1、Pre-Romanticism & Romanticism,Pre-Romanticism,Another conspicuous trend in the English literature of the latter half of the 18th century was the so-called pre-romanticism.It originated among the conservative groups of men of letters as a reaction against Enlightenment and found its most manifest exp
2、ression in the “Gothic novel,” the term arising from the fact that the greater part of such romances were devoted to the medieval times. The more notable of the Gothic Novels is The Castle of Otranto奥特朗托城堡(1765) by Horace Walpole贺拉斯瓦尔浦尔(1727-1797).But the more important pre-romanticist writers are t
3、he two famous poets, William Blake (1757-1821) and Robert Burns (1759-1796).,William Blake (1757-1821),Of all the romantic poets of the 18th century, Blake is the most independent and the most original. His best poems are collected in Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794). The Son
4、gs of Innocence is a lively volume of poems which represent a happy and innocent world although there are evil and suffering existing, while the Songs of Experience paints quite a different world, a world full of misery, poverty, war, and repression. The poems in Songs of Experience are gray, gloomy
5、 and pessimistic.,Robert Burns (1759-1796),Robert Burns is an excellent native poet of Scotland.He is remembered mainly for his poems written in the Scottish dialect. He also created many lyrics praising nature, love, and friendship. Many of them have entered deeply into peoples hearts. These works
6、are “A Red, Red Rose,” “My hearts in the Highland,” etc.Speaking of Burns, we can not forget his “Auld Lang Syne” (Old Long Ago) which have been sung as a parting song in many places of the world in different languages.,A Red Red Rose,This song was published in the Scots Musical Museum, 1796,No. 402
7、, to the tune “Major Graham,“ but is now invariablysung to a modern version of “Low down in the broom.“,The Form of “A Red, Red Rose”,It is written in four 4-line stanzas (quatrains), consisting of alternating tetrameter（四音步） and trimeter（三音步） lines. This means that the 1st and 3rd lines of each sta
8、nza have four stressed syllables, or beats, while the 2nd and 4th lines have three stressed syllables. Quatrains（四行诗） written in this manner are called ballad stanzas. The ballad is a old form of verse adapted for singing or recitation, originating in the days when most poetry existed in spoken rath
9、er than written form. Though the ballad is generally rich in musical qualities such as rhythm and repetition, it often portrays both ideas and feelings in overwrought but simplistic terms.,A Red Red Rose,O, my luves like a red, red rose, Thats newly sprung in June. O, my luves like the melodie, That
10、s sweetly playd in tune.,O, my love is like a red, red rose, That is newly sprung in June. O, my love is like the melody, That is sweetly played in tune.,啊，我爱人象红红的玫瑰， 它在六月里初开； 啊，我爱人象一支乐曲， 美妙地演奏起来。,A Red Red Rose,As fair art thou, my bonie lass, So deep in luve am I, And I will luve thee still, my De
11、ar, Till a the seas gang dry.,As fair are you, my lovely lass, So deep in love am I, And I will love you still, my Dear, Till all the seas go dry.,你是那么美，漂亮的姑娘， 我爱你那么深切； 我要爱你下去，亲爱的， 一直到四海枯竭。,A Red Red Rose,Till a the seas gang dry, my Dear, And the rocks melt wi the sun! O I will luve thee still, my
12、Dear, While the sands o life shall run.,Till all the seas go dry, my Dear, And the rocks melt with the sun! O I will love you still, my Dear, While the sands of life shall run.,一直到四海枯竭，亲爱的， 到太阳把岩石烧裂； 我要爱你下去，亲爱的， 只要是生命不绝。,A Red Red Rose,And fare thee weel, my only Luve, And fare thee weel a while! An
13、d I will come again, my Luve, Tho it were ten thousand mile!,And fare you well, my only Love, And fare you well a while! And I will come again, my Love, Although it were ten thousand mile!.,再见吧我唯一的爱人， 我和你小别片刻； 我要回来的，亲爱的， 即使是万里相隔。,Similes & Metaphors,Similes: the speaker compares his love first with
14、a blooming rose in spring and then with a melody “sweetly playd in tune.“ Metaphor: in searching for the perfect metaphor to describe the “eternal“ nature of his love - the speaker inevitably comes up against loves greatest limitation, “the sands o life.“ This image of the hour-glass（沙漏） forces the
15、reader to reassess of the poems first and loveliest image: A “red, red rose“ is itself an object of an hour, “newly sprung“ only “in June“ and afterward subject to the decay of time.,Romanticism The democratization of poetry,A literary revolution against restrictions, rules and artificial convention
16、s,Historical Background,French Revolution-Bastille in 1789.Industrialization-Invention of Steam Engine.Urbanization and shift from agricultural to industrial economy.Development of industrial capitalism.,Origins of Romanticism,The origin of Romanticism lies in the philosophy of Frenchman Jean Jacque
17、s Rousseau卢梭and the writings of German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe歌德. Rousseau championed individualism and freedom of thought: “I felt before I thought.” Goethe advocated inspiration from Shakespeares works, Gothic architecture and German folk tales. Goethes novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)
18、 provide the basis for much of the later Romanticism.,The Age of Romanticism (1798-1832),English Romanticism is generally defined to begin in 1798 with the publication of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridges the Lyrical Ballads and end in 1832 with Sir Walter Scotts death and the passage of the
19、first Reform Bill in Parliament.,Two Groups of Romanticists,The Romanticists split into two groups because of the different attitudes toward the capitalist society. Some romanticists reflected the thinking of those classes which had been ruined by the bourgeoisie. They returned to the feudal past an
20、d idealized the life of the Middle Ages to protest against capitalist development. Therefore, they stood on the side of the feudal forces and even combined themselves with those forces. They are represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey.,Two Groups of Romanticists,Others expressed the
21、aspiration of the labouring classes. They held out an ideal of future society free from oppression and exploitation. They were the firm supporters of the French Revolution. They are represented by Lord G. G. Byron and P. B. Shelley and John Keats. These poets were all precocious and intense, and had
22、 tragically short lives.,Characteristic Features,Their own aspiration and ideals are in sharp contrast to the common, sordid daily life under capitalism. Their writings are filled with strong-willed heroes or even titanic images, formidable events and tragic situations, powerful conflicting passions
23、 and exotic pictures. They paid great attention to the spiritual e) Individuality.,Imagination,A revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason, a rebellion against the rationalism characterized by the “Age of Reason.” Creative powers of the imagination over the “rules” in art.Ima
24、gination was considered necessary for creating all art. Samuel Coleridge called it “intellectual intuition.”,Intuition,Romantics placed value on “intuition,” or feeling and instincts, over reason. Emphasis on feeling over reason - Cult of Sensibility.Emotions were important in Romantic art.William W
25、ordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”,Idealism,Idealism is the concept that we can make the world a better place.Idealism refers to any theory that emphasizes the spirit, the mind, or language over matter thought has a crucial role in making the world the way
26、 it is.Immanuel Kant held that the mind forces the world we perceive to take the shape of space-and-time.,Inspiration,The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator” rather than a “technical master.”What this means is “going with the moment” or being spontaneous, rather than “gett
27、ing it precise.”,Individuality,Romantics celebrated the individual.During this time period, Womens Rights and Abolitionism were taking root as major movements.Walt Whitman, a later Romantic writer, would write a poem entitled “Song of Myself”: it begins, “I celebrate myself”,Characteristics of the R
28、omantic Period,Love of Nature: acceptance of natures benevolence; Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part Of me and my soul, as I of them? - Byron Pantheism（泛神论） - Nature has a conscious soul; Nature is a living organism which shares the feelings of the observer; The poet is typically seen a
29、s a solitary figure, non-conformist, outcast, rebel; The poet often identifies with outlaws of myth, legend: Cain, Satan, the Wandering Jew,Casper Friedrich: The Wanderer above the Mists (1817-18),Nature in the raw, wild state. Awe-inspiring. Sublime. Divine.,Nature and Children,Delight in unspoiled
30、 scenery and the innocent rural dwellers was central to Romanticism Wordsworths poetry conveys the Platonic notion that humans forget all their knowledge at birth and spend the remainder of their lives recollecting, rather than learning. Wordsworth celebrates the child, who enjoys an ecstatic commun
31、ion with nature, and hopes that in adulthood people can eventually recover this ecstasy by heeding intuition. The reverence of nature later developed as a central focus for American Transcendentalism (Emerson and Thoreau).,Characteristics of the Romantic Period,Emphasis on Freedom and Individualism;
32、 Spontaneity, intuition, feeling, imagination; “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling recollected in tranquility”; “To give the charm and novelty to things of everyday”; “If poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.”,Characteristic
33、s of the Romantic Period,liberalization of poetic style; blank verse; medieval revival: imitations of the folk ballad; the distant past; faraway, exotic places.,Faith in human nature-belief in the “common man.” Primitivism. Study of “the folk.”-folk myth and folklore. Nature/art dichotomy. Radical p
34、olitical sensibilities born from the French Revolution. Individualism, democracy.,Characteristics of the Romantic Period,The poetic manifesto of Romanticism,The 2nd preface to Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge served to affirm the importance of feeling and imagination. Wordsworth stated, P
35、oetry originates from “emotion recollected in tranquility.” Wordsworth and Coleridge also disclaimed conventional forms popular during the Neoclassic Period. Blank verse superseded the rhyming couplet.,Effects of Romanticism,The Romantics engendered many of the libertarian movements of the late 18th
36、 and early 19th centuries. Influenced by the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, P.S. Shelley championed liberal thought and rebelled against the restrictions of English politics and religion. Lord Byron and Percy B. Shelley, who most typify the romantic poet (in their personal lives as well a
37、s in their work), wrote resoundingly in protest against social and political wrongs and in defense of the struggles for liberty in Italy and Greece.,Effects of Romanticism,Rousseau had written that people were born free but that everywhere civilization put them in chains. An example is expressed in
38、the work of English visionary William Blake, writing in the poem “Milton” (about 1804-1808) of the “dark Satanic mills” that were beginning to deface the English countryside Another example is in Wordsworths long poem The Prelude (1850), which speaks of “. the close and overcrowded haunts/Of cities,
39、 where the human heart is sick.” Romantics see the Industrial Revolution as in direct opposition to nature and innocence.,The Melancholy Strain,In the mid 18th century, many poets incorporated a melancholy tone to their poems in response to changing lives and times.,Keats “Ode to Melancholy” (1820)
40、This strain developed into a separate theme that was prevalent in many American writers works (Hawthorne, Poe and Melville).,The Exotic and the Supernatural,Romantic poets often turned to the Gothic past and exotic locations; Coleridges “Kubla Khan”; Recurring motifs: graveyards, ruins and the super
41、natural; Keats “Eve of St. Agnes” The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole The supernatural was inspired by the collecting of folk tales (Grimm brothers, Andersen and Shelley),Decline of Romanticism,Romanticism declined in the mid 19th century. Romantic poetry gave way to symbolist works. Romantic prose was superseded by realism and naturalism in the mid to late 19th century. Realists include: George Eliot (England), Maupassant and Flaubert (France), Twain, Howells & James (America),
