Poetry Context

The Passionate Shepherd To His Love

pastoral - shepherd to flock - David - Bible

Seductive Poem

Return to nature - society restricts

Sonnet 73

older man to younger man

Shakespearean sonnet - end of Renaissance so popular

‘Addressing the Fair Youth’ 73 of 154 abt age 71-4 abt mortality

To Virgins, To Make Much Of Time

ironic - group of poems - Hesperides - nymphs guarding apples of immortality -

Carpe Diem - Seize the day -importance of youth

A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General

Gulliver’s Travels - satirical depiction of human nature

Modest proposal -adopted voice of heartless English

General John Churchill - extend war and diff political views

London

chartering

French Revolution - Romantic

influenced by visionary experiences

on decay of society and political corruption

The Schoolboy

Pastoral Poem - commune w nature

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Romantic and French Revolution

Extract from The Prelude Book IV

Romantic

Lake District - his home

autobiographical - spiritual growth of poet - published posthumously - narrative - colloquial

The Collar

conceit - extended metaphor

parliament then holy orders then death

written while ill + struggling w devotion

There is a Garden in Her Face

Renaissance love song - originally to music - in anthology of his songs

Shakespeare’s ideas of lives like seasons and lovers like summer days

Ozymandias

Radical - leaflet on atheism

Ozymandias reflects him

Can be read as criticism of ppl/systems having ultimate power

Romantic and French Revolution - not Reign of Terror tho

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge

To France - illegitimate daughter - apprehension but also optimism

sisters journals ‘various troubles and disasters’

Petrarchan Sonnet - Romantic - typically don’t like cities

Kubla Khan

opiates for pain - Mongolia vs Lake District - forgot half after dream - unfinished and dream-like- supernatural

very influential and controversial Romantic - mates with + wrote book w Wordsworth

The Sublime and Awe

Epitaph on a Well Known Poet

Ireland not happy due to religious turmoil

Satirist and political propagandist - catholic and hero to Irish nationalists -Romantic and Patriotic

disliked him diff political/religious/social views + brownnosed king

She Walks in Beauty

Cousin’s widow - at a ball - poem next morning

Blazon - poetic list of woman’s beauty hyperbolic and similes

Incredibly famous Romantic - known for loose morals

England in 1819

King George III - mad - son ruling in stead - Anti-Royalist

Romantic and French Revolution - power to the ppl - no tyranny

Peterloo Massacre peaceful protest on voting rights but cavalry sent in - 15 dead - Romantic link

To Autumn

written in Winchester - took same walk every day - in letter to a friend

knew dying when he wrote it - fits Shakespeare’s and Romantic Ideas on lives linked to seasons

Sonnet 43 How do I love Thee

Sonnets from the Portuguese - misleading - my little Portuguese

Devoted to Catholicism and classics

Eloped with husband as father disapproved - poems dedicated to him

The Kraken

key figure in maritime history since 13th century

Norse mythology

poems have common theme of mythology or myths of sea

industrial revolution and fire

Remembrance

Gondall Story - invented w sister - elegy from Princess Rosina to Prince Julius 15 years after death

fitting typical Victorian poetry - alienated lonely woman without male companion

Bronte same - no known partner and died single and young

Set in Britain Burial Ground

Song

soul sleep - between life and death

popular at funerals — to those left behind

written at 18 - rare to succeed - Victorian era

had been ill - 15 - acceptance of her mortality

lived single - with family

The Darkling Thrush

‘By the Century’s Death Bed’ -originally as written end of year and century

inspired by home in Dorset and famous author/poet - Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The Voice

Emma Poems - to his wife

married for decades but estranged and he has affairs

‘What I think of My Husband’ - lived in regret

God’s Grandeur

Jesuit Priest - ascetic life - no luxuries

Sprung Rhythm - speech like poetry

Victorian v religious and converted R.C. late in life

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Maude Gonne - unrequited love

Irish myth - Aedh Wishes for…

Irish God of Death

Leisure

‘songs of joy and others’

move away from industry and business - didn’t like industrialisation - aftermath of industrial rev.

spent time as a tramp travelling America - lost foot and returned to England