DOCSLIB.ORG

William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey THE COURSE MATERIAL IS DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED BY INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY (IGNOU), NEW DELHI, OSOU HAS BEEN PERMITTED TO USE THE MATERIAL. BESIDES, A FEW REFERENCES ARE ALSO TAKEN FROM SOME OPEN SOURCES THAT HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEGED IN THE TEXT. BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONOURS) IN ENGLISH (BAEG) BEG-5 British Romantic Literature Block-3 British Romantic Poets and Their poems Unit 1 William Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey Unit 2 Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Kubla Khan, Christabel Unit 3 John Keats Unit 4 P.B.Shelly’s Ode to The West Wind UNIT 1: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH’S TINTERN ABBEY Structure 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 William Wordsworth and his Poetry 1.3 Introduction To the Poem 1.4 Tintern Abbey 1.5 Glossary 1.6 Self Assesment Questions 1.7 Let Us Sum Up 1.8 Bibliography 1.0 OBJECTIVES While going through this unit, you will be able to know: The age of the writer and its contemporary scene. The features of the poetry and prose of the time that the writer belongs to; The concept of thought and framework of the text and its meaning; The concept of thought and framework of the text and its meaning; About the poem and its surface meaning, with various words and phrases used within the poem’s text. 1.1 INTRODUCTION (a) Broadly speaking, the earlier decades of the nineteenth century saw the full harvest of the promises that slowly came into existence during the latter half of the eighteenth century. This age, therefore, is more easy to understand. It is more of a unity, and there is less of the interweaving of different influences. In European history the great event was the French Revolution, which, long in its development, came suddenly to a head in 1789. In England, as in most other European countries, it was hailed with joy by all liberal thinkers. Wordsworth, who was typical of this class among the poets, has chronicled in immortal blank verse the thrill of delight that pervaded enthusiastic souls at that stirring moment: 1 Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven. But as the dawn grew into day the earlier transports disappeared. The excesses of the revolutionaries turned many of their friends against them. Then came war between England and France, which lasted from 1793 with hardly a break till 1815. The exhaustion caused by this prolonged conflict meant misery and starvation in England. To remedy these evils a race of young and devoted revolutionaries sprang to life in this country. Among such writers we observe Leigh Hunt, shelley, Godwin, Ebenezer Elliott, and many more who desired to alleviate the lot of their less fortunate countrymen. (b) The Poetry of Romanticism Compared with the complex nature of the transition period the poetry of this time is outstanding of them. (i) It is the poetry of nature. This is the real nature, observed in Burns and Blake. Instead of being an ornament and convention, nature becomes an essential part, almost the essential part, of poetry. In the case of Wordsworth it becomes almost a religion. (ii) It is the poetry of man. Pope said that “The proper study of mankind is man.”. The Romantic poets carried this theory to its greatest development. (iii) It is the poetry of revolt. And it means revolt in its widest sense – in subject and in form. There are no more rules, if these rules mean bonds and confinement. Every poet is accustomed to write as the spirit moves him. This enthusiastic spirit of liberty led to an enormous output of poetry, some of the highest merit. Not even the Elizabethan age can surpass this period in abundance. (iv) It is the poetry of simplicity, turned to the high seriousness of the time. Wordsworth, in the preface to The Lyrical Ballads, which with the assistance of Coleridge he published in 1798, says that he intends to “choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them throughout in a selection of the language really used by men.” This is the challenge to the ‘classical’ school, with its theory of ‘correct’ style. 2 1.2 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND HIS POETRY (1770-1850) In the history of English literature this poet stands for two dominant ideas in poetry, the poetry of nature and the poetry of simplicity. He devoted his genius and his life to the working out of these two theories. As a young man he was infected by the Revolutionary fever, and left his university of Cambridge to go to France and assist the new French Republic. He narrowly escaped death at the hands of the people he wished to assist, and was compelled to seek safety in England. After some wandering in the country he at length settled down in the Lake District of England, near which, at Cockers mouth, he had been born. In this romantic neighborhood quite a school of literary men assembled, who in the course of time came to be known as the Lake School of poets. Among them were Coleridge, Southey, De Quincey, Christopher North, and several more. As first Wordsworth’s literary theories were derided, but he lived to see them generally applauded. In 1842 he was awarded a State pension, and on the death of Southey (1843) he was appointed Poet Laureate. (a) Wordsworth and Nature: An extract from one of his best poems may reveal this vital part of his poetic faith. For I have learned To look on nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity, Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power To chasten and subdue. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all object of all thought, And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows and the woods, And mountains; and of all that we behold From this green earth; of all the mighty world Of eye, and ear, - both what they half create, And what we perceive ; well pleased to recognize 3 In nature and the language of the sense The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul OF all my moral being (Tintern Abbey) This passage tells us what he found in his contemplation of nature (i) “The still, sad music of humanity” – the sympathy of nature with man and his sorrows. (ii) An inner presence, a mysterious and compelling force, that permeates all things; in other words, a kind of religious ecstasy. (iii) A wide and plenteous joy that embraces all things. (iv) A sense of nature everywhere – in meadows, woods, and mountains, but also in stars, setting suns, and in the mind of man. This omnipresence of nature gives Wordsworth’s theory its distinguishing touch. In its wide scope, in its sense of beauty and in its piercing vision, Wordsworth’s treatment of nature is the most wonderful of its kind in English literature. (b) Wordsworth and Simplicty: Wordsworth’s theory of poetical style, as set out in the preface to The Lyrical Ballads (1799). He expounds his doctrine : “Humble and rustic life was generally to be chosen because in that condition the essential passions of the heart find a better soil … and speak a plainer and more emphatic language. From this statement two points emerge. His choice of subjects was humble and rustic life. To this plan he generally adhered, for nearly all his poems deal with simple rustic them. His style was to be “the language really used by men. We have to admit that in the course of his poetry Wordsworth used two species of vocabulary. In his simple rustic poetry, such as Lucy Gray and We are Seven, he employed the simplicity of language suited to the theme, and so he could be faithful to his theory. When he attained to thoughts of great elevation, as in his wonderful “Ode on the Intimations of Immortality”, he was compelled by the very nature of his subject to go beyond the language used by ordinary men. In a fair number of cases Wordsworth’s theories came into conflict with his common sense. He used language of such simplicity that it became ridiculous. (c) His Poetical Works : During his long life Wordsworth composed a large amount of poetry, but only a small proportion of it is of the highest class, and most of this was written in the early 4 stage of his carrier. The years 1799-1814 are his best period, for they saw the production of the three following volumes: (i) The Lyrical Ballads (1799), written in collaboration with his friend Coleridge. This book contains some of this most famous pieces, including The Idiot Boy and Tintern Abbey. The nature of this (i) volume was so little understood by the critics of the day that it was received either with neglect or derision. (ii) Poems, published in 1807. This is Wordsworth’s most important single book, for it contains the majority of his best shorter poems, such as Lucy Gray, Ruth, and Nutting. (iii) The Excursion (1814), the first portion of an enormous blank-verse poem, the subject of which was to be his own education and mental development.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Dialogical Odes by John Keats: Mythologically Revisited
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 4, No. 8, pp. 1730-1734, August 2014 © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.4.8.1730-1734 Dialogical Odes by John Keats: Mythologically Revisited Somayyeh Hashemi Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran Bahram Kazemian Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran Abstract—This paper, using Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism tries to investigate the indications of dialogic voice in Odes by John Keats. Indeed this study goes through the dialogic reading of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, ‘Ode to Psyche’, and ‘Ode on Melancholy’, considering mythological outlooks. Analyzing Keats’s odes through dialogical perspective may reveal that Keats plays a role of an involved and social poet of his own time. Moreover, Keats embraces the world of fancy and imagination to free himself from sufferings of his society. Keats’ odes are influenced by expression of pain-joy reality by which he builds up a dialogue with readers trying to display his own political and social engagement. Applying various kinds of mythological elements and figures within the odes may disclose Keats’s historical response and reaction toward a conflicted society and human grieves in general. Index Terms—Bakhtinian dialogism, Keats’ Odes, pain, pleasure, mythology I. INTRODUCTION John Keats as one of the major poets of Romanticism, composed multiple popular poems and his odes gained the most attention of them. Going through his odes, it appears to the reader that Keats attempts to deal with different interpretation of pain and pleasure concepts.
    [Show full text]
  • John Keats 1 John Keats
    John Keats 1 John Keats John Keats Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton. National Portrait Gallery, London Born 31 October 1795 Moorgate, London, England Died 23 February 1821 (aged 25) Rome, Italy Occupation Poet Alma mater King's College London Literary movement Romanticism John Keats (/ˈkiːts/; 31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work only having been in publication for four years before his death.[1] Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his life, his reputation grew after his death, so that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life.[2] The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. Biography Early life John Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795, to Thomas and Frances Jennings Keats. There is no clear evidence of his exact birthplace.[3] Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October, baptism records give the date as the 31st.[4] He was the eldest of four surviving children; his younger siblings were George (1797–1841), Thomas (1799–1818), and Frances Mary "Fanny" (1803–1889) who eventually married Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez.[5] Another son was lost in infancy.
    [Show full text]
  • 236201457.Pdf
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE ź ±·±± ź ɷ˂ʎɁŽ í ù ± ¸ ± ¹ ô å í ð å ò žɥɔȣȶȹª Ode on Indolence ᝲ ᴥȰɁ̝ᴦ ࠞюඩˢ ᴥ੪Ұᴦ ᴥ˧ᴦ ˹Ode on Indolence ఊጶᣵɂǾႆȁȪȗ޴ͶȻԇȪȲ˧ᐐɥѓɆЫɁ۫Ɂ ȾߨȫȦɔɞǾমᰅᇒȗɁᠲɥ࢛ɆȹȗɞǿͽֿȾўȨɟȲ΍ɁᐥբᴥŽÔèåù ôïéì îïô¬ îåéôèåò äï ôèåù óðéᴦɂǾȦɁЕࣻɥ਽ӎɋ߳Ȣ឴ቺȻɕ᛻țɞǿ Óï¬ ùå ôèòåå çèïóôó¬ áäéåõ¡ Ùå ãáîîïô òáéóå Íù èåáä ãïïì­âåääåä éî ôèå æìï÷åòù çòáóó» Æïò É ÷ïõìä îïô âå äéåôåä ÷éôè ðòáéóå¬ Á ðåô­ìáíâ éî á óåîôéíåîôáì æáòãå¡ Æáäå óïæôìù æòïí íù åùåó¬ áîä âå ïîãå íïòå Éî íáóñõå­ìéëå æéçõòåó ïî ôèå äòåáíù õòî» Æáòå÷åìì¡ É ùåô èáöå öéóéïîó æïò ôèå îéçèô¬ Áîä æïò ôèå äáù æáéîô öéóéïîó ôèåòå éó óôïòå» Öáîéóè¬ ùå ðèáîôïíó¬ æòïí íù éäìå óðòéçèô¬ Éîôï ôèå ãìïõäó¬ áîä îåöåò íïòå òåôõòî¡ ¨Ode on Indolence¬ì쮵±­¶°© ᴥ±ᴦ ź ±·±² ź Ȉ˧̷Ɂ̪᫜ȉɥ۫ȾᩐȫȦɔɞᚐའɂǾ˧ᐐɥȈɮʽʓʶʽʃɁ᫒ȉᴥì® ±¶º ŽÔèå âìéóóæõì ãìïõä ïæ óõííåò­éîäïìåîãåž» ì® ¶°ºŽôèå ãìïõäóžᴦȺӿɒᣅ ɒǾፅɔ՘ɞȦȻȺɕȕɞǿȦɁ஽ Ode on Indolence Ɂɸʴʁɬ᭛Ɂ۫ᴥì® µº ੔ᴻȻȪȹ۫ట఼ۃŽá íáòâìå õòîžᴦɂǾ˧ᐐɥᖃɞᴹᯏ۫ᴻȕɞȗɂᴹ ɁमҾɥ౓ȲȬȦȻȾȽɞǿ²± ȦȦȺǾɸʴʁɬ᭛Ɂ۫Ⱦ૫ȞɟȲ̷࿎ЅȻȗ șպሗɁɮʫ˂ʂɥႊȗɞ OdeonaGrecianUrnȻ Ode on Indolence ȻɁ ᩖɁ᪨ȳȶȲᄾᤏཟȾႡ৙ȪȲȗǿҰᐐȾȝȗȹɂǾᝂ̷ɂ৊Ѕӌɥႊȗȹ۫ Ɂ̷࿎ɥႆᐐȨȽȟɜᅓҰȾ֣ɆҋȪǾयɜɁ˰ႜɋɁՎоɥ᭐șǿȳȟǾ˨ ऻᐐȺɂǾᝂ̷ᴥɁျॴᴦɂᅓҰȾးɟҋȲ̷࿎ȻɁպԇɥઑɒǾ˧ᐐɥѯȲ ȗᆀɁधЅȻȪȹᖃɝՍɠșȻȬɞǿOde on a Grecian Urn Ɂᝂ̷ɁᝁɒɂǾ ᄠᐼȽȦȻȾǾ̷࿎ȲȴȟЫɁᆀɁ˰ႜȾᣝԵȬɞȦȻȺ༆țȹȪɑșᴥìì® ´´­´µºŽÔèïõ¬ óéìåîô æïòí¬ äïóô ôåáóå õó ïõô ïæ ôèïõçèô ¯ Áó äïôè åôåòîéôùº Ãïìä Ðáóôïòáì¡žᴦǿȦɟȾߦȪȹǾ˧ᐐɥ۫˨ɋᣜȗᣌȰșȻȬɞ Ode on ­ઔȽমᰅᇒȗɁ᜘ᕹȾɕȞȞɢɜȭᴥìì® µ¹ږIndolence Ɂᝂ̷Ɂ᭐ȗɂǾयɁ ¶°ºŽÖáîéóè¬ ùå ðèáîôïíó¬ æòïí íù éäìå óðòéçèô¬ ¯ Éîôï ôèå ãìïõäó¬ áîä îåöåò íïòå òåôõòî¡žᴦǾȰșዊԨȾկțɜɟȰșȾɂ᛻țȽȗǿ²² ȽȯȽɜǾ ᝂ̷ɂ˧ᐐɋɁ๡ȪȟȲȗঢ়ᅔȾસțɜɟȹɕȗɞȞɜȺȕɞᴥìì® ³³­³´
    [Show full text]
  • Christian La Cassagnère
    Keats’s Gleaming Melancholy: A Reading of Endymion by Christian La Cassagnère It may seem paradoxical to analyse the nature and the work of melancholy in Keats’s poetic creation without concentrating on the celebrated “Ode on Melancholy”, written in May 1819, in the height of the annus mirabilis. And it may seem somewhat provocative to choose instead Endymion, written two years before, in 1817, a notoriously “long poem”, as critics (taking up Keats’s own phrase) usually say to present it— a hardly engaging epithet to the 20th or 21st century poetry reader who shares Ezra Pound’s opinion that “It is better to present one image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works”. Endymion is thus a poem that Keats’s critics never approach with much happiness and regard, with some condescension, as the product of a juvenile exercise in verse writing: “one of the most diluted poems in a century often given to poetic dilution”, which makes it (in comparison with Keats’s later production, especially that of the odes) “the most atypical of Keats’s major poems”, so that “the admirer of Keats, though prepared to be indulgent to every awkwardness and excess, has never really found the poem as a whole to be as interesting as he secretly thinks he should find it”. I am quoting Walter Jackson Bate who points out as well, in his authoritative book on Keats, the confusing and hardly significant economy of a text in whose making the young, inexperienced poet “kept adding details, snatching at embellishments as mere filler as he dashed forward”, uncertain as to where the composition might lead ( 171-4) .
    [Show full text]
  • A Dialogical Nature of Structure in Keats's Odes As a Circular Escape from Pain to Pleasure: a Bakhtinian Perspective
    International Journal of Linguistics and Literature (IJLL)) ISSN(P): 2319-3956; ISSN(E): 2319-3964 Vol. 3, Issue 2, Mar 2014, 63-74 © IASET A DIALOGICAL NATURE OF STRUCTURE IN KEATS’S ODES AS A CIRCULAR ESCAPE FROM PAIN TO PLEASURE: A BAKHTINIAN PERSPECTIVE SOMAYYEH HASHEMI & BAHRAM KAZEMIAN Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran ABSTRACT Using Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism as a theoretical starting point, this thesis investigates the manifestations of dialogic voice in Odes by John Keats. In fact, this study attempts to examine the dialogic reading of “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode on Grecian urn”, “Ode on Indolence”, “Ode to Psyche”, “To Autumn” and “Ode to Melancholy”, through structural viewpoints. A scrutiny upon Keats's odes through dialogical perspective may reveal that Keats is a social and an involved poet of his time. Moreover, Keats as an escapist poet chooses the world of fancy and imagination to free himself from conflicts of his society. His odes are associated with expression of joy-pain reality through which Keats in a close dialogue with readers tries to display his own social and political engagement. Examining allusions, ironies and paradoxes, all the elements of structure, may show Keats’s historical response toward a troubled society. KEYWORDS: Dialogism, Dialogue, Keats`s Odes, Pain, Pleasure, Structure INTRODUCTION John Keats wrote many poems but his five odes are his prominent works. In his odes, he tries to convey a multiple meaning of pleasure and pain to the reader. His continuous and circular swinging from joy and pleasure to grief and pain highlights an emphasis on a need for a negotiation and communication with the reader.
    [Show full text]
  • Modes and Genres in the Poetry and Letters of John Keats: an Analysis from the Standpoint of Deconstructive Phenomenology and Feminist Discourse
    MODES AND GENRES IN THE POETRY AND LETTERS OF JOHN KEATS: AN ANALYSIS FROM THE STANDPOINT OF DECONSTRUCTIVE PHENOMENOLOGY AND FEMINIST DISCOURSE ABSTRACT THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF ©octoi of ^ijilosopijp V, : -•• - 'fan IN ENGLISH ^i- ft' I ? *^ BY NAHIDAKHTAR \rt-^\.'^/ u.. WIS" !••'• UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF Dr. SEEMIN HASAN DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2008 ABSTRACT In Keats'S- poetry there is an abundance of women. They are an mtegral part of his poetry and letters. They enter into all aspects of his writing and cannot be contained in a single definition. This thesis examines the changing determinations of women in Keats's creative processes. Keats presents them in individual as well as universal identities. Keats conceives the poetic muse as feminine. In the poems of 1817, the feminine entity is an inseparable part of nature. Nature and natural objects are visualized as feminine. The present work also conducts an intensive study of the feminine power and energy acknowledged by Keats throughout the odes. In each ode, the woman presents the central metaphor. In the 'Ode to Psyche', Psyche is represented as the goddess by the poet whose status has been marginal for a long time. The poet restores the lost status of Psyche. She is the ideal beauty that inspires the poet to create. The nightingale, in the 'Ode to a Nightingale', is a bird that fascinates the poet through its voice. In 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', the urn assimilates the qualities of serenity and maternity. She is a friend and companion to mankind.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ironic Impulse in Keats: Three Poems
    SYDNEY STUDIES The Ironic Impulse in Keats: Three Poems GEOFFREY I....rITI.E In the first book of Keats's Endymion: a Poetic Romance, the young prince sits apart with the aged priest of Pan's festival, ignoring the games and dancing ofthe young and the projections of Elysium of the elders. He is lost in a dream which does not include the celebrations orconcerns ofhis people noreven ofhis family (his sister Peona): But in the self-same fixed trance he kept, Like one who on the earth had never stepped. Aye, even as dead-still as a marble man, Frozen in that old tale Arabian) Later, the tranced wanderings ofthe 'Brain-sick shepherd prince' (11,43) in search of his moon-goddess (as she turns out to be), and curious rejection of his own awareness of 'Imagination's struggles, far and nigh, All human' (II, 155-6), bring him to an erotic embrace in dream: he took - oh, bliss! ­ A naked waist: 'Fair Cupid, whence is this?' A well-known voice sighed, 'Sweetest, here am I!' At which soft ravishment, with doting cry They trembled to each other. (II, 712-6) Perllaps aware that the imagination was not struggling very hard here, Keats added: Helicon! o fountained hill! Old Homer's Helicon! That thou wouldst spout a little streamlet o'er These sorry pages! (11,716-9) Later again in his 'fairy journey' (11,352), when Endymion first encounters the apparently mortal Indian Maiden who has strayed from Bacchus's troop, he responds to her roundelay: I cannot choose but kneel here and adore.
    [Show full text]
  • Escapism, Oblivion, and Process in the Poetry of Charlotte Smith and John Keats
    East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Undergraduate Honors Theses Student Works 5-2013 Escapism, Oblivion, and Process in the Poetry of Charlotte Smith and John Keats. Jessica Hall East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/honors Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hall, Jessica, "Escapism, Oblivion, and Process in the Poetry of Charlotte Smith and John Keats." (2013). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 62. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/62 This Honors Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Escapism, Oblivion, and Process in the Poetry of Charlotte Smith and John Keats Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of Honors By Jessica Hall The Honors College Midway Honors Program East Tennessee State University April 12, 2013 _____________________________ Dr. Jesse Graves, Faculty Mentor Hall 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………. 3 CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………………………………… 5 CHAPTER TWO……………………………………………………………………… 18 CHAPTER THREE…………………………………………………………………… 45 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………... 55 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………. 57 Hall 3 Introduction Charlotte Turner Smith and John Keats have not often been considered together; on those occasions that they have, it has been in the most peripheral and narrow ways. There is ample cause for this deficiency in critical comment. Smith and Keats wrote, in many respects, from opposite ends of the Romantic spectrum. In her immensely popular Elegiac Sonnets, Smith— sometimes lauded as the first British Romantic poet—perfected the prototype of the ode form M.H.
    [Show full text]
  • Keats's Anatomy of Melancholy
    KEATS’S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY ANATOMY KEATS’S KEATS’S ANATOMY ‘White’s groundbreaking book combines two exceptional dimensions of Keats’s career into one compelling argument: the genius of the 1820 collection and the significance of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of OF MELANCHOLY Melancholy for Keats’s poetry. White goes where no-one has gone before: he unravels and decodes the marvelous pyrotechnics of Burton’s proto-psychological medical text into a deepened, enhanced Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes understanding of Keats’s final collection.’ and Other Poems (1820) Heidi Thomson, Victoria University of Wellington A detailed study of John Keats’s classic volume of poetry published in 1820 considered in the light of the history of melancholy This book examines John Keats’s immensely important collection of poems, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes, And Other Poems (1820), and is published in the volume’s bicentenary. It analyses the collection as an authorially organised and multi-dimensionally unified volume rather than as a collection of occasional poems. R. S. White argues that a guiding theme behind the 1820 volume is the persistent emphasis on different types of melancholy, an ancient, all-consuming medical condition and literary preoccupation in Renaissance and Romantic poetry. Melancholy was a lifelong interest of Keats’s, touching on his medical training, his temperament and his delighted reading in 1819 of Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy. White R. S. R. S. White is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Western Australia. Cover image: Isabella and the Pot of Basil, 1907 (oil on canvas), Waterhouse, John William (1849–1917) / Private Collection / Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images ISBN 978-1-4744-8045-1 Cover design: www.hayesdesign.co.uk edinburghuniversitypress.com R.
    [Show full text]
  • Ode on Melancholy
    Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Ode on Melancholy wine from the mythical Queen of the Underworld. Don't make POEM TEXT a rosary bead necklace from poisonous yew-berries, and don't become obsessed with symbols of death and decay like beetles 1 No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist or death-moths. And don't join forces with the owl in order to intensify your mysterious sadness. Doing any of the above will 2 Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; bring too much darkness, and just numb you to your pain. 3 Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd When a melancholy mood strikes you—like a sudden 4 By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; thunderstorm that makes the sky weep, pounds down on the 5 Make not your rosary of yew-berries, flowers, and covers all the greenery with an April fog—then 6 Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be feed your pain by gazing upon a rose that blooms only in the 7 Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl morning, or the rainbows over the sea, or bounteous peony 8 A partner in your sorrow's mysteries; flowers. Or if your lover is really angry, just hold her soft hand 9 For shade to shade will come too drowsily, and let her express that anger while you gaze deeply into her 10 And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul. beautiful eyes. Melancholy is inseparable from beauty, because beauty doesn't 11 But when the melancholy fit shall fall last forever.
    [Show full text]
  • The Representation of Negative Mental States in the Poetry of John Keats: a Cognitive Approach to His Metaphors of Depression
    The Representation of Negative Mental States in the Poetry of John Keats: A Cognitive Approach to His Metaphors of Depression By: Yasir A. Al-Jumaili A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Arts and Humanities School of English Supervisors: Professor Jane L. Hodson and Dr. Sara Whiteley March 2018 “Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul? A Place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways!” John Keats Abstract Much previous research on the representation of depression and melancholy in the poetry of John Keats has taken a biographical approach, judging his poetry with reference to known facts about his life. This study is different. It takes a cognitive perspective in which metaphors of negative mental states are analysed from a conceptual point of view. To do this I adopt current approaches to analysing metaphor, primarily Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Conceptual Integration Theory (CIT). I make use of identification procedures and the analysis of the following elements: source domains, conceptual metaphors, and cross-domain mappings. The study is based on a selection of poems; only the parts that relate to negative mental states are analysed. I begin by focusing on two poems (‘To Hope’ and ‘Ode to a Nightingale’) while testing my methodology, and then I broaden my focus to a Keats’s whole collection of poems in the final stage of my research. Analysing such metaphorical expressions enables me to find out how these states are constructed through metaphors and what concepts are used in representing them.
    [Show full text]
  • Ode on Melancholy" and Blake's "Songs"
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Honors Theses Department of English Winter 12-15-2010 The Poet and the "Temple of Delight": Allegory in "Ode on Melancholy" and Blake's "Songs" Stuart H. Hunt Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_hontheses Recommended Citation Hunt, Stuart H., "The Poet and the "Temple of Delight": Allegory in "Ode on Melancholy" and Blake's "Songs"." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_hontheses/8 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE POET AND THE “TEMPLE OF DELIGHT”: ALLEGORY IN “ODE ON MELANCHOLY” AND BLAKE’S “SONGS” by STUART H. HUNT Under the Direction of Lee Anne Richardson ABSTRACT In the final stanza of John Keats’s “Ode on Melancholy,” there are capitalized emotions such as “Joy” that are characters within the poem. William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” include personified emotions in much the same way. In this paper I will define allegory as using a “radical dispersonification” in which personified objects within the poem point to something abstract that exists on its own, outside the context of the poem. Given the similarity of Keats’s poem and Blake’s “Songs,” there is the possibility that as Romantics, Blake influenced Keats. In the sense that Blake’s “Songs” are ultimately a religious or political allegory, which Blake manifests as states of “Innocence” and “Experience,” and Keats’s poem is allegorical in the sense that it is about an abstract state called “Melancholy” that he has experienced as a poet.
    [Show full text]