ALEKSANDER POPE
1688-1744
Born in London as the son of a rich merchant
He didn’t receive a formal education
Roman Catholic
He could not study at any of the universities
He was physically, seriously handicapped (niepełnosprawny, ułomny)
1.37m (4ft 6in) tall because of Pott’s disease ( tuberculosis of the spine)
He was the man of letter
Wrote poetry at a very early age
At the age of 23 he published An Essay on Criticism, a poetic treatise on the neo-classical theory of writing
All of Pope’s important poetry was written in heroic couplets
His works were translated into both modern and ancient languages.
From The Rape of the Lock
The first section about Belinda
Elaborate comparison in William Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Adoring the Cross
Elaborate locks of hair
Nymph’s hair
destruction of mankind – hyperbolic
these labyrinths = locks
deck, neck, detains, chains = enslavement
finny prey – connected to love
ensnare – enslave
‘ere’ – before
Baron is like a hero of an epic poem, he is like a Caesar; Baron is not innocent and it’s not his first love; he admires the woman
Phoebus – represents the Sun
Elevated style
The subject is trivial
It’s written in heroic couplets
JONATHAN SWIFT
1667-1745
Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland
Satirist, essayist, pamphleteer, poet
He is one of those English writers who came from Ireland
He studied in college in Dublin
He was going to have brilliant political career
He was a major clergyman in a Cathedral (a Dean – dziekan)
Before he left Ireland he was friend with Alexander Pope
His works:
The Battle of the Books (1697) – a satire, his contribution to the dispute whether the ancients or the moderns were superior as writers
A
Tale of a Tub (1696)
– an allegorical satire against corruption in religion and
learning.
A digressive tale of three brothers representing forms
of 3 main religions: Calvinism, Lutheranism, and who knows what else.
Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
He
writes a satire – both on human nature and the English Party of the
system.
During the travels he changes and he is ashamed of
being an Englishman. Narrator tells his adventure from the Liliput
country. The next voyage is to the country of Giants. In part three
the Galager visits the country of Laputa. Part four presents the
adventures on the Flying Island (?)
From Book 4 of Gulliver’s Travels
He is a captain of the ship
His crew betrayed him
He thinks of Yahoos as animals
They disgust him
He meets intelligent, rational horses
He thinks their society is an ideal society
They are guided by reason
He is very much as a Yahoo
He doesn’t have long claws
He is very hygienic
He becomes disgusted with human nature
He sees British society consisting of Yahoos
Eventually he is forced to leave
He lives in the stables and talks to the horses
He is rescued by the captain
They pay for his return to England
Swift was accused of ‘hating human kind’ (misanthrope – samotnik, odludek)
Gulliver is a proud Englishman
Race of mortals – horses
Quadrupeds – four-leg creatures
Contrast between horses and human beings
He despises humanity, his own kind
He looks down on human’s institution
Horses don’t know what a lie is
Gullible = Gulliver; someone who is easily deceived
Swift was a clergyman
Charity – miłość bliźniego = that’s what is missing from the society of horses
CHAPTER SIX
The issue of money, it leads to corruption
Vices of English Society
The issue of drinking; diseases resulted in alcoholism
Criticism of doctors
He gets to politics and politicians and he feels cheated
He attacks prime minister
Defecation on the ‘weak’
Human beings = rational animals
One of the human faculties is reason
Humans become even worse because they abuse reason
We increase our deficiencies (słabości)
He wants to become a woman
Man is capable of being reasonable according to Gulliver
Charity is missing here
Bitter satire of human nature, society, British political system
THOMAS GRAY
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
1750 – the year of publication
He starts by mourning ordinary villagers
The use of indefinite articles – not a specific churchyard
Elegy written for poor, simple people
Bell’s ringing at the end of the day = associated with death
Speaker meditates in the dark
2nd stanza: it’s getting dark = synesthesia
Folds of sheep; drowsy – sleepy
Melancholy, silence
Owl – night, death, wise
Ancestors of the people from the village who are very uneducated
Describing the churchyard
Narrow cell – a coffin
Morn – morning
he personifies morning
breezy call – wind
to lisp – nie być w stanie prawidłowo wymówić słów
jocund – happily
woods bowing – cutting down trees
he changes from praising the poor and saying directly not to look down on the poor by rich people
ambitious people should not look down on the poor
neglected spot = forgotten churchyard
he is thinking of someone buried
verse 45th: someone very strong, great ruler, emperor
lyre – connected with poetry
celestial fire – fire from the Gods
knowledge as a woman
verse 50th: talking about the talents which are hidden and uncovered
Oliver Cromlech – leader of Puritans; the ones who fought against the King – Charles the First
Milton – he was a poet who wrote Paradise Lost – about the Fall of man
Their lot – fortune, fate
Verse 75th: rat race; he is looking at the graves of the poor
Verse 85th: warmth, life = a day; dying person of lingering look – desire for life
90th: he wants to be remembered; the age of sensibility; the voice of the poem is addressing the speaker of the poem
95th: he images himself as a zombie xD
Humble birth – he was educated
He was generous for the people but not in terms of money; shedding a tear
HE WANTS A TEAR AND FRIEND
He talks about universal things
The importance of the lives of the poor
The importance of feeling = SENSIBLITY
NEOCLASSICISM
PREROMANTICISM
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Lamb
Lamb – associated with Jesus Christ
He sacrificed himself
2 stanzas
1st stanza consisting of questions
2nd stanza – answers
The child is the speaker
Song for children
They used to teach catechism
The language is extremely simple
The lamb is delightful, very pretty and lovely
Brought up along with the Bible
Jesus calls himself as a lamb
Unity of all creation
Lamb lies together with a lion in Paradise
LAMB as a sacrificial lamb
The Tyger
Plosives: Tyger!Tyger!
It’s a contrary poem to the lamb
Only questions in the entire poem
Dare – courage
the speaker expresses his fear
the daring of the creator is stressed
deeps or skies – space
blacksmith making the tiger using the fire
sublimity – piękno (np. scenerii)
question at the end of the poem: THE SAME CREATOR MADE THE LAMB AND THE TIGER
he speaks with great admiration about the process which require a lot of power
bursting with energy
he wants to change human nature in order to create better society
The Chimney Sweeper
he is a little boy, an orphan
child addresses a child, a reader
white naked vs. black, dirty
the boy had a curly hair, then his hair got shaved
consolation – don’t cry – if you don’t have any hair it won’t get dirty
they were locked in chimneys – coffins
in a dream you have a happy life of a child
this poem becomes educational poem for children
religious lesson at the end
shock effect – children may be harmed in a chimney
child enslaves himself
the voice of someone who is seeing the child from a distance
woe – grief
he accuses the church – mom and dad take care more about their souls
this is a very short poem
those children are miserable but they can still play and sing
the parents of the child take part in enslaving the child
mental fight
And Did Those Feet
it’s about building a Jerusalem
references to the legends
those feet – Jesus’ feet
we have the vision of glorious past, vision of beautiful meadows, lambs
Blake was against industrialisation
Mill – symbol of mechanisation (industrial revolution)
Sword as a pen
Better society
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Tintern Abbey
Published in the first edition of the ballads
Written in blank verse
Essentially iambic pentameter
He had been there and he is there again
1793 – his return from France
Verse paragraphs
The time was too long and difficult
He is concerned with experiences
The most important thing is the nature
The abbey is not there!
Nature: cliffs, valleys
He was not like a blind man
Importance of his first visit
Din – noise
Them – nature
When he was lonely he had memories to help him overcome his loneliness, weariness
Feelings passing into purer mind
These memories can help you to be a better person (moral value)
Unintelligible – impossible to understand
He speaks of an experience which resembles mysticism
The body went to sleep
We see into the life of things – very simple words describe difficult situation
Exclamation marks: apostrophe to the river
Memories are half extinguished
Perplexity – confusion
he thinks of what he was like 5 years before
he was running away from his own personal experiences
wild, direct experience which came to him
NATURE, MEMORY, IMAGINATION, LOSS
he learned new things: human’s suffering
he speaks of his feelings – it may bring him the happiness of his life
these memories make him a better person
pantheistic belief – God in every existence
he links humanity to the nature
perception depends on imagination of a human
nature as a teacher
religion of a nature, worshipper of a nature
he sees himself in Dorothy as he was like 5 years earlier
he insist on being optimistic
he wants her mind to be a home of his memories = he wants to make her remember about the place and him
last poem of the lyrical ballads BUT not a balled itself!
Daffodils
English romanticism
Poetry is an overflow of powerful feelings
Early XIX century
Her sister - Dorothy’s journal
Daffodils – żonkile
Emotion that matters
3 stanzas: past simple tense; 4th stanza: present simple
Lonely – sadness, isolation
Daffodils are personified
Words connected to seeing: saw, gaze
he feels happy
inward eye – his imagination
talks about nature in relation to human kind
dancing – happiness of the poet, he overcomes his loneliness
vacant – pusty
pensive – zadumany
present tense
the importance of the experience of nature
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
it’s a ballad
supernatural
act of shooting the albatross is against nature
punishment
redemption
a journey from the homeland
mental journey as a protagonist
he is transformed, he is wiser
TETRAMETRE
2 rhymes: 2,3 verses rhymes, 1,2 verses unrhymed
Middle Ages
He stops one of the guests
He tells him his story: starts cheerfully
Internal rhymes
They are heading to South Pole
Very dangerous
No men, no animals
They are stuck among ice
Albatross – good omen, association with the cross
They feed the bird
No explanation why he killed albatross
Condemn themselves - killing an albatross
PART IV
He is feeling terribly guilty
He cannot sleep, the burden of his guilt
He is unbound of the curse; he is no longer cursed – redemption
He can sleep now
The spirit returns to the body of a crew
The unity of all creation
Very symbolic poem
3 YOURNEYS: LITERAL, SYMBOLIC, MENTAL
Does it make sense? xD
JANE AUSTEN
Pride and Prejudice
First title: First impression
Epistemological concern – uczymy się zachowania ludzi
Focalizer: most of the events are shown with Lizzy’s points of view: limited to one character of the novel
CHAPER 11: Bingley’s house
Jane gets ill
Miss Bingley wants to laugh at Mr Darcy
Elizabeth’s self-confidence: she laughs at him
Mr Collins:
Clergyman who is dumb
Comic character
Elizabeth laughs at him
Elizabeth to Darcy:
She laughs at him
Darcy has some reasons to be proud
Darcy:
he speaks of superiority of his mind
Elizabeth’s mom and Mr Collins are very stupid
Elizabeth’s reading Mr Bingley’s letter – he wants to explain all misunderstanding
Propriety – odpowiednie zachowanie
Mr Darcy accuses her family of behaving unproperly
Insensiblity – lack of feeling
It’s Elizabeth’s thoughts
She reads on about Mr Wickham
She has to consider the truth about Wickham
She reconsiders, re-examines the truth about Darcy and Wickham
She grew ashamed of herself
Omniscient narrator tells that Elizabeth is prejudiced
She admits she has a lack of judgement
Elizabeth was prejudiced by the first impression of Wickham
Housekeeper Mrs Reynolds showing Elizabeth portrait of Mr Darcy
Lizzy’s feelings change after seeing the portrait
To elope – run away with other guy
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Ode to the West Wind
Constantly changing images
Things which are not expressed in words
Science discoveries
ODE – literary genre placed in Antiquity
Pindar – Greek odes
Horace – meditative odes
Wind – spiritus (lac.) – wind, breath, spirit, inspiration
Poem as a secular prayer
Instead of God they see some kind of spirit
Pantheism
Change, invisible, unstable, uncontrollable
1819 – social unrest in England
1820 – the year of publication
2nd generation of romantic poets – all went to Italy
Invocation to the wind
Paradoxical
Autumn is personified
Leaves are running away from the wind
Parallel concerning leaves and his thoughts
Pestilence – epidemic of deadly disease
Buried seeds are meant to spring again – Book of Revelations: resurrection from the dead
Intricate zawiły verse structure
TERZA: 3 lines with an intricate rhyme pattern
he moves from Earth to air, from leaves to clouds
coming thunder storm
angels – messengers of the storm
Dirge – a funeral song
Thunder storm – violent happening, revolution
Volcano eruption – image of revolution
He is talking about the sea
He was so high up and he falls; imprisoned man, chained
Lyre – lira; melody of nature
FIRE: ashes, sparks, hearth – ognisko domowe
SPRING: 2nd coming: rebirth
Poet as a prophet
MARY SHELLEY
Frankenstein
Caroline, Alphonse – Victor’s parents
Name is ironic as is the title
Modern Prometheus
Prometheus as the one who makes man
Mould – to shape
CONSTRUCTION OF THE NOVEL
Structure – frame narratives
Robert Walton’s letter to
M.W.S. = Mary Shelley (epistolary novels)
Frankenstein’s narrative
The monster’s narrative
One inside the other
3 different points of view (3x 1st person narrator) – ambiguity
1860 – the year of publication; she was 20; published unanimously; she revised the novel
Child of 2 famous parents
She was meant to write
They read German ghost stories (vampire fiction)
She listened to a conversation and after that she had a dream, in which she saw a monster
Male ambition
she speaks of her novel as a hideous baby
North Pole – the land of a beauty and delight
Great desire for knowledge – Walton
He wants to make great discoveries
What Victor does can be seen as a crime against nature
Remorse – wyrzuty sumienia
Repentance – skrucha, żal
Pangs of consuence – sumienie
Conscious – świadomość
Don’t do as I did, be ambitious… I have failed but maybe somebody else will succeed – maybe someone will create a creature who will be better
Human natural instincts are good, monster learns by experience
Creature turns to be evil
He takes a revenge on his creator – Frankenstein
Victor had very happy childhood
Frankenstein wants to get knowledge
Feminist critic of science
Frankenstein denies love to his creature
JOHN KEATS
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ekphrasis – description of the works in visual arts
Speaker is looking at a vase, we have the scene depicted
His imagination carries him away
He realises that it’s the work of art
Ode – meditation on the work of art
STANZA TYPES: QUATRAIN, SESTET
Speaker starts at looking at the urn, Death was the artist who made it
Sylvan historian – tells the woodland scene, our experience of seeing things is more fascinating than reading beautiful poems
he asks questions: he doesn’t know but he wants to know, male, female figures, instruments
he moves from one extreme to the other: PURITY -> SEXUAL FILTH
STANZA 2
Imagination: superiority of imaginative over the sensual; everything in the world passes away – nothing is eternal
STANZA 3
Eternal spring, music, life
Human passion leaves you with sorrow
STANZA 4
He is asking who are these people coming to the sacrifice
It’s his imagination – he is addressing something which is beyond the Earth
Life of these people is immortalize to a certain extent
STANZA 5
ARTIFICIAL ONE!
Object made of marble
It makes us wonder, stay silent, unable to formulate our thoughts
OXYMORON – Cold Pastoral – country life – should be warm
Art as a friend to man
Very puzzling closing lines
The great praise of beauty
He sees beauty in the work of art
THEMES: LIFE VS. DEATH
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