EDEXCEL A2 Romantic Poetry

Holy Thursday: Innocence

• Innocence of children

• Children are holier than adults

• Hypocrisy of the church

What is the form of Holy Thursday songs of innocence?

Three stanzas each containing two rhymed couplets

Long lines suggest a children's procession

Holy Thursday: Experience

• Children in poverty

• They won't be poor in heaven

• Church does nothing to help

What is the form of Holy Thursday Songs of experience

Has a tone of irony

Four quatrains with four beats on each rhyme ABAB

Variation of a ballad stanza

"cold and usurous hand" metonymically represents the carers but also the city of London

The Tyger

• a metaphor for why God allows good and evil

London

• Effect of industrialisation on the poor

What is the structure of London?

-Iambic tetrameter

-Each stanza is one sentence split over four lines which gives an extended feeling of anger

-No breath or freedom in this poem so builds the image of claustrophobia

-Closely structured which emphasises the prevalence of repetition of poverty

-Every line of the second stanza has 8 syllables in iambic tetrameter, and then every line in the third stanza has 7 syllables in incomplete, trochaic tetrameter

What imagery in used in London?

-Juxtaposition between "wandering" and "charter'd" which shows tension between landowners and those who are essentially restricted by this ownership

-The extent of restriction is shown by the natural Thames water being "charter'd"

-Tone of pessimism in "marks of weakness, marks of woe" emphasises by the repetition of "marks" and harsh consonant of the "w" sound

-Lexical field of lamentation, "woe", "cry", "curse", "tear"

-Anaphora of "in every" emphasises despair but also how poverty strikes many areas of life, highlighted by the multiple people mentioned to be afflicted

-Criticises organised religion through the description "blackening Church Appals" as it has connotations of evil but also industrialisation which Blake regularly criticises

-Elongated sounds in second stanza gives a sense of tiredness which may reflect the soldiers mood, and emphasises how they're victims of government

The Sick Rose

• Political comment about patriarchy and the vulnerability of women

Give context for Wordsworth

Wanted to recreate a vision of the world that was prevalent in the 17th century

Walking tour of Europe influenced his poetry

Had a period of living and France and came into contact with the French revolution, became interested in speech of the 'common man'

Published lyrical ballads with Coleridge

Lines Written in Early Spring

• the beauty of nature

• only highlights how humanity is not in harmony

What is the form of lines written in early spring

Quatrains rhymed ABAB

Iambic Tetrameter-words that fall on the stress remind us of the consideration of humanities failure and the pantheistic quality "sad," "mind", "soul," "faith."

Monosyllables

Creates quite a bouncy, upbeat tone, which is ironic when we consider "what man has made of man."

Simplistic and jovial structure draws on the beauty and comfort of nature

What imagery is used in lines written in early spring

-"To her fair works did nature link" - personification suggests an apotheosis of nature and raises nature to a position of power

-"In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts bring sad thoughts to the mind" - juxtaposition of sweetness and sadness exposes the romantic sublime of Wordsworth's enjoyment of nature forcing him to recognise the weaknesses of humanity by comparison

-Anaphora of "what man has made of man", emphasises the central question of the corrupting nature of men, emphasised by the punchy monosyllable. The verb 'made' suggests only man could have done this, nature is incapable of corrupting

-"The birds around me hopped and played" - childlike verbs evokes an inhibited joy, and there is a juxtaposition of criticising man but evoking a man made picture of nature which considers the productive harmony of men and nature e.g man and nature are linked but stand for contrasting modes of being

Give context for lines written in early spring

Composed in the year the first edition of Lyrical Ballads was published, 1798, and its sombreness reflects the personal and political disappointments pressing on Wordsworth in his early maturity.

Wordsworth is exploring how man has turned on himself through the industrial revolution, choosing industry over nature, and leaving the purity of the pastoral world behind

Tintern Abbey

• the beauty of nature

• has the ability to calm and heal

Childhood memories and communion with beauty

What is the form of tintern abbey

Blank verse - fluid and natural emphasises the casual revisiting but also the overall immensity of nature

"here under this dark sycamore and view" - doesn't approximate exactly which mirrors the sound of natural speech more so

What imagery is used in tintern abbey?

-Title has the tone of a diary entry and revisiting suggests he's been there before but also that it's familiar

-"above" suggests elevation/remoteness/detachment

-Subject of childhood memories of communion with natural beauty

-This communion even works upon the mind in adulthood and maturity of the adult mind compensates for the loss of that communion

-Pastoral imagery emphasises healing aspect of nature e.g "waters, rolling"/"soft inland murmur" which shows how one can connect with nature in order to be healed

-"wreaths of smoke/sent up in silence, from among the trees" with the elevated perspective casts a veil over a landscape succumbing to the effects of industrialisation

-He looks beyond surface appearance and into a deeper level of exsistance, which exemplifies the difference in his younger self perception of the "course pleasures" of nature to the sober reflections of his current self

-When he sees his "dear, dear sister", whose mind "shall be a mansion for all lovely forms", he realises that beauty isn't lost to her yet, and that she retains the childlike purity he has lost.

What is the context of tintern abbey?

-The repetition of "five years" in the opening stanza is significant as previously wordsworth had been a disillusioned young man, the father of an illegitimate child and an unnoticed author therefore there is an emphasis on the healing aspect of nature

-Imagery of unity and connection in the first few stanzas is influenced by William Gilpin's concept of the picturesque

-Like Rousseau, he believed that our purity was lost when we left nature, and so he tries to forge a new connection with it in his poems.

Give context for Byron

Inherited families english title at age of 10

Resentful of his mother and isolated himself in his youth

Bisexual

Married and divorced his wife Annabella Milbanke after she accused him of incest and sodomy

Engaged in fight for Greek independence

Lines Inscribed on a Skull

• mocks how humans place importance on life

• celebrates sin

What language is used in lines on a skull?

Grotesque imagery - the dead human body is not sacred and conveys the message of atheism through vivid images of decay

Double meaning religious references that call for extreme atheism - "spirit"/"wasting clay

Archaic language - the skull seems out of touch with modernity with use of words such as "quaff", "thou", "perchance" and "alas"

What is the form of lines inscribed upon a skull

Six four line Quatrains

Clinical ABAB rhyme scheme

Indentation of every other line suggests a slightly unsettled energy - disregard for the margin just as Byron disregards reverence for death

The memento mori of the skull communicates carpe diem which adds more potency than a traditional carpe diem might

Fare Thee Well

• uses feelings of loss to manipulate

What is the form of fare thee well

Trochaic tetrameter - forceful

Autobiographical poem designed to rebuild his reputation

What language is used in Fare thee well

Exclamative mood - fancifying his feelings/possessive pronouns indicate selfishness - indicates valuing of emotional response over rational one

Adoring lexis towards his child

Intimate imagery towards Annabella Millbanke

So we'll go no more a roving

• realisation of mortality

• too old for parties - end of his sexual adventures

What is the form of so we'll go no more a Roving

ABAB quatrains

long vowel sounds create lullaby feeling

roving suggests to journey - therefore a journey has ended or suggests endless journey therefore signifying his relationships have had no satisfying end

What imagery is use in So we'll no more go a Roving?

"The sword outwears its sheath" - phallic imagery suggests ending of sexual endeavour

"The moon still be as bright" - Moon is typically personified as a women suggesting fertility and therefore lack of

"The night was made for loving/and the day returns to soon" - juxtaposition between night and day inverts their usual meaning and suggests love should be hidden (gay?)

36th year

• pain of unrequited love

• can cope knowing he won't find love before death by knowing will die as a soldier

What is the form of 36th year

quatrains in varying line length

-lyrical ballad

-iambic tetrameter

-elegiac tone - like he's preempting his own funeral

-switches between downcast and celebratory, mirroring the conflict between liveliness and love and death and loneliness.

What language is used in 36th year

-yellow leaf - directly paraphrasing Macbeth's soliloquy on death

-lexis of disease and death

-emphatic triplets highlight sense of fragility - "The hope, the fear, the jealous care"

-imperative verbs give a sense of trying to convince himself his actions are right (fighting in Greece) He seems caught between a desire to relive his youth, and one to give it away nobly

-Images of fire ""the fire that on my boson plays, is lone as some volcanic isle" - may be metaphor for sex and uses fire to represent lost passion emphasised when talking about his "unworthy manhood"

Give context for Shelley

Left his pregnant wife Harriet for Mary, she killed herself

Friends with Byron

Addicted to Opium

Depressed on holiday in Naples - child died

The cold earth slept below

• compares winter to death

• atheist belief that bodies are reclaimed only by nature

• our spirits do not go to god

What is the form of the cold earth slept below

First two lines iambic trimetre - a less stuctured iamb which shows the uncertainty of the death of his wife

Final stanza has four feet at the beginning which gives a slow feeling - closure and finality of death

Internal masculine rhyme has a harsh sound - contrasts to delicate matter - may represent Harriet's unborn child as the rhymes are enclosed in the line

What language is used in the cold earth slept below

Lexical field of death - "chilling" "death" "black" "bare" "dying light" "yellowed" "raven" "bitter" - once death touches us you begin to see it in everything

Imagery of winter

Inversion of typical beauty of nature as a result of the lexical field of death - "The wintry hedge was black"

"The moon made thy lips pale, beloved" - use of ephithet is the only instance of tenderness in the poem - representative of a moment with Harriet before she is gone forever

Stanzas Written in Dejection

• beauty of nature causes him to reflect upon own loneliness

• thinks he has not done much with his life so contemplates suicide

What is the form of stanzas written in dejection

Lyrical poem - introspective

Spensian stanzas - uses iambic tetrameter rather and pentameter which show how he falls short of greatness - sense of discomfort in the short lines

ABAB rhyme scheme reflects monotony of life

What language is used in stanzas in dejection

-idyllic imagery contrasts to his emotions

-repeated use of negation 'nor' emphasises his inability to connect with nature

-continuing sentence gives sense of never ending grief

-creates a sense of dissociation through contrasting imagery e.g natural world is grounded in concrete nouns "earth" "shore" and "waves", which is contrasted with abstract ideas, "trasparent might... light dissolved" which make the world appear as a corrupted dream scape thus he can't connect with nature

-Polysyndeton in stanza 3 of "nor" is laborious to read and therefore shows how life has become difficult for Shelley

-Conditional tense "I might feel in the warm air" gives a sense of hope for a future but conditional also shows how his depression has made him lose his romantic tendencies

Ode to the West Wind

• immortality of wind

• wishes he was the wind so he could be immortal and spread his work

revolutionary tone - written after the peterloo massacre

•may be an introspective discussion of Shelley's depression and the hope happiness will come in the summer

What is the form of Ode to West wind

5 cantos - has a more victorious tone as the poem progresses

"O' wild west wind" - vocative case gives a sense of importance to the wind

enjambment is evocative of the wind as is the soft consonance seen the first line

Rhyming scheme of terza rima which is a nod to Dante's inferno

What language and imagery is used in Ode to West Wind

-"Vaulted with all congregated might" religious connotations - pantheism/wind replacing the role of God and becoming a creator itself emphasised by the fact he only refers to the wind with a capital

"Autumn's being" - possessive apostrophe personifies it further

-Almost every tercet has some sort of exclamatory phrase, as if Shelley is praising the wind in a prayer

"-destroyer... preserver" personified as a powerful force

-The seeds are compared to "corpses", but the wind restores life to them. Can the wind be a metaphor for restoring the spirit of protest, for restoring the self?

-The leaves described as "pestilence stricken multitudes" represent the dead sick and dying and the wind has the power to take them to the grave but later positive descriptions of being "azure" mark a tonal shift into showing the wind to also bring new life

-Compares the wind to a "fierce Maenad" or the spiritual being that used to be found around the Greek God, Dionysus

-"when to outstrip thy skiey speed/Scarce seemed a vision" - The speaker believes his childhood a distant vision and wanders if the wind has grown stronger since his childhood but because of how distant this seems The speaker is clearly contrasting the strength of the wind to his own weakness that has come upon him as he has aged

The Question

• Romantic value of nature

• but is also better in dreams

What is the form of the question

Dream - repressed desires/inspiration/prophecy

Flowers seem to personify every kind of human emotion - are an ambiguous symbol as they can be celebratory or symbolise death

-they are lovers (a flower "kissed it [a copse] and fled") and they are childish ("Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth"). They are, nonetheless, seemingly raised from the strife of human living ("The constellated flower that never sets" — setting being a common metaphor for dying).

What language is used in The Question

-Epithets - ""Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth", seems to be a ref to Greek myths with the flowers acting as Greek heroes as Shelley implies they're divine or heroic

-Catalogue - Index of flowers is a sensory overload that could only be possible in a dream

"white cups, whose wind/Was the bright dew, yet drained not by the day": the flowers are removed from the transience of time as it keeps its "wine" (which also seems to celebrate the flower) away from temporality and into eternity.

-"Oh! to Whom?" Exclamation shows he is brought back to his sparse reality where he cannot imagine a lover to present a bouquet of flowers to. This is an economic exclamation and question that appear tonally different but show that Shelley ultimately only has three words to establish reality with

-ambiguity of the final stanza seems to preserve the traditional happiness of the flower metaphor, while holding it in an odd sort of tension with the demons that are haunting him.

Give context for Keats

Lost his entire family to TB

Suffered from TB himself - suffered fear of death

Obsessed by the idea of mortality

Ode to a Nightingale

• wants to be immortal in order to experience nature and to not suffer pain - Keats compares himself and the Nightingale in the sense its song is immortal and he is fleeting and transient

What is the form of nightingale?

Regular ode in homo-strophic stanzas - mimics the song of a nightingale in it's fluid musicality/stresses the immortality of the birds song

What language is used in Nightingale?

-Assonance of 'u' sound in first stanza - lullaby sound reflects how he feels when he listens to the bird - dull" "drunk" "sunk" "numberless"

-"on viewless wings of poesy" - poetry is a way to escape reality like a bird flying - to escape from the image of spectre (fear of death)

-"youth grows spectre thin." The image of a spectre, or a ghost, alludes to Keats fear of death, and the impending nature of his final days.

-"Do I wake or sleep" - anticlimatic ending shows the harshness of reality and the question shows how overwhelming the experience was for Keats

Ode on a Grecian Urn

• imagination > reality

• immortal nature of static art and brevity of our own existence

What is the form of Grecian urn

Greek poem

Iambic pentameter mimics the eternal passage of time

Contrast between ABAB and CDECDE shows conflict between Keats thoughts of appreciation of art and thoughts about human fragility

Uses ekphrasis (the use of detailed description of a work of visual art as a literary device)

What language is used in Grecian Urn

Series of rhetorical questions conveying a sense of intensity to understand

Ambivalence created by negatives "canst", "never never"

Polysemic "still" - un-moving or still enjoying?

Superlatives and repetition in third stanza give a resentful tone

Repetition of "for ever" emphasises the liminal state of the vase - if something is eternal it doesn't matter if you don't have anyone to share it with though he admires the urn because it cheats death

Linked to aesthetic philosophy which suggests art is the vehicle of truth

To Autumn

• autumn brings the harvest and creates beautiful scenery

• but humans are too busy exploiting autumn to notice

Personifies autumn as a poor rural thief (gleaner) - shows solidarity with working classes

What is the form of To Autumn

Iambic pentameter - lullaby

Low frequency vowel sounds "maturing", "plump", "budding" - draws out sensual laziness

Runs into an irregular rhyming scheme

What language is used in To Autumn

-Semantic field of fullness - repetition of comparative adjective "more"

-Active verbs give sense of fecundity (o'er-brimm'd)

-Pagan apotheosis of nature - may represent his lover Fanny

-Lexical field of the passing of time, "later flowers" "until they think" "seen thee oft" "sometimes" "last oozings hour by hour" - autumn often a transitional time and used to represent the later half of someones life which may be representative of Keats whose last years were mixed with the beauty of living and the pain of death

Ode on Melancholy

• we can only understand melancholy and cure it by spending time with beautiful and transient things

-melancholy seen as a medical condition associated with black bile

-embrace melancholy because it ultimately strengthens our understanding of what it means to be happy

What is the form of ode on melancholy

Grecian ode - inconsistent structure after first two stanzas

Final verse creates a sense of closure with completed CDECDE - anchors the idea we must accept suffering as part of our existence

"and feed, deep deep, upon her peerless eyes" - chiastic sentence emphasises depth of beauty but peerless suggests she's also terrifying

What language is used in Ode on Melancholy

-First stanza uses series of momento mori's to explore theme of death and how suicide is not an option - "yew berries," "death moth", "downy owl"

Begins with the imperative to command not commit suicide "go not to lethe" e.g classical reference to a river that cleanses bad memories but Keats wants us to keep them as they make us stronger

-Second stanza has images that speak of the importance of life - short vowels give sense of waking up/healing

-Classical imagery - "Ruby grape of Proserpine", this goddess is alluring but you should not succumb to her "nightshade" e.g a metaphor not to magic your worries away

Sonnet on the Sea

• power and gentleness of the sea

• sea has a restorative power

What is the form of sonnet of the sea?

Petrarchan sonnet - sestet uses direct addressal to urge to turn to nature for solace - love letter to the sea

Capitalism of Sea in title shows its importance

Enjambment is like a wave

No personification - unusual

What language is used in Sonnet of the Sea

Hellenistic imagery (Hecate) so as to associate with Greece as this was perceived as a better time

"gluts twice ten thousand caverns" - sibilance creates sound of the sea

"Eternal... Desolate" - Hyperbolic description gives sense of seas power

Monosyllables at the end emphasise message of the healing nature of the sea

To a Wreath of Snow

Written from the perspective of AG Almeda (a gondal character) looking out from a prison cell and imagining a better life using the power of nature and imagination to escape reality

What is the form of To a Wreath of Snow

-Quatrains

-ABAB rhyme scheme

-Suggests mundane nature of the speakers life

-Last quatrain uses half rhyme "tone/gone" that fails to give a sense of closure

-Perhaps reflects how the sense of comfort in the snow is temporary as it will melt

What imagery is used in To A Wreath of Snow?

-Religious imagery; personifies the snow as a "transient voyager of heaven!" which suggests it is divine but fleeting

-"a talisman that dwelt in thee"; talismans usually have magical powers so suggests the snow has magical properties - linked with inversion of attitudes towards the weather which blurs the lines between life and death

What language is used in regards to the snow in To a Wreath of Snow?

-The religious connotations given to the snow suggests that it is directly coming from God

-The poem directly addresses the snow which gives it status, shown by by how the mountains are "crowned" in snow

-Use of "crowned" and "silvery" to describe it make it seem precious as with sibilance of "sweetly spoke

-Repeated use of O' shows a degree of reverence towards the snow and is usually used in odes to express love

What language is used in To a Wreath of Snow

-Low frequency vowel sounds - "shut" "sun" "brow" "thou", give a subdued and lulling effect which contrasts with the happiness the speaker feels when they witness the snow, emphasizing that they cannot touch it themselves.

-Sibilance in stanza 1 and 5; imitates the sound of the atmosphere she is trying to create

-"when morning rose in mourning grey"; play on words - the morning has come, but so has mourning as a state, shows a parallel between the repetition of rising each day and the depression it brings.

Give context for To a Wreath of Snow

-Could be a metaphor for Bronte's own situation in she became very isolated when her sister became ill

-Prison representative of her own restrictive life as a daughter of a clergyman

R. Alcona to J. Brenzaida

-Also published under the title remembrance

-Alcona is lamenting the loss of either a loved one or the emperor

-Explores universal matters of love and grief

What imagery is used in R. Alcona to J. Brenzaida?

-Lexical field of water; "Wave", "Shore", "Tide" - gives a sense of untamed emotions

-lexical field of time; emphasises learning to accept a new life without renouncing love but also suggests process of decay - "time, now, ever, years, change, youth, days, hasten, languish"

What is the form of R. Alcona?

-Written as an elegy which is written to lament on someones death

-passes through different stages, first grief for the person, then celebration of their life, and finally a sense of acceptance. Bronte roughly follows this path, first showing Alcona's unwavering love, and then her choice to pursue a happy life without Brenzaida.

What language is used in R. Alcona?

-Contrasting low and high frequency verbs highlights contrasting emotions caused by grief

-Open O sounds emphasise distance

-Contrasting rhyming couplets in stanza 6 show internal conflict

-Repetition of "cold in the earth" , "no other sun" and "all my life" emphasising the constant nature of death and how emotions for the lover are present despite them being dead for 15 years

Give context for R. Alcona

-May be inspired by the death of her sister

-Although she never experience an intense relationship like the one in the poem she did feel grief

-Channelling her grief into her gondal characters

Julian M. and A. G Rochelle

-An ambivalent visitor of air who the narrator has fallen in love with despite its lack of corporal form

-Written by both Charlotte and Emily Bronte

-Sense of expectancy and desire

-The rigid structure and regular rhyme scheme contain an exploration into imagination and passion, providing contrast between the unconstrained freedom of the mind and the strict structure of the poem.

What imagery is used in Julian M.?

-Presentation of a hostile environment and absolute isolation;

-"That whirls the wildering drifts and bends the groaning trees"; active verbs contrast to the silent house and along with the alliteration emphasise the violence of the environment

-Repetition of the W is a hard sound that gives a sense of turbulent nature and phonetic of the wind

-Connotations of the supernatural; "angel nightly tracks", "visitant of air", "secret power"

-The narrator has a separation from society but revels in this; "my haughty sire! chide," the caesura shows an emotive pride in her separation and further anticipation and passion for her secret visitor

What language is used in Julian M.?

-Sibilance in stanza two, "not one shivering gust creeps through the pane", creates a sense of distance from society and from the visitor but also a passionate tone

-Though every sentence ends in an end-stopped line and the stanzas come to a resolution, we are left speculating on who the visitor is which is what leaves the poem potent and haunting

-The hyphen in the last stanza creates a present moment emphasised by the exclamation "hush!" this is the climax of the narrators excited expectancy

What is the structure of Julian M.?

-Regular AABB rhyme scheme and 4 line stanzas juxtaposed against the freedom and passion of the narrator

-Rigidity of the structure is slightly broken on the final line of each stanza, which is slightly longer than the others

-Use of caesura and enjambment break the structure of the poem

-Rhythm is almost iambic but not quite, reflects the narrators refusal to conform to society or to give away her secret

Last lines

-Last work by Bronte before her death

-Taken from a longer piece about a battle in Gondal

-Explores the dangerous nature of war, hypocrisy and violence.

-set in a battle field, which once would have been farmland, and is told from the perspective of a soldier.

What imagery is used in Last Lines?

-Set in a field typically a sign of life, rebirth, prosperity and growth but is thematically juxtaposed against the "gore" of the "corn" (a metaphor for living people) which suggests the field is covered by dead soldiers blood

-graphic image of new life meeting death highlights the irony of humans, our desire to prosper but our tendency to destroy

-Use of collocation/habitual juxtaposition in the first stanza; "mocking heaven", "senseless prayer" - oxymoronic language stressed the futility of war and creates a sense of disharmony with the natural order

-The last two lines hit home this futility since neither fighting for "home nor God" shows no honour or meaning to the fight

What is the structure of last lines?

-Two larger stanzas surround three short stanzas which is reflective of the doom of the soldiers being surrounded

-Masculine rhymes "god/sod" give a sense of finality

- half rhyme, can be interpreted as mimicking the corruption of people through war "Merciless/distress"

What language is used in last lines?

-Assonotic link with "Corn/Gore" creates a sense of connection

-"day after day" - repetition shows restlessness and physical burden of war