A summary of key movements in British poetry: Shakespeare The Metaphysical Poets The Romantics ...

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A Brief History of British Poetry

Transcript of A summary of key movements in British poetry: Shakespeare The Metaphysical Poets The Romantics ...

Page 1: A summary of key movements in British poetry:  Shakespeare  The Metaphysical Poets  The Romantics  The Victorian Poets  The War Poets  The Movement.

A Brief History of British Poetry

Page 2: A summary of key movements in British poetry:  Shakespeare  The Metaphysical Poets  The Romantics  The Victorian Poets  The War Poets  The Movement.

A summary of key movements in British poetry:

Shakespeare The Metaphysical Poets The Romantics The Victorian Poets The War Poets The Movement Contemporary Poets

Overview

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Elizabethan Poetry At the time, the writing of poetry was part of the

education of a gentleman. Sonnets were very popular among the upper classes, and collections of sonnets and lyrics were often published. Aristocrats who did not write poetry themselves were usually patrons to other poets, giving them financial support.

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The Fair Youth

The Dark Lady

The Rival Poet

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

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Pure love

Tainted love

Love betrayed

Broad Themes

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3 Quatrains

Final Couplet composed in iambic pentameter

The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg

Structure of Shakespearean Sonnets

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Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it.

Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:

1.What is ultimately there?

2.What is it like?

The Metaphysical Movement

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Samuel Cowley John Donne George Herbert Andrew Marvell Abraham Cowley Henry Vaughan George Chapman Edward Herbert

The Metaphysical Poets

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His personal relationship with spirituality is at the centre of much of his work

Psychological analysis

Sexual realism

John Donne (1572 – 1631)

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Politically charged poems

Wrote with humour

Carpe diem (‘seize the day’)

Did not live to see a collection of his poems published

Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678)

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Had we but world enough, and time,This coyness, Lady, were no crime,

An hundred years should go to praiseThine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;Two hundred to adore each breast;But thirty thousand to the rest;An age at least to every part,

To His Coy Mistress

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But at my back I always hearTime’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;And yonder all before us lieDeserts of vast eternity.

then worms shall tryThat long preserved virginity,And your quaint honour turn to dust,And into ashes all my lust.The grave’s a fine and private place,But none, I think, do there embrace.

To His Coy Mistress

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The Romantic period, or Romanticism, is regarded as one of the greatest and most illustrious movements in literary history

Primarily consisted of just seven poets

Lasted approximately 25 years – from William Blake’s rise in the late 1790s to Lord Byron’s death in 1824.

The Romantic Period

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• William Blake

• William Wordsworth

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• George Gordon, Lord Byron

• John Keats

• Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poets of the Romantic EraPoets of the Romantic Era

BlakeColeridge

KeatsShelley

Wordsworth

Byron

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Nature is central to much of their work

They sought a freer, more personal expression of passion

Challenged their readers to open their minds and imaginations

Characteristics of Romanticism

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• Use creative imagination

• Focus on nature

• Focus on feelings and intuition

• Freedom and spontaneity

• Simple language

• Personal experience, democracy and

liberty

What Is Romanticism?What Is Romanticism?

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Neoclassic Trends

• Stressed reason and judgment

• Valued society• Followed authority• Maintained the

aristocracy• Interested in science

and technology

Revolt Against NeoclassicismRevolt Against Neoclassicism

Romantic Trends

• Stressed imagination and emotion

• Valued individuals • Strove for freedom• Represented common

people

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Writing during the French and American Revolutions

Response to changing political and social conditions

Shelley’s Masque of Anarchy frequently quoted by Ghandi

Historical Background

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Literally describes the events in the age of Queen Victoria’s reign of 1837-1901

Increased use of the Sonnet as a poetic form

To some extent influenced by the Romantic poets

The Victorian Poets

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The Victorian period saw the emergence of many important female poets

Significant female poets include Elizabeth Browning and Christina Rossetti.

Christina Rossetti in some ways could be viewed as a more typical Victorian poet. Her poetry reflected her deep Anglican faith and frequently pursued themes such as love and faith.

Female Victorian Poets

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Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)

•Father an Italian, a poet and translator, living in exile •Mother Italian-English woman, very keen Christian and a shining example to her children (they all loved her and looked up to her)•Grandfather – a translator•Older sister Maria Francesca Rossetti – wrote a commentary on the Italian poet Dante and later became a nun•Two older brothers who were writers and painters.

The themes of love and death are dominant in her writing, and her poetry often has a religious aspect to it. Rossetti’s relationships never ended in marriage – she was engaged twice. Both times the engagement broke down because she didn’t want to compromise on her faith, both men fell short of her standards.

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She suffered with illness throughout her life. In 1835 she moved, with her family, to London.

There she began gaining fame as an anonymously published poet.

She attracted the attention of the prominent poet Robert Browning.

Between 1844 and 1846 Elizabeth and Robert wrote 574 letters to each other, and in 1846 they eloped to Italy.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861)

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How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! –I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of Being and Ideal Grace.I love thee to the level of everyday’sMost quiet need, by sun and candlelight –I love thee freely, as men strive for Right, –I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise;I love thee with the passion, put to useIn my old griefs, … and with my childhood’s faith:I love thee with the love I seemed to loseWith my lost Saints, – I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnet 43

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For the first time, a substantial number of important English poets were soldiers

Many died however, those who survived were frequently scarred by their experiences and this is reflected in their poetry

The tone of this poetry can be seen to change as the war progressed

The War Poets

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He was a committed Christian From 1913 to 1915 he worked as a

language tutor in France He felt pressured by the propaganda to

become a soldier and volunteered on 21st October 1915

In 1918 he won the Military Cross On 4th November he was shot and killed

Wilfred Owen (1893 – 1918)

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Philip Larkin Kingsley Amis Donald Davie D.J. Enright John Wain Elizabeth Jennings Thom Gunn Robert Conquest

The Movement (1950s)

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Essentially English in character Worldview took into account Britain’s

reduced dominance in world politics The group's objective was to prove the

importance of English poetry over the new modernist poetry

Nostalgic for the earlier Britain and filled with pastoral images of the decaying way of life as Britain moved farther from the rural and more towards the urban

The Movement

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Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

Philip Larkin was a 20th century poet whose work is characterised by his observations of everyday life and relationships.

His poetry is often described as being melancholic.

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for Sally Amis

Tightly-folded bud,I have wished you somethingNone of the others would:Not the usual stuffAbout being beautiful,Or running off a springOf innocence and love –They will all wish you that,And should it prove possible,Well, you’re a lucky girl.

Born YesterdayBut if it shouldn’t, thenMay you be ordinary;Have, like other women,An average of talents:Not ugly, not good-looking,Nothing uncustomaryTo pull you off your balance,That, unworkable itself,Stops all the rest from working.In fact, may you be dull –If that is what a skilled,Vigilant, flexible,Unemphasised, enthralledCatching of happiness is called.

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Simon Armitage

Carol Ann Duffy

Benjamin Zephaniah

John Agard

Contemporary Poets

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Excuse me standing on one leg I'm half-caste

Explain yuself wha yu mean when yu say half-caste yu mean when picasso mix red an green is a half-caste canvas/ explain yuself wha u mean when yu say half-caste yu mean when light an shadow mix in de sky is a half-caste weather/

Half Caste by John Agard

well in dat case england weather nearly always half-caste in fact some o dem cloud half-caste till dem overcast so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass ah rass/ explain yuself wha yu mean when yu say half-caste yu mean tchaikovsky sit down at dah piano an mix a black key wid a white key is a half-caste symphony/

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Explain yuself wha yu mean Ah listening to yu wid de keen half of mih ear Ah looking at u wid de keen half of mih eye and when I'm introduced to yu I'm sure you'll understand why I offer yu half-a-hand an when I sleep at night I close half-a-eye

Half Caste by John Agard

consequently when I dream I dream half-a-dream an when moon begin to glow I half-caste human being cast half-a-shadow but yu come back tomorrow wid de whole of yu eye an de whole of yu ear and de whole of yu mind

an I will tell yu de other half of my story

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Thank you for listening!