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ROMANTICISM The Second Generation
Poets:
ByronByronShelleyShelley
KeatsKeats
Wordsworth and Coleridge blazed the way for the “second generation”
Romantic poets:
Lord ByronLord Byron
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley
John KeatsJohn Keats
Coming of age during the Napoleonic Era, these younger poets rebelled even more
strongly against British conservatism.
All three died abroad after tragically short
lives, and their viewpoints were those
of disillusioned outsiders.
George Gordon, Lord Byron George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)(1788-1824)
Member of the House of Lords,
Byron was handsome,
egotistical, and aloof, the darling of
elegant society.
Shocked by his radical politics and scandalous love affairs,
Byron was shunned by London society and, so he left Britain in 1816, never to
return.
““Mad, bad, and dangerous to Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”know.”
——Lady Caroline LambLady Caroline Lamb
The Irresistible Bad Boy: The Byronic Hero
Devastatingly Attractive yet Fatally Flawed
“A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance
on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind,
implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep
and strong affection.”
—Thomas Macaulay
Lord Byron died of a fever at age 36 while fighting
for Greek independence.
To this day, Byron is revered in Greece as a national hero.
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)(1792-1822)
• Byron’s friend, also an aristocrat and political radical, more radical than Byron
• Shelley urged England’s lower classes to rebel.
Shunned for his radical ideas, Shelley left England for
good in 1818.
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)(1792-1822)
Shelley died in a boating
accident just after his 30th
birthday. Foul play has
always been suspected.
John Keats (1795-1821)John Keats (1795-1821)• A master of lyrical
poetry
• Born outside of upper-class society
• Contracted tuberculosis and, hoping to recuperate in a warmer climate, moved to Italy where he died shortly after.
John Keats John Keats wrotewrote
“Here lies one whose name was
writ in water.”
““She Walks in Beauty” She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byronby Lord Byron
This sonnet vividly describes a woman’s beauty, capturing its essential power and linking it to universal
images.
““Ozymandias” Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelleyby Percy Bysshe ShelleyThis poem provides an ironic comment
on human pride and ambition. A traveler describes the ruins of an
ancient statue of a ruler. On its base is an arrogant inscription; however, what is left of the statue stands in an empty desert, for the works of Ozymandias
have crumbled under the onslaught of time and nature.
“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Political CommentaryPolitical Commentary
Offers opinions on political issues,
building arguments on evidence and assumptions
The Reaction to Society’s Ills The Reaction to Society’s Ills (Byron and Shelley)(Byron and Shelley)
• Lord Byron’s speech to the House of Lords (1817) was in defense of workers who had sabotaged factory equipment that had put them out of work.
• Shelley’s “A Song: ‘Men of England’” (1820) is an angry response to news of the growing economic suffering and political oppression of the working classes in England.
“’“’Beauty is truth, truth Beauty is truth, truth beauty’”beauty’”
John KeatsJohn Keats• Keats found in beauty the highest
value our imperfect world could offer, and he put its pursuit at the center of his poetry.
• He explored the beauty he found in the most ordinary circumstances.
OdeOdeA lyric poem characterized
by heightened emotion, that pays respect to a
person or thing, usually directly addressed by the
speaker
Keats’s Use of the OdeKeats’s Use of the Ode
Keats created his own form of the ode, using 10-line
stanzas of iambic pentameter, beginning with a
heroic quatrain (4 lines rhymed abab) followed by a
sestet.
““When I Have Fears That I May When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John KeatsCease to Be” by John Keats
The speaker expresses fears that he will not live
to fulfill his potential. Keats died less than three
years after he wrote it.
Confederate Memorial Carving at Confederate Memorial Carving at Stone Mountain ParkStone Mountain Park
““Ode on a Grecian Urn” Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keatsby John Keats
Keats comes to an understanding about the nature of truth and beauty as he gazes at an ancient Greek urn.
The scenes, frozen in time, eternally beautiful and unchanging,
symbolize that the urn’s beauty embodies the eternity of truth.
Who addressed
What it can’t do/be
What it can do/be
Stanza II
Stanza III
Stanza IV
““Ode on a Grecian Urn” by Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John KeatsJohn Keats
“Thou still unravished bride of quietnessThou foster child of silence and slow
time...”
Keats’s poem is not about or on the nightingale, but to the bird. The speaker passes beyond the limit of ordinary experience and
becomes too happy in the experience conveyed in the
bird’s song.
““Ode to a Nightingale”Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keatsby John Keats
The poem consists of a series of propositions, each containing its own rejection as to how the
speaker might imitate the “ease” of the song. Each time,
the speaker is drawn back to his “sole self,” to a preference for
poetry as a celebration of human life as a process of soul
making.
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=14854
•Reread stanza.•Paraphrase it.•Describe the speaker’s mood.
•Read paraphrases.
““La Belle Dame Sans Merci”La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keatsby John Keats
An unidentified passerby asks the knight what is wrong. The knight answers
that he has been in love with and abandoned by a beautiful lady. But
what does it mean? What is the meaning of the knight’s experience?
Was the knight deluded by his beloved, or did he delude himself?
1. What is the most important word in the descriptions of the woman, and why?
2. Who are the two speakers?
3. How do the poem’s images help you visualize the knight and the time of year?
4. Interpret the dream in stanza 10.
5. What does the knight realize has happened when he awakes?
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