The Nature of Romantic Movement
1. The negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions
2. The emphasis of the special qualities of each individual’s mind
3. A strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the early 18th-century writers and philosophers
4. An expression of the unique feelings and particular attitudes in literature
?The Romantic Movement in literature
?1798, Lyrical Ballads
?The representatives
?The first generation of Romantics
?W. Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, R. Southey. ―Lake Poets‖
?The second generation of Romantics
?G. G. Byron, P. B. Shelley, J. Keats.
Lake Poets
?For a time in close association in the mountainous Lake District in the northwest of England ?Their community of literary and social outlook
?The same path in politics and in poetry
The Qualities of Romanticism
?1. the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
?2. the creation of a world of imagination
?3. return to nature for material: ―nature poetry‖
?4. sympathy with the humble and glorification of the commonplace
?5. emphasis upon the expression of individual genius
?6. a sense of melancholy and loneliness
?7. the rebellious spirit
The Influence of the Romanticism Movement on English Literature
(1) English literature comes to its peak in this period.
(2) The Romantic period is an age of poetry.
Blake , Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron,
Shelley , Keats.
(3) The Romantic period is a great age of prose.
Coleridge , Hazlitt, Lamb, De Quincey
(4) This period is also a great age of novels.
Jane Austen , Walter Scott
The Features of Romantic Poetry
?Romantics poetry is free from all rules.
?Romantics poets are always seeking for the absolute, the ideal through the transcendence of the actual. ?Romantic poetry is the flow of imagination, spontaneity and powerful feelings.
(1757-1827)
Blake’s works
?His earliest poems:
?limpid and fresh, lovely and natural
?Poetical Sketches—1783
?Songs of Innocence—1789
?Songs of Experience—1794
?The two books show ―the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul‖.
?Characteristics:
?Diction—naive but strong
?Content—mysterious
?Attitude
?Sympathy with the French Revolution, Hatred for 18 century conformity and social institution and th
of revolt against authority
The Difference of the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Other famous poetry:
The Chimney Sweeper
?(1789,from Songs of Innocence)
?The Chimney Sweeper
?(1794,from Songs of Experience)
?London
The Lamb
The Lamb
?Blake brings out the traditional associations between the Lamb and Christ, in a simple lyric which relies on a pastoral setting.
?The speaker is presumably the child, expressing a joyous state of protected innocence and harmony. ?The Lord is shepherd. In the Christian religion, the Lamb is another name for Christ.
? Questions for The Lamb
???? 1. What kind of picture does the poet describe? 2. What does the lamb symbolize? 3. What rhetoric devices are used by the poet? 4. What characteristics does Blake’s poetry present?
?1. What kind of picture does the poet describe?
?Joyous state, innocence and harmony within and among the creations.
?2. What does the lamb symbolize?
?It symbolizes peace, kindness, purity, gentleness, innocence, harmony, joyfulness
?3. What rhetoric devices are used?
?Rhetoric devices: personification, repetition
?4. What characteristics does Blake’s poetry present?
?Language
?the simplicity of a child’s vocabulary, the connotation of the innocence of the spirit and the beauty of wonderful imagery.
?Thought is peculiarity and the vision is imaginative.
老虎！老虎！火一样辉煌，
烧穿了黑夜的森林和草莽，
什么样非凡的手和眼睛
能塑造你一身惊人的匀称？
什么样遥远的海底、天边
烧出了做你眼睛的火焰？
跨什么翅膀它胆敢去凌空？
凭什么铁掌抓一把火种？
什么样技能，什么样胳膊
拗得成你五脏六腑的筋络？
等到你的心一开始蹦跳，
什么样惊心动魄的手、脚？
What dread hand formed thy dread feet?
?什么样铁链？什么样铁锤？
什么样熔炉里炼你的脑髓？
什么样铁砧？什么样猛劲
一下子掐住了骇人的雷霆？
?
到临了，星星扔下了金枪，
千万滴银泪洒遍了苍穹，
完工了再看看，他可会笑笑？
不就是造羊的把你也造了？
老虎！老虎！火一样辉煌，
烧穿了黑夜的森林和草莽，
什么样非凡的手和眼睛
能塑造你一身惊人的匀称?
The Tyger
?Six quatrains (four lines)
?Language
?Terse and forceful with an anvil rhythm
?Methods
?Repetition, personification
?Symbol of great tyger:
?The power of man? The revolutionary force? The evil? The Almighty Maker? The Characteristics of Blake’s Poetry
?The language in his poems is plain and direct.
?His poems carry the lyric beauty with immense compression of meaning. ?He distrusts the abstractness and tends to embody his views with visual images.