Assignment Code: BEGC-109/TMA/2021-22

Course Code: BEGC-109

Assignment Name: British Romantic Literature

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer any five questions. All questions carry equal marks. (20 x 5 = 100)

Q 2) Explain the basic difference between the Neoclassical and Romantic theories of poetry.

Ans) The primary distinction between Neoclassicism and Romanticism is that the former prioritised structure, objectivity, and restraint, whereas the latter prioritised imagination, subjectivity, and emotion. Nature influenced Romantic poetry; on the other hand, science and technology influenced Victorian poetry. Neoclassical poetry tended to be written in a much more elevated style, with epics, odes, and pastorals serving as models. Writings, artwork, and architecture are detailed and colourful, evoking strong emotions. This is true because, when Romantic poets were looking for new/different ways to express their thoughts and feelings, they created poetry that had a lot of similarities to poetry from the early nineteenth century.

The Differences Between Romanticism and Neoclassicism In terms of art, Romanticism was more concerned with achieving freedom in expressing personal sentiments and emotions than with reaching religious enlightenment or fighting for political and social principles. Romantic poetry was a reaction to traditional poetic conventions, rules, and laws. Poetry vs. Poem Between the neoclassical and romantic periods, there are many more differences than similarities.

The primary distinction between neoclassicism and romanticism is that neoclassicism prioritised objectivity, order, and restraint, whereas romanticism prioritised imagination and emotion. The Romantics, on the other hand, were eager to develop a poetic voice based on straightforward language. Neoclassicism arose from the borrowing of antiquity's Roman and Greek figures and remoulding those values to become deeply engaged with the ethical, the central, the simple, and the clear—which, when compared to its predecessor, the Rococo style, can be clearly distinguished. The importance of thought and reason was emphasised by Neoclassic writers. Other writers such as Byron, Shelley, and Keats contributed significantly to the period's development. Important distinctions Emotions were valued above reason and thought during the romantic era.

Neoclassicism

Neoclassical poetry tended to be written in a much more elevated style, with epics, odes, and pastorals serving as models. They were not considered a suitable instrument for poetic composition at the time.

Neoclassicism

1. follows the patterns of Greeks and Romans

2. Alexander pope and Dryden were leading writers

3. immense emphasis was on classical spirit restoration of classicism

4. focus was on government, ethics, science

5. rules and orders, logic, reasons, conformity

6. Poetry written according to fixed rules and special diction.

Romantic

The Romantics, on the other hand, were eager to develop a poetic voice based on straightforward language. . Poetry is the unbridled expression of strong emotions recollected in peace. The poem is a type of lettering that includes both dialogue and melody, whereas poetry is the skill or art of creating these poems. The short poem is a hallmark of Romantic poetry. The types of poems that could be written were somewhat limited to those written during the classical period, and poets were required to strictly adhere to the metre and rhyme of the specific type of verse.

1. Romanticism is characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of the nature.

2. Wordsworth’s influence in the ‘Romantic movement’ is significant in the history of literature.

3. His pronouncement did a great deal to bring about a reaction against the Neo-classical views.

4. Both Wordsworth and Coleridge with the publication of ‘Preface to Lyrical Ballads’ set-in motion a definite break with the classical tenets of the 18th century.

Q 3) What are the three stages in the development of Wordsworth’s attitude to nature in “Tinern Abbey?

Ans) The poem "Tintern Abbey" provides a valuable and beautiful analysis of the poet's three stages in describing nature.

The early stages of Wordsworth's relationship with Nature were marked by a simple delight in freedom and the open air; at this stage, Wordsworth found pleasure in wandering around in the midst of Nature. He leapt over the mountains, along the banks of deep rivers, and along the lonely streams like a deer. He followed Nature's lead wherever it took him. He felt more like he was fleeing from something he despised than like he was looking for something he adored. His forays into nature are described by him as "glad animal movements1," and the pleasure he derives from them is referred to as "coarse pleasure."

Wordsworth's love for Nature in the second stage was purely physical. Nature now primarily appealed to his senses. He enjoyed seeing the colours of nature, smelling the scents of nature, touching the objects of nature, and listening to the sweet sounds of nature. Mountains and woods piqued his interest with their colours and shapes. He was haunted by the roaring waterfall like a demon. As a result, he had an unreflective, or thoughtless, love for Nature. In his contact with Nature, he felt aching joys and dizzy raptures.' It was Nature's external, outward sensuous beauty that delighted and gladdened him.

Wordsworth's love for Nature eventually became spiritual and intellectual at the third stage. He had now witnessed humanity's sufferings and heard "the still, sad music of humanity," and he had become reflective. As a result, he was filled with deep thoughts when he looked at Nature. In Nature, he had discovered an inner meaning and a hidden significance. He still appreciated Nature's external beauty, but it was the inner or hidden significance of Nature that drew him in and prompted him to think. All the objects of Nature now had a living presence, or a divine spirit, according to him. He discovered that living presence in the setting sun, the round ocean, the blue sky, and everything else. He also realised at this point the educative influence of Nature, as well as the power of Nature to shape human personality and character. Nature was the nurse, the guide, the protector of his heart, and the soul of his moral being to him. As a result, by the third stage, Wordsworth had become a "pantheist" and a believer in a spiritual link between man and nature.

The company of man Nature, according to Wordsworth, brings joy to the human heart. In this poem, he expresses his delight at returning to a natural scene. Not only is the actual sight of the scene pleasing, but it is the memory of the scene that has soothed and comforted his mind in the past. In hours of exhaustion, he got "sweet sensations" from these natural objects. On troubled minds and sorrow-stricken hearts, nature had a healing effect. Nature, in his opinion, is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn if we want to, and without which no human life is worth living. He believed in the natural education of man. He was influenced by Rousseau in this regard. When considering Wordsworth's philosophy, the interrelation of Nature and man is crucial. Both, he believes, are integral parts of a larger whole and should coexist.

Q 4) Comment on Blake’s portrayal of children and childhood in his Songs of Innocence and Experience.

Ans) Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience contrast a child's innocent, pastoral world with an adult world of corruption and repression; while poems like "The Lamb" represent a meek virtue, poems like "The Tyger" show opposing, darker forces. As a result, the collection as a whole examines the value and limitations of two opposing worldviews. Many of the poems are written in pairs, allowing the reader to see the same situation or problem through the eyes of innocence first, then experience. Blake does not fully identify with either point of view; most of the poems are dramatic—that is, they are written in the voice of someone other than the poet. Blake stands outside of both innocence and experience, from which he hopes to be able to recognise and correct both of their flaws. He takes on despotic authority, restrictive morality, sexual repression, and institutionalised religion in particular; his great insight is into how these different modes of control interact to squelch what is most holy in human beings.

The Songs of Innocence dramatize the naive hopes and fears that guide children's lives and chart their development as they grow into adults. Some of the poems are written from the viewpoint of children, while others are written from the viewpoint of adults. Many of the poems focus on the positive aspects of natural human understanding before it is corrupted and distorted. Others are more critical of innocent purity: for example, while Blake paints touching portraits of the emotional power of rudimentary Christian values, he also exposes Christianity's capacity for promoting injustice and cruelty—over the heads, as it were, of the innocent.

The Songs of Experience use parallels and contrasts to lament how adult life's harsh experiences destroy what is good in innocence, while also articulating the innocent perspective's flaws (for example, “The Tyger” attempts to account for real, negative forces in the universe that innocence fails to confront). The repressive effects of jealousy, shame, and secrecy, all of which corrupt the ingenuity of innocent love, are explored in these later poems. In terms of religion, they are more concerned with the institution of the Church, its role in politics, and its effects on society and the individual mind than with the character of individual faith. As a result, experience adds a layer to innocence, darkening its hopeful vision while partially compensating for its blindness.

The Songs of Innocence and Experience have a straightforward style, but the language and rhythms are meticulously crafted, and the ideas they explore are frequently deceptively complex. Many of the poems are narrative in nature, while others, such as "The Sick Rose" and "The Divine Image," use symbolism or abstract concepts to make their points. Personification and the reworking of Biblical symbolism and language are two of Blake's favourite rhetorical techniques. Blake frequently uses the familiar metres of ballads, nursery rhymes, and hymns to express his own, often unconventional ideas. Blake's constant interest in reconsidering and reframing the assumptions of human thought and social behaviour is reflected in this combination of the traditional and the unfamiliar.

Q 5) Give an account of the punishment suffered by the Ancient Mariner. Attempt to show the various stages and the different kinds of suffering he undergoes.

Ans) The Ancient Mariner is punished by the natural world and the spiritual world. The punishment is in the form of the Mariner′s deprivation of natural elements, depravation of food and water: “Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.”

The mariner admits to doing something "hellish." He was accused of assassinating the bird that caused the breeze to blow. As a result, his co-mariners made him wear an albatross around his neck as a punishment. With this guilt in mind, he approaches every stranger he encounters and tells them his storey.

Different Stages of Suffering

And every tongue, through utter drought,

Was withered at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if

We had been choked with soot. (II.33)

After killing the albatross, the Mariner goes through several stages of pain. He shares this punishment with the crew in the first stage, which involves extreme drought and thirst.

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,

We could nor laugh nor wail;

Through utter drouth all dumb we stood!

I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,

And cried, A sail! a sail!

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,

Agape they heard me call:

Gramercy! they for joy did grin,

And all at once their breath drew in,

As they were drinking all. (III.38-39)

When it comes to the same dry thirst, this description is so revolting that we couldn't leave it out. Their lips are as "black" as a charred piece of wood, and the only liquid available is their own blood. These lines also allude to a new dimension of psychological anguish: false hope.

One after one, by the star-dogged moon,

Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turned his face with ghastly pang,

And cursed me with his eye. (III.49)

Even though the sailors reacted badly to the albatross' death, they were not ultimately to blame. The Mariner has their blood – all 200 of them – on his hands, and he must live with their curse until he repents.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on

My soul in agony.

The many men, so beautiful!

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things

Lived on; and so did I. (IV.54-55)

Oh, poor Mariner, no one is sympathetic to your plight. Perhaps you should just admit you were mistaken! Sorry. We're just so fed up with him. He is implicitly compared to one of the slimy creatures and sea snakes wriggling about in the poem. To the list of things he suffers, you can now add "extreme solitude."

Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched

With a woeful agony,

Which forced me to begin my tale;

And then it left me free.

Since then, at an uncertain hour,

That agony returns:

And till my ghastly tale is told,

This heart within me burns. (VII.133-134)

The Mariner's sin is so great that he will never be able to fully atone for it. He must, as the two voices suggest earlier in the poem, perform the penitence ritual on a regular basis, most likely for the rest of his life. This ritual for him entails telling the storey to other troubled souls in the same boat as himself. His desire to tell the storey is a physical as well as a mental struggle for him.

Q 8) According to Shelley what are:

The causes of human suffering and unhappiness?

Ans)  "In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn..." Mary Shelley wrote about "The Skylark," "It was on a beautiful summer evening while wandering among the lanes whose myrtle hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the carolling of the skylark." Like "Ode to the West Wind," "The Skylark" was inspired by a specific experience, but Shelley's interest in the skylark is not What fascinates him is the happiness that he perceives in the song of the bird. He doesn't say he sees the bird, but he seems to have seen it leave the ground and disappear into the bright clouds above the setting sun, because "the pale purple even / Melts around thy flight." The colour of the bird, its flight pattern, the quality of sound that distinguishes its song from that of other birds. The bird, or more specifically, the bird's song, has been transformed into a symbol of happiness by Shelley. The poem is thus less about a skylark and more about happiness. In the poem's first line, the singing bird is personified as a "blithe" or happy spirit.

In the poem, Shelley pursues two main lines of thought. The first is an attempt to determine what the singing bird is comparable to his satisfaction. This is a relatively insignificant issue. The reader only learns about the similes that the singing skylark brings to Shelley's mind. A poet is composing, a maiden is making music, a glow-worm is scattering light, and a rose is diffusing its scent. The four metaphors have one thing in common: they're all out of sight or difficult to see, just like the now-unseen skylark.

The second line of thought is central to the poem. What, Shelley asks, is the secret that accounts for the skylark's happiness, manifested in its song?

What objects are the fountains

Of thy happy strain?

What fields, or waves, or mountains?

What shapes of sky or plain?

What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?

These inquiries lead him to ponder the human condition. Man knows pain, weariness, annoyance, and the satiation of love. He is tormented by hatred, pride, and fear. He can't get away from his past, thoughts of the future make him nervous, he yearns for something that doesn't exist, and his laughter is tinged with sadness. He is terrified of dying. The skylark, on the other hand, has no fear of death, according to Shelley, because "of death must deem / Things truer and deeper / Than we mortals dream."

Shelley has created a myth by personifying the skylark, just as he did in "Ode to the West Wind" and "The Cloud," by endowing his skylark with mind. The skylark is content because it only knows how to be content. It has a distinct advantage over humans, who are aware of both their happy and unhappy states. They are afraid of death for a variety of reasons, including ignorance of what lies beyond death. The skylark understands what lies beyond death, and its understanding dispels its fear of death. It's no surprise that it's ecstatically happy.

Shelley understands that his skylark is just a bird with a happy-sounding song to the human ear. He's just having a good time and has no intention of deceiving the reader or himself. His ear has been carried away by the exquisite happiness he has heard in the song of the nightingale. Happiness is the secret of the lovely song of the skylark; if Shelley had half of the "gladness" of the skylark, he could write poetry that the world would read with the same rapt attention he pays to the song of the skylark that his ears hear.v