Romanticism Values Synthesis

In order to hone your skills of identifying themes and creating a central argument via writing, do the following prompt:

1. Choose one of the values of romanticism we discussed: emotion over reason, nature over human-made, impermanence of humanity, the individual over the collective, valuing rural life. writing sparked by individual emotion instead of borrowing from other genres or overthinking writing.

2. Choose three literary works from the Romantic Unit. How does the Romantic value you chose come out in these three literary works.
Ozymandias
London
The World Is Too Much With Us
3. Incorporate at least two direct quotations from these works to support your assertion. Use "/" to indicate breaks in lines

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away"
(Shelley.712)

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
(Wordsworth. 694)

4. Remember to explain the why's and how's surrounding your assertions/claims i.e. how does this or that literary work represent the value you choose or why do you think the Romantics focused on these values in their writing over others? Why were the Romantics drawn to such themes?

5. As always, solid topic sentences and varied sentence structure are always helpful.

The romantics believed in a lot of things that were uncommon for people to think of in their day. They were very in touch with nature and with their own feelings, and their poetry reflected this. One very important theme of poetry of the romantic era was valuing nature of things that are human made. Percy Byshe Shelley gives a great insight of why he thought nature was better than human-mane in this exerpt from Ozymandias.
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away"
(Shelley.712)
Shelley was drawn to this theme because he realized that no matter what nature will always win out because it controls everything.
Another poem which displays the theme of nature over man made is London. While there are very many great things going on in the city and the people are making great things, they are depressed because they are all stuck in the gloominess of the city and they aren't able to appreciate being in the countryside at all. This poem ties into the third poem described, The World Is Too Much With Us. Wordsworth gets right to the point with the opening four lines of the poem.
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
(Wordsworth. 694)
Wordsworth obviously feels that people are spending too much time trying to gain money and they aren't spending enough time taking in the beauty and innocence of nature. He feels that people are wasting their lives working and toiling in the city trying to buy man-made things that can make humans happy, but he feels the only thing that can make people happy is appreciating nature. The theme of appreciating nature over man-made is a good lesson for all people to learn and that true happyness is achieved from doing things and going and seeing different things in nature instead of working all the time and trying to buy happyness.

Blake/Wordsworth/Coleridge/Romanticism Blog-Due March 19

1. Do you agree with the view of Romanticsm that you should go with your emotions instead reason ultimately when making decisions?

I think that you should use a combination of both when making decisions because both reasoning and emotions are both very important.
2. What do you think William Blake's "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" represent about human condition/psche?
They represent both the good and bad side of people, and how people can act.
3. Do you agree with Wordsworth that we're too focused on "getting and spending" in society?
I think that that is true and that we need to do more relaxing and work less so we can enjoy our lives.
4. Describe one of your most vivid dreams recently similar to Coleridge's poem, "Kubla Khan"?
I had a dream that I was on stage with Muhammad Ali and that we were accepting some sort of award and out of nowhere he punched me in the face and everybody laughed at me.

Blake and Burns ?'s

1. Robert Burns is known as the national poet of Scotland; how does Burns incorporate/
honor is Scottish heritage in the poems “Auld Lang Syne•” and “John Anderson My
Jo”?
He writes in Scots, which is a dialect Scottish people use.
2. What idea concept is being praised/honored in “Auld Lang Syne”?
How is this same
theme extended in “John Anderson, My Jo”? How do these values reflect the values
of Romanticism? How do they contrast with the values of the Age of Reason?
Honoring the past as they go to the future. It reflects romanticism because it talks about emotion and it uses language of regular people. The age of reason used logic in their poems and used the language of the aristocracy.
3. What does the metaphor of the hill in the second stanza of John Anderson, My Jo
represent?
Even through trials and tribulations, going up and going down, they will always be together.
4. Explain how William Blake's upbringing/worldview influenced the type of poetry he wrote.
He had visions of God and of bright angels when he was a child, so he was a very spiritual person. His worldview was very very different from most other people, so his poetry reflected that in addition to his spiritual beliefs.
5. How are “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” similar to each other? (Read “About the
Selection” on p 679) What two sides of the human soul do the animals represent?
Why did Blake find it equally important to understand both sides? In a religious framework, what do the two animals represent?
They were both in the same book and they have a similar rhyme scheme. The lamb represents innocence. The tiger represents the worst part of humanity, or the bad things humans can do to each other. He wanted to show that people are complex and that humanity has different sides to it. Religously, the two animals represent Jesus and the Devil or Heaven and Hell.
6. How do William Blake's three poems celebrate the untameness of nature and reject the urbanity/structured society? How does this reflect Romanticism?
He believes that urban lifestyle is oppressive and doesn't allow people to be at their best. This reflects Romanticism because romantics value having their freedom and being able to do what they want.

Gulliver's Travels

Choose one the world's that Gulliver visits; What social issue(s)/human fault is Swift commenting on through Gulliver's visit to this world? What details from this world bring it out? Is the movie subtle or blatant in how they reveal this? How does the medium of film help to bring out the satire more than just the book could by itself? Did the movie make you think or did you think it was a poor adaptation? Why?

The world in which Gulliver is labeled as a Yahoo brings out the faults of the world in that we don't pride ourselves on how good of a person we are, but how many possessions we have and who looks the best. This is shown when the Yahoos are looking through the rocks for diamonds, and later when Gullivers goes away in the night looking for them, only to realize that he is also a Yahoo, and that humans have many faults that he cannot live with and so he wishes to stay with they whynnies. The movie is pretty much blatant in how it shows this, and I think that the medium used contributes to this. However, I feel that film was a great medium to use to display these things because you can actually see for yourself how the way the Yahoos acted parallels the way humans act. I thought that this was a great adaptation to teach humans to realize that not everything is about who can show off the most great stuff but instead just try to be a great person.

Romanticism Questions March 11

1. When did the Romantic Era begin and end? Overall, how does the book describe the movement? How does it contrast to the Enlightenment/Age of Reason?
The Romantic Era was from 1785 to 1832. The book describes the movement as an era of rebellion against all of the different establishments of the previous culture. It differs from the age of reason because there is a lot more emotion and feeling displayed during this time.
2. What were the major political developments/changes that occured during the Romantic Era?
The prime ministers of the era made many civil reforms, such as allowing labor unions and giving Catholics more freedom. The aristocracy was given less power in government because the middle class was allowed to vote.
3. The introduction describe three pre-Romantic poets; how did these poets bridge the gap between Neoclassicism and Romanticism? What were the name of the three pre-Romantics discussed in the book?
While they imitated the Neoclassical model of imitating traditional literary forms, they also used their emotions to percieve nature, which was a very big part of Romanticism. The three poets discussed in the book are Thomas Gray, Robert Burns, and William Blake
4. What publication really began the Romantic Era? Why was the publication pivotal in the Romantic movement? What statements were the two authors trying to make with it? Who were considered the second generation of Romantics? What did they celebrate through their literature?
Lyrical Ballads, which was a collection of poems. It was pivotal because it was in the language of ordinary men and women. They were trying to make was a statement against the rich people of the world. The romantic poets after Wordsworth and Coleridge were the second generation of romantics. They celebrated emotion over reason and nature over science.
5. What is a Gothic novel? What are some examples of it?
They are long stories containing elements of suspense, mystery, magic, and the macabre, with exotic settings. An example would be Castle of Otranto by Hugh Walpole.
6. What type of novel did Jane Austen right?
She wrote novels of manners