Romantic Orientalism-Coleridge's "Kubla Khan"

Another Romantic theme was Orientalism. With the expansion of trade with the East, tales of exotic places very different to England stimulated the imaginations of the Romantic poets. Here's the first verse of Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan". Notice the rich, exotic description (helped along with a little opium, no doubt).

“Kubla Khan. Or, A Vision in a Dream, a Fragment” (S.T. Coleridge)
(the first verse)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree :

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round :

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

For the full poem:
(http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html)

Shelley and "England in 1819"

Another common topic for the Romantic poets was the French Revolution. Percy Shelley wrote this sonnet in protest of King George after the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, 1819 (didn't I say Manchester had so much to answer for?!)

ENGLAND IN 1819

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,--
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn, mud from a muddy spring,--
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,--
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,--
An army which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,--
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless, a book sealed,--
A Senate--Time's worst statute unrepealed,--
Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst to illumine our tempestuous day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_in_1819

Wordsworth and Romantic Landscapes

Remember how the different Romantic poets had different preferences for topic? Well, the next few entries are to share some examples of these. Let's start with Wordsworth and his daffodils.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
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.

Shakespeare's globe

We might have "finished" Shakespeare, but the beauty of the blog is that we can share information whenever we find it. Click the link to read an article about the possible discovery of Shakespeare's first theatre in London:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7931823.stm

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts...

Jonathan Swift-political journalist, academic, clergyman, misanthropist. Perhaps being involved with human beings from so many different aspects made him so cynical about his own kind. This cynicism reached a summit with his final essay "A Modest Proposal" (1729), after which he chose to write only poetry.
We must remember while reading this essay that Swift was NOT being serious in suggesting that the Irish sell their children for food to the rich. He was trying to attract the attention of an indifferent audience, before asserting angrily what he thought were realistic solutions (page 5 of your copies, beginning "Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients"). Swift's satire is very different from that of Dryden in "MacFlecknoe". He is angry rather than mocking; and he is calling out for an urgent solution to a problem of humanity rather than making fun of a rival poet.
However, similar to Dryden's "MacFlecknoe", the satire in "A Modest Proposal" is created by means of a contrast between form and content. While Dryden used the form of heroic poetry to diminish Thomas Shadwell, Swift uses the form of the essay - rational argumentation - to present content that is completely irrational and unacceptable to any human being, regardless of their race, culture or religion. Swift's language is clear and logical, the content is horrific and shocks the readers until the part where he introduces his rational solutions satirically by commenting "let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he hath at least some glimpse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice". Again we see Swift's mistrust of the good intentions of mankind.

"Wage the immortal war with Wit"!!

Welcome back after the winter break!
This week we picked up our journey from the Restoration period and read the introductory part of John Dryden's "MacFlecknoe". Satire is a predominant feature of Restoration literature, and in this case Dryden used the mock-heroic poetic form to criticise a personal enemy, Thomas Shadwell. We no longer see the metaphorical flourishes of Shakespeare that appealed to our hearts; instead, we have elevated language that drives the subject of the satire into the ground. We laugh because it appeals to our intelligences.
What were your favourite expressions from the extract we read?

Sing, Heavenly Muse....

This week we looked at some of the literature written during English Civil War and Interregnum , and we saw how the Puritanical beliefs of the parliamentarians affected the subject matter and style of the works of this period. Hobbes's "Leviathan" was a political work emphasising the importance of a strong central government to control the individuals comprising society; Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" showed the Christians of that time how they should always be hopeful on their journey through life; the aim of Milton's ambitious poem "Paradise Lost" was "to justify the ways of God to man". Gone are the days of the ebullient works of the Renaissance; in their place are more serious works of politics and religion.