The Romantic Poetry Handbook
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The Romantic Poetry Handbook This comprehensive survey of British Romantic poetry explores the work of six poets whose names are most closely associated with the Romantic era – Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats, Byron, and Shelley – as well as works by other significant but less widely studied poets such as Leigh Hunt, Charlotte Smith, Felicia Hemans, and Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Along with its exceptional coverage, the volume is alert to relevant contexts, and opens up ways of understanding Romantic poetry. The Romantic Poetry Handbook encompasses the entire breadth of the Romantic Movement, from Anna Laetitia Barbauld to Thomas Lovell Beddoes and John Clare. In its central section ‘Readings’ it explores tensions, change, and continuity within the Romantic Movement, and examines a wide range of individual poems and poets through sensitive, attentive, and accessible analyses. In addition, the authors provide a full introduction, a detailed historical and cultural timeline, biographies of the poets whose works are featured, and a helpful guide to further reading. The Romantic Poetry Handbook is an ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of British Romantic poetry. It will also appeal to those with a general interest in poetry and Romantic literature. Michael O’Neill, is Professor of English at Durham University, UK. He has published widely on many aspects of Romantic literature, especially the work of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Victorian poetry, and an array of British, Irish, and American twentieth- and twenty-first-century poets. His most recent book is, as editor, John Keats in Context (2017). He has also published three volumes of poetry. Madeleine Callaghan, is Lecturer in Romantic Literature at the University of Sheffield, UK. She is co-editor of Twentieth Century British and Irish Poetry: Hardy to Mahon (2011), Assistant Editor of The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley (2012), and author of Shelley’s Living Artistry: Letters, Poems, Plays (2017). Wiley Blackwell Literature Handbooks This new series offers the student thorough and lively introductions to literary periods, movements, and, in some instances, authors and genres, from Anglo‐ Saxon to the Postmodern. Each volume is written by a leading specialist to be invitingly accessible and informative. Chapters are devoted to the coverage of cultural context, the provision of brief but detailed biographical essays on the authors concerned, critical coverage of key works, and surveys of themes and topics, together with bibliographies of selected further reading. Students new to a period of study or to a period genre will discover all they need to know to orientate and ground themselves in their studies, in volumes that are as stimulating to read as they are convenient to use. Published The Science Fiction Handbook M. Keith Booker and Anne‐Marie Thomas The Seventeenth‐Century Literature Handbook Marshall Grossman The Twentieth‐Century American Fiction Handbook Christopher MacGowan The British and Irish Short Story Handbook David Malcolm The Crime Fiction Handbook Peter Messent The Literary Theory Handbook, second edition Gregory Castle The Anglo‐Saxon Literature Handbook Mark C. Amodio The American Short Story Handbook James Nagel The Romantic Poetry Handbook Michael O’Neill and Madeleine Callaghan The Romantic Poetry Handbook Michael O’Neill and Madeleine Callaghan This edition first published 2018 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. The right of Michael O’Neill and Madeleine Callaghan to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law. Registered Office(s) John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Office 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data Names: O’Neill, Michael, 1953– author. | Callaghan, Madeleine, author. Title: The Romantic poetry handbook / by Michael O’Neill and Madeleine Callaghan. Description: 1 | Hoboken : Wiley-Blackwell, 2018. | Series: Wiley Backwell literature handbooks | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017031756 (print) | LCCN 2017037559 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118308691 (pdf) | ISBN 9781118308714 (epub) | ISBN 9781118308738 (hardback) | ISBN 9781118308721 (paper) Subjects: LCSH: English poetry–19th century–History and criticism–Handbooks, manuals, etc. | English poetry–18th century–History and criticism–Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Romanticism–Great Britain–Handbooks, manuals, etc. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Classification: LCC PR590 (ebook) | LCC PR590 .O64 2018 (print) | DDC 821/.709145–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031756 Cover Image: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851 A detail from ‘Venice: Looking across the Lagoon at Sunset: 1840’ / Tate Images Cover Design: Wiley Set in 10/13pt Sabon by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgements viii Part 1 Introduction 1 Part 2 Timeline of the Late Eighteenth Century and Romantic Period 21 Part 3 Biographies 47 Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) 49 Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849) 51 William Blake (1757–1827) 54 Robert Burns (1759–1796) 57 Lord George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) 59 John Clare (1793–1864) 61 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) 63 Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) 66 (James Henry) Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) 69 John Keats (1795–1821) 72 Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) 74 Thomas Moore (1779–1852) 77 Mary Robinson (1758–1800) 80 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) 82 Charlotte Smith (1749–1806) 85 Robert Southey (1774–1843) 87 William Wordsworth (1770–1850) 90 Ann Yearsley (1753–1806) 93 vi Contents Part 4 Readings 95 First‐Generation Romantic Poets 95 Anna Laetitia Barbauld, ‘Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq., on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade’; ‘The Rights of Woman’; Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, A Poem 97 Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets 101 Charlotte Smith, Beachy Head 107 Ann Yearsley, ‘Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave‐trade’; ‘Bristol Elegy’ 110 William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience 115 William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell ; The Book of Urizen ; ‘The Mental Traveller’ 124 Mary Robinson, Sappho and Phaon 132 Robert Burns, Lyrics 137 William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads 144 William Wordsworth, ‘Resolution and Independence’; ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’; ‘Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont’; ‘Surprized by Joy’ 152 William Wordsworth, The Prelude 163 William Wordsworth, The Excursion 174 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Conversation Poems: ‘The Eolian Harp’, ‘This Lime‐Tree Bower My Prison’, ‘Frost at Midnight’, and ‘Dejection: An Ode’ 179 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ; Kubla Khan; ‘The Pains of Sleep’; Christabel 187 Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer and The Curse of Kehama 196 Second‐Generation Romantic Poets 203 Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies 205 Leigh Hunt, The Story of Rimini 211 Lord Byron, Lara ; ‘When We Two Parted’; ‘Stanzas to Augusta’; Manfred 215 Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 223 Lord Byron, Don Juan, Cantos 1–4 232 Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab ; Alastor; Laon and Cythna [The Revolt of Islam] 242 Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘Hymn to Intellectual Beauty’; ‘Mont Blanc’; ‘Ozymandias’; ‘Ode to the West Wind’;