Stanzas: a group of lines of poetry forming a unit.

Rhymes: words that have the same last sound.

ROMANTICISM
Wordsworth and Coleridge were friends but they didn’t agree with each other very often  they agreed
on imagination and the transcendental world  BLAKE WAS THE ENEMY (?).

The romantics where a heterogeneous group.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) - "Ode: Intimations of

1st he realizes he cannot find his way into the transcendental world  the one he was in touch with
when he was a child  that happens to all of us as we grow  we start losing our vision/key to the
transcendental world  life obscures our senses.

2nd he gets sad because of the lost.

3rd he finds hope  he can access the transcendental world again when he dies, when he is in touch
with nature or when he is in touch with children’s feelings.

 TRANSCENDENTAL WORLD  where god(s) and man are one  it cannot be seen with our
senses  we access through the secondary imagination  “only the poets can access it” 
according to Wordsworth only children can access it  when we grow, we separate from it.
“Our souls have sight of that immortal sea”.
 Wordsworth says his works are written in “LANGUAGE OF MEN” without the artificial poetic
diction that poets used before him  it was simple to understand for that time  it was the
expression of basic human experiences; his language was a bearer of those universal deep
experiences of life and death, the universal language of Eden (Kathleen Raine, p. 135, 137).
 "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" (1807) is a complex and
profound poem that explores the nature of childhood, memory, and the human condition. It has
emotional intensity and explores a wide range of emotions, from joy and wonder to sorrow and
loss  it is like a song.
 An ode is a formal, lyrical poem that praises and celebrates a person, idea, or event. Odes often
have an elevated, dignified tone and use sophisticated poetic devices. Wordsworth utilizes
symbolism to convey abstract ideas and emotions. It is an apostrophe  it speaks to somebody.
For example, the "glory" of the child's perception is contrasted with the "shadow" of adulthood.
 He sees the natural world as a mirror reflecting the human soul and its capacity for wonder and
awe. “He was not recording his individual experiences because they were unique but because
they were universal” (Raine, p. 146).
 The poem celebrates the purity and wonder of childhood, a time when the child's perception of
the world is unclouded by the cynicism and disillusionment of adulthood. This innocence is
contrasted with the more somber and reflective tone of adulthood.
 The child in Wordsworth's "Ode" is seen as possessing a unique and privileged perspective on
the world: he sees the divine in the everyday, finds joy and wonder in the simplest of natural
phenomena  the curiosity of a child is different from that of an adult.
 The power of imagination is seen by the author as a vital source of creativity and a means of
transcending the limitations of the physical world (intuition over reason and logic). The loss of
his young daughter and the gradual fading of his childhood memories contributed to his
contemplation of life's deeper meanings and the possibility of an eternal realm beyond the
physical world.
 The "Ode" confronts the inevitability of death and the fading of childhood's innocence. But
Wordsworth suggests a yearning for a more permanent and transcendent state of being.
 This work is influenced by Plato's theory of forms, which suggests that the physical world is
merely a shadow of a more perfect and eternal realm of ideas  Plato also believed in
anamnesis, the awakening of innate knowledge we did not know ourselves to possess, and on
the pre-existence of the soul which is seen in this Ode as the child’s memories and connection
with the transcendental world and his knowledge of it.
 Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality" was deeply shaped by his own life experiences
and evolving perspectives. The work reflects his lifelong reverence for the natural world, which
he saw as a conduit to the divine and a source of spiritual renewal. This is why he uses vivid
sensory details to evoke the wonder and beauty of the physical environment.
 For Raine, the ‘real world’, in which the machinery were part of their everyday lives, seemed an
outrage against the integrity and beauty of the earth  for she understood the beauty of the
earth the same way as Wordsworth did: the people and landscapes described in his poems
where the same as the ones she had experienced and loved  the poetry was part of the
natural order of things  but the industry destroyed this nature to Kathleen Raine and for
Wordsworth, he lost his paradise, a loss perhaps never to be fully accepted by the poet (p. 131,
132).
 Furthermore, nature for the author was alive, sometimes fearfully so  “the mind is raised to
elevated thoughts by mountain heights, calmed by the contemplation of still lakes, finds its
correspondences in both the minute and in the vast, the violet and the star, as Imagination
continually discovers its fitting symbols in the epiphanic flow of the world of nature daily
opening before our eyes.” (Raine, p. 146)  it was a marriage between imagination and nature.
“Nature, as Wordsworth experienced her inexhaustible epiphany of wonders, is indeed
everyman’s heritage” (p. 147).
 The “lyrical I” is fictional  sometimes it takes some features from the poet  in this case it is
“Wordsworth”  someone who thinks similar to the poet, and speaks like them but not the
same person  do not believe necessarily what they say.
 The whole poem is a soft meditative moment because he is in nature thinking and trying to
connect to the transcendental world.
 “Many children can experience that sense of nature’s protective embrace and the wisdom of
her teaching that Wordsworth celebrates”. “We discover in the abiding world of nature our
older, truer selves” (Raine, p. 132, 134).
 Samuel Coleridge (1772 – 1834) - “Kubla Khan”
֍ "Kubla Khan" is a visionary poem that suggests that dreams can be a powerful source of
inspiration for creative expression  very simple for neoclassical standards.
֍ Coleridge returns to traditional values and to the traditional symbolic language  Kathleen
Raine analyses the poem in light of its traditional symbolism.
֍ It reflects the themes and values of Romanticism, drawing on the power of imagination, the
exotic, and the supernatural  the main argument is about the process of creation  the
“lyrical I” doesn’t care about the dome but about imagination and inspiration to create worlds
beyond the ordinary  the imagination can rival the power of nature itself.
֍ "Kubla Khan" depicts a dreamlike vision of a fantastical landscape, filled with exotic imagery and
mythical creatures  it resembled the images of Paradise  Plato’s anamnesis  these images
known to all imaginative poets are perhaps the very essence of poetry and of its power to move
us (Raine, p. 2).
֍ Kubla Khan, also known as Kublai Khan, was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and the founder of the Yuan
dynasty in China. He was the grandson of the renowned Genghis Khan and is remembered as a powerful and
influential ruler who expanded the Mongol Empire to its greatest extent. He presided over a vast territory that
stretched from the Black Sea to the Sea of Japan, and he was known for his administrative reforms, patronage of the
arts, and ambitious building projects, including the legendary Xanadu, his summer palace.
֍ The poem's fragmented structure reflects the non-linear nature of dreams. Its disjointedness
creates a sense of disorientation and mystery, drawing the reader into the dream world.
֍ Its ending leaves several questions unanswered, reflecting the elusive nature of dreams. This
ambiguity invites the reader to engage with the poem's themes and create their own
interpretations  it is the world of those experiences which lie beyond the reach of our
everyday consciousness (Raine, p. 4).
֍ The natural world in "Kubla Khan" is depicted as vast and awe-inspiring, reflecting the Romantic
concept of the sublime.
֍ Nature is portrayed as both powerful and nurturing, shaping the landscape and influencing the
characters' emotions and experiences  it is chaotic and distances from human reason.
֍ The lyrical I in Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" is a mysterious, unnamed narrator who claims to have
experienced a vivid, dreamlike vision of Kubla Khan's pleasure-dome  he tried to dominate
nature but when he was writing the poem he got interrupted and inspiration got away.
֍ The mysterious "damsel" referenced in the poem is a symbol of the Romantic ideal of feminine
beauty and imagination  she inspires the narrator's visionary experience and the creation of
the fantastical "pleasure-dome" he cares about the creation of his poem  her association with
the "sacred river" and the "deep romantic chasm" suggests a connection to the natural world
and the subconscious realm of the imagination  the ambiguity surrounding her identity and
role in the poem reflects the Romantic fascination with the Unknown and the Unknowable.
“Could I revive within me Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air”
֍ Coleridge distinguishes between two levels of imagination:
1. Primary imagination is the fundamental faculty of the mind that perceives and
processes sensory data, creating our basic understanding of the world.
 2. Secondary imagination is a more creative and transformative power that combines and
rearranges elements of perception and experience to produce new and original ideas
and images. Spiritual action which allows us to see beyond the ordinary. It is what allows
poets and artists to create works that transcend the limitations of reality and explore
the realms of the imagination and the sublime.
֍ When reason is asleep, imagination triumphs  the theme in Kubla Khan is the imaginative
experience itself  it is and is about remembrance in time of permanent intellectual realities
(Raine, p. 7).
֍ Kathleen Raine talks about traditional symbolism in Kubla Khan:
 The sunless sea  it is sunless because it is the farthest point from the source, the divine
light.
 The song and the singer  they come from “Abyssinia” which was a symbol of all
inaccessible sources since it was the country of the source of the Nile. This country also
symbolizes the depths of darkness. The singer does not speak but sings to a dulcimer 
music is the highest of arts and comes from a source deeper than words, and nearer to the
innate soul.
 The dulcimer  it is a one-stringed instrument with which Pythagoras worked out the
mathematical proportions of the diatonic scale  the damsel plays the dulcimer with intent
 she plays the chords of creation  the power of beauty and love to evoke the soul’s
deepest knowledge.
 The poem itself  it is a symbolic landscape where every image evokes the state of Platonic
amnesis, forgetfulness and the unconscious.
 John Keats (1795 – 1821) - “Le Belle Dame Sans Merci”
 The author belongs to the second generation of Romantic poets.
 The poem is a ballad: it is a song that tells a story and is, originally, danced  there is an abrupt
beginning, use of simple language but with a lyrical sound, dialogue and action to tell and a
tragic theme.
 It is the story about a woman that ruins a man  supernatural poem.
 The poem is the frame for the knight’s story  two voices: the overall voice and the knight.
 Cyclical vocabulary and cyclical life: the poem begin and ends in the same way.
 In medieval times, knights travelled with bagging to fight for lands that were in the hands of
pageants  so it was strange that the speaker found this knight doing nothing  then he
explains why with his story.
 For Weissman there are several interpretations for the misery and desolation of the knight and
none of them focuses on the importance of the non-understandable language of nature spoken
by the fairy and it’s precisely that aspect which clarifies the whole meaning of the poem.
 The fairy, according to Weissman, is similar to an English Romantic figure which is that of the
child-woman who serves as an intermediary between the poet and nature (p. 93)  but for
Keats, this female is not a guide into nature like those of Blake or the other Romanticists
because he doesn’t understand nature the same way they do (p. 5).
 For Keats, nature -following Weissman’s analysis of the poem- is not a moral instructor that
speaks through the poet’s senses about love, nor is she seen as a wasteland/hell (as she did for
Coleridge or Wordsworth)  she is not hell for the author. The knight is betrayed by this
Romantic idea that nature expresses her love for human beings in mysterious language  he
only believes that nature said “I love thee true”  “nature will betray anyone who expects
[nature] to have a symbolic language” (p. 99). In all poems where Keats brings up nature and
what she has to give us, these gifts don’t include words or thoughts  it gives us beauty, joy,
ease and comfort (p. 100). “For Keats nature is only nature” (p. 100).
 Weissman concludes that the knight is not disillusioned with love or nature (as all previous
analysis stablished) but with his own imagination (p. 104).
 The woman is described as “a faery’s child” that gives a hint about her not being a human
although she is extremely feminine.
 The movement of power in the poem  first the man is in control but then he is not anymore.
“I… I… I… She... She… She… I… I… I…”.
 There are several possible interpretations of the poem:
1. A knight finds a woman and immediately falls in love  she enchanted him and he fell
asleep  in the dream he sees other noble men and women like him that are death-
pale  they had been bewitched as well  then he awakes and she is not there
anymore, he is sad and alone  nature is now silent and calm when before it was
moving and alive (change of seasons that give the idea that a lot of time has passed).
2. This second interpretation presupposes that he wrote the poem for his beloved telling
her that she had bewitched him and he will never find another woman like her who
loves him that much  autobiographical  he was in love at the moment of writing.
3. Femme fatale: a woman that is evil because she wants to and that damages
heterosexual men. She sucks the soul out of them.
4. Another possible interpretation is that the woman symbolizes nature  she is a spirit of
nature and that is why it makes sense for him to give her flowers. A man tries to go
against nature by dominating it but she is more powerful than him  she ends up
wining.
The language of nature is something that cannot be understood “And sure in language
strange she said— ‘I love thee true’.” (NOT Weissman’s analysis).
5. Sexual intercourse/rape  if she was so happy, why was she crying? “And there she
wept and sighed full sore”  the kiss may represent sex and a maybe non-consensual
one because there is no other voice present “I shut her wild wild eyes”  the language
she spoke, he SAYS that he understood but maybe not.
He kidnapped her “I set her on my pacing steed”.
 Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) – “The Lady of Shallot”
 PART I  we found the where (the island of Shallot), the who (the Lady of Shallot), the when is
not clear but the mention of Camelot gives us a clue (around king Arthur’s time – medieval
time), the how is not clear but we can assume she lives alone, and the why is unclear.
 PART II  Plato’s theory states that we are all slaves locked in a cave only seeing shadows that
represent reality  what is outside is the world of ideas that we cannot access. This idea can be
thought as the transcendental world to which we can access through imagination. The Lady of
Shallot cannot see reality, only a reflection of it.
We see that there is no lord of Shallot “She hath no loyal knight and true, The Lady of Shalott.”
 she doesn’t belong to any man  it is her island. Men had to be loyal to a woman and they
had to be saints because their purpose was to conquer holy lands and fight pagans.
The relation between a lady and a knight was purely of virtue, asexual  it was a
protocolized/diplomatic relation of biding  the lady could be married to someone else.
Women had to be locked up and had no connection to the real world to maintain their purity 
they lived in their castles  through their knights and servants they had access through the real
world  she had no servants and no knight so she could only access the real world through her
mirror.
 She is an artist because she sings and weaves.
 PART III  there appears Sir Lancelot  a knight of the round table  he was not pure hearted
and true. He was a troublemaker that fell in love with his lady (what was prohibited) and had an
affair with her  when the father of the lady (King Arthur) found out, he died.
He was strong as a knight but weak in nature (he made mistakes).
 PART IV  she signed her name on the boat so anyone who see her would know who she was.
She went to Camelot to see civilization but didn’t make it.
She is passively allowing the curse to kill her  she doesn’t rush things in this part.
 Plasa’s article analyses the poem in light of a feminine reading  he says that “Tennyson’s
poem conversely demonstrates (…) that art and life, the aesthetic and the political, are fully
interwoven” (p. 248)  this poem dislocates patriarchal assumptions of gender, sexuality, the
institution of marriage and the place of women in Victorian society.
 According to Plasa, when the mirror breaks and the lady starts her voyage d’ amour, she signals
a resistance to the subversion of patriarchal values  but she is motivated to do leave the
tower guided by patriarchal norms  that of marriage and in search of a love “Came two young
lovers lately wed: / "I am half sick of shadows," said / The Lady of Shalott.” and signaling that
she wanted to be a part of that herself (p. 251)  however, Plasa points out at the end of his
article that marriage is “for women, a form of self-annihilation” (p. 260) because she ends up
dying.
 The poem also shows a transgression of gender boundaries with the position of the lady in the
poem  first, the center of the stanzas is reserved for Camelot or Lancelot, male(ish) figures in
the poem while the margins of the stanza are occupied either by Shallot or the lady; but then,
Sir Lancelot appears in this margin (p. 254) “From the bank and from the river / He flash'd into
the crystal mirror, / "Tirra lirra," by the river / Sang Sir Lancelot.” Also, the sang of tirra lirra (the
sing of a bird) endows connotations of a promiscuous male sexuality.
 Literary resources are one of the things analyzed in the poem:
 POETIC FORM AND STRUCTURE: the poem is a lyrical ballad.
 RHYME SCHEME: variation of ABAB (1212).
 VOICES: mainly a 3rd person omniscient narrative voice; Sir Lancelot’s; The Lady of Shallot.
 IMAGINERY AND SYMBOLISM: images are perceived by the senses and the symbolism behind
those images (the curse, the mirror, the island of Shallot, the flower, etc.). If the poem is good,
the images are there for a reason.
 LITERARY TECHINQUES: resources to produce meaning (alliteration, repetition, enjambment,
etc.).
 The poem can be also analyzed based on the themes treated on the work:
 LANDSCAPE AND SETTING.
 CHARACTER ANALYSIS: we analyze the different participants and their role in the work.
 THE ROLE OF ART AND CREATIVITY: what conflict there is b/art and life or the tension
b/commitment and detachment from society  how much into society should an artist be
 THE SUPERNATURAL: what manifested supernatural elements are present in the poem (destiny
and the curse).
 We can also analyze the different contexts that surround the poem.
 LITERARY CONTEXT: we see Romantic Echoes in Victorian literature  what the poem says
about the role of the artist, the supernatural and about nature.
 HISTORICAL CONTEXT: the Victorian era characterizes itself for the cultural and intellectual
movements, the imperialism and colonialism of that time, what was happening to society and
across classes, the industrialization and urbanism occurring at that time, and Queen Victoria’s
reign at that time  everything happens around her reign.
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT: there was a poem selected by the kingdom that talked in favor of
the kingdom  the government gave founding to some artists. Tennyson had this Poet Laureate
role in Victorian society  his duty was to compose poetry for state occasions and events of
national importance.
 It can also be analyzed with a comparative analysis:
 RECEPTION AND LEGACY: it has a legacy in Feminist Discourse analyzed through feminist lens. It
also had a legacy in cinematic and visual arts. Furthermore, the poem was not received well at
the time but now it remains a popular subject of literary analysis and scholarship  canon.
 INFLUENCE ON OTHER AUTHORS AND ARTISTS: it has an impact on other literary works as well
as on other forms or art. How they took the poem as an intertext or took its style. It has
graphical narrative interpretations as well. The paintings are reinterpretations of the poem.
 William Blake (1757 - 1827) – “London”
 The illustration shows a dialogue between it and the poem.
 The illustration and the poem are not the same, though they have things in common  in the
poem we see the colours (the red of the Palace because of the blood) that in the image we
can’t.
 Social subjects (the most vulnerable of all): a man, a chimney sweeper1, a soldier2, an infant who
cries, a Harlot3 whose problem/curse was a health problem for the state, the married hearse
(the harlot was damaging the married people), the state itself (domination of land  people
could not access to have lands) and the monarchy in the Palace walls.
 1794  difficult times for the citizens  poems had crossing opinions about the revolution.
Political disturbance.
 In London in 1794 the Brexit fails. The British soldiers were fighting to keep the monarchy that
the French were trying to destroy  just in case somebody had the idea to do the same in
Britain or that the French advanced to Britain and do the same.
 Blake supported the revolution  he was a fan of democracy and everything that went against
institutionalized power  he was against marriage as an institution.
 Blackening church  old churches were turning black with ages (literary meaning) = they had
held power for a long time so they are polluted with thirst of power (metaphorical meaning).
 The middle class, the intellectuals and artists are not mentioned  he is the artist capable of
secondary imagination  he sees what others can’t.
 Blake was a romantic but he was the most different of them all  he didn’t call himself a
romantic  his philosophy and religion were very particular  he was misunderstood.
 The
 The mind is infected with handcuffs  people are submitted by power and to capitalism and
religion.
 The lyrical I in this poem is a poet that behaves as such.

1
Someone who got inside the chimney to clean it so that the smoke could go out. Usually, children because they
could fit in the chimney hole  they died because of inhaling this smoke.
2
In 1794, the soldiers were at the French Revolution (1789 – 1799). The bloodiest revolution.
3
A prostitute  she has a curse  sexual diseases, mostly syphilis  their children were born blind  Blake talks
about a whole generation of blind people because of poverty.
 Kathleen Raine (1908 – 2003) – “London Revisited”
 It talks to Blake’s “London” and answers to it.
 It was published in 1943  Second World War  the German were bombing London  the
author records what was happening there, the devastation  children were getting sent to the
country so that they didn’t get killed.
 The shattered walls  literary and metaphorically shattered because of the war.
 The British empire was inside the shattered walls.
 The sun cannot pierce our past.
 The social subject has become a ghost haunting the dead building.
 The lyrical I in this poem is a lyrical we  a community of ghosts  they have lost everything
even the physical body.
 Nature in the poem  the world was industrialized  this shattered city has been inundated by
nature  the wind and rain and other natural phenomenon get into this industrialized world 
it has a lot of power.
 Babylon  it was the main city of the Babylonian empire. It is a metaphor for London  it had
the hanging gardens  it was destroyed.
 A bombed room has no point.
 What we are, what we have and what we have been has been destroyed  Tearing away our
palaces, our faces, and our days.
 Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) – “A Haunted House”
 This short story is about a house with ghosts that are looking for a treasure  it makes
reference to the essence of love “The light in the heart”.
 The human couple that lives in this house is a reflection/imitation of the ghosts and their actions
(they look for this treasure so humans do so as well).
 Woolf uses a simple and experimental language to reflect the simple of love. The plot is simple
as well, has been minimalized as everything in modern times  the point is not the plot though,
but the feelings it portraits.
 The story uses the resource of stream of consciousness  a way of narrating that follows the
naturality of the human mind and its thoughts  it is not linear and not logical  there’s a
temporal disruption called simultaneity that shows duration of events instead of their
chronology.
 We find an ambiguous and fragmented story since there is no certainties no more.
 She is a modernist  in the early 20th century, philosophy, literature, visual arts, etc. were
falling behind the quick and brutal advance of technology and science.
 As Yeats states, “the things fall apart; the center cannot hold” and the values, certainties
and customs of Victorian societies start to crumble. There are social changes, jobs for
women, advances in technology, development of suburbs, changes in psychology and
philosophy.
 The modernist society questions reality  interior vs. exterior reality  the psychological
one is more important for them.
 Isolation and relationship with decaying moral order, spiritual loss decline of rural way of
life.
 We see different images in the story  the house reflects a living being  inside it there is
food, light, life. It is also an old house, as ghosts who are old life. This house has a mind that has
memories in it.
 PRACTICE FOR THE WRITING TASK
You will analyse the knight in John Keats’s “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”. Read the following quote:

"The knight of “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, who has awakened from a dream of
terror, (...) feels only betrayal and desolation in autumn landscape. (…) He has
expected magic, spirit and language and so is disconsolate when he cannot find
them" (Weissman, 1980).

Do you agree with the critics’ view? Why (not)? Study his condition and make reference to the reason
for his affection. Then, explain the nature of the relationship between him and the landscape. You
should focus on interpretation, rather than retelling (DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE PLOT).

1) First you Will draw a plan of your ideas in the form of a graphic organizer (table, spider chart, bullet
points, etc.) in about 50 words.

2) Now you will write a relevant critical analysis on the task provided, based on your plan and
supporting your answer in about 25 lines or 250 words.

Read the following excerpt from Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” carefully.

She left the web, she left the loom,

She made three paces thro' the room,

She saw the water-lily bloom,

She saw the helmet and the plume,

She look'd down to Camelot

You will analyse the lady’s action and its significance, making some brief reference to what triggers her
reaction. Explain the consequences of her decision to look down at Camelot and describe how her life
changes after the curse befalls her. You should focus on interpretation, rather than retelling.