From THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

English Romanticists

Reports:

John Keats

Percy Shelly

WILLIAM BLAKE

"THE LAMB"

(from “Songs of Innocence”)

LittleLamb, who made thee? Little Lamb, I 'll tell thee.

Does thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, 1 'll tell thee:

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed, He is called by thy name,

By the stream and o 'er the mead? For He called Himself a Lamb.

Gave thee clothing of delight. He is meek, and He is mild;

Softest clothing, wooly, bright? He became a little child.

Gave thee such a tender voice, I a child, and thou a lamb,

Making all the vales rejoice ? We are called by His name.

Little Lamb, who made thee? Little Lamb, God bless thee!

Does thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, God bless thee!

1. What is there about childhood that makes it so important? What aspects of childhood are referred to in Jesus’ saying that only those who become as little children shall enter the kingdom of heaven?

2. What contributes to the child-like quality of the poem?

3. Some critics think that in the first stanza the child is speaking to the lamb. In the second stanza the mature poet is speaking to the child. Does such explanation seem plausible?

WILLIAM BLAKE

"THE TIGER"

(from “Songs of Experience)

Tiger ! Tiger! Burning bright What the hammer? What the chain?

In the forest of the night, In what furnace was thy brain?

What immortal hand or eye What the anvil? What dread grasp

Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

In what distant deeps or skies When the stars threw down their spears

Burnt the fire of thine eyes? And watered heaven with their tears,

On what wings dare he aspire? Did he smile his work to see?

What the hand dare seize the fire? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

And what shoulder, and what art. Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright

Could twist the sinews of the heart? In the forest of the night

And when thy heart began to beat, What immortal hand or eye,

What dread hand, and what dread feet? Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

1. What basic metaphor is used to describe the Tiger?
2. What is the effect of having the poem be all questions, rather than a question and an answer as "The Lamb" was?
3. What questions does the tiger s existence raise about the creator? What does the change of words from "could" in the fourth line to "dare" in the last line imply about the nature of the creator?
4. Read the lines where the repetition of the word "what" gives the sound of hammer blows.

JOHN KEATS

"ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER".

Although Keats knew no Greek, he loved Greek mythology. When he was about twenty-one, he borrowed a translation of Homer by George Chapman, an Elizabethan poet, and he and a lifelong friend, Charles C. Clarke, sat up till daylight reading it - " Keats shouting with delight as some passages of energy struck his imagination." The next morning his friend found this sonnet on his breakfast table.

Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen:

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had 1 been told

That deep - browed Homer ruled as his demesne;

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold.

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

He started at the Pacific - and all his men

Looked at each other with a wild surmise

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

1. What kinds of experiences are described in the first four lines? What is the imagery of the poem?

2. What is described as "realms of gold"? Why does the poet consider the area to be the domain of Apollo? Why Apollo?

3. Find the example of simile.

4. What is the central idea of the poem?

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

"LONDON, 1802".

Milton! Thou should 'st be living at this hour;

England hath need of thee; she is a fen

Of stagnant waters; altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dower

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! Raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea;

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life 's common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay

1.What aspects of English national life are suggested by the four examples of metonymy in the first stanza?

2.What lines elevate Milton to the exalted stature of one worthy of emulation?

3.What, judging by this sonnet, would you say is the kind of reform Wordsworth sees as possible?

4.Why does the sound of "dwelt apart " make these words better convey their meaning than would another phrase, for instance "lived alone", which would mean the same thing?

5.What sounds in line 10 aptly echo a "voice whose sound was like the sea"?

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

" COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE ".

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This city now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning: silent bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky:

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! The very houses seem asleep:

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

1. What time of day is it? Will this quiet scene last?

2. Explain the choice of the word "heart" in the last line. Why is the heart chosen (rather than brain, liver, etc.) for the synecdoche? Discuss how this synecdoche personifies the city.

3. How do the repealed enforced pauses of line 6 help too create the impression of size and diversity, which Wordsworth wants to give of London?

S.T.COLERIDGE

From THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

(Lines 83-138)

The Sun came up upon the right,

Out of the Sea came he;

And broad as a weft¹ upon the left

Went down into the Sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet Bird did follow

Ne² any day for food or play

Came to the Mariner's hollo³!

And I had done an hellish thing to

And it would work 'em woe⁴:

For all averr'd⁵, I had kill'd the Bird

That made the Breeze to blow.

Ne dim ne red, like God's own head,

The glorious Sun uprisf:

Then all averr'd, I had kill'd the Bird

That brought the fog and mist.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay⁷

That bring the fog and mist.

The breezes blew, the white foam flew, so

The furrow⁸ follow'd free:

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent Sea.

Down dropt⁹ the breeze, the Sails dropt down,

'Twas sad as sad could be

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the Sea.

All in a hot and copper sky

The bloody sun at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the moon.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, ne breath ne motion,

As idle as a painted Ship

Upon a painted Ocean.

Water, water, every where

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where

Ne any drop to drink.

The very deeps¹⁰ did rot¹¹: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy Sea.

About, about, in reel and rout¹²

The Death-fires danc'd at night;

The water, like a witch's oils,

Burnt green and blue and white.

And some in dreams assured were

Of the Spirit that plagued¹³ us so:

Nine fathom¹⁴ deep he had follow'd us

From the Land of Mist and Snow.

And every tongue thro' utter drouth¹⁵

Was wither'd¹⁶ at the root;

We could not speak no more than if

We had been choked with soot¹⁷.

Ah wel-a-day!¹⁸ what evil looks

Had I from old and young;

Instead of the Cross the Albatross

About my neck was hung.

1. weft:cross threads of a web

2. ne:nor.

3. hollo:call

4. work 'em woe:bring them misfortune

5. averr'd:claimed

6. uprist:rose up

7. slay:kill

8. furrow:movement of the water

9. dropt:dropped

10. deeps:bottom of the ocean

11. rot:become rotten

12. reel and rout:violent, tumultuous action.

13. plagued:haunted, followed incessantly.

14. fathom:a unit of measurement for the sea.

15. drouth:drought, lack of water.

16. wither'd:dried up.

17. soot:chimney dust.

18.wel-a-day: Alas! (an obsolete exclamation)

1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
2. Find at least two examples of each of the following:

• repetition …………………………………………..

• alliteration...............................................................

• internal rhyme.........................................................

• archaic language .....................................................

• simile ......................................................................

1. Find examples in the text of supernatural phenomena. Describe the effect they have on you and comment on Coleridge's declared aims with regard to his task in the Lyrical Ballads.
2. In which direction was the ship going? How do you know this?
3. Describe in your own words what happens to the ship.
4. How does the mariner feel about having killed the albatross? How do his fellow mariners react? Are they consistent in their attitude? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
5. Why do you think the mariner killed the albatross? Was there any justification for his action?

Percy Bysshe Shelly

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1027