Title: ROMANTICISM The Second Generation Poets: Byron Shelley Keats
1ROMANTICISM The Second Generation
PoetsByronShelleyKeats
2- This second generation of romantics rebelled even
more strongly against British conservatism, and
as cultural figures, Byron, Shelley, Keats
became like punk rock stars in England.
3- Live fast, die young.
- This would be an apt motto for Byron, Shelley,
Keats since all three died tragically in their
youth.
4George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
- Member of the House of Lords, Byron was handsome,
egotistical, and aloof, the darling of elegant
society.
5- Byron was considered highly attractive and
affable - Shelley said of him scarcely have I seen such a
beautiful countenance. - Yet, Byron was hindered by being born with a
clubbed foot, something for which he would be
highly self-conscious determined to overcome
6Byron lived a flamboyant life he was
fashionable, prone to debauchery, and given to
affairs of the heart. He ran around with married
women, married and divorced a cousin, had a
romance (and child) with his half sister, and
engaged in homosexual experiences. Although,
Byron never considered himself to be defined by a
sexuality.
7Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.Lady Caroline
Lamb
- Shocked by his radical politics and scandalous
love affairs, Byron was shunned by London
society, so he left Britain in 1816, never to
return.
8The Irresistible Bad Boy The Byronic Hero
Devastatingly Attractive yet Fatally Flawed
9- A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his
brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his
kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep
and strong affection. - In short, a Byronic Hero is the bad boy that
womens mothers warn them about.
10Action not Words
- Byrons friendship with Shelley led him to come
to find words (i.e. poetry) were insufficient in
bringing change about - Hence, Byron started to become involved in
causes. Specifically, he addressed the struggle
in Greece against the Ottomans.
11- Lord Byron died of a fever at age 36 while
fighting for Greek independence.
12- To this day, Byron is revered in Greece as a
national hero.
13Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
- Byrons friend, also an aristocrat and political
radical, more radical than Byron. - Shelley urged Englands lower classes to rebel.
- Shelley was expelled from Oxford for writing an
essay called The Necessity of Atheism - He was said to have a calm demeanor but his
motives were always questioned
14Shelley remarked that despite his good
intentions, his world seemed to continually fall
into chaos and troublewhich likely led his first
marriage collapsing. Shelley had numerous
affairs on Harriet, including running away with
Mary. In the end, am ashamed and broken Harriet
committed suicide. Shelleys second marriage to
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin(author of
Frankenstein) would last until the poets death
in 1822.
15Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
- Byron was so fond of Shelley, he said he was the
best and least selfish manI never knew one who
wasnt a beast in comparison. - Shunned for his radical ideas, Shelley left
England for good in 1818
16Shelley died in a boating accident just before
his 30th birthday. Foul play has always been
suspected. In his coat pockets were two books
the Bible and book of Keats poems.
17John Keats (1795-1821)
- A master of lyrical poetry
- Born outside of upper-class society
- Contracted tuberculosis and, hoping to recuperate
in a warmer climate, moved to Italy where he died
shortly after.
18Keats never married and of the Big 3 Second Gen
Romantics, he died the youngest. He knew he was
ill and knew, too, that he would succumb and die
from the consumption. Therefore, Keats verse
has an intensity and drive that perhaps had not
been seen in poetry prior to him. In fact, his
entire body of work was composed in about one
year.
19- John Keats wrote Here lies one whose name was
writ in water.
20She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
- This sonnet vividly describes a womans beauty,
capturing its essential power and linking it to
universal images.
21Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- This poem provides an ironic comment on human
pride and ambition. A traveler describes the
ruins of an ancient statue of a ruler. On its
base is an arrogant inscription however, what is
left of the statue stands in an empty desert, for
the works of Ozymandias have crumbled under the
onslaught of time and nature.
22Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
23Political Commentary
- Poetry became also specifically political and
socially critical. - Offered opinions on political issues, built
arguments on evidence and assumptions
24The Reaction to Societys Ills (Byron and Shelley)
- Lord Byrons speech to the House of Lords (1817)
was in defense of workers who had sabotaged
factory equipment that had put them out of work. - Shelleys A Song Men of England (1820) is an
angry response to news of the growing economic
suffering and political oppression of the working
classes in England.
25Beauty is truth, truth beautyJohn Keats
- Keats found in beauty the highest value our
imperfect world could offer, and he put its
pursuit at the center of his poetry. - He explored the beauty he found in the most
ordinary circumstances.
26Ode
- A lyric poem characterized by heightened emotion,
that pays respect to a person or thing, usually
directly addressed by the speaker - While other poets described objects, Keats
PRESENTED them
27Keatss Use of the Ode
- Keats created his own form of the ode, using
10-line stanzas of iambic pentameter, beginning
with a heroic quatrain (4 lines rhymed abab)
followed by a sestet.
28When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be by
John Keats
- The speaker expresses fears that he will not live
to fulfill his potential. Keats died less than
three years after he wrote it.
29Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
- Keats comes to an understanding about the nature
of truth and beauty as he gazes at an ancient
Greek urn. The scenes, frozen in time, eternally
beautiful and unchanging, symbolize that the
urns beauty embodies the eternity of truth.
30Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
Who addressed What it cant do/be What it can do/be
Stanza II
Stanza III
Stanza IV
31Thou still unravished bride of quietness Thou
foster child of silence and slow time...
32Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
- Keatss poem is not about or on the nightingale,
but to the bird. The speaker passes beyond the
limit of ordinary experience and becomes too
happy in the experience conveyed in the birds
song.
33- The poem consists of a series of propositions,
each containing its own rejection as to how the
speaker might imitate the ease of the song.
Each time, the speaker is drawn back to his sole
self, to a preference for poetry as a
celebration of human life as a process of soul
making.
34http//www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id
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35La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats
- An unidentified passerby asks the knight what is
wrong. The knight answers that he has been in
love with and abandoned by a beautiful lady. But
what does it mean? What is the meaning of the
knights experience? Was the knight deluded by
his beloved, or did he delude himself?
36(No Transcript)
37- What is the most important word in the
descriptions of the woman, and why? - Who are the two speakers?
- How do the poems images help you visualize the
knight and the time of year? - Interpret the dream in stanza 10.
- What does the knight realize has happened when he
awakes?