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Neoclassicism
use and imitation of literary traditions from ancient Greece and Rome
beauty in structure and order
art from applying order to nature
Romaticism
use and imitation of literary traditions from the Middle Ages (including the medieval romance)
beauty in organic, natural forms
art from inspiration
Characteristics of Romantic Literatur
• medievalism2—Rather than looking for forms and subject matter from classical literature, Romantic-era writers prefer nostalgic views of the Middle Ages as a simple, less complicated time not troubled by the complexities and divisive issues of industrialization and urbanization
• mysticism3—Romantic mysticism is the belief that the physical world of nature is a revelation of a spiritual or transcendental presence in the universe
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Lyrical Ballads in The Romantic Period
Lyrical Ballads6 is a collection of poems written and jointly published by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. The volume is of such importance that its 1798 publication date is often considered the beginning of the Romantic Period. The poetry in Lyrical Ballads marks a distinct change in both subject matter and style from the poetry of the 18th century
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William Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads
In the 1802 edition of Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth includes a Preface7 , an introductory explanation, to Lyrical Ballads to explain his theory of how poetry should be written.
The following points from the Preface delineate the characteristics that make these poems markedly different from poetry of the preceding century:
• The language of poetry should be real language spoken by common people. During the 18th century, many poets used what Wordsworth called “poetic diction,” flowery or ornate words for ordinary things such as feathery flock instead of birds or finny tribe instead of fish
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Charlotte Turner Smith (1749–1806)
Early in her childhood, Charlotte Turner Smith lived in the Sussex downs that figure prominently in her writing. Years after the death of her mother, Smith’s father remarried, promising his new wife that the teenaged Charlotte would not remain in the household. Her father arranged her marriage to a man who proved to be irresponsible, promiscuous, and abusive. While in debtor’s prison with her husband and children, Smith earned enough money from her writing to obtain their release
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Identify characteristics of Romanticism in Charlotte Turner Smith’s work.
Now recognized as the first woman Romantic writer, perhaps even the first Romantic writer, Charlotte Smith’s work was recognized by and an influence on Romantic poets such as Southey, Wordsworth, and Austen.
Her attention to nature and nature’s association with the supernatural is one of the characteristics that her work shares with other Romantic writers.
Smith is also noted for her use of the sonnet and for initiating a new interest in the sonnet among later Romantic writers such as Wordsworth and Keats
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Describe Smith’s work as topographical poetry.
Like many of Smith’s sonnets, “Sonnet V. To the South Downs” begins with a description of nature intricately tied to memories of her childhood, a pattern later found in much of William Wordsworth’s poetry. The poem’s content soon turns from natural description and the joy of childhood it elicits to the current sense of the speaker’s pain. Lines 6–8 and lines 11 and 12 ask questions which serve as transition to the topic of the speaker’s heartbreak, asking if even the current beauty and the remembrance of past joy can mitigate the speaker’s emotional suffering in the present or the future
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Charlotte Turner Smith’s “Beachy Head”.
The last poem written by Charlotte Smith, published posthumously, “Beachy Head” exemplifies many of the characteristics that have come to define Romantic poetry. Perhaps most obvious is Smith’s focus on the natural world. However, as is typical of Romanticism, nature is valued not just for its beauty but because of mysticism: the sense of a divine presence in nature. Note words with religious connotations in the poem
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William Blake (1757–1827)
William Blake‘s memorial plaque in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, identifies him as an “artist, poet, mystic.” Born in London, where he spent most of his life, Blake was educated largely at home. From his childhood he claimed to experience visions of and even conversations with angels and with the Virgin Mary. His visionary experiences appear in many of his poetic works, such as The Book of Urizen and The Book of Los
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William Blake as both artist and writer
William Blake‘s memorial plaque in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, identifies him as an “artist, poet, mystic.” Born in London, where he spent most of his life, Blake was educated largely at home. From his childhood he claimed to experience visions of and even conversations with angels and with the Virgin Mary. His visionary experiences appear in many of his poetic works, such as The Book of Urizen and The Book of Los.
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Interpret Blake’s title Songs of Innocence and Experience, and differentiate the state of innocence and the state of experience in the correlating pairs of poems.
The British Library includes Blake’s Notebook in its Virtual Books collection. On pages 29 and 30, you can see a draft copy of “The Tyger” and on page 3, sketches of tigers. The William Blake Archive provides digital images of Songs of Innocence and Experience and of Blake’s other poetic works that allow you to read the works as Blake intended, with the accompanying engravings
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