romantic era poems

PRE-ROMANTICS

Thomas Gray

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

• you can tell its set in the country bc the title tells you that
• and from the diction used i guess
• set in a cemetery for poor people
• gray talks about how just bc these guys were poor doesn’t mean their lives weren’t important and their deaths should be treated as important too
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: rich people and poor people are both still people==

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Robert Burns

To A Mouse

• really really scottish
• robert burns would get bullied so bad in an 80s movie
• the poem is about “turning her [the mouse] up in her nest with the plow, November, 1785”
• its a lot of stanzas to repeat literally exactly what the title says
• basically he’s like the mouse deserves better
• and the mouse kind of is better too
• bc mice don’t have human issues like regret and ruminating on the past
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: mice > humans (animals/nature are superior/equal to man rather than inferior)==

To A Louse

• also very scottish
• after reading this i would bully this guy too honestly
• this poem is about “seeing one [a louse] on a lady’s bonnet at church”
• again literally just restates the title for 8 stanzas
• basically he’s like ew a louse stop creeping around on this ladys bonnet what do u have a crush on her or something go find some other person to stick to
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: lice < humans < mice==

Afton Water

• this girl Mary is taking a nap by this river Afton and Burns is basically like telling the river to keep flowing peacefully so Mary doesn’t wake up
• and then he’s like hey you birds over there shut up you’ll wake mary up
• its kinda weird that he’s like watching this lady sleep and writing a poem about it though
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: nature is revered but you can still boss it around==

John Anderson, My Jo

• a poem about his childhood friend
• im all for male friendship but honestly this one is a little gay
• but then again who isn’t a little gay with their homies
• anyway he’s basically saying john Anderson is his joy
• and they “climb the hill” together but the hill is life
• so he’s basically saying that they’ve gone through all of their life together and they’ll die together too
• its very sweet actually
• im not sure how it turned into a drinking song
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: hold hands with your homies==

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William Blake !!! my man. i love this guy

The Lamb

• aw look at this baby sheep he’s so cute what an adorable little baby
  • reminds you of a certain someone doesn’t it (this bullet is specifically for riley lmao)
• you are just so cute who created you?
• god created you just as god created me (the speaker of the poem, whos supposed to be a child)
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: god created us all, so we are all cut of the same cloth==

The Tyger

• not gonna lie this poem is a banger
• its the first blake poem i ever read and i was like nice bro
• eye and symmetry are supposed to rhyme but they don’t which is awkward
• i can only assume back in blakes day they did rhyme
• anyway the poem is like wow tigers are so scary and terrifying who could've possibly created you
• the idea is that the tiger was kind of blacksmithed by God
• and blake is like how could god have made nataan and this tiger that’s crazy
• can the tiger be me actually
• i wanna be the tiger
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: we are still all cut of the same cloth but sometimes that’s really hard to believe==

The Human Abstract

• this one got deep go back to the animals
• actually no bc i love this one too
• anyway its basically like for us to have kindness other people need to have problems
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: see above==

Infant Sorrow

• this baby is really upset about being born

A Poison Tree

• COMMUNICATION IS KEY
• don’t bottle up your feelings
• don’t let your anger grow into a poison tree
• just talk it out and patch things up
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: idk be in touch with your emotions?==

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REGULAR ROMANTIC ERA

William Wordsworth

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold

• rainbows make this guy happy
• riley can’t relate :(
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: nature makes everything better==

September 3, 1802

• sonnet
• Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
• basically just saying that London is really peaceful and beautiful in the morning
• because none of the people are awake yet
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: people make everything worse==

It Is A Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

• sonnet?
• a poem about him walking on the beach with his daughter
• lots of religious allusions
• basically just saying that it is a beauteous evening, calm and free
• he likes the beach in the evenings i think
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: beaches slap==

London, 1802

• MILTON!
• a sonnet about wordsworth being gay for milton
• he thinks milton was born in the wrong generation and should be alive now
• England has gone to the dogs and milton is the only one who can fix this mess
• he’s going to learn necromancy to raise milton from the dead
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: the only thing that can save england is…PARADISE LOST 2: PARADISE FOUND==

The World Is Too Much With Us

• sonnet
• i think this guy wrote like only sonnets
• people these days are too obsessed with materialistic possessions and money
• they need to be more in touch with nature
• hell, id rather be a PAGAN than a Christian if this is how yall treat nature
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: blasphemy is ok if its in the name of nature==

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• based on his friend’s dream
• this guy shoots an albatross and gets punished for it
• i don't know anything more i found this poem to be incomprehensible
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: don't kill birds==

Kubla Khan

• i actually love this one
• inspired by kubla khan, the founder of the mongol dynasty in china
• colridge dreamed this poem and then woke up and immediately started drafting it
• he had like 300 lines of poetry dreamed up but then someone interrupted him and he forgot everything except what he had already written down
• im not totally sure what this poem is supposed to be about
• but it has a lot of really cool imagery and appeal to the senses which is actually basically what imagery is but i feel like appealing to like taste and hearing isn’t really imagery but idk honestly
• all five senses are represented in the poem
• overall very cool poem but you can definitely tell that it was dreamed up because its hard to tell what the poem is actually about under all the banger lines
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: keep a dream journal==

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Lord Byron: winner of the highest body count award

She Walks In Beauty

• written to be set to music
• so like a song i guess
• about his first meeting with his cousin by marriage
• she was in mourning so she was in all black
• he’s basically like shes beautiful because she looks like the night which is mellow and peaceful
• and she also seems serene and at peace which makes her beautiful too
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: become one with nature, that’s what makes you beautiful==
• THE WAY THAT YOU FLIP YOUR HAIR GETS ME OVERWHELMED

So We’ll Go No More A-Roving

• a lot of sexual innuendoes
• byron partied too hard and now he’s over the rave scene
• and he’s like breaking it to his current love affair
• he’s like im tired now we’re not going out on the town anymore
• sorry babe we can still like do stuff but maybe like netflix and chill style instead
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: there is such a thing as partying too hard==

Don Juan

• in a classic colonizer move, the english butchered this poor guys name
• i don’t remember reading this, perhaps i was gone?
• anyway ill try my best to figure this one out
• satire, of course
• mock epic
• satirizes political and social issues of his time
• spends his younger years focused on the wrong things, giving into vices
• realizes at an older age that he’s done nothing with his life
• and he has to do something meaningful now to atone for his past mistakes
• its also a self insert
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: get up off your ass and do something with your life==

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Percy Bysshe Shelley: died in a boating accident at age thirty, tried unsuccessfully to “deliver the Irish people from tyranny”

Ozymandius

• a story in a story
• about this traveler he met who told him about this half destroyed sculpture of an old pharaoh
• basically emphasizes that nature is in charge, not man, bc the natural processes of nature will eventually destroy anything that man makes
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: nature supremacy. literally.==

To A Skylark

• basically just an ode to birds
• skylarks are really cool
• in true romantic fashion he compares the skylarks to:
  • a poet
  • a maiden
  • a glowworm
• this just in: shelley would love the skylark if it was a worm
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: birds are awesome. the pinnacle of nature. we stan birds.==

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John Keats

On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer

• sonnet, written in response to reading a translated version of Homer
• he basically never really understood the hype over homer until he read chapman’s translation and then he was like oh i get it now this shit is so banger
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: its a good thing we have translators==

When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be

• sonnet
• keats’ family has a history of dying from tuberculosis
• so he’s worried he will also die young from tuberculosis
• and he doesnt want to die before he’s written everything he wants to write
• and before he gets to experience true love
• but whenever he feels like this he goes to the ocean
• and when he stands on the shore he remembers that he’s nothing compared to the size of the ocean
• and his love and fame don’t matter at all which i can see how that would make him feel better
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: nature is more significant then anything man does==

Ode to a Grecian Urn

• nobody has been able to find the urn this poem was allegedly based on
• i say allegedly because knowing the romantic era poets’ track record its very likely he wrote this poem about an urn from one of his dreams
• essentially he talks about how the urn and its depictions will be preserved forever
• and the advantages of that are that these pictures will last forever
• even though they arent alive or tangible they are everlasting
• humans will change and die and whatnot but the dream urn will last forever
• ==ROMANTIC MORAL: urns are very beautiful ???==

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