ROMANTIC POETRY

Preromanickí básnici

- R. Burns
- W. Blake – TYGER/LAMB

Prvá a druhá generácia romantických básnikov

a) Jazerní básnici

- W. Wordsworth
- S. T. Coleridge

b) Revoluční romantici

- Lord Byron
- P. B. Shelley
- J. Keats

The most important poets are William Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The
most important concept is nature; in fact the poet looks for isolation in nature, because this causes intense
emotion. Very often nature was compared to God, so there is Pantheism. Life in the countryside was the best
for its simplicity and humble way of living.
The best place in England considering the countryside was the Lake District, in northern England. Two
poets live there: Coleridge and Wordsworth, so they were called the Lake Poets. Another important concept is
the "sublime". Sublime means freedom in expressing feelings. There is also spontaneity in expressing feelings.
These feelings come from the contact of the poet with the beauty of nature, so there is introspection, another
keyword of this generation. Introspection is a way to reveal the inner feelings and thoughts of the poet, so
reality and thought are subjective. The structure of the poem is called first person lyric, so the poems are written
in first person poet to express better the personality and the experiences of the poet.
There are other 3 important poets: George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. All of
them died tragically when they were still young. So there is the creation of the romantic stereotype, where the
poets are considered 3 myths. These poets were against the society because of its injustices. This created sorrow
and sufferance. That's why they tried to escape from society travelling all around the world. They refused the
real world and often they created a different one, sometimes using drugs.

Preromantismus

Umělecké období mezi klasicismem a romantismem, kdy docházelo k odpoutání od formálních postupů
klasicismu a začala se objevovat i nová témata, typická pro romantismus. V některých europských zemích
preromantizmus odpovídá osvícenskému období a národnímu obrození. V anglické literatuře 2. ½ 18. století
(jeho tvůrci jsou v Anglii spíše označováni za předchůdce romantismu či rané romantiky nežli za preromantiky)
má s obdobými tendencemi v jiných evropských literaturách společný důraz na citovou stránku života,
představivost (často i iracionální nebo mystickou), ale i odklon od přejemnělé či naopak novodobé průmyslové
civilizace k oslavě přírody a lidové tvůrčí tradice. Nejvýraznějšími představiteli anglofonní preromantické
literatury jsou skotský básník R. Burns a londýnský mystik W. Blake. Jistou, byť vzdálenou příbuznost s

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preromantismem (svým odklonem od civilizace a důrazem na fantazii) vykazuje i specifický subžánr
anglofonních literatur označovaný jako gotický román, zastoupený řadou významných britských autorů konce
18. století a později i amerických autorů.

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

WW is one of the most popular of all English poets who, together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, started the
Romantic Movement in English poetry. His poems are mainly about the beauty of nature and its relationship
with all human beings. Many of them describe the countryside of the Lake District in north-west England,
where he was born and spent most of his life. His best-known works include Lyrical Ballads (1798), a collection
of poems by himself and Coleridge, Poems (1807), which includes the poems Daffodils and Intimations of
Mortality, and The Prelude, a long poem about his early life and his intense experiences of nature then, which
was published in 1850 after his death. For much of his life he lived in the Lake District with his sister Dorothy
(1771–1855), who had a great influence on him and kept a journal (= written record) about their life together.
He wrote many of his best-known poems while they were living in Dove Cottage in Grasmere. The house is
now a museum and a popular tourist attraction.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

STC is an English poet. One of his most famous poems is The Ancient Mariner. This was published in Lyrical
Ballads (1798), a collection of poems by Coleridge and William Wordsworth which marked the beginning of
Romanticism in Britain. His other well-known poem is Kubla Khan, which was written under the influence of
the drug opium.

JOHN KEATS - ON FAME

I.

Fame, like a wayward girl, will still be coy

To those who woo her with too slavish knees,
But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy,
And dotes the more upon a heart at ease;
She is a Gipsey,--will not speak to those
Who have not learnt to be content without her;
A Jilt, whose ear was never whisper'd close,
Who thinks they scandal her who talk about her;
A very Gipsey is she, Nilus-born,
Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar;
Ye love-sick Bards! repay her scorn for scorn;
Ye Artists lovelorn! madmen that ye are!
Make your best bow to her and bid adieu,
Then, if she likes it, she will follow you.

II.

"You cannot eat your cake and have it too."--Proverb.

How fever'd is the man, who cannot look

Upon his mortal days with temperate blood,
Who vexes all the leaves of his life's book,
And robs his fair name of its maidenhood;

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It is as if the rose should pluck herself,
On the ripe plum finger its misty bloom,
As if a Naiad, like a meddling elf,
Should darken her pure grot with muddy gloom:
But the rose leaves herself upon the briar,
For winds to kiss and grateful bees to feed,
And the ripe plum still wears its dim attire,
The undisturbed lake has crystal space;
Why then should man, teasing the world for grace,
Spoil his salvation for a fierce miscreed?

COMMENTS

“On Fame” is a poem discussing life and what it means to be content without fame. “Ripe plum”, undisturbed
lake”, and “rose leaving herself upon the briar” are words used as symbols in this poem, representing
submission to a death-like life. Personification is also used, giving the rose human qualities, referring to it as a
female and giving it the motion of plucking. The tone of the poem is religious, because of the word “miscreed”.
Keats uses this to show that grace and salvation could not be found in the quest for fame. Therefore this sonnet
contains more imagery with the use of more adjectives, making the poem more appealing.

JOHN KEATS - BRIGHT STAR

Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art-

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priest like task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-
No-yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever-or else swoon to death.

COMMENTS

“Bright Star” by John Keats, expresses the poet’s desire to be like a star. In the poem the tone is melancholic
while the theme is the desire to live in an unchanging state. Keats uses rhyme and literary techniques to reveal
these ideas.

The melancholic tone is expressed throughout the poem. He begins with the use of apostrophe, by addressing
the star. “Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art”. His desire is to be the impossible, unchanging like a
star. Although he understands that a star is “sleepless”, he acknowledges this as a positive trait being “patient”.
He also recognizes that the star is alone, but refers to this as “splendour”, giving the impression of the
bittersweet existence of the star. The imagery of the next few lines involves the observation of life’s great
spirituality as he refers to “the moving waters at their priestlike task” and the snow on the mountains. Keats
seems to feel that watching life changing from afar would be better than living in it and having to change with

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 it. He ends the poem by saying that he would like to live as a star “or else swoon to death”. It is apparent that
Keats understands the sacrifices of living as a star, but acknowledges its benefits as well.

The theme of the poem is the desire to live in an unchanging state. This is achieved by Keats metaphorical
analysis of the star. The entire poem personifies the star as a human creature that watches patiently from above.
Keats also relays his message through the use of oxymoronic ideas such as “sweet unrest” and patient
sleepless”. This concludes that Keats knows the impossibility of his desire to live in an unchanging state. The
descriptions of the “earth’s” gifts represent what is changing and the star represents what is “steadfast” and
what he desires to be. He finds comfort “pillw’d” in this locale which helps express the theme.

In the poem “Bright Star” by John Keats the desire to experience a life that never moves forward is expressed.
The impossibility of this desire leads to its melancholic feeling.

ROMANTICKÁ POÉZIA

18. – 19. storočie – POČIATKY – SENTIMENTALIZMUS – tajuplnosť a divokosť prírody – spiritualizmus –

hľadanie nadprirodzených duchovných síl – historizmus – exotizmus – záujem o dávne doby a zaujímavé kraje
+ zbieranie starobylej ľudovej poézie - RECIONALIZMUS

- ROBERT BURNS – proti sociálnej nespravodlivosti + prírodná poézia – nové pohľady a pocity – nie
len nečinné pozorovanie prírodných krás + epické básne + milostné piesne – preniknutie do citov a myšlienok
zamilovaného muža/ženy – neha a vášnivosť obidvoch pohlaví do detailov

- WILLIAM BLAKE – ľudové prostredie – „Songs of Innocence“ – piesňová forma básní, romantická
oslava detstva a jednoduchých vecí – „The Marriage of Heaven and Hell“ – vyjadrenie spoločensky revolučné
názory

Prvá generácia romantických básnikov – JAZERNÍ BÁSNICI – „Lake Poets“ – lyrické balady –
RENAISSANCE of WONDER – revolta citov proti osvieteneckému rozumu – bohaté rozvinutie metafor,
symbolov a mýtov, stupňovanie citov až k vášnivosti (subjektivizmus/titanizmus), idealizácia stredoveku
a ďalekých orientálnych zemí (medievalizmus/orientalizmus), obnovenie kultu antiky (helénizmus) + city
človeka

- WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
- SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Druhá generácia romantických básnikov – REVOLUČNÍ BÁSNICI – druh revolty, vzbury proti spoločenským
a náboženským pomerom

- LORD BYRON
- PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
- JOHN KEATS