British Lit Midterm NotesFULLMIDTERMALLCLASSES PDF

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Notes for every class up to the midterm all together in one study guide ...

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British Romantic Literature Midterm Notes

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Conversation Poem -- A type of (blank verse) informal colloquial poem whose tone is meant to echo relaxed conversation

***Links are included under every poem to a summary/analysis of each one. Read these first, the summaries make the poems make sense and our class notes are kind of all over the place. Bulleted notes are class notes -- they talk more about ideas about the poem than what the poem actually means. Reading both should give you a pretty good knowledge about each one! ***You guys can feel free to add whatever notes you want to this study guide if I left anything out! If you do, just please add them in bullet points underneath the originals and put a different text or highlight color on them so that I can still go back and study mine how I originally had them! Wordsworth, “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” (292-305) http://www.enotes.com/topics/preface ● Preface to already published Ballads (second edition) that laid out a theory for a new kind of poetry -- Wordsworth asks to use simpler words to be more comprehensible for the lower classes in the newer edition ● Associate ideas -- People associate things like “fire” with “red” that eventually becomes a piece in their worldview ● “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” -- Wordsworth says when you write something, the emotion should come back out from the actual event you’re writing about and you should be feeling it again in order to make good literature/art about it ● Wordsworth attacks previous poetic diction, saying it should be worded for a broader reader base ● Wanted there to be no difference between the language of prose and poetry Wordsworth, from “Lyrical Ballads” (272-288) “Goody Blake and Harry Gill” http://simonyakubu.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-comments-on-goody-blake-and-harry.html ● Similar to Simon Lee, themes of rich and poor, but in this one more about the rich suffering for wronging the poor. Summary is pretty explanatory. “Simon Lee” http://ezinearticles.com/?Simon-Lee,-the-Old-Huntsman&id=406982 ● Lee was the huntsman, and the rich hunters who had employed him as a huntsman and took his youth then fired him and left him behind. This left him poor and with only his wife and a scrap of land. Lee tries to unearth a stump and can’t do it -- narrator helps Lee, and Lee is so thankful that the narrator remembers it. “The gratitude of men have often

left me mourning” -- basic idea is that Lee was so thankful over such a small gesture that it made the narrator sad that Lee had had so little. Idea of rich people are amusing themselves with the useless things, but for the poor man it was such a big deal to have help from the rich, while rich were ungrateful for help from the poor all the years he worked as a huntsman. The gratitude over such a small gesture is the key point. Wordsworth, Lucy Poems, “Resolution and Independence” (330-342) ● Wordsworth, Lucy Poems, “I Wandered Lonely” (330-342) ● Wordsworth, Lucy Poems, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (330-342) ● An Ode is a poem about celebration Wordsworth, “The 1805 Prelude” (356-370) ● Wordsworth, Lines, “Tintern Abbey” (288-292) - Conversation  Poem http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/wordsworth/section1.rhtml ● Begins, “Five years past, five summers each as long as five long winters” -- touching the length of time and how he was unhappy when he was away because the summers felt so long ● Goes through stages -- talks about his past, then the present, then his future, then at the end goes back to when he first left ● Compares the long lines of hedges to vagrant dwellers (many homeless soldiers in this area in his time period) ● Subject of the poem is memory -- specifically childhood memories with natural beauty, and how the present moment will make for future memories ● Experiences with nature in childhood will stay with you into maturity even if you aren’t able to go out in it ● Maturity of your mind as an older person makes up for the time you don’t have to be in nature because you can look at it and feel things just from seeing it ● Takes things and puts them into the world of forms “these beauteous forms” -- relies on the beauty of nature to get through hard times ● Abstracted memories from when he was first in Abbey, but not memories true to events -- “individual trees vs. ideal trees” world of forms -- forms will be the most perfect sense of something similar to memories that enhance the past ● Best part of a good man’s life are the things he doesn’t remember because they weren’t consciously thought out. The things you don’t remember are what shape you -- truly good actions are good because the person did them without thinking about them

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All 3 (Tintern Abbey, Lime Tree, Eolian Harp) are about human existence -consciousness of the mind is the speaker and it explores the things around it. Ex. harp -people all vibrating through the cosmos like the breeze in the harp

Coleridge, “The Eolian Harp” (437-443) - Conversation Poem http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-eolian-harp-by-coleridge-summary-analysis.html ● (summary of summary link) Stanza 1 -- Coleridge talks about the silence of the sea and the innocence and love represented in the jasmine and myrtle in the garden around them. Stanza 2 -- Sounds of the Eolian harp interrupt the silence, music “propels his imagination beyond the literal moment” and he starts comparing different types of music the harp reminds him of (lute, Elfin music, etc.) and each type makes him think of a different world he and Sara could live in. Stanza 3 -- Coleridge talks about Sara, recalls a nap he took on a hillside that day and compares the sun shining on the sea below him to “diamonds.” ● Coleridge titled the poem “Eolian Harp” because romantic poets were drawn to the wind chime-like instrument because it was controlled by the forces of nature, not like instruments played by humans where the sounds are planned out, but “pure” ● “All creative power (music) came from outside the instrument (wind), just like all creative power came from outside the poet in some sublime way” ● Coleridge tells of emblems of innocence and love (symbols in jasmine and myrtle), as the couple sits outside at sunset ● Use of the word “now” implies time and sequence of events, meaning a “next” will come and gives readers an idea of the past narrative leading up to it ● Coleridge uses nature’s personifications to echo romance words - breeze “caressed” them, the music “slumbering” on the windchimes similar to Sara laying on him

Dorothy Wordsworth, “The Alfoxden Journal” (402-405) ● Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (443-470) - Conversation  Poem http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/coleridge/section1.rhtml ● Longest major poem by Coleridge -- Summary -- A  n ancient mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding. Although the wedding is about to begin, the wedding guest is mesmerized by the old seaman and listens to the strange tale he tells. -- The ancient mariner describes a voyage during which a fierce storm drove his ship off course toward the South Pole, a land of “mist and snow,” where it was surrounded by towering icebergs -- When an albatross appeared, the ship was freed from the ice and sailed north. The bird followed the ship, a friendly companion to the crew until the mariner senselessly shot it with his crossbow -- After killing the albatross, the mariner and the crew were cursed, and the voyage was beset by ghastly supernatural events. The crew dead and the curse lifted, the mariner returned home. -- The ancient mariner travels from “land to

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land,” telling his story to expiate his sin of killing one of God’s beloved creatures. Stunned by his tale, the wedding guest becomes “a sadder and a wiser man.” Transformative power of imagination -- imagination is more tangible than things we want for. Says imagination can transform a person into a “perfectly pleasant spot.” People putting ideas on the albatross -- people thank the bird for bringing the sun and feed it and let it on their ship then later blame it for bringing cold and fog and kill it -touches on how people will put their ideas onto things without sound reasoning behind it (a bird flying can’t cause a sunrise or bad weather, but they believe it does) Sun is a symbol of a vengeful god -- compares the sun to god’s own head, and bad things happen to the crew during the day while at night good things happen by the light of the moon. The moon has more positive connotations -- sun and moon are two sides of the Christian god, the vengeful and the benevolent World is often divided into the dichotomy of light/dark and night/day -- that influences the way we think about other things because the world naturally is like that

Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (443-470) http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/coleridge/section5.rhtml ● Use of the word “I” is important -- the poem is in first person and done through Coleridge’s perspective, not assuming a character ● Opium-induced dream talking about a beautiful place, then eventually “ancestral voices” are “bringing prophesies of war” ● Coleridge woke up and started writing down his 300-line poem he constructed from/in the dream, but someone from Porlock interrupted him and talked to him for over an hour and then he couldn’t remember the rest of the dream -- he calls this a metaphor for the “malicious interruptions the world throws in the way of inspiration and genius” ● Coleridge insists if he could remember the song a woman sang in his dream he would have remembered everything else and been able to finish his work of art Coleridge, “Christabel” (443-470) http://www.enotes.com/topics/christabel (only a summary of part 1 for this poem) Part 1 ● Christabel is in the woods, Geraldine (evil spirit) comes to her and says she had been abandoned by five would-be rapists ● Christabel takes her home with her, but Geraldine (traditionally like evil spirits) cannot cross the threshold into the house so Christabel has to carry her (bridal/marriage imagery) ● Christabel brings her to her bed and tells her about how her mother died when she was young, then Christabel and Geraldine sleep in the same bed, and now Geraldine “has Christabel at her mercy” ● To end Part 1, narrator says that only the “unlikely spirit” of Christabel’s mother can save her from the evil spirit ● Wording is supposed to feel silly

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Gives a sense of clockwork by counting -- sixteen howls -- sense of time in counting and that everything is interconnected

Coleridge, “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison (437-443) - Conversation  Poem http://www.shmoop.com/lime-tree-bower-my-prison/summary.html ● Begins, “Well, they are gone.” Talking about the Wordsworths leaving to go on a day hike when he was stuck at home because he was injured (his wife spilled hot milk on his foot and he couldn’t walk). ● Writes about the sun slowing down and setting (getting larger as it sets) and suggests it’s like the eye of god as the sun “dilates” and gets bigger ● Dissonance/harmony -- harmony means good, dissonance means bad ● Coleridge is sad that his friends left him, then realizes that nature is beautiful and he can find good in nature anywhere he is (the lime tree bower is just as beautiful as the sights his friends are seeing on their hike) ● Because they left him behind, he’s able to appreciate where he is and it makes him happy to think about that “The Revolution Controversy and the Spirit of the Age” (183-207) ● Four authors -- Richard Price, Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine ● Summary -- “The Revolution Controversy was a British debate over the French Revolution, lasting from 1789 through 1795. A pamphlet war began in earnest after the publication of Edmund Burke's “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” which surprisingly supported the French aristocracy. Because he had supported the American colonists in their rebellion against England, his views sent a shock-wave through the country. Many writers responded, defending the revolution in France.” ●

Price -- “A Discourse on the Love of Our Country” -- (summary: supported French revolution, progression in religion and government and transition to reason) Believed people should decide who was in Parliament, not the king. Believed in the right to freedom of religion and government as a democracy, ideas of freedom. “Preaching” in poetry, “anaphora” -- the repetition of phrases in sentences.

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Burke -- (summary: conservative, anti-French revolution and anti-progressive, said “don’t change things too quickly, or even at all.”) Supporter of American revolution but anti-French, supported the British monarchy. Predicted that it would turn violent and hurt society. Burke believed in changes over time, not all at once. Anti-clerical -- believed clergy and church should be taken over as the property of the people, and wanted to set up temples of reason. His points were controversial because he resisted change. His “Reflections on the Revolutions in France” were controversial -- made 7 points: 1) Combines right to beneficence acting to rule with the right to justice. 2) Right to the fruits of their industry (if they earned it, it’s theirs/right to crops from their own land). 3) Right to the acquisitions of their parents (inheritance of property, etc.) 4) Right to nourishment and improvement of your offspring.

5) Instruction in life, consolation in death (education). 6) Right to do what you want if it doesn’t hurt someone else. 7) Right to a fair portion of society. -- Basically has the idea that all men have equal rights, but not to equal things (as in equal opportunity, not equal outcome). ●

Wollstonecraft -- “A Vindication of the Rights of Men” -- (summary: response to Burke, said he didn’t want revolution because “things are nice the way they are for you because they aren’t hurting you.”) Response to Burke’s “Reflections.” (“A Letter to the Right Honorable Edmund Burke”) Said you can’t have a right to justice if the weight of the law is on property, not people. Attacks Burke for not having any first principles -- his reasoning is reluctant, and tells him that “things are nice the way they are because they aren’t hurting you.” Burke doesn’t need revolution because he isn’t among the starving French masses, Wollstonecraft defends the revolution because the rich will continue fighting it unless the problems actually affect them (still applies today).

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Paine -- “Rights of Man” -- (summary: extreme radical opposite of Burke, said “don’t trim the branches, uproot the whole tree.” Wanted a whole new political system.) Wanted an entire transformation, and to completely redo the government system. Seen as too radical by many, and thought everything should be forgotten. Extreme opposite of Burke. Paine argued that Burke criticized the people, while the principles and institutions are actually at fault. The revolution was not a personal attack on the king, but more so the governing style he represented.

“The Slave Trade and the Literature of Abolition” (88-112) ● Three authors -- John Newton, Thomas Clarkson, Oludah Equiano ● Summary -- Collection of works from the romantics in favor of abolition and detailing the slave trade, its stories, personal accounts, and facts that led to the demise of slavery in Europe. ●

Newton, author of “Amazing Grace” -- Used to be a slave trader and then became an anti-slave abolitionist campaigner -- Newton wasn’t concerned about the slaves as much as his own spiritual awakening, saying he’s “saved”

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Clarkson -- “Essay on Slavery and Commerce of Human Species” -- Assembled a whole account of the slave trade and middle passage, found facts and wrote intensively about it. No personal opinion but facts were so horrifying that it became popular and showed the injustices of the trade to the people that were buying the slaves -- the beginning of the end of the European slave trade because readers stopped buying them. Gave true stories, like the captain of one ship killed all the slaves on it for insurance money. Slave trade abolished in England earlier than America (1800’s) because the free press in Britain allowed his works to be published and the public to be informed.

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Equiano talks about the slave trade and what the middle passage was like ***If anyone took more notes on this in class feel free to add them, I think class ended when we were talking about Equiano so I didn’t get many

Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (112-135) ● Summary -- “Songs of Innocence” was published in 1789, followed by “Songs of Experience” in 1793 and a combined edition the next year bearing the title “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” which showed the “Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.” Blake published almost all of his works himself, by an original process in which the poems were etched by hand, along with illustrations and decorative images, onto copper plates. These plates were inked to make prints, and the prints were then colored in with paint. (More info at http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/) ● Analysis -- Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression; while such poems as “The Lamb”represent a meek virtue, poems like “The Tyger” exhibit opposing, darker forces. Thus the collection as a whole explores the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world. Many of the poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of innocence first and then experience. Blake stands outside innocence and experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the fallacies of both. (More info at h  ttp://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/analysis.html) ● “The Songs of Innocence” dramatize the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and trace their transformation as the child grows into adulthood. Many of the poems draw attention to the positive aspects of natural human understanding prior to the corruption and distortion of experience. ● “The Songs of Experience” work via parallels and contrasts to lament the ways in which the harsh experiences of adult life destroy what is good in innocence, while also articulating the weaknesses of the innocent perspective (“The Tyger,” for example, attempts to account for real, negative forces in the universe, which innocence fails to confront). Experience thus adds a layer to innocence that darkens its hopeful vision while compensating for some of its blindness. Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (146-160) http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-marriage-of-heaven-and-hell-by-blake-summary-poem-ana lysis-quiz.html ● Long work against conventional Christianity and society, which would typically tell people to use Good to work against Evil. Blake “marries” them, saying that one can’t exist without the other and that in order to have a full life, you have to have both. ● Initially he accepts Good and Evil (standard Christian values) but reverses the values. Conventional - evil associated with the body, desires, consisting of energy, actions, abundance, and freedom. Good associated with the soul, consists of reason, restraint, passivity, and prohibition ● Blake assumes “the voice of the Devil” persona -- speaks the “proverbs of Hell”

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This is only the first stage -- the whole piece aims to “startle the reader into recognizing the inadequacy of conventional moral categories” Says reason and energy are necessary to human existence. Evil: Desire and Energy. Good: Restraint and Reason. Blake writes on the “marriage” of Desire and Restraint, and Energy and Reason. Says they’re the “promptings of Hell and the denials of Heaven.” Basically getting at the idea that Evil can’t exist without Good, and Good can’t exist without Evil. Dualism of Good and Evil instead of loneism. Blake attempts to mediate loneism and dualism, saying everything is one (bring Good and Evil together) rather...