British Literature Midterm

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Romance

Non-realistic, fantastic, visionary, or idealistic (ideals of courage, honor, and loyalty). Can have supernatural elements. Often viewed as a contrast to reality.

Hippolyte’s History of English Literature

1863

“Lake Poets”

Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey

“Satanic School"

Byron, Percy and Mary, Shelley, and friends

“Cockney School”

Keats, Hazlitt, Hunt

Romantic Period

1785-1832

Fall of the Bastille - Identified as the start of the French Revolution

July 14th, 1789

“Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen”

August 26th, 1789

Inviolable Rights

Liberty of conscience, trial by jury, freedom of the press, and freedom of election

September Massacres - mob trials and execution of 1200-1400 priests, aristocrats, and common criminals

1792

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed - Reign of Terror begins

1793

Abolition of slave trade

1807

Institution of slavery abolished in West Indies and other British colonies

1833

George, Prince of Wales, becomes Prince Regent (acting as king)

1811

Regency Period

1811-1820

Napoleon defeated at Waterloo

1815

Massacre at St. Peter’s Field (Peterloo)

1819

George III dies, Prince Regent becomes George IV

1820

George IV dies, William IV ascends the throne - opens door to greater reforms

1830

Lyric

Usually a short poem featuring a single speaker who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought, or feeling

Sublime

Any of these many inspire observers with a sense of awe and wonder →

Obscurity: dark, uncertain, confused, mysterious

Power: strength, violence, threat of annihilation

Privation: vacuity, darkness, solitude, silence

Infinity

Masculine Romanticism

Justice over ethics of care

Artist takes on roles of prophet, visionary

Artist encounters sublime

Change will come through apocalyptic experience or sudden revolution

Feminine Romanticism

Ethics of care over justice

Need for gradual change

Stressed reason, moderation, domestic affections

Family and community

Ballad

Musical quality, typically ABAB rhyme scheme

Blank verse

Written in unrhymed but metered lines, almost always iambic pentameter.

Conversation poem

Style of poetry that addresses someone close to the poet informally.

Couplet

Pair of consecutive lines of poetry that create a complete thought or idea, typically rhyming

Iambic pentameter

Rhythmic pattern that consists of ten syllables per line, with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables, da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM

Lyric

Short poem, often with songlike qualities, that expresses the speaker's personal emotions and feelings

Octave

Verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter

Personification

Poetic device where animals, plants or even inanimate objects, are given human qualities

Quatrain

Type of stanza, four-lines, often with various rhyme schemes, including: -ABAC or ABCB

Sestet

Six lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem

Sonnet

Fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set rhyming scheme

The English Sonnet

Three quatrains of four lines followed by a couplet

ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

The Italian Sonnet

Two quatrains and a sestet

ABBA ABBA (for quatrains) and CDEDCE or CDCDCD (for sestet)

Blake’s associations with heaven and hell

Innocence vs. experience, as opposites

Wordsworth’s definition of a poet and poetry

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful passion”

“Man speaking to men” → To connect with the common experiences and emotions shared by all of humanity

Annus mirabilis

"Marvelous year", "wonderful year", or "miraculous year"“

Romantic irony

Contrast between the protagonist's romantic ideals and the reality of their situations

Apocalyptic

Depicts a writer's vision of the end of the world

Dream visions

Narrator recounts their experience of falling asleep, dreaming, and waking, with the story often an allegory

Skeptical idealism

Expressing an idealistic vision of the world or human experience, yet also maintains a critical, questioning, or uncertain attitude toward the possibility of fully realizing those ideals

Negative capability (coined by John Keats)

Embrace and inhabit doubt, mystery, and complex contradictions without the compulsion to resolve them.

The camelion (chameleon) poet (John Keats)

Refers to a poet who has the ability to absorb and reflect a wide range of emotions, ideas, and styles, adapting to different situations, experiences, or personas, much like a chameleon changes color to blend into its surroundings. The chameleon poet is one who does not impose their own personality or ego onto their work but instead becomes a vessel through which various voices, experiences, and feelings can be expressed.

Egotistical sublime (John Keats)

Critiques a kind of poetry where the poet’s own ego and personal voice are too dominant, making the work less about universal themes or deep emotional resonance and more about the poet's self-absorption.