Question | Answer |
Herrick: To Virgins to Make Much of Time. | Swinburne said that Herrick was 'The greatest songwriter of the English race.' Writing at a time of political rebellion. Theme: Carpe Diem. Dead Poets society: 'Food for worms and we will be fertilizing daffodils.' Lyrical ballad. Is it a good/effective way to seduce somebody? Metaphysical poet. |
Byron: She Walks in Beauty | Lady Caroline Lamb said Byron was 'mad, bad and dangerous to know.' Unusually not focused on Byron - about 'her' - never says 'I' - not being egotistic. Could be about Mrs Wilmott - cousin. Also the 'Lady of the Night' - celebrating the virtue and love of a virtuous woman. Lyric/Romantic poet. |
Clare: First Love | Put in an asylum for the insane in 1837 - escaped but recaptured. Romanticism. Focuses on self impression and individuality. Imagination over reason and emotions over logic. Amounts to loss of yourself - Clare struggles with identity and sense of the world - she now possesses his heart. |
Tennyson: Break, Break, Break | Son of a clergyman. 'Morte de Arthur'. As a teenager, he wrote in the style of Byron. Friends with Arthur Hallam (engaged to ALT's sister). 1831: father dies - struggles with mental health. September - Hallam dies. 'Finest poet of the Victorian Era'. Themes: connection between past and present, especially death is present - reminder of the futility of life. Lyric - suffered unbelievable loss, talking to the sea. |
Hopkins: God's Grandeur | Widely hailed as a pioneering figure of 'modern' literature - worked first published 1918 (posthumously). Unconnected with his fellow Victorians - Victorian society ruined the landscape and the work. Hopkins becomes a Catholic for the desire of beauty - Jesuit (Rebels of the Priest World). As a young man he used to write like Keats but he thought Catholicism meant to give things up - burnt manuscripts - Catholic Church encouraged him to pursue this. Hopkins' work based on 'inscape' (nature becomes 'illuminated') - individual design/identity that's dynamic - each being in the universe is 'selves' - but in being the universe humanity is the highest. 'Instress' - understanding apprehension of other beings - human celebrates the divine. Romantic tradition of celebrating nature - man ruining it - Romantics often atheist. |
Coleridge: Kubla Khan | Logic, sense and reality disappear. Romantics. Could not complete as a knock on the door from Porlock interrupted. Poetic inspiration from a dream. Normal sentence structure is in a stream of consciousness. Monoverse/Monologue. The poem appeals to nonsense. |
Keats: To Autumn | Ode/Paean (song of praise/triumph) - 'But it is not anyless beautiful' - do you not think that it is all bullshit? Addresser: Keats Addressee: Autumn (Goddess) 'Death is beautiful' - personification. Apostrophe: addressing someone outside the box. |
Hardy: Nature's Questioning | Born 1840, Died 1928 - Victorian, Edwardian, Modern. 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' - successful novelist - annoyed him - thought of himself as a poet. His agenda is always to question society in which he lived - he is living in a corrupt society. Pre-occupied between relationship of country and town - typical of Victorian. Poem is 19th century high Victorian, Hardy is shaped by a society that makes him believe in God but he can't understand it - not a just world. Brave to say 'I don't know' and calling the Universe a 'Vast Imbecility' - moving away from society's view of God - iconoclastic. Uncertain, questioning, sad, confused - meaning of life, unpious and empty. |
Wordsworth: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud | Victorian's first poet laureate - 1843 but mainly known as a Romantic. Born in Lake District - deep love of nature. 1795 - met Samuel Taylor Coleridge - produced work together called 'Lyrical Ballads'. Politically engaged - believed in the message of the French Revolution but appalled by its violence and returned home. Saw his job as a poet to reconnect you with nature - there's a goodness in it - also to write in the language of everyday people. |
Howard: Love that Doth Reign and Live Within my Thought | Renaissance poetry - birth of English sonnet - Wyatt and Howard inspired by Petrarch - 'Love that Doth...' a 'translation' of Petrarch's 'Rime 140' from Canzoniere. Soldier poet - shows chivalry in 'Love that Doth..' military and Christian values. Henry VIII thought Howard wanted to take the throne from Edward - paranoia from Jane's death (childbirth) - Howard eventually executed. |
Donne: Sonnet: Batter My Heart | From the 'Holy Sonnets' 1618 (Jacobean) Aristocratic and literary audience. Born into Catholic family at a time of divided religious beliefs. In 1615, Donne ordained a priest in the Anglican church - 1621 became Dean of St Paul's Cathedral - retained post for rest of life. The leading exponent of 'metaphysical' poetry - flourished in the late 16th/early 17th century - Greek term 'meta' (beyond) - beyond the physical - elaborate conceits (like a puzzle) - complex ways of dealing with complex subjects - sometimes simple ways. In his 20s took part in military expeditions to Spain (Spanish Armada). 'Batter My Heart' - turned into part of an opera by Benjamin Britten - entirety of Holy Sonnets have become the subject of Britten's operatic work. |
Swift: A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General | 1694 becomes a priest - eventually Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Target: John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough - switched allegiance to where it suited him - helped Britain rise from a minor to a major power. Published 1765 - posthumously. Wrote 'Gulliver's Travels'. Born in Ireland to British parents - lived there most of life. One of the greatest satirists to write. |
Want to create your own Flashcards for free with GoConqr? Learn more.