Romantics - Blake

1. The Romantic Period
William Blake’s
“The Lamb” & “The Tiger”

2. The Romantic Period
(1780-1830)

4. Romantic?
 Mere love or more?
Nature
Contrast with Neo-Classicism
Imagination and the Mysterious
Emotions and the Self
Myths and symbolism

5. • “Writers and artists particularly those associated with the
Romantic Movement not only found beauty in nature; they
also perceived truth and nobility in an earlier social age- the
Medieval period- that they then contrasted to the social
disorder of their own times” (Barthel, 88).
• “I am not made like anyone I have seen; I dare believe that I
am not made like anyone in existence. If I am not superior, at
least I am different” (Rousseau, Confessions).

6. Reaction to the Age of
Reason
• Age of Reason
– Reason is primal
– Emotions are unreliable
– Classical works are the best, they must be imitated
• Romanticism
– Reason alone is not enough
– Emotions are indispensable
– Imagination cannot be stopped, no boundaries

7. Age of Revolutions
• French Revolution
– «Liberty, Equality, Fraternity»
– Nationalism
• American Revolution
– Against tyranny
• Industrial Revolution
– Away from nature
– Mechanization
– Urbanization= suffering

8. • Humanity is good, but corrupted by society and its
institutions.
• Simplicity and naturalness
• «Man speaking to men»
• Rebellious, against tyranny, authority, injustice
• Nature begign, beautiful but at the same time
frightening, awe – inspiring; sublime

9. Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s
Imagination
Intuition and emotions
Idealism
Inspiration
Individuality

10. Imagination
Imagination was emphasized over
“reason.”
This was a backlash against the
rationalism characterized by the
Neoclassical period or “Age of Reason.”
Imagination was considered necessary for
creating all art.
British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge
called it “intellectual intuition.”

11. Intuition
Romantics placed value on “intuition,” or
feeling and instincts, over reason.
Emotions were important in Romantic art.
British Romantic William Wordsworth
described poetry as “the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings.”
“I felt before I thought”

12. Idealism
Idealism is the concept that we can make
the world a better place.

13. Inspiration
The Romantic artist, musician, or writer,
is an “inspired creator” rather than a
“technical master.”
What this means is “going with the
moment” or being spontaneous, rather
than “getting it precise.”

14. Individuality
Romantics celebrated the individual.
During this time period, Women’s Rights
and Abolitionism were taking root as
major movements.
Walt Whitman, a later Romantic writer,
would write a poem entitled “Song of
Myself”: it begins, “I celebrate myself…”

15. Two Generations of
Romantics
First Generation
• William Blake
– 1757 - 1827
• William Wordsworth
1770 - 1850
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
– 1772 - 1834
Second Generation
• John Keats
– 1795 - 1821
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
– 1792 - 1822
• George Gordon, Lord Byron
– 1788 - 1824

16. William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834)
The return to the original state of nature
The tragedies of society
The imagination: self consciousness and poetic imagination

18. The Scottish Poets
Robert Burns (1759-1796) Sir Walter Scott (1771-
1832)
Folk poetry
Emphasise on nature
Scottish rural life
Holy Willie’s Prayer
The Cotter’s Saturday Night
Love and Liberty
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
The Lady of the Lake

19. Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-
1824)
An embodiment of the Romantic Hero
A scandalous aristocrat criticizing the socia
norms
Defender of nationalism and liberty
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Don Juan
“I awoke one morning and found
myself famous”

20. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Rebellion against all kinds of authority
Vision of liberty
The Necessity of Atheism
Prometheus Unbound
Ozymandias
The Mask of Anarchy
Ode to the West Wind

21. John Keats (1795-1821)
Absorption of love and beauty
The Eve of Saint Agnes: dream vs. reality
Lamia
Ode to a Nightingale
Negative Capability She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she gaz'd and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild sad eyes -
So kiss'd to sleep.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci

22. The dominance of Shakespeare
Dramatic criticism
Curtain falls on Romanticism…
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

23. Women: the leading role on the stage of
literature
The Novel…
Reaction to the society of the 18th century
Women and Marriage
The nature of human insight
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Mansfield Park
Persuasion
Emma

24. The Gothic genre
Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823)
Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
Scientific Gothic: Frankenstein
A Vindication of the Right of Woman

25. Walter Scott: the novelist
Waverley
Opposition to the restricted world of Austen
Portrayal of Scottish life and culture
Historical elements

26. William Blake
• Madman
• Poet, painter, engraver, spiritual visionary
• Prophet Ezekiel on a tree, tree filled with angels
• «Without contraries is no progression»
• The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
• The Book of Urizen
• Songs of Innocence (1789)
• Songs of Experience (1794)

27. • Insane or ingenious?
• Mystical insight and the religious innocence
William Blake (1757-1827)

33. •Rythmic like a song
•Alliteration (Little Lamb)
•Assonance (Dost Thou Know Who)
•Repetition
•Imagery (Use of visuals)
•Symbol (Lamb Peace/Tiger Violence)

34. Battle in Heaven between
God and Rebel Angels
God as a blacksmith
The depths of the human soul:
An Angel & A Demon?

35. • Tiger => Powerful, proud, fearful, killer, evil
• Lamb => Ignorant, Meek, gentle, innocent, good
• Combined they represent life itself?
• Do we have free will?
Do we have freedom of choice?
• What does faith mean?
• In what ways are these poems reflective of
human nature / Existence?
• God as an artist and life/World as his creation?
• Why did God create the lamb & the tiger
together?