Riassunti The Romantic Age: first generation

The Romantic Age

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe  at the end of the 18th century.

At that time the king was George III; England was a world power and in addition there were various scientific discoveries including that of steam, but some colonies rebelled for independence and the nation had various internal conflicts (English Revolution).

Pre-romanticism with Gray

He spent most of his life at Cambridge University, where he became a professor of modern history.

He was called 'the most learned man in Europe'.

He is remembered for his 'Elegy written in a country churchyard', composed after the death of his friend Richard West.

Thomas Grey has all the canons that would later be developed in Romanticism which Gray can be considered a precursor. 

Gray's canons are melancholy, the need for solitude and the necessity of man to meditate in silence to find himself. 

elegy

noun [ C ]

UK /ˈel.ə.dʒi/ US /ˈel.ə.dʒi/.

a sad poem or song, especially to remember someone who has died or something in the past

Romantic poetry

The English romantic period was dominated by poetry because here renewed interest in imagination and emotions.

Its main themes reflect conflicts in its historical context.

The characteristics of romantic poetry are:

• Importance of feelings

• Free play of imagination

• Childhood

• Poetry as expression of soul and desire 

• Nature consider like home  

Romantic poets are usually divided in two groups; first generation With wordsworth, coleridge and blake and second generation with byron, shelly and keats 

First generation

One of the writers of the first generation was William Blake, he was a visionary poet because he began writing poems in books where each page was hand printed and colored by Blake and his wife Catherine.

His book was not successful because it was more expensive and because he was also considered to be crazy for his vision.

His most famous works were “songs of innocence” and “song of experience” 

Those who wrote the manifesto of romanticism are Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth (also known as “the lake poets”).

The manifesto is found in the preface of the lyrical ballads and is defined in this: 

the simple style, the importance of the individual, nature, or the supernatural (for coleridge) then the presence of god and the value of emotions.

For Wordsworth nature is a moral guide and a source of pleasure, for coleridge contemplation of nature is always accompanied by the presence of god. 

William Wordsworth’s life

William Wordsworth was born in the lake district, in the northwest of england.

When he is 20 years old he moves to France, for the French revolution, where he meets a girl; the two fall in love and then have a daughter.

Afterwards Wordsworth has to return to England because staying in France with the french revolution is too dangerous, leaving his partner with his daughter.

After a few years, when the french revolution ended, he returns to france, with his sister, where he meets his old lover and her daughter; he gives them a lot of money for the rest of their lives.

William returns to England where he marries another woman and stays in the lake district in the north west of england.

The poet’s role

Wordsworth writes in a very simple way because he wants all people to be able to understand his poetry.

The poet for Wordsworth is a guide for other people because he understands reality and can explain it.

The rainbow

My heart leaps up when I behold 

   A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began; 

So is it now I am a man; 

So be it when I shall grow old, 

   Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety

Il mio cuore sussulta quando vedo 

   Un arcobaleno nel cielo:

Così è stato quando è iniziata la mia vita; 

Così è ora che sono un uomo; 

Così sia quando invecchierò, 

   Oppure lasciami morire!

Il Bambino è il padre dell'Uomo;

E potrei desiderare che i miei giorni fossero

Legati ciascuno a ciascuno dalla pietà naturale.

In this poem we find all the typical elements of romanticism: nature as a refuge and as a friend and seen a goddess, the exaltation of childhood and from this the everlasting joy.

The poem can be divided into three parts:

1. the first part: where the poet is happy because looking at the rainbow he thinks back to when he was a child;

2. the second part: where we see the theme of childhood;

3. the third part: where we see the theme of nature.

The Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 

The daffodils or i wandered lonely as a cloud is a poem by wordsworth; he had the inspiration when he saw a field of daffodils with his sister, in the poem he compares himself to a cloud suspended in the sky and says that after seeing nature in the countryside and felt emotions he returns home writes in verse what he felt.

Senses involved are:

sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.

The novel in the romantic age

The novel of manners

 This novel is based on everyday life and events, social behavior and character. 

They are found in those levels of society where people do not have to fight for survival and where they are free to develop rules, codes, and conventions of everyday behavior.

The gothic novel

This novel is an original tale of macabre, fantastic and supernatural.

It is a complicated plot, a mix of realistic details and legends and supernatural events.

The historical novel

In this novel there is interest in the past and in particular in the Middle Ages.

The greatest exponent and sir Walter Scott

The gothic novel

This novel is an original tale of macabre, fantastic and supernatural.

It is a complicated plot, a mix of realistic details and legends and supernatural events all set in a haunted castle, wild landscape and ruins.

Gothic fiction is influenced by the concept of beautiful and sublime.

Beauty is divided into 2 branches:

the beautiful which is something perfect and regular that everyone likes and the sublime which is something that scares us but we like it.

Another element of gothic novels is description of a terrifying setting, sense of mystery and often monsters or vampires appear.

The most important author ar Horace Walpole with his work The castle of Otranto, Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley with her work Frankenstein  

Mary Shelley's masterpiece

Mary Shelley was an English nouvelliste best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the new prometheus, the story of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who creates a creature intelligent in a scientific experiment.

The idea for the book was conceived at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, the writer on summer vacation with her husband Percy Shelley and their friend, the poet Byron, not being able to go out because of the rain, they decided to create stories to entertain themselves and here Mary Shelley had the idea.

Mary also participated in scientific conferences on how to revive a dead person through electricity. 

“Or the new prometheus” because as the titanium Prometheus brought fire to humans challenging the will of the gods, especially Vulcan, Frankenstein also challenged god because he created life putting himself at the par, as Prometheus, of god (hubris).

The historical novel

In this novel there is interest in the past and in particular in the Middle Ages.

The pioneer of historical novels is Sir Walter Scott, a Scottish writer and poet.

The historical novel is a story set in the past where characters' actions and lives are set in historical events.

His masterpiece is Ivanhoe, a complicated plot, set in the reign of Richard I, with Robin Hood.

Scott’s novel inspired Alessandro Manzoni in terms of ideas and narrative technique.