Poetry of Keats and Coleridge with Notes / Romantics / RI

9539 / 02: The English Romantic Period (1785-1832) The Poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Keats

9539 / 02: The English Romantic Period (1785-1832) Section SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) JOHN KEATS (1795-1823) CONTENTS Romantic Topical Concerns 4 Poet Biographies 5 How to use this booklet 8 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (SELECTED POEMS) Sonnet to the River Otter 9 The Keepsake 31 [Pantisocracy] 10 Ode to Tranquillity 32 The Eolian Harp 11 Dejection: An Ode 34 Sonnet Composed on a Journey Homeward 13 Answer to a Child’s Question 39 This Lime Tree Bower My Prison 14 The Pains of Sleep 40 France: An Ode 16 Human Life 42 Frost at Midnight 19 To Nature 44 The Nightingale 22 Work Without Hope 45 Kubla Khan: Or, A Vision in a Dream 25 Constancy to an Ideal Object 46 Love 27 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 48 Something Childish but Very Natural 30 2

9539 / 02: The English Romantic Period (1785-1832) Section JOHN KEATS (SELECTED POEMS) On Peace 67 Isabella, or The Pot of Basil 81 On Seeing the Elgin Marbles 68 The Eve of St Agnes 96 On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer 69 La Belle Dame sans Merci 108 Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition 70 Lamia 111 To My Brothers 71 Bright Star! Would I were steadfast as thou art 129 O Solitude! If I must with thee dwell 72 Ode on a Grecian Urn 130 On the Sea 73 Ode on Melancholy 132 To Leigh Hunt, Esq. 74 Ode to a Nightingale 133 To a Lady Seen for a Few Moments … 75 Ode to Psyche 137 To Ailsa Rock 76 To Autumn 140 To Mrs Reynold’s Cat 77 To Fanny 142 When I have fears that I may cease to be 78 To Sleep 145 Hush, Hush! Tread Softly! 79 APPENDIX Timeline of Poetic Works 146 Glossary 147 What is a sonnet? 153 Romantic Art 154 3

9539 / 02: The English Romantic Period (1785-1832) Section ROMANTIC TOPICAL CONCERNS: Whilst the term Romanticism collects a broad range of writers from across the ideological spectrum, there are several topical features that recur in ‘Romantic’ literary texts. As you cover some of these topics, they may feel familiar to you: you should consider how much the foundations of popular culture (especially Western media) are rooted in Romantic concepts or ideas. - An emphasis on subjectivity, and strong personal or emotional experiences (sometimes as opposed to the scientific or the rational viewpoint). - Accompanying the previous point, a search for significance in language that can be mystical or spiritual, to the point of being quasi-religious. This might also pose a threat (whether real or imagined) to established religion and its values. - Admiration for the state of innocence, childhood, and children, but also fascination with extreme emotions like wonder, alienation or terror. - Linked to the above, a fascination with transcendent states of perception or emotion that allow individuals to move beyond their immediate limits, sometimes described as the ‘sublime’. - A fascination with altered or unusual states of consciousness, especially those arising from dreams, madness, delirium, fear, etc. - A veneration of man’s relationship with nature, during a time of increasing urbanisation and industrialisation that seemed to place nature under threat. - Radical political rejections of the contemporary social order, at least in the early years leading up the French Revolution and before the rise of Napoleon. - The questioning of more conventional codes of morality, sometimes in favour of more individualistic or personally liberating moral codes. - Accordingly, some writers sought out, reinterpreted, or reinvented ‘anti-heroes’: non-traditional heroic figures who were exceptional in their individuality, rather than their morality. - A desire to evoke a heroic national past, and subsequent fascination with myths and legends, or stories that took on the feel of myth or legend. Remember, ‘Romantic’ writers are not a collective hive-mind , and in fact some wouldn’t recognize the ‘Romantic’ label we use today. Many writers were fascinated by the topics above, but this does not mean they came to the same conclusions or attended a weekly meeting where they all agreed to follow particular orthodoxies. Be sensitive to how poets embody, respond to, undermine, or question particular values and ideas: this can often form the bones of a strong critical response. 4

9539 / 02: The English Romantic Period (1785-1832) Section POET BIOGRAPHIES: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a leader of the British Romantic movement , was born on October 21, 1772, in Devonshire, England. His father, a vicar of a parish and master of a grammar school, married twice and had fourteen children. The youngest child in the family, Coleridge was a student at his father’s school and an avid reader. After his father died in 1781, Coleridge attended Christ’s Hospital School in London, where he met lifelong friend Charles Lamb . While in London, he also befriended a classmate named Tom Evans , who introduced Coleridge to his family. Coleridge fell in love with Tom’s older sister, Mary . Coleridge entered Jesus College, Cambridge in 1791, with the intention of pursuing a future as a clergyman, in line with his father’s wish . However, Coleridge’s religious views began to change over the course of his first year at Cambridge. He became a supporter of William Frend, a Fellow at the college whose Unitarian beliefs made him a controversial figure . While at Cambridge, Coleridge also accumulated a large debt , which his brothers eventually had to pay off. Financial problems continued to plague him throughout his life, and he constantly depended on the support of others. En route to Wales in June 1794, Coleridge met and formed an instant friendship with a student Robert Southey , so he postponed his trip for several weeks, and the men shared their philosophical ideas . Influenced by Plato’s Republic , they constructed a vision of pantisocracy - equal government by all, which involved emigrating to the New World with ten other families to set up a commune on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Coleridge and Southey envisioned the men sharing the workload, a great library, philosophical discussions, and freedom of religious and political beliefs. After finally visiting Wales, Coleridge returned to England to find that Southey had