Semester Iv British Poetry-Iv (Mael 606)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PROGRAMME CODE: MAEL 20 SEMESTER III BRITISH POETRY- III (MAEL 601) SEMESTER IV BRITISH POETRY-IV (MAEL 606) “ “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”-that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know” John Keats SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Uttarakhand Open University PROGRAMME CODE: MAEL 20 SEMESTER III BRITISH POETRY- III (MAEL 601) SEMESTER IV BRITISH POETRY-IV (MAEL 606) SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Uttarakhand Open University Phone nos. 05964-261122, 261123 Toll Free No. 18001804025 Fax No. 05946-264232, e-mail info @uou.ac.in http://uou.ac.in Board of Studies Prof. H.P.Shukla (Chairperson) Prof. S.A.Hamid (Retd.) Director Dept. of English School of Humanities Kumaun University Uttarakhand Open University Nainital Haldwani Prof. D.R.Purohit Prof. M.R.Verma Senior Fellow Dept. of English Indian institute of Advanced studies Gurukul Kangri University Shimla, Himachal Pradesh Haridwar Programme Developers and Editors Dr. H.P. Shukla Dr. Suchitra Awasthi(Coordinator) Professor,Dept. of English Assistant Professor Director,School of humanities Dept. of English Uttarakhand Open University Uttarakhand Open University Unit Writers Dr. R.B. Sharma Semester III- Unit 1, 2 Lucknow University, Lucknow Dr. M.M. Tripathi Semester III - Units 3, 4, 5, 6 DAV College, Kanpur Dr. Manjula Namboori Semester IV- Units 1, 2, 3 Govt. Raza PG College, Rampur Dr. Veerendra Mishra Semester IV- Units 4, 5 IIT, Roorkee Dr. Andhruti Shah Semester IV -Units 6,7,8 Shivalik College of Engineering, Dehradun Edition: 2020 ISBN : 978-93-84632-16-8 Copyright: Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani Published by: Registrar, Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani Email: [email protected] Printer: CONTENTS SEMESTER III MAEL 601 BLOCK 1 : EARLY ROMANTIC POETRY Unit 1 William Wordsworth “Tintern Abbey” 02-11 Unit 2 Samuel Taylor Coleridge “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” 12-28 BLOCK 2: LATER ROMANTIC POETRY Unit 3 P.B. Shelley (1) “To a Skylark” “Stanzas Written in Dejection –December 1818, near Naples” 29-40 Unit 4 P. B. Shelley (2) “Adonais” 41-47 Unit 5 John Keats (1) “Ode to a Nightingale” “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 48-59 Unit 6 John Keats (2) “The Eve of St. Agnes” 60-67 SEMESTER IV MAEL 606 BLOCK 1: VICTORIAN POETRY Unit 1 Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Lady of Shalott” “Tithonus” 69-89 Unit 2 Robert Browning “The Last Ride Together” “Rabbi Ben Ezra” 90-107 Unit 3 Matthew Arnold: The Scholar Gypsy 108-122 BLOCK2: TWENTIETH CENTURY POETRY (I) Unit 4 W. B. Yeats “Sailing to Byzantium” “When you are Old” 123-134 Unit 5 T. S. Eliot “The Wasteland” 135-159 BLOCK 3: TWENTIETH CENTURY POETRY (II) Unit 6 W. H. Auden “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” “In Praise of Limestone” 160-170 Unit 7 Philip Larkin “Church Going” “Ambulances” 171-189 Unit 8 Ted Hughes “Daffodils” “Hawk Roosting” 190-208 British Poetry III / British Poetry IV MAEL 601 / MAEL 606 SEMESTER III Uttarakhand Open University 1 British Poetry III / British Poetry IV MAEL 601 / MAEL 606 UNIT 1 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH “Tintern Abbey” 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Objectives 1.3. The Romantic Age 1.3.1. Historical and Intellectual Background 1.3.2. Literary Background 1.4. Introduction to the Poet 1.5. “Tintern Abbey” 1.6. Introduction to the Poem “Tintern Abbey” 1.7. Critical Appreciation of the Poem 1.8. Glossary 1.9. Summing Up 1.10. Answers to Self Assessment Questions 1.11. References 1.12. Terminal and Model Questions Uttarakhand Open University 2 British Poetry III / British Poetry IV MAEL 601 / MAEL 606 1.1. INTRODUCTION Wordsworth is one of the leading poets of Romantic age. Romantic age in English Poetry begins with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798), a collection of poems jointly pub- lished by William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge. English poetry before Wordsworth was the poetry of urban upper middle class people narrating the follies and foibles of city life. Wordsworth attempted to bring poetry and common man closer by narrating the life and experiences of rural landscape. In this unit you will read one of the most popular po- ems of William Wordsworth, “Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”. This poem is one of the masterpieces Wordsworth. The poem celebrates the power of human mind and the magnificence of Nature. With the help of human memory and imagination, the spiritual powers of the Nature can be invoked in times of crisis, when one becomes tired of the materialistic life. In such times the mystical healing powers of Nature can give comfort to human beings suffering from pain and pangs of life. The healing touch of Nature, the mystical presence of Nature remains present with the lover of Nature even when he is away from Nature. This theme runs through the entire poem. It celebrates the relationship between Man and Nature. Before we read the poem it is better if we know some historical and literary background of the age in which the poem was written. 1.2. OBJECTIVES At the end of the unit, the students should be able to: relate the historical and intellectual background of the Romantic age with themes and concerns of the poem, appreciate the poetic qualities of the poet on the basis of their reading of the po- em, interpret and analyze the poem from the perspectives of language and other for- malistic features, critically appreciate the poem, by focusing on the themes and philosophical is- sues. 1.3. ROMANTIC AGE 1.3.1. Historical and Intellectual Background In English literature the period of 1798 -1832 is known as the Romantic Age. The age begins in 1798, the year Wordsworth and Coleridge published their Lyrical Ballads, and ends in 1832, a year which saw the death of Sir Walter Scott and the enactment of the First Reform Bill by the parliament. These years link literary and political events. The Romantic period was an era in which a literary revolution (Revival of Romanticism) took place alongside the social and economic revolutions. This is why in some histories of lit- erature the Romantic period is called the ‘Age of Revolutions’. The American Declara- tion of Independence from British Rule of 1776 marked the loss of the American colonies as a consequence of the American War of Independence (1775-1783). The French Revo- lution in 1789 not only abolished monarchy in France, it also paved the way for abolish- ing the whole aristocratic system in the Europe. It attempted to reconstruct the whole so- Uttarakhand Open University 3 British Poetry III / British Poetry IV MAEL 601 / MAEL 606 cial system on the basis of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Britain’s conservative rulers feared the revolutionary spirit and were well determined to prevent these forces from spreading to British society. It had a deep impact on all thinkers and literary writers, in- cluding Wordsworth. Another revolution that changed the face of the society for ever was Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution completely transformed Britain’s social structure. The invention of the steam-engine by James Watt in 1765 and the subsequent inventions of new machines for weaving, spinning and the like brought about a change in the industry, but it also changed the society. The factory system replaced the cottage in- dustry and threw many people out of employment. This on the one hand led to the accu- mulation of wealth in the hands of manufacturers; on the other, it brought sufferings and hardships to working class. The growth in industry created a new middle class which de- manded its share in power. This paved the way for expanding democracy in England. The First Reform Bill of 1832 was enacted to give power of vote to a larger section of society, which was concentrated in the hands of a few only so far. The development in industry also caused the migration of rural population from villages and towns to large cities. As a result the social and family life of people was changing rapidly. Another development that changed the life in the nineteenth century was the growth in science. Technological and scientific research was moving rapidly and the publication of Origin Species in 1858 was the culmination of scientific research that propounded the theory of evolution. This challenged the traditional religious foundations of human society. 1.3.2. Literary Background The Elizabethan age is marked by the highest achievements in literary creations that give free expression to the romantic spirit of individual imagination. But in the 18th century giving expression to individual emotions was considered as vulgar and disgusting. Ra- tionalism, intellectuality and restrain replaced the free, romantic, individual imagination. The readers of 18th century could not enjoy the boundless landscapes of imagination that stirred their emotions and feelings in the Elizabethan times. They were seldom exposed to the impassioned emotions in literature or to the thrills of colourful adventures. The Neo- classical age was dominated by common sense, moderation, and thoughtful expression of the social life of the age. In these conditions, the time was ripe for revolution in literature as well. In the second half of the 18th century the writers began to breaks the restrictions of the Neo-classical age, and began to seek wholeheartedly a new freedom of expression. The spirit of roman- ticism, the fancy and imagination, the savage enthusiasm of rural life, all were getting preference over the dry intellectualism of the 18th century. The Romantic Movement, which Victor Hugo calls ‘liberalism in literature’, is simply the expression of life as seen by imagination, rather than by prosaic ‘common sense’, which was the central doctrine of life in the 18th century. William J.