Romanticism & William Wordsworth 英国文学史及选读课程组

1. The Romantic Period (1798—1832) 1.1 The background Romanticism in England came into being in the latter half of the 18th century, and William Blake and Robert Burns represented the spirit of what is usually called Pre-Romanticism. With the publication of William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads in 1798, Romanticism began to bloom in the history of English literature. The trend ended at the death of Walter Scott in 1832. 英国文学史及选读课程组

Title page for the first edition of Lyrical Ballads 英国文学史及选读课程组

英国文学史及选读课程组

The most important and decisive factor in the development of literature is economy. The English Romanticism is no exception. It was greatly influenced by the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. After the Industrial Revolution, esp. the “Enclosure Movement”, the peasants were landless and became hired workers. Thus a new class, proletariat, had sprung into existence. 英国文学史及选读课程组

All the working people were mercilessly exploited and lived in dreadful poverty. It was under this unbearable economic condition that the workers' struggle broke out to show the hatred of the capitalists and capitalist exploitation. July 14, 1789 saw a great event in Europe. That was the French Revolution. The Revolution had such a strong influence on Britain that many writers such as Blake, Burns, Byron, Shelley, Charles Lamb and even William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge got their inspirations from it and wrote beautiful poems or prose. 英国文学史及选读课程组

The Romantic writers emphasized emotions compared with the (neo-) classic writers who emphasized reason. 英国文学史及选读课程组

# The Concept Romanticism is a literary movement which came into being in England early in the latter half of the 18th century and prevailed in the first half of the nineteenth century . This literary trend began with the publication of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads(抒情歌谣集) and ended with Walter Scott's death. 英国文学史及选读课程组

The Features of Romanticism It is a reaction against the Classicism or Neoclassicism of the 18th century. Romantic writing emphasizes emotions and feelings instead of reason and logic . It also focuses on the life of common people and encourages an appreciation of nature instead of society. 英国文学史及选读课程组

Subject Matters The subject matters of Romanticism can be listed as follows: sensibility, love of nature, interest in the past, mysticism, individualism, exotic pictures, strong-willed heroes, and symbolism. 英国文学史及选读课程组

The Romantics The first generation Romantic writers: 1) Burns, Blake—pre-Romantics; 2) Wordsworth, Coleridge (Lyrical Ballads, 1798); The second generation Romantics: 1) Byron, Shelley and Keats (who wrote swiftly, traveled widely and died prematurely and inspired autobiographical prose-writers such as Hazlitt, De Quincey and Lamb); 2) novelists: Walter Scott and Jane Austen 英国文学史及选读课程组

William Wordsworth 华兹华斯 (1770—1850) 英国文学史及选读课程组

Wordsworth’s Life A lawyer's family death of parents grammar school lake district Cambridge, vocation summer tour to France 英国文学史及选读课程组

After getting his degree in Cambridge 1791, back to France financial difficulties 1797, S.T. Coleridge frightened by the revolution seclusion in Lake District Poet Laureate died in 1850, at the age of 80 英国文学史及选读课程组

Lyrical Ballads 《抒情歌谣集》1798 a joint work;Wordsworth & Coleridge beginning of the Romantic Period; Manifesto of the Movement; majority of poems by W. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (“古舟子咏”) deep love for nature, sympathy for the poor many subjects: things of everyday; romantic; novel (新颖) 英国文学史及选读课程组

"For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings…it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility" 英国文学史及选读课程组

Lake Poets 湖畔诗人 (p. 62) A group of English romantic poets, including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. They came to be known as the Lake School or “Lakers”. These three poets were linked with the Lake District, a beautiful scenic spot in northwestern England, because they lived there most of their lives and wrote about that area and its people in their poems. 英国文学史及选读课程组

beginning as radicals and ending as conservatives Lake Poets Wordsworth华兹华斯 Coleridge 柯尔律治 Southey 骚塞 beginning as radicals and ending as conservatives 英国文学史及选读课程组

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 我孤独地漫游，像一朵云 英国文学史及选读课程组

英国文学史及选读课程组

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 我孤独地漫游，像一朵云 英国文学史及选读课程组

I wandered lonely as a cloud I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way, They stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 英国文学史及选读课程组

I wandered lonely as a cloud The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company: I gazed - and gazed - but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. 英国文学史及选读课程组

I wandered lonely as a cloud 我孤独地漫游，像一朵云 在山丘和谷地上飘荡， 忽然间我看见一群 金色的水仙花迎春开放， 在树荫下，在湖水边， 迎着微风起舞翩翩。 I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 英国文学史及选读课程组

cont' 连绵不绝，如繁星灿烂， 在银河里闪闪发光， 它们沿着湖湾的边缘 连绵不绝，如繁星灿烂， 在银河里闪闪发光， 它们沿着湖湾的边缘 延伸成无穷无尽的一行； 我一眼看见了一万朵， 在欢舞之中起伏颠簸。 Continuous as the stars that shine, And twinkle on the Milky Way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 英国文学史及选读课程组

cont' 粼粼波光也在跳着舞， 水仙的欢欣却胜过水波； 与这样快活的伴侣为伍， 诗人怎能不满心欢乐！ 我久久凝望，却想象不到 这奇景赋予我多少财宝: The waves beside them danced; but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed – and gazed – but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: 英国文学史及选读课程组

cont' 每当我躺在床上不眠， 或心神空茫，或默默沉思， 它们常在心灵中闪现， 那是孤独之中的福祉； 于是我的心便涨满幸福， 和水仙一同翩翩起舞。 For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills And dances with the daffodils. 英国文学史及选读课程组

Artistic Features Reverse personification: The speaker is compared to a natural object, a cloud. Personification: daffodils are continually personified as human beings. This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature. 英国文学史及选读课程组

Comments on Wordsworth Descriptions of mountains… and peasants, and reminiscences (回忆) of his own childhood … Lines Written in Early Spring “早春诗行” To the Cuckoo “致布谷鸟” The Daffodils “水仙花” I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud “我独自漫游像一朵浮云” My Heart Leaps Up “我的心激烈地跳动” Intimations of Immortality “不朽颂” Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey “丁登寺杂咏” 英国文学史及选读课程组

Comments on Wordsworth Besides a deep love for nature, 2. A masterhand in searching and revealing the feelings of the common people Many themes: Lucy Poems The Solitary Reaper from rural life Characters: lower classes in the countryside 英国文学史及选读课程组

Comments on Wordsworth 3. Wordsworth’s The Prelude 《序曲》or Growth of a Poet’s Mind, an autobiographical poem, is the spiritual record of his mind, showing his development of his own thought and sentiment. 英国文学史及选读课程组

Comments on Wordsworth 4. Wordsworth’s good poetry were written during the ______decade between _____and_____. When he lived in seclusion, his poems became declined and more and more conservative in thought. first 1798 1807 英国文学史及选读课程组

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) 塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治 1. Life Lake poet; progressive in his early years; Plan to establish Pantisocracy, a utopian society in America; Shocked by the Reign of Terror; conservative in politics, later. 英国文学史及选读课程组

2. Major works: “Kubla Khan”; 54 lines, unfinished; “Christabel” Poems: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”；“古舟子咏” ；ballad form; “sin and expiation”; “Kubla Khan”; 54 lines, unfinished; “Christabel” Literary criticism: Biographia Literaria (1817); Notes and Lectures on Shakespeare; Play: Remorse 英国文学史及选读课程组

3. Brief Reading of some Poems by Coleridge i. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” ii. “Kubla Khan” alliteration; assonance “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.” (p. 20, l 1-5) Five miles meandering while a mazy motion” (p. 21, l 6) “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free;” (p. 27, stanza 4) 英国文学史及选读课程组