Augustan age

The 18th century was the Augustan age, that is another way to describe the Enlightenment. The
main values during this age were the independence, the common sense, the nature. The man is
superior, he is a self-made man (American dream), he can control nature and god, that is seen like
an inspiration. So, he is not controlled by god anymore, so we are talking about FREE WILL. For
the enlightenment, the most important thing is the rationality/reason.
The world changes thanks to three important events:

 English industrial revolution – 1750

 American independence – 1776
 France revolution – 1789
These events are important because they signed the end of an age and because all the idea in men
power was abandoned.
During the enlightenment, the rules were strict, especially for children. People had to behave with
formality, so they cannot show their emotions. The child was important only to become an adult
and civilised being. Childhood was considered a temporary state, a necessary stage in the process
leading to adulthood.
During this age, the man is seen as a social animal.

Romanticism
At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century there was a Romantic current where
the main values were the emotional experience and the individual feelings. Also, the imagination
had a primary role and thanks to it, the romantic poets could see beyond surface reality and
discover a truth beyond the powers of reason. It also allowed the poet to re-create and modify the
external world of experience.
The poet is seen as a prophet whose task was to mediate between man and nature to give voice to
the ideals of freedom, beauty, and truth.
Another important theme was the childhood. The child, during the romanticism was purer than an
adult because he was unspoilt by civilisation. His sensitiveness meant he was even closer to God.
So, the childhood was a state to be admired and cultivated.
During this age, the man is seen in a solitary state, and the romantics underline the special
qualities of each individual’s mind. They also exalted the atypical, the outcast, the rebel. The
‘’natural’’ behaviour unrestrained and impulsive was good, in contrast to behaviour which is
governed by reason and by the rules of society. The romantic man has an instinctive knowledge of
himself.
Another important theme is nature that is considered as a living force and as the expression of god
in the universe. Nature became a main source of inspiration, a stimulus to thought, a source of
comfort and joy.
William Wordsworth
Wordsworth is the father of romanticism. In 1795 met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Their friendship
proved crucial to the development of English Romantic poetry: they produced Lyrical Ballads. The
second edition also contained Wordsworth’s famous ‘Preface’, which was to become the
Manifesto of English Romanticism.
For Wordsworth poetry was a solitary act, originating in the ordinary. He belonged to the first
generation of Romantic poets. While planning the Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge, they decided that
he would deal with man, nature, and everyday things. For Wordsworth, the subject matter should
deal with everyday situations or incidents and with ordinary people. The language should be
simple. The reason for Wordsworth’s choice is that humble rural life man is nearer to his own
purer passions.
Wordsworth had faith in goodness of nature as well as in the excellence of the child. He thought
that man could achieve that good trough the cultivation of his senses and feelings. He was
interested in the relationship between the natural world and the human consciousness.
Wordsworth’s poetry offers a detailed account of the complex interaction between man and
nature, of the influences, emotions, and sensations. Wordsworth believed that man and nature
are inseparable; man exists not outside the natural world but as an active participant in it. In his
pantheistic view Wordsworth saw nature as something that includes both inanimate and human
nature. Nature is a source of pleasure and joy; it teaches him how to love and to act in a moral
way.
The poet has a great sensibility and an ability to see into the heart of things. The power of
imagination enables him to communicate his knowledge, so he becomes a teacher showing others
how to understand their feelings. His task consists in drawing attention to the ordinary things of
life, to the humble people. Wordsworth almost always used blank verse, though he proved skilful
at several verse forms such as sonnets, odes, ballads and lyrics with short lines and simple rhymes.
MY HEART LEAPS UP - WORDSWORTH

MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I BEHOLD

A RAINBOW IN THE SKY:

SO WAS IT WHEN MY LIFE BEGAN;

SO IS IT NOW I AM A MAN;

SO BE IT WHEN I SHALL GROW OLD,

OR LET ME DIE!

THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN;

AND I COULD WISH MY DAYS TO BE

BOUND EACH TO EACH BY NATURAL PIETY.

The poet is the protagonist of the scene. There is an individual experience, nature influences people.
He is looking at nature through the eyes of a child.

''My heart leaps up when I behold

a rainbow in the sky''

The poet is amazed by the rainbow because it's God's miracle, nature is the representation of God.

''So was it when my life began

So is it now I am a man

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die''

It represents the Inner Child. It is important to see life in a different way. He gives importance to
children because they were exploited that time. He will look at the rainbow through the eyes of a
child even when he will be older.

Wordsworth would like to find innocence in the end of the rainbow. These 3 phases of life are not
seen in a positive way by Shakespeare, but Wordsworth wants to keep his innocence even in his
adult age

''OR LET ME DIE''

If he loses his inner child, he will lose God, his connection to the nature and his happiness.
Wordsworth tell us to keep our inner child, so in the adulthood we could see beauty in little things.

The role of nature

Nature gives joy to the man, it's a personification of God, inspo for life, a companion, a friend, a
sense of comfort, a mother because it's the first source of life, a moral teacher because it teaches us
experiences and to respect God.

How can you understand the language of nature?

Nature shows or reflect our emotions. ex: Rain = Sadness

God speaks to humanity through nature and nature speaks to our soul (inner child). Children speak
with God and nature through imagination.

THEMES
Role of the child (purity, different from adults, innocent, imagination

Imagination (connected with God and nature)

Role of nature

''The child is father of the man''

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In 1795 Coleridge met the poet William Wordsworth. an important collaboration between the two
poets started. Coleridge Wrote his masterpiece in 1798: The rime of the ancient Mariner. it is the
first poem of the collection lyrical ballads, that became, along with the ‘preface’ to its second
edition, the manifesto of the English romantic movement.

The Rime of the ancient Mariner

the ballad ‘’the rime of the ancient Mariner’’ is made up of seven parts and is set in the white sea
with days of hot sun and nights lit by the moon. It is introduced by an ‘’argument ‘’containing a
short summary of the whole poem and consists of two narratives: one is made up of the captions,
which constitute the framework of the whole poem, the other is the poem itself.
the atmosphere of the whole poem is full of mystery because of the combination of the
supernatural and the real. The Mariner and his fellow shipmates are hardly characters in any
dramatic sense. they are more stereotypes than human beings and their agonies are simply
universally human. The Mariner is passive in guilt and remorse. when he acts, he does so blindly,
under compulsion. Coleridge makes him a spectator.
Coleridge Did not view nature as a moral guide or a source of consolation and happiness. his
contemplation of nature was always accompanied by the awareness of the presence of the ideal in
the real. for Coleridge nature had an essential role in poetic creativity because it stimulated the
poet to find natural symbols that could reflect his emotions and feelings. The shapes and colors of
nature were used to represent and symbolize emotional and mental states.
in the Rime we have combination of dialogue and narration; the four-line stanza; they archaic
language, rich in alliteration, reputation, and onomatopoeia; we have the theme of travel and
wandering and supernatural elements. the presence of a moral at the end makes the rime of the
ancient Mariner a romantic ballad.
this poem has been interpreted in many ways. it may be the description of a dream, that allows
the poet to relate the supernatural and the less conscious part of his psyche to a familiar
experience. Coleridge's poem may also be an allegory of the life of the soul in its passage from sin,
through punishment, to redemption. the poem is seen as a description of the poetic journey of
romanticism. the guilt is the actual origin of the poetry: it is the regret for a state of lost innocence
caused by the industrial revolution.
 THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

THE KILLING OF THE ALBATROSS -

COLERIDGE

It is a long ballad, divided in 7 parts

''Rime'' into the title, so the reader understands it is a ballad.

An old mariner appears in a wedding party and forces 3 people to listen to his story. The tale is
about a voyage that will turn into a voyage with no return.

ARGUMENT
The ''Ship'' is a personification, it is considered a person

The ''Line''. It talks about the imaginary line of life. He crosses a limit, the human limits imposed
by God and nature.

The ship is going against God's will --> crime of HYBRIS. The mariners wanted to discover more
of the world and be superior to God, to control the world, life. They wanted to challenge God. They
are going to the south pole.

There are references to Dante and Ulysses.

THE MARINER
The mariner looks like an old man with long grey beard and skinny hands.

''Glittering eyes'' cunning eyes, he is dangerous, ancient, he has a lot of experience, so he is a

culture man. A man that has glittering eyes is not innocent, he is a sinner, and he has repented.

He is wise because he is ancient and for his appearance, He's immortal too.

The mariner stops the wedding guest because he sees that he is like him, he sees the darkness. The
wedding guest's reaction is rude, he has not patience, he is not mature, so he is probably young.

(Message for the society: the poet has to say how to behave.)

Again ''glittering eyes''. The mariner is enchanting the man (like la belle dame).

Is it a magical or a real world? We do not know yet.

The young man starts listening to him because of the enchantment. He seems like a child because
children are still not corrupted by society, he is pure.

line 25 ‘'The sun came up upon the left'' Nature here is a friend, left is the direction of their
voyage. But when they overstep the line, nature becomes an enemy

The ship is driven by a storm towards the south pole.

''storm blast'' it is a tyrannous, villain, a personification, like a king, a hurricane (Neptune, Zeus).
The waves are chasing them, they represent revenge.

They arrive to the South Pole; they have been sent to DEATH. There are no living things there. The
ice is crackling everywhere --> Nature is angry.

SIGN OF HOPE: A sea bird, called Albatross came to help the mariners. God feels pity (Good
Omen). The mariners are treating the bird like a guest of the ship.

But, in the end the mariner kills the Albatross without a reason. That was the crime: he killed God's
help.

The wedding guest perceives the trouble in the eyes of the mariner. He is sad because he understood
what is bad so now, he is wiser.