The document summarizes major Romantic period poets of the early 19th century in England. It discusses William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge as leaders of the Romantic movement with their Lyrical Ballads publication. Lord Byron is mentioned for his narrative poems like Childe Harold and Don Juan. Percy Shelley is noted for poems like Ozymandias expressing love of nature and freedom. John Keats is praised for his emphasis on beauty and stillness in odes like To a Nightingale. Robert Southey and Thomas Campbell are also briefly mentioned for their patriotic poems.

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poetspoets
The main stream of early 19th
century poetry (The
Romantic Age): simple, closer to nature,
emphasizing beauty over ordinary things.
The main stream of 18th
century poetry (The
Age of Reason): orderly, polished, without much
feeling for nature.

2. • Lyrical Ballads (1798): an important book of
poetry which signals the beginning of romantic age.
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(Wordsworth throws a charm over ordinary things,
Coleridge makes mysterious events acceptable.)
Note: William Wordsworth, Samuel T Coleridge, and
Robert Southey are known as the Lake Poets
because they liked and lived in the lake district in
the north-west of England.
Noteworthy Poets and Their Work:

3. • The Rime of Ancient Mariner (in Lyrical Ballads): a
poem about old sailor’s misfortunes in his ship
because he shot a great bird and got cursed.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Christabel (unfinished, 1816): a poem about
Christabel and the evil spirit in the form of a beautiful
lady Geraldine.
• Kubla Khan (unfinished, 1816): a poem about
Kubla Khan and his great building in Xanadu,
inspired from Purchas his Pilgrims.

4. William Wordsworth
• Lines Written above Tintern Abbey(in Lyrical
Ballads): a poem about a scene of his boyhood when he
sat under a the tree and looked at the lovely views.
• Westminster Bridge: a sonnet about an emotional
view of London asleep.
• The Daffodils, The Solitary Reaper, and
Lucy: well known short poems.
• London (1802): a sonnet about the cry for help in the
troubles of the world.

5. William Wordsworth
• The Ode on Intimations of Immortality (1807) : a
poem whereas the poet finds a basis of faith in
childhood memories before business shut off the view
of heaven.
• The Prelude (1799-1805) : a 14 books record in verse
of Wordsworth’s progress in poetry and thought.
• The Excursion (unfinished, 1814) : a 9 books middle
part of a great philosophical work..

6. George Gordon (Lord Byron)
(His poetry is powerful and beautiful, but
straightforward, only mean what they say)
• Childe Harold (1809-17): a poem in Spenserian
stanza, about a man (Lord Byron) who travels far and
wide because he is disgusted with life’s foolish
pleasures.
• The Giaour (1813): a narrative poem about the
revenge of Giaour to Hassan who had thrown his slave,
Giaour’s lover, Leila, to the sea.
• The Bride of Abydos (1813): a narrative poem about
tragic love story.

7. George Gordon (Lord Byron)
• The Corsair and Lara (1814): a narrative poem in
heroic couplet about love, fighting and death.
• Don Juan (1818-24): a long poem (also a satire) about
astonishing adventure started with a shipwreck.
• The Assyrian Came Down: a popular short poem
which is often learned at school.
Note: Byron’s poetry was popular because he attacked
false ideas and because the eastern scene (the setting of
most of his work) was unusual in his time.

8. The Destruction of Sennacherib (Lord Byron)
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

9. Percy Bysshe Shelley
(He is known for his love of nature, freedom and wind.)
• Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1816): a blank
verse poem about joy in the universe and sorrow for
men’s violence.
• The Revolt of Islam (1818): a 5000 lines poem in
Spenserian stanza, about the cry of impatience at the
cruelty of the world.
• Adonais (1821): an elegy on the death of Keats.
• Ozymandias: a sonnet about the uselessness and
shortness of all earthly power.

10. Ozymandias (Percy B. Shelley)
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

11. Percy Bysshe Shelley
• The Cenci (1819): a shocking but honest tragedy.
• Prometheus Unbound (1820): a play dealing with
human struggle against false gods.
• The Cloud: a poem known for its lyric: I bring fresh
showers for the thirsting flowers.
• Ode to the West Wind: a famous poem expressing his
wild and free imaginations.
• To a Skylark: a poem known for its lyric: Hail to thee,
blithe spirit.

12. John Keats
(He is known for his love of beauty, stillness and rest.)
• Endymion (1818): a 4 books poem based on old ideas.
• Lamia (1820): a narrative poem about a snake which
is changed into a beautiful girl.
• Isabella: a narrative poem put in the same book
(Lamia) about a girl whose lover was killed by her
brothers.
• Hyperion (unfinished, 1818-9): about Greek old sun-
god Hyperion .

13. John Keats
• Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819): a poem containing his
famous stillness effect..
• To a Nightingale (My heart aches)
• To Autumn (Season of mists)
• On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer (Oft have I
travelled)
• La Belle Dame Sans Merci: a ballad about a knight
dreaming of his lady, then wakes up alone on a cold,
silent hillside.

14. Robert Southey
• The Inchcape Rock: a relatively short poem about a
story in far-away land.
• The Battle of Blenheim
• Ye Mariners of England: a spirited battle poem.
• The Battle of Baltic: another spirited battle poem.
Thomas Campbell

15. See You next week!