Generation of romantic poets

The first generation of romantic poets
William Wordsworth  (1770-1850)
The manifesto of English romanticism
• Poets were characterized by the attempt to theorize about poetry
• The aim of lyrical ballads is making  interest foe the reader speaking on the beauty of nature and ordinary things
• Coleridge should deal with visionary topics, the supernatural, and mystery
• Poetryshould deal with everyday situations or incidents and with ordinary people, the language should be simple
Man and the natural world
• Wordsworth is interested in the relationship between the natural word and the human consciousness
• His poetry offers: complex interaction between man and nature, insights, emotions and sensations
• One of the most important concepts of W. is theidea that man and nature are inseparable
• Nature comforts man in sorrow it is a source of pleasure that teaches man to love, to act in a moral way
The importance of the senses and of memory
• Nature means also the world of sense perceptions (sensibility of eye and ear)
• Memory is a major force in the progress of growth of the poet’s mind and moral character
• Memory allows tothe poet to give poetry its life and power
Recollection in tranquility
• All genuine poetry takes its origin from emotion rec 434c22e ollected in tranquility so that what we read  in the poem results from the active relationship of present to past experience
At the and the whole process could be described as in the sequence:
Object>poet>sensory experience>emotions>memory=recollection intranquility>”kindred emotion>poem>reader>emotions
The poet’s task and his style:
• The poet though a common man, has great sensibility and ability to penetrate the heart of things
• The power of imagination  enables him to communicate his knowledge, so he becomes a teacher who shows man how to understand their feelings and improve their moral being
• His task consists in drawingattention to the ordinary things of life where the deepest emotions and truths are to be found
• Style: used several forms as: sonnets, odes, ballads, lyrics with short lines and simple rhymes
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Imagination and fancy
Like Wordsworth and Blake Coleridge talks about two kind of imagination:
• Primary imagination: as a fusion of perception and humanindividual power to produce images (power to give chaos a certain order, to give the material perception a certain shape)
• Secondary imagination: it was the poetic faculty of built new worlds (in Wordsworth=supernatural create an emotions)
• Imagination was more important than fancy which though on higher level than mere perception was based on the power of association of material and subjectto the rational law of judgment.
The ideal in the real
•        Coleridge did not view nature as a moral guide or a source of consolation and happiness as speaking Wordsworth, but his contemplation of nature was always accompanied by awareness  of the presence of the ideal in the real
•        His strong faith did not allow him to identify nature with the divine (form of pantheism as Wordsworth)•        He saw the nature and the materil world in a sort of neo Platonic interpretation, as the reflection of the perfect world of ideas
•        Coleridge believed that natural images carried abstract meanings and he used them in his poems.
The rime: content
• The ballad is made up of seven parts
• It is introduced by an argument containing a short summary of the whole poem andconsists of two narratives: one introduce the protagonist and his listener the other is the poem itself.
Atmosphere and characters:
• The atmosphere of the whole poem is charged with irresistible mystery because of  the combination of the supernatural and commonplace, dream-like elements and astonishing visual realism
• The mariner are hardly characters in any dramatic sense. They are...