, wild honey, and manna-dew\"---food from heaven. He is then spoken to in this strange language and eventually lulled to sleep. But look now at how the power has shifted from earlier in the poem. We've now got \"she, she, she,\" and this all records a knight who is now a passive recipient of the girl's actions. She speaks, she weeps, she sighs. We are led to believe that this is all part of the enchantment which will ultimately destroy him. ### The Deeper Meaning After the knight is lulled to sleep, he experiences a dream---or nightmare---that perhaps reveals the deeper meaning behind the poem: \"I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried---\'La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!\'\" \"I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaping wide, And I awoke and found me here On the cold hill\'s side.\" Here, we learn that the knight is far from being the first person to suffer this fate. He sees men of power in this nightmare---kings, princes, warriors---all of whom have fallen under the same sinister spell. They call out to him in pitiful warning, but it is already too late. The nightmare reaches its peak as the knight almost becomes enveloped: \"horrid warning gaping wide\"---the wasted lips and gaping mouths of the other victims who call out to him. Then suddenly, he is awake. The lady is gone, and the knight is as wasted and close to death as those whom he dreamt about. The poem has a cyclical structure, meaning it ends where it begins: with the knight alone, pale, and wandering aimlessly in a barren, lifeless landscape that he appears unable to escape from.