英美文学选读Romantic Poetry

英美文学选读试题Ⅰ.Multiple Choice (40 points in all, 1 for each)Select from the four choices [A],[B],[C],[D] of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement and write the letter on the answer sheet.1.Romance,which uses narrative verse or prose to tell stories of ___ adventures or other heroic deeds, is a popular literary form in the medieval period.A.Christian2.Among the great Middle English poets, Geoffrey Chaucer is known for his production of ___.A.Piers PlowmanB.Sir Gawain and the Green KnightC.Confessio AmantisD.The Canterbury Tales3.Which of the following historical events does not directly help to stimulate the rising of the Renaisssance Movement?A.The rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture.B.The new discoveries in geography and astrology.C.The Glorious revolution.D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion.4.Which of the following statements best illustrates the theme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?A.The speaker eulogizes the power of Nature.B.The speaker satirizes human vanity.C.The speaker praises the power of artistic creation.D.The speaker meditates on man's salvation.5.“And we will sit upon the rocks,/Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,/By shallow rivers to whose falls/Melodious bird s sing madrigals.〞The above lines are probably taken from __.A.Spenser's The Faerie QueeneB.John Donne's “The Sun Rising〞C.Shakespeare's “Sonnet 18”D.Marlowe's “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love〞6.“Bassanio:Antonio,I am married to a wifeWhich is as dear to me as life itself;But life itself, My wife, and all the world.Are not with me esteem'd above thy life;I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all,Here to the devil, to deliver you.Portia:Your wife would give you little thanks for that,If she were by to hear you make the offer.〞The above is a quotation taken from Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice.The quoted part can be regarded as a good example to illustrate ____.A.dramatic irony7.The ture subjec t of John Donne's poem,“The Sun Rising,〞is to ___.A.attack the sun as an unruly servantB.give compliments to the mistress and her power of beautyC.criticize the sun's intrusion into the lover's private lifeD. lecture the sun on where true royalty and riches lie8.Of all the 18thcentury novelists Henry Fielding was the first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specificall y a “___ in prose,〞the first to give the modern novel its structure and style.A.tragic epic B ic epicC.romanceD.lyric epic9.The Houyhnhnms depicted by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels are ___.A.horses that are endowed with reasonB.pigmies that are endowed with admirable qualitiesC.giants that are superior in wisdomD.hairy,wild, low and despicable creatures, who resemble human beings not only in appearance but also in some other ways.10.Here are four lines from a literary work:“Others for language all their care express,/And value books,as women men, for dress.〞The work is ___.A.Thomas Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard〞B.John Milton's Paradise LostC.Alexander Pope's Essay on CriticismD.Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream11.The phrase “to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines a nd to seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weaknesses and all kinds of social evils〞may well sum up the implied meaning of ___.A.Gulliver's TravelsB.The Rape of the LockC.Robinson CrusoeD.The pilgrim's Progress12.William Wordsworth, a romantic poet, advocated all the following EXCEPT ___.A.the use of everyday language spoken by the common peopleB.the expression of the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelingsC.the use of humble and rustic life as subject matterD.the use of elegant wording and inflated figures of speech13.Which of the following is taken from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn〞?A.“I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!〞B.“They are both gone up to the church to pary.〞C.“Earth has not anything to show more fair.〞D.“Beauty is truth, truth beauty〞.14.“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind!〞is an epigrammatic line by __.A.J.KeatsB.W.BlakeC.W.Wordsworth15.“Ode o na Grecian Urn〞shows the contrast between the ___ of art and the ___ of human passion.A.glory …uglinessB.permanence…transienceC.transience…sordidnessD.glory…permanence16.In the statement“—oh,God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?〞the term“soul〞apparently refers to ___.A.Heathcliff himselfC.one's spiritual lifeD.one's ghost17.The typical feature of Robet Browning's poetry is the ___.A.bitter satirerger-than-life caricaturetinized dictionD.dramatic monologue18.The Victorian Age was largely an age of ____,eminently represented by Dickens and Thackeray.A.poetryB.drama D.epic prose19.___is the first important governess(家庭女教师) novel in the English literary history.A.Jane EyreHeights20.The major concern of ______ fiction lies in the tracing of the psychological development of his characters and in his energetic criticism of the dehumanizing effect of the capitalist industrialization on human nature.wrence'sB.J.Galsworthy'sC.W.Thackeray’sD.T.Hardy’s21.___is considered to be the best-known English dramatist since Shakespeare, and his representative works are plays inspired by social criticism.A.Richard SheridanB.Oliver GoldsmithC.Oscar WildeD.Bernard Shaw22.Which of the following is NOT a typical feature of Modernism?A.To elevate the individual and inner being over the social being.B.To put the stress on traditional values.C.To portray the distorted and alienated relationships between man and his environment.D.To advocate a conscious break with the past.23.The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the ___ in the American literary histrory.A.individual feelingsB.idea of survival of the fittestC.strong imaginationD.return to nature24.Henry David Thoreau's work,__,has always been regarded as a masterpiece of New England Transcendentalism.B.The pioneersC.NatureD.Song of Myself25.The famous 20-years sleep in “Rip Van Winkle〞helps to construct the story in such a way that we are greatly affected by Irving's ___.A.concern with the passage of timeB.expression of transient beautyC.satire on laziness and corruptibility of human beingsD.idea about supernatural manipulation of man's life26.Walt whitman was a pioneering figure of American poetry. His innovation first of all lies in his use of __,poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.A.blank verseB.heroic coupletC.free verseD.iambic pentameter27.The literary characters of the American type in early 19th century are generally characterized by all the following features EXCEPT that they ___.A.speak local dialectsB.are polite and elegant gentlemenC.are simple and crude farmersD.are noble savages( red and white) untainted by society28.Hester Pryme, Dimmsdale,Chillingworth and Pearl are most likely the names of the characters in ___.A.The Scarlet LetterB.The House of the Seven GablestC.The Portrait of a LadyD.The pioneers29.“This is my letter to the World〞is a poetic expression of Emily Dickinson's __ about her communication with the outside world.A.indifferenceB.anger30.With Howells,James,and Mark Twain active on the literary scene, __ became the major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of the 19thcentury.31.After The adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain gives a literary independence to Tom's buddy Huck in a book entitled ___.A.Life on the MississippiB.The Gilded AgeC.The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnD.A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court32.However,___,the keynote of Daisy Miller's character,turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures.C.worldliness33.Generally speaking,all those writers with a naturalistic approach to human reality tend to be ___.A.transcendentalists34.Emily Dickinson wrote many short poems on various aspects of life.Which of the following is NOT a usual subject of her poetic expression?A.Religion and immortality.B.Life and death.C.Love and marriage.D.War and peace.35.In “After Apple-Picking,〞Robert Frost wrote:“For I have had too much/Of applepi cking:I am overtired/Of the great harvestI myself desired.〞From these lines we can conclude that the speaker is ___.A.happy about the harvestB.still very much interested in apple-pickingC.expecting a greater harvestD.indifferent to what he once desired36.Chinese poetry and philosophy have exerted great influence over ____.A.Ezra PoundB.Ralph Waldo EmersonC.Robert FrostD.Emily Dickinson37.The Hemingway Code heroes are best remembered for their __.A.indestructible spirtieB.pessimistic view of life38.IN The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape,O'Neill adopted the expressionist techniques to portray the ___ of human beings in a hostile universe.A.helpless situationC.profound religious faithD.courage and perseverance39.In Hemingway's “Indian Cmap〞,Nick's night trip to the Indian village and his experience inside the hut can be taken as ____.A.an essential lesson about Indian tribesB.a confrontation with evil and sinC.an initiation to the harshness of lifeD.a learning process in human relationship40.which of the following statements about Emily Grierson, the protagonist in Faulkner's story “A Rose for Emily,〞is NOT true?A.She has a distorted personality.B.She is physically deformed and paralyzed.C.She is the symbol of the old values of the South.D.She is the victim of the past glory.PART TWOⅡ.Reading Comprehension (16 points, 4 for each)Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English.Write your answer in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.41.“Her eyes met his and he looked away.He neither believed nor disbelieved her,but he knew that he had made a mistake in asking;he never had known,never would know,what she was thinking.The sight of her inscrutable face,the thought of all the hundreds of evenings he had seen her sitting there like that,soft and passive,but so unreadable, unknown, enraged him beyond measure.〞Questions:A.Identify the writer and the work.B.What does the phrase “inscrutable face〞mean?C.What idea does the quoted passage express?42.“And when I am formulated,sprawling on a pin,When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall.Then how should beginTo spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways.〞Questions:A.Identify the poem and the poet.B.What does the phrase “butt-ends〞mean?C.What idea does the quoted passage express?43.“God knows,…I'm not myself—I'm somebody else—…and I'm changed,and I can't tell what's my name,or who I am.〞Questions:A.Identify the work and the author.B.The speaker says he is changed.Do you think he is changed, or the social environment has changed?C.What idea does the quoted sentence express?44.“I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.〞Questions:A.Idenfity the poem and the poet.B.What does the phrase “ages and ages hence〞mean?C.What idea does the quoted passage express?Ⅲ.Questions and Answers(24 points in all, 6 for each)Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English.Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.45.As a rule,an allegory is story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a surface meaning,and an implied meaning.List two works as examples of allegory.What is an allegory usually concerned with by its implied meaning?46.Inspiration for the romantic approach initially came from two great shapers of thought.Who are the two?And what ideas they expressed inspire the romantic writers?47.The white whale,Moby Dick,is the most important symbol in Melville's novel.What symbolic meaning can you draw from it?48.Nature is a philosophic work, in which Emerson gives an explicit discussion on his idea of the Qversoul.What is your understanding of Emersonian “Oversoul〞?Ⅳ.Topic Discussion(20 points in all, 10 for each)Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.49.How is Romanticism different from Neoclassicism?Provide brief evidence from the literary works you know best.50.Summerize the story of Mark twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in about 100 words,and comment on the theme of the novel.Ⅱ.Reading Comprehension (16 points, 4 for each)41.A.John Galasworthy:The Man of Property.B.A face does not show any emotion or reaction so that it is impossible to know how that person is feeling or what he is thinking about.C.it presents the inner mind of Soames in face of his wife's coldness.He can never know what is on his wife's mind because the makeup of his and her mentality is different. His wife Irene, whose mind is romantically inclined, is disgusted with her husband's possessiveness. Being unable to read his wife's mind is as good as saying that he really can't regard her as his property- this is the very reason why he is enraged beyond measure.42.A.T.S.Eliot:“The Love Song of J.Alfred Pruforck.〞B.The ends of cigarettes,meaning trivial things here.C.Here,Prufrock's inability to do anything against the society he is in is made strikingly clear by using a sharp comparison .Prufrock imagines himself as a kind of insect pinned on the wall and struggling in vain to get free.This image vividly shows Prufrock's current predicament.43.A.Washington Irving:“Rip Van Winkle〞.B.The social environment is changed.C.When Rip is back home after a period of 20 years,he finds thta everything has changed.All those old values are gone,and he can hardly feel at home in a changed society.One of the functions that Rip serves in the story is to provide a measuring stick for change. It is through him that Irving drives home the theme that a desire for change,improvement,and progress could subvert stable society.44.A.Robert Frost:“The Road Not Taken〞.B.Many many years later.C.The speaker is telling his experience of making the choice of the roads.But he is conscious of the fact that his choice will have made all the difference in his life.He seems to be giving a suggestion to the reader.“Make good choice of your life.〞Ⅲ.Questions and Answers (24 points in all,6 for each)45.A.Buyan's pilgrim's Progress and Spenser's The Faerie Queene.B.It is usually concerned with moral ,religious,political,symbolic or mythical ideas.46.A.The French philosopher,Jean Jacques Rousseau and the German writer Johna Wolfgan von Goethe.B.It is Rousseau who established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit;his famous announcement was “I felt before I thought.〞Goethe and his compatriots extolled the romantic spirit.47.A.To Ahab,the whale is either an evil creature itself or the agent of an evil force that controls the universe,or perhaps both.B.To Ishmale,the whale is an astonishing force,an immense power,which defies rational explanation due to a sense of mystery it carries. It is beautiful,but malignant at the same time. It also represents the tremendous organic vitality of the universe,for it has a life force that surges onward irresistibly, impervious to the desires or wills of men.C.As to the reader, the whale can be viewed as a symbol of the physical limits that life imposes upon man. It may also be regarded as a symbol of nature, or an instrument of God's vengeance upon evil man. In general,the multiplicity and ambivalence of the symbolic meaning of the whale is such that it becomes a source of intense speculation, an object or profound curiosity for the reader.48.A.The Oversoul is believed to be an all-pervading power for goodness,omnipresent and omnipotent from which all things come and of which all are a part. It exists in nature and man alike and constitutes the chief element of the universe.B.According to Emerson,it is a supreme reality of mind, a spiritual unity of all beings, and a religion regarded as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal Over-soul of which it is a part.C.He holds that intuition is a more certain way of knowing than reason and that the mind could intuitively perceive the existence of the Oversoul and of certain absolutes.Ⅳ.Topic Discussion (20 points in all, 10 for each)49.a.Neoclassicists upheld that artistic ideals should be order,logic,restrained emoticon and accuracy,and that literature,should be judged in terms of its service to humanity,and thus,literary expressions should be of proportion,unity,harmony and grace.Pope's An Essay on Criticism advocates grace,wit (usually though satire/humour),and simplicity in language(and the poem itself is a demonstration of those ideals,too);Fielding's Tom Jones helped establish the form of novel;Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' displays elega nce in style,unified structure,serious tone and moral instructions.b.Romanticists tended to see the individual as the very center of all experience,including art,and thus,literary work should be “spontaneous overflow of strong feelings,〞and no matter how fragmentary those experiences were (Wordsworth's “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,〞or “The Solitary Reaper,) or Coleridge's “Keble Khan〞),the value of the work lied in the accuracy of presenting those unique feelings and particular attitudes.c.In a word, Neoclassicism emphasized rationality and form but Romanticism attached great importance to the individual's mind (emotion, imagination, temporary experience…)50.A.Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a Sequa to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.The Story takes place along the Mississippi River before the Civil War in the United States, around 1850.Along the river, floats a small raft, with two people on it; One is an ignorant,uneducated black slave named Jim and the other is little uneducated outcast white boy about the age of thirteen, called Huckleberry Finn or Huck Finn.The novel relates the story of the escape of Jim from slavery and ,more important, how Huck Finn, floating along with Jim and helping him as best he could, changes his mind ,his prejudice, about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friends as well.During their journey, they experience a series of adventures:coming across two frauds, the “Duke〞and the “King〞,witnessing the lynching and murder of a harmless drunkard, being lost in a fog and finally Tom's coming to rescue. B. The theme of the novel may be best summed in a word “freedom〞: Huck wants to escape from the bond of civilization and Jim wants to escape from the yoke of slavery. Mark Twain uses the raft's journey down the Mississippi River to express his thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilizati。

Chapter 3 ------------The Romantic Period(英国）Romanticism refers to an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions.Historical background:Rousseau’s ideas provided guiding principles for the French Revolution (1789-1794)The primarily agricultural society had been replaced by a modern industrialized one.Political reforms and mass demonstrations shook the foundation of aristocratic rule in Britain.Cultural background1.Inspiration for the romantic approach initially came from two great shapers of thought, French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Rousseau established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit. Goethe and his compatriots extolled the romantic spirit as manifested in German folk songs, Gothic architecture, and the plays of English playwright William Wordsworth.2. The Romantics saw man essentially as an individual in the solitary state and emphasized the special qualities of each individual’s mind. Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit.3. In the works of the sentimental writers, we note a new interest in literatures and legends other than those of Greece and Rome. It was in effect a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason.Features of the romantic literature1.Expressiveness: Instead of regarding poetry as “a mirror to nature”, the romantics hold that the object of the artist should be the expression of the artist’s emotions, impressions, or beliefs2. Imagination: Romantic literature puts great emphasis on the creative function of the imagination, seeing art as a formulation of intuitive, imaginative perceptions that tend to speak a nobler truth than that of fact, logic, or the here and now.3.Singularity: Romantic poets have a strong love for the remote, the unusual, the strange, the supernatural, the mysterious, the splendid, the picturesque, and the illogical.4. Worship of nature: Romantic poets see in nature a revelation of Truth, the “living garment of God”.5.Simplicity: Romantic poets tend to turn to the humble people and the everyday life for subjects, employing the commonplace, the natural and the simple as their materials6.The Romantic period is an age of poetry.The Romantic period is also a great age of prose.The major novelists of the Romantic period are Jane Austen and Walter Scott.Gothic novel was one phase of the Romantic Movement. Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernaturalWillam BlakePoints of view:1. Politically Blake was a rebel, mixing a good deal with the radicals like Thomas Paine. He strongly criticized the capitalists’cruel exploitation. He cherished great expectations and enthusiasm for the French Revolution and regarded it as a necessary stage leading to the millennium predicted by the biblical prophets.2. Literarily Blake was the first important Romantic poet, showing a contempt for the rule of reason, opposing the classical tradition of the 18th century, and treasuring the individual’s imagination.His works: Poetical Sketches (1783)Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790)Songs of Innocence (1809)Songs of Experience (1794)1. Songs of Innocence (1809)It is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings. In this volume, Blake, with his eager quest for new poetic forms and techniques, broke with the traditions of the 18th century. He experimented in meter and rhyme and introduced bold metrical innovations which could not be found in the poetry of his contemporaries2. Songs of Experience (1794)This volume of poetry paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone. A number of poems from the Songs of Innocence also find a counterpart in the Songs of Experience. The two books hold the similar subject matter, but the tone, emphasis and conclusion differ.ComparisonThe two “Chimney Sweeper”poems are good examples to reveal the relation between an economic circumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making people compliant to exploitation. The previous one indicates the conditions which make religion a consolation, a prospect of “illusory happiness”; the poem from the latter reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor children.Special features:Fight for freedom, especially for the inner spiritual freedom of the individual, is a major topic in his poetry.Blake writes his poems in plain, simple and direct language. His poems often carry the lyric beautyHe distrusts the abstractness and tends to embody his views with visual images.Symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.The Tiger Give brief answers：In what sense can we say The Tiger is a poem about art/This poem is about the artistic creation. The tiger is a real and natural beast, but the image of the tiger is man made. It is the fruit of an artist s imagination .William Blake1. His workshe is a poet and an engraver. He is the first romantic poet.Childhood is central to his concernA. Songs of innocencea. a happy and innocent world, though not without evils and sufferings.b. visionB. Songs of experiencea. A world of miseryb. the nature of religion2. Distinctive featuresA. Visual imagesB. music beautyC. Symbolism in wide rangeWhat does the word "weep " meanHere weep means sweep, it is the child s lisping attempt at the chimney sweeper s street cry.The Tiger is a poem about art, about the adequacy of words and painting. Though the tiger is a real natural beast, the images and myths with which we surround it are the fruits of imagination.William wordsworth(1770-1850)Literary point of viewHe was strongly against the neoclassical poetry. He thought the source of poetic truth was the direct experience of the senses. Poetry originated from “emotion recollected in tranquility”. The most important contribution he has made is that he has not only started the modern poetry, the poetry of the growing inner self, but also change the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language and by advocating a return to nature.Special features:1. Wordsworth is regarded as a ‘worshipper of nature’. He can penetrate to the heart of things and give the reader the very life of nature.2. Wordsworth thinks that common life is the only subject of literary interest. The joys and sorrows of the common people are his themes.His works:1. Lyrical Ballads 1798This collection of poems is generally regarded as the landmark in English literature, for it started a poetical revolution by using the common, simple and colloquial language in poetry. The poems were written in the spirit and in the pattern of the early story-telling ballads. They are simple tales about simple life told in simple style and simple language to express the simple emotions in simple lyricism.2. The Preface to Lyrical Ballads 1802The Preface deserts its reputation as a manifesto in the theory of poetry. He claimed that the great subjects of poetry were “the essential passions of the heart”and “the great and simple affections”as these qualities interact with “the beautiful and permanent forms of nature”.Interpret the poemNature and man come together explicitly in this stanza when the speaker says that his heart dances with the daffodils.The poem moves from the sadly alienated separation felt by the speaker in the beginning to his joy in recollecting the natural scene. The emptiness of speaker s spirit is transformed into a fullness of feeling as he remembers the daffodils.Questions1. Why is lyrical Ballades is regarded as the landmark in English literature2. What is the significance of William Wordsworth s poetryA. two groups of his worksB. themesa. poems about nature the fusionb. poems about human life Lucy poemsC. featuressimple themes drawn from humble life expressed in the language of ordinary peopleNostalgicSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)His points of view:1. Politically he was first an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution. In his later period, he was a fiery foe of the rights of man, of Jacobinism. He insisted that a government should be based upon the will of the propertied classes only, and should impose itself upon the rest of the community from above.2. Religiously, he was a pious Christian. He would regard nature, poetry and faith as the source of human restoration.3. Artistically Coleridge thought that art was the medium between man and nature, poetry was the flower of all human knowledge and that the imagination was the means to unite the thoughts and passions. He believed that art was the only permanent revelation of the nature of reality. A poet should realize the vague intimations derived from his unconsciousness without sacrificing the vitality of the inspiration.4. Philosophically and critically, Coleridge opposed the limited and rationalistic trends of 18th-century thought. He courageously stemmed the tide of the of the prevailing doctrines derived from Hume and Hartley, advocating a more spiritual and religious interpretation of life, based on what he had learnt from Kant and Schelling.His literary achievements:His achievement as a poet can be divided into 2 remarkably diverse groups: the demonic and the conversational. Mysticism and demonism with strong imagination are the distinctive features of the demonic group. And the conversational group generally speaksmore directly of an allied theme: the desire to go home, not to the past, but to what Hart Crane beautifully called “an improved infancy”. His poetic themes range from the supernatural to the domesticColeridge is one of the first critics to give close critical attention to language, maintaining that the true end of poetry is to give pleasure “through the medium of beauty”. He sings highly Wordsworth’s “purity of language”, “deep and subtle thoughts”, “perfect truth to nature”and his “imaginative power”.His works:There are as many different interpretations of “Kubla Khan”as there are critics who have written about it. In the criticism of the last 50 years, one may distinguish, broadly, four major approaches to this poem: (i) interpretations of it as a poem about the poetic process; (ii) readings of it as an exemplification of aspects of Colerdgean aesthetic theory; (iii) Freudian analysis; and (iv) Jungian interpretations (Maintaining Jung's psychological theories, especially those that stress the contribution of racial and cultural inheritance to the psychology of an individual.Comment on the whole poem:1. Kubla Khan who ordered a pleasure-dome and elaborate gardens to be constructed in Xanadu, is often viewed as a type of artist. His creation is a precariously balanced reconciliation of the nature and the artificial. The description of Kubla’s palace and gardens illustrates the work of the arranging and ornamenting fancy.2. The poem reveals a dramatic conflict. In the first two stanzas, the poet describes both the marvelous and magnificent palace and supernatural mysteries. The ‘sacred river’that runs through them is the link that connects them. Here, the picturesque landscape is a symbol of life and the dark ‘caverns’are a symbol of death. And the ‘sacred river’runs into infinity of death. In the third stanza, the poet tries to reach a reconciliation of the natural and the artificial by religious spells.3. The spirit of the poem is cool and non-human. One feels no real warmth even in the sunny garden. The poet, who is half-present in the end, is dehumanized behind his mask. In this poem dwells the magic, the “dream”and the air of mysterious meaning. ChristabelPart IIt is the middle of the night by the castle clock, and the owls have awakened the crowing cockTu whit tu whooAnd hark, again the crowing cock,How drowsily it crew.Sir leoline, the Baron rich,Has a toothles mastiff bitchFrom her kennel beneath the rockShe maketh answer to the clockFour for the quarters, and twelve for the hourEver and aye, by shine and shower,Sixteen short howls, not over loudSome say, she sees my lady s shroud.Sir leoline is weak in health,And may not well awakened be,But we will move as if in stealth,And I beseach your courtesyThis night, to share your couch with me.A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I sawit was ……1. What does mount Abora in line five refer to .2. what does this part describeit is a description of one part of the poet s dream in which a young girl is playing a dulcimer and singing. It revels the poet s longingfor a poetic world.3. Questions List his approaches to interpret kubla khanA. The poetic processB. aesthetic theoryC. Freudian analysisD psychological analysisWhat is Coleridge s contribution to English literatureA. assessment a poet , a critic,B. two groups of poemsa. demonic神诋诗------ themes , featuresb. Conversational------ themes , featuresC. writing techniquesa. dreamlike atmosphere, Gothic elements e.g. mysticism, demonismb. compelling conversational powersstructureThe first stanzas are products of pure imagination the pleasuredome of kubla khan is not a useful metaphor for anything in particular, however, it is a fantastically prodigious descriptive act. The poem becomes especially evocative when after the second stanza, the meter suddenly tightens the resulting lines are terse and solid, almost beating out the sound of the war drums. The fourth stanza states the theme of the poem as a whole where the speaker once had a vision of the damsel singing of Mount Abora, and the dangerous power of the vision.George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)Points of view:Politically Byron has a strong passion for liberty and an intense hatred for all tyrants.Artistically, Byron continued in the tradition of classicism that had been advocated by the writers of the Enlightenment in the 18th century.Major worksDon JuanDon Juan is a great comic epic, a poem based on a traditional Spanish legend of a great lover. Byron invests in Juan the moral positives like courage, generosity and frankness, which, according to Byron, are virtues neglected by the modern society.Special features:Byron’s diction, though unequal and frequently faulty, has on the whole a freedom, copiousness and vigor.The glowing imagination of the poet rises and sinks with the tones of his enthusiasm, roughing into argument, or softening into the melody feeling and sentiments.Byron employed the Ottva Rima (Octave Stanza) from Italian mock-heroic poetry.Selected works1. “Song for the Luddites”This is one of the two poems written by Byron to show his consistent support or the Luddites The poet’s great sympathy for the workers in their struggle against the capitalists is clearly shown“The Isles of Greece”(from Don Juan, Canto III)It is among Byron’s most effective poetical utterances on national freedomThis song consists of sixteen six-lined stanzas of iambic tetrameter, with a rhyme scheme of ababcc.1. His works and themesa. Childe Harold s pilgrimage -------a young wanderer questing for freedomb. Don Juan --------a panoramic view of different types of society2. Characterizationthe Byronic hero3. Featuresa. ideas revolt against neoclassical reason, and fight for freedomb. images Byronic heroc. artistic forms comic epicd. innovations ottva rimaA stream sometimes smooth, sometimes rapid and sometimes rushing down in cataractsDon Juan: Dedication1 Bob Southey! You're a poet--Poet-laureate,2 And representative of all the race;3 Although 'tis true that you turn'd out a Tory at4 Last--yours has lately been a common case;5 And now, my Epic Renegade! what are ye at?6 With all the Lakers, in and out of place?7 A nest of tuneful persons, to my eye8 Like "four and twenty Blackbirds in a pye;questions1. What does the tree of Liberty in the poem song for the luddites refer toIt means that the democratic movement of the working people will develop prosperously like a growing tree.2. What is the Byronic heroNarrative poems Political Corruption Religious Hypocrisy Moral degeneracyPercy bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)Major works:Proemtheus Unbound (1819)The play is an exultant work in praise of humankind’s potential, and Shelley himself recognized it as “the most perfect of my products”.The main idea running through this dramatic poem is that of freedom—the freedom of democracy“Ode to the West Wind”(1819)The autumn wind, burying the dead year, preparing for a new spring, becomes an image of Shelley himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive potential, and its universality. The whole poem has a logic of feeling, a not easily analyzable progression that leads to the triumphant, hopeful and convincing conclusion: “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”The poem is written in the terza rima form Shelley derived from his reading of Dante.In Defence of Poetry (1822)It is Shelley’s chief work of literary criticism. His emphasis is on the universal and permanent forms, qualities, and values that all great poems, as products of imagination, possess in common.Special featuresHis poetry has a great variety of poetical style. It is sometimes very rich and joyous and full of colors and odors, and sometimes marked by purity and austerity.His poetry is rich in myth, symbols and classical allusions. For him subtleties of diction were the heart and soul of poetry. His verse is particularly rich in terms describing the elements: fire, air, water, wind, and earth.His poetry has a strong dramatic power.His style abounds in personification and metaphor and other figures of speech, which describe vividly what we see and feel, or express what passionately moves us.Selected readings: “Ode to the West Wind”1. The keynote in the poem is Shelley’s ever-present wish for himself and his fellow men to share the freedom of the west wind2. Shelley’s west wind is a symbol of “spirit”, which is a dynamic, universal force that is both destructive and constructive.3. The stanza Shelley invents for this ode is a highly complicated fusion of the sonnet and of terza rima, with a rhythm scheme ofaba bcb cdc ded eeShelley“the heart of all hearts”1. His works and themesa. Men of England ----Against Political oppression and economic exploitationb. Ode to the West Winda. theme Destructive and constructiveb. structure logic,c. form terza rima2. Featuresa. erudite,b. figures of speech e.g. personification, metaphorOde to the west wind by John MansfieldIt’s a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds criesI never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes.For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hillAnd April s in the west wind, and daffodils.John Keats (1795-1821)Selected reading: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”:1. Main idea:In this poem Keats shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion. The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on the antique Grecian urn: the lovers, musicians and worshippers carved on the urn exist simultaneously and for ever in their intensity of joy.The poem can be divided into two parts, with the first 4 stanzas as part I, and the last stanza as part II. In the first part, Keats looks at the urn subjectively; in the second part he looks at it objectively. As a result of both ways of observation, he is finally able to see it as “a friend to man, to whom thou say’st / Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”Comprehension:In the 2nd stanza, the word “therefore”in the second line concludes a poetic argument in which silence, having symbolized the timeless and unmoving, is succeeded by music as an expression of activity and passion.In the 3rd stanza, there is a relaxation of tension, a blurring of the fineness and accuracy of the registration, and a certain hectic and feverish quality, panting, and cloyed, burning and parching, return too sharply and too immediately to the poet’s personal life.The 4th stanza blends the natural word in “green alter”with the traditional piety of ordinary people implicit in the little town and the emptied streets.In the 5th stanza, Keats is seeing the urn as a piece of fine art objectivelyAs a beautiful vase, it lures Keats into an impersonal experience of beauty.Comment on the poemThe poem can be divided into two parts, with the first 4 stanzas as part I, and the last stanza as part II. In the first part, Keats looks at the urn subjectively, i.e. that is the beauty created by the art; in the second part he looks at it objectively, i.e. the urn takes the poet back to reality, the human world of agony.The theme of the poem is the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human life.1. His works and themesa. ode to a nightingale contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness and human world of agonyb. ode on a Grecian urn contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human life2. Features: empathicWilliam Blake ---------visual images, symbolism in wide range William Wordsworth --------simplicitySamuel Taylor Coleridge ------------demonism, conversational powersGeorge G. Byron------------- ideas, images, artistic forms, innovationsP. B. Shelley ----------- erudite, figures of speech John Keats --------- empathicJane Austen (1755-1817)Characterization:Major works: Pride and Prejudice (1813)The novel is noted for its vividly depicted characters of almost all kinds of people of the landed gentry class. The characters reveal themselves gradually in their dialogues or conversation; through their letters –as in the case of Collins and Lydia; and in their actions –Lydia’s flirtatious behavior, Miss Bingley’s neglect and hostility to Jane in London. Characters are revealed by comparison and contrast with others.(i) Wickham serves as a contrast to Darcy by appearing to have all the good qualities, while Darcy really has them.(ii) Miss Bingley looks like, and seems to have the manners of, a lady, while Elizabeth often does “unladylike”things.(iii) Mr. Collins’s courtship of Elizabeth, and then Charlotte, adds comedy to the novel.(iv) Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet balance each other in their desire to marry off their daughters and in their respective vulgarities Special features:1. Jane Austen’s main concern is about human beings in their personal relations, human beings with their families and neighbors. She is particularly preoccupied with the relationship between men and women in love.2. She writes within a narrow sphere. The subject matter, the character range, the moral setting, physical setting and social setting, and plots are all restricted to the provincial life of the 19th-century England, all concerning three or four landed gentry families with the trivial incidents of their everyday life.3. Her novels are surprisingly realistic, with keen observation and penetrating analysis. She keeps the balance between fact and form as no other English novelist has ever done.4. Austen uses dialogues to reveal the personalities of her characters. The plots of her novels appear natural and unforced. Her characters are vividly portrayed and everyone comes alive.5. Her language, which is of typical neoclassicism, is simple, easy, naturally lucid and very economical.1. WorksSense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice2. Story and Themesa. human beings in their personal relationsb. love and marriagec. the provincial life of the late 18th century Englandd. maturity achieved through the loss of illusion3. Features : brought the modern novel to its maturitya. structure deftb. irony sharpc. characterization vividd. style lucidQuestions1. Brief questionMake a comment on pride and prejudicea. storyb. themec. characterizationd. importance2. Topic discussionComment on Jane Austen s literary creation and literary achievementsJane Austen s contribution to English literaturewhy do we say that Jane Austen brought modern novel to its maturity。

Chapter 3 The Romantic Period1. The Romantic Period: The Romantic period is the period generally said to have begun in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott’s death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament. It is emphasized the special qualities of each individual’s mind.2.Social background:a. during this period, England itself had experienced profound economic and social changes. The primarily agricultural society had been replaced by a modern industrialized one.b. With the British Industrial Revolution coming into its full swing, the capitalist class came to dominate not only the means of production, but also trade and world market.3.The Romantic Movement:it expressed a more or less negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions that came with industrialization and the growing importance of the bourgeoise. The romantics demontrated a a strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18th-century writers and philosophers. They saw man as an individual in the solitary state. Thus, the Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit.The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. Wordsworth and Coleridge were the major representatives of this movement. Wordsworth defines the poet as a “man speaking to men”, and poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Imagination, defined by Coleridge, is the vital faculty that creates new wholes out of disparate elements. The Romantics not only extol the faculty of imamgination, but also elevate the concepts of spontaneity and inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true poetry. The natural world comes to the forefront of the poetic imagination. Nature is not only the major source of the poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject mattre. It is in solitude, in communion with the natural universe, that man can exercise this most valuable of faculties.Romantics also tend to be nationalistic, defending the great poets and dramatists of their own national heritage against the advocates of classical rules.Poetry: to the Romantics, poetry should be free from all rules.they would turn to the humble people and the common everyday life for subjects.Prose: It’s also a great age of prose. With education greatly developed for the middle-class people, there was a rapid growth in the reading public and an increasing demand for reading materials.Romantics made literary comments on the writers with high standards, which paved the way for the development of a new and valuable type of critical writings. Colerige, Hazlitt, Lamb, and De Quincey were the leading figures in this new development.Novel: the 2 major novelists of the period are Jane Austen and Walter Scott.Gothic novel: a tyoe of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century, was one of the Romantic movement. Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural, which strongly appeal to the reader’s emotion. With is description of the dark, irritional side of human nature, the Gothic form exerted a great influence over the writers of the Romantic period.3. Ballads: the most important form of popular literature; flourished during the 15th century; Most written down in 18th century; mostly written in quatrains; Most important is the Robin Hood ballads.4. Romanticism: it is romanticism is a literary trend. It prevailed in England during the period of 1798-1832. Romanticists were discontent with and opposed to the development of capitalism. They split into two groups.Some Romantic writers reflected the thinking of those classes which had been ruined by the bourgeoisie called Passive Romantic poets represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey.Others expressed the aspiration of the labouring classes called Active or Revolutionary Romantic poets represented by Byron and Shelley and Keats.5. Lake Poets:Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey have often been mentioned as the “Lake Poets” because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England6. Byronic Hero a proud, mysterious rebelling figure of noble origin rights all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and is against any kind of tyrannical rules; It appeared first in Childe H arold’s Pilgrimage and then further developed in later works as the Oriental Tales, Manfred and Don Juan; the figure is somewhat modeled on the life and personality of Byron himself, and makes Byron famous both at home and abroad.7. Main Writers:A. William Blake(1757-1827):1. Literarily, Blake was the first important Romantic poet, showing a comtempt for the rule of reason, opposing the calssical tradition of the 18th century,and treasuring the individual’s imagination.2. His first printed work, Poetic Skelches, is a collection of youthful verse. Joy, laughter, love and harmony are the prevailing notes.3. The Songs of Innocence is a lovely volume of of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings. The wretched child described in “The Chimney Sweeper,”orphaned, exploited, yet touched by visionary rapture, evokes unbearable poignancy when he finally puts his trust in the order of the universe as he knows it. Blake experimented in meter and rhyme and introduced bold metrical innovations which could not be found in the poetry of his contemporaries.4. The Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a malancholy tone. The little chinmney sweeper sings “notes of woe”while his parents go to the church and praise “God & his Priest & King”—the very intrument of their repression. A number of poems in the Songs of Experience also find a counterpart in the Songs of Experience. The 2 books hold the similar subject-matter, but the tone, emphasis and conclusion differ.5. Childhood is central to Blake’s concern in the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, and this concern gives the 2 books a strong social and historical reference. The two “Chimney Sweeper”poems are good examples to reveal the relation between an economic ciecumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making people compliant to exploitation. The poem from the Songs of Innocence indicates the conditions which make religion a consolation, a prospect “illusionary happiness;”the poem from the Songs of Experience reveals the nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor children.6. Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell marks his entry into maturity. The poem plays the double role both as a satire and a revolutionary prophecy. Blake explores the relationship of the contrries. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence. The “Marriage”means the reconciliation of the contraries, not the subordination of the one to the other.Main works: Poetical SketchesSongs of Innocence is a lovely volume of poemsHoly Thursday reminds us terribly of a world of loss and institutional cruelty.Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone.Marriage of Heaven and HellThe book of UrizenThe Book of LosThe Four ZoasMilton7. Language Character: he writes his poems in plain and direct language. His poems often carry the lyric beauty with immense compression of meaning. He distrusts the abstractness and tends to embody his views with visual images. Symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.B. William Wordsworth(1770-1850) In 1842 he received a government pension, and in the following year he succeeded Southey as Poet Laureate.Lyrical Ballads:But the Lyrical Ballads differs in marked ways from his early poetry, notably the uncompromising simplicity of much of the language, the strong sympathy not merely with the poor in general but with particular, dramatized examples of them, and the fusion of natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.Short poems:According to the subjects, Wordsworth’s short poems can be calssified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about human life.Wordsworth is regarde as a “worshipper of nature.”He can penetrate to the heart of things and give the reader the very life of nature. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”is perhaps the most anthologized poem in english literature, and one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth’s poetic beliefs. It’s nature that gives him “strength and knowledge full of peace.”Wordswoth thinks that common life is the only subject of literary interest. The joys and sorrows of the common people are his themes. “The Solitary Reaper” and “To a Highland Girl” use rural figures to suggest the timeless mystery of sorrowful humanity and its radiant beauty. In its daring use of subject matter and sense of the authenticity of the experience of the poorest, “Resolution and Independence ”is the triumphant conclusion of ideas first developed in the Lyrical Ballads.Wordsworth is a poet in memory of the past. To him, life is a cyclical journey. Its beginning finally turns out to be its end. His philosophy of life is presented in his masterpiece The Prelude.Wordsworth deliberate simplicity and refusal to decorate the truth of experience produced a kind of pure and profoud poetry which no othr poet has ever equaled. He maintained that the scenes and events of everyday life and the speech of ordinary people were the raw material of which poetry could and should be made.Main Works:Descriptive Sketches, and Evening WalkLyrical Ballads.The PreludePoems in Two VolumesOde: Intimations of ImmortalityResolution and Independence.The ExcursionPoets: The Sparrow’s Nest, To a Skylark, To the Cuckoo, To a Butterfly, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud( is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English literature.), An Evening Walk, My Heart Leaps up, Tintern AbbeyThe ThornThe sailor’s motherMichael,The Affliction of MargaretThe Old Cumberland BeggarLucy PoemsThe Idiot BoyMan, the heart of man, and human life.The Solitary ReaperTo a Highland GirlThe Ruined CottageThe PreludeLanguage character: he can penetrate to the heart of things and give the reader the very life of nature. And he thinks that common life is the only subject of literary interest. The joys and sorrows of the common people are his themes. His sympathy always goes to the suffering poor.He is the leading figure of the English romantic poetry, the focal poetic voice of the period. His is a voice of searchingly comprehensive humanity and one that inspires his audience to see the world freshly, sympathetically and naturally. The most important contribution he has made is that he has not only started the modern poetry, the poetry of the growing inner self, but also changed the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language and by advocating a return to natureC. Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)he grew up with violent revolutionary ideas, so he held a lifelong aversion to crulty, injusticce, authority, institutional religion and the formal shams of respectable society, condemming war, tyranny and exploitation. He realized that the evil was also in man’s mind. Even after a revolution, that is after the restoration of human morality and creativity, the evil deep in man’s heart might again be loosed. So he predicated that only through gradual and suitable reforms of the existing institutions couls benevolence be universally established and none of the evils would survive in this “genuin society,”where people could live together happily, freely and peacefully.Shelley expressed his love of freedom and his hatredtoward tyranny in several of his lyrics. One of the greatest political lyrics is “Men of England.” It is not only a war cry calling upon all working people to risse up against their political oppressors, but an address to them pointing out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation. The poem was later to become a rallying song of the British Comuunist Party.Best of all the well-known lyric pieces is Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”here Shelley’s rhapsodic and declamatory tendencies find a subject perfectly suited to them. The autumn wind, burying the dead year, preparing for a new spring, becoms an image of Shelley himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive potential, its universality. The whole poem had a logic of feeling,a not easily analyzable progression that leads to the triumphant, hopeful and convincing conclusion: if winter comes, can spring be far behind?Shelley’s greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama, Prometheus Unbound. The play is an exultant work in praise of humankind’s potential, and Shelley himself recognized it as “the most perfect of my products.”Main works:The Necessity of Atheism, Queen Mab: a Philosophical Poem, Alastor, or The Spirit of SolitudePoem: Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Mont BlancJulian and Maddalo, The Revolt of Islam, the Cenci, Prometheus Unbound, Adonais, Hellas,Prose: Defence of PoetryLyrics:genuine society,“Ode to Liberty”,“Old to Naples”“Sonnet: England in 1819”, The Cloud, To a Shylark, Ode to the West WindPolitical lyrics: Men of EnglandElegy: Adonais is a elegy for John Keats’s early deathTerza rimaPersonal Characters: he grew up with violent revolutionary ideas under the influence of the free thinkers like Hume and Godwin, so he held a life long aversion to cruelty, injustice, authority, institutional religion andthe formal shams of respectable society, condemning war, tyranny and exploitation. He expressed his lo ve for freedom and his hatred toward tyranny in several of his lyrics such as “Ode to Liberty”,“Old to Naples”“Sonnet: England in 1819”Shelley is one of the leading Romantic poets, and intense and original lyrical poet in the English language. Like Blake, he has a reputation as a difficult poet: erudite, imagistically complex, full of classical and mythological allusions. His style abounds in personification and metaphor and other figures of speech which describe vividly what we see and feel. Or express what passionately moves us.D: Jane Austen(1755-1817): born in a country clergyman’s family:Main Works:Novel: Sense and SensibilityPride and Prejudice(the most popular)Northanger AbbeyMansfield ParkEmmaPersuasionThe WatsonsFragment of a NovelPlan of a NovelPersonal Characters: she holds the ideals of the landlord class in politics, religion and moral principles; and her works show clearly her firm belief in the predominance of reason over passion, the sense of responsibility, good manners and clear—sighted judgment over the Romantic tendencies of emotion and individuality.Her Works’ Characters: his works’s concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. Because of this, her novels have a universal significance. It is her c onviction that a man’s relationship to his wife and children is at least as important a part of his life as his concerns about his belief and career. Her thought is that if one wants to know about a man’s talents, one should see him at work, but if one wan ts to know about his nature and temper, one should see him at home. Austen shows a human being not at moments of crisis, but in the most trivial incidents of everyday life. She write within a very narrow sphere. The subject matter, the character range, the social setting, and plots are all restricted to the provincial life of the late 18th century England. Concerning three or four landed gentry families with their daily routine life.Her novels’ structure is exquisitely deft, the characterization in the hig hest degree memorable, while the irony has a radiant shrewdness unmatched elsewhere. Her works’ at one delightful and profound, are among the supreme achievements of English literature. With trenchant observation and in meticulous details, she presents the quiet, day-to-day country life of the upper-middle-class English.G: Questions and answers:1. what are the characteristics of the Romantic literature? Please discuss the above question in relation to one or two examples.a. in poetry writing, the romanticists employed new theories and innovated new techniques, for example, the preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads acts as a manifesto for the new school.b. the romanticists not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also elevate the concepts of spontaneity and inspiration.c. they regarded nature as the major source of poetic imagery and the dominant subject.d. romantics also tend to be nationalistic.2.Make a contrast between the two generations of Romantic poets during the Romantic AgeThe poetic ideals announced by Wordsworth and Coleridge provided a major inspiration for the brilliant young writers who made up the second generation of English Romantic poets. Wordsworth and Coleridge both became more conservative politically after the democratic idealism. The second generation of Romantic poets are revolutionary in thinking. They set themselves against the bourgeois society and the ruling class.3.what are Austen’s writing features?Jane Austen is one of the realistic novelists. Aust en’s work has a very narrow literary field. Her novels showa wealth of humor, wit and delicate satire.4. what is the historical and cultural background of English Romanticism?a. Historically, it was provoked by the French Revolution and the English Industrial Revolution.b. Culturally, the publication of French philosopher Rousseau’s two books provided necessary guiding principles for the French Revolution which aroused great sympathy and enthusiasm in England;c. England experienced profound economic and social changes: the enclosure movement and the agricultural mechanization; the capitalist class grasped the political power and came to dominate the English society.H. topic discussion:1. Discuss the artistic features of Shelley’s poems.A. Percy Bysshe Shelly is an intense and original lyrical poet in the English language.B. His poems are full of classical and mythological allusions.C. His style abounds in personification and metaphor and other figures of speechD. He describes vividly what we see and feel, or expresses what passionately moves us.2. What does Wordsworth mean when he said “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility”?This sentence is considered as the principle of Wordsworth’s poetry c reation which was set forth in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth appealed directly on individual sensations, as the foundation in the creation and appreciation of poetry.3. How do you describe the writing style of Jane Austen? What is the significance of her works?Jane Austen is a writer of the 18th century through she lived mainly in the 19th century. She holds the ideals of the landlord class in politics, religion, and moral principles. Austen’s main literary concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. Austen defined her stories within a very narrow sphere.。

Romantic Poetry （1）(1798-1832)[The Lyrical Ballads collaborated by Wordsworth and ColeridgeThe death of Walter Scott]I.Historical BackgroundPolitically the most important event is the French Revolution (1789), which at first gave British people great hope for a better future with rights and independence for all men but later brought them despair and nightmare.“Declaration of Rights of Man” (1791-2), Thomas Paine“Inquiry concerning Political Justice”(1793), William Godwin“A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1792), Mary WollstonecraftIdeologically the principle of Ration was giving way to an individualized, free, liberal, imaginative attitude towards life; a tendency to turn or escape from the tumultuous and confusing Here and NowEconomically the great Industrial Revolution:●continued fast changes both in the country and in the cities;●many farmhands driven out of land into the city;●women and children employed as cheap labor;●new machines set up, rendering many out of work;●growing disparity between the rich and the poor;●expansion abroad continued: (America), Australia, Canada, New Zealand,India, the West Indies and other nationsII. LiteratureProse●familiar essays of journals and newspapers(Charles Lamb, Lee Hunt, deQuincey)●literary criticism/reviews as authority (Charles Lamb, Lee Hunt, de Quincey)●novelists: Jane Austen, the realistWalter Scott, the 1st historical novelist/romantic poetPoetry the Age of (Romantic) Poetry; the voice of the agedeveloped from sentimental and gothic literature1.differences between 18th-century and 19th-century;between Neoclassicism and Romanticism:●reason vs passion●reason vs imagination●commercial vs natural●industrial vs pastoral●present vs past●society vs individual●order and stability vs freedom●decorative expression vs simple and spontaneous expression2.New Poetic Featuresnguage: simple, everyday life speech, common vocabulary and accent,dialect (Wordsworth, Blake);B.form: Lyrics---sonnet, odeNarrative---ballad (instead of mock epics, romance)C.subject: Naturethe rural/pastoralthe past/historicalthe alien/exotic, orientalthe supernatural/ mysterious (dreams or dream-like)the personalthe common/low classthe revolutionary/justicethe patrioticD.purpose: lyrical (emotional)confessionalvisionary/propheticE.principles/ideas:imagination“the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion re collected in tranquility”Preface by Wordsworth 3.Schools of Romantic Poets:A.Pre-romantic poetsRobert Burns: Scottish dialect, balladsWi lliam Blake: mysterious, philosophical, visionarySongs of InnocenceSongs of ExperienceMarriage of Heaven and HellB. Lakers/Lake Poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, 2 Poet Laureate)radical youth; conservative old age; long lifeWilliam Wordsworth: Nature, country, poor people, anti- industrializationLyrical Ballads (Prelude)Nature & country poemsSamuel Coleridge: the mysterious/demonic, dreamy, oriental, visionaryThe Rime of Ancient Mariner“Kubla Khan”C.Satanic school: rebellious, revolutionary, romantic, short lifeGeorge Gordon Byron: romantic, revolutionary, satiric, proud, angry, “Byronic Hero”Don DuanChilde Harold’s PilgrimageManfredPercy Bysshe Shelley: revolutionary, prophetic, optimisticPrometheus Unbound“Ode to the West Wind”John Keats: melancholy, a genius, propounding on truth and beauty“Ode to the Nightingale”“Ode on a Grecian Urn”“Ode to Psyche”“Ode to Melancholy”III. Text StudyWordsworth’s “I Wander ed Lonely as a Cloud” ( p. 103)Theme:Through describing a scene of joyful daffodils recollected in memory, thepoet hopes to put illustrate his theory of poetic inspiration ---“spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility”Image: dancing daffodils“fluttering”, “dancing”, “tossing”, “dance”, “danced”, “dances”“sprightly”, “glee”, “gay”, “jocund”, “pleasure”Metrical pattern: a short lyric of 4 sestets (a quatrain-couplet) of iambic tetrameter lines rhyming ABABCC.Structure: 1st stanza occasion2-3rd stanza happy sensation at the sight of the dancing flowers4th stanza happy sensation experienced again at the memory ofthe sceneStanza summary:1.The speaker was wandering like a lonely cloud when he encountered afield of dancing daffodils beside a lake.2.Stretching endlessly along the shore, the flowers danced happily.3.The waves of the lake danced merrily, but the daffodils outdid them inglee, and the poet could only be happy in such a joyful company.4.Since then, the memory of the happy scene would often come back torefill him with pleasure.Questions for next week:“The World Is Too Much with Us” p.116-71.What is the theme, i.e. the meaning, of the first line?2.What romantic ideas does it advocate?3.What type of sonnet form it is?4.What romantic spirit does it represent?5.Paraphrase the poem in your own words.“Ode on a Grecian Urn” p. 109-1101.What is the theme of the poem?2.What is the rhyme scheme?3.What romantic feature does the poem reflect?4.Summarize each stanza in one or two sentences.。

202X年7月高等教育自学考试全国统一命题考试英美文学选读卷子课程代码0604PART one(40 Points)I．Multiple Choice (40 points in all, 1 for each)Select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement.Mark your choice by blackening the corresponding letter A，B，C Or D On theAnswer Sheet.1．_______, a typical example of old English poetry，is regarded as the national epic of the Anglo—Saxons．A．The Canterbury TalesB．ExodusC．BeowulfD．The Legend of Good Women2．It was ______ who first introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England.A．CaxtonB．WyattC．SurreyD．Marlowe3．It is generally believed that the most important play among Shakespeare’s comedies is ______ A．A Midsummer Night’s DreamB．As You Like ItC．The Merchant of VeniceD．Twelfth Night4．All the following poets except ______ belong to the metaphysical school.A．DonneB．HerbertC．MarvellD．Milton5．Of all the eighteenth —century novelists, ______ was the first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a “comic epic in prose〞and the first to give the modern novel its structure and style.A．Daniel DefoeB．Samuel RichardsonC．Henry FieldingD．Oliver Goldsmith6．Although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, writers in the Victorican Period shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about ______ .A．the love story between the rich and the poorB．the techniques in writingC．the fate of the common peopleD．the future of their own country7．In the theatrical world of the neoclassical period ______ was the leading figure among the host of playwrights.A．William BlakeB．Richard SheridanC．Ben JonsonD．Bernard Shaw8．The eighteenth —century England is also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of ______.A．IntellectB．ReasonC．RationalityD．Science9．______ by Swift is generally regarded as the best model of satire, not only of the 18th century but also in the whole English literary history.A．A Tale of a TubB．The Battle of the BooksC．〞A Modest Proposal 〞D．Gulliver’s Travels10．The novels of______ are the first literary work devoted to the study of problems of the lower —class people.A．BunyanB．DefoeC．FieldingD．Swift11．Thomas Gray established his fame as the leader of the ______ of the day.A．romantic poetryB．sentimental poetryC．neoclassical poetryD．realistic novel12．Which of the following is taken from John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn〞______ A．〞If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind〞B．〞For Godsake hold your tongue, and let me love.〞C．〞Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/Are sweeter〞D．〞The Child is father of the Man.〞13．Robert Browning’s style is ______.A．identical with that of the other VictoriansB．similar to that of TennysonC．perfectly artisticD．rough and disproportionate in appearance14．Thomas Hardy wrote novels of ______.A．character and environmentB．pure romanceC．stream of consciousnessD．psychoanalysis15．The three trilogies of ______ novels are masterpieces of critical realism in the early 20th century.A．Galsworthy’s ForsyteB．Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song’s Women in Love’s A Passage to India16．______ is considered to be the best—known English dramatist since Shakespeare.A．Oscar WildeB．Christopher MarloweC．John DrydenD．Bernard Shaw17．______ was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.A．Bernard ShawB．John Galsworthy18．Of the following poets, which is not regarded as “Lake Poets〞A．Samuel Taylor ColeridgeB．Robert SoutheyC．William WordsworthD．George Gordon Byron19．The four great odes of John Keats include the following EXCEPT ______.A．〞Ode on Melancholy〞B．〞Ode on a Grecian Urn〞C．〞Ode to a Nightingale〞D．〞Ode to the West wind〞’s masterpieces.A．Women in LoveB．Sons and LoversC．Lady Chatterley’s LoverD．The Plumed Serpent21．In Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece ______, he expressed a satirical and bitter attitude towards the upper —class people by revealing their corruption, snobbery and hypocrisy.A．SalomeB．The Importance of Being EarnestC．The Happy PrinceD．A Woman of No Importance22．〞The V anity Fair 〞is a well—known part in The Pilgrim’s Progress, which of the following writers later adopted it as the title of a novel？A．DickensB．ThackerayC．FieldingD．Hardy23．To the transcendentalists such as ______ and Thoreau, man is divine in nature; but to Hawthorne and Melville, everybody is potentially a sinner.A．Washington IrvingB．EmersonC．Henry JamesD．Emily Dickinson24．Washington Irving’s ______ was written in England, filled with English scenes and quotations from English authors and faithful to British orthography.A．Bracebridge HallB．Tales of a TravelerC．The Sketch BookD．The Alhambra25．The American Romantic writers celebrated America’s landscape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, streams, and vast oceans.______ came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral law.A．The Atlantic OceanB．The Rocky MountainsC．The Pacific OceanD．The wilderness26．Which one of the following statements is NOT true of Washington IrvingA．He was regarded as Father of the American Short Story.B．He was one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation.C．He enjoyed the honor of being “the American Goldsmith〞for his literary craftsmanship.D．He was one of the advocates of the New England Transcendentalism.27．Which one of the following statements is NOT true of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his works A．Emerson’s essays often have a formal style, for most of them were derived from his journals or lectures.B．In his essays, Emerson put forward his philosophy of Transcendentalism, focusing on the importance of the individual and the nature.C．Emerson based his philosophy on an intuitive belief in an ultimate unity, which he called the 〞over—soul〞.D．Emerson is affirmative about man’s intuitive knowledge, with which a man can trust himself to decide what is right and to act accordingly.28．〞The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other, who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood〞. This is the voice of the book _____ written by Emerson, which pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England _________.A．Nature…SymbolismB．The American Scholar…NaturalismC．Nature…TranscendentalismD．the American Scholar…Realism29．Which one of the following statements about Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is trueA．Hawthorne intended to tell a love story in this novel.B．Hawthorne intended to tell a story of sin in this novel.C．Hawthorne intended to reveal the human psyche after they sinned, so as to show people the tension between society and individuals.D．Hawthorne focused his attention on consequences of the sin on the people in general, so as to call the readers back to the conventional Puritan way of living.30．Walt Whitman is a poet with a strong sense of mission, having decoted all his life to the creation of the “single〞poem, ________.A．ChicagoB．My Lost YouthC．Leaves of GrassD．A Pact31．Redburn is a semi —autobiographical novel written by ________, concerning the sufferings of a genteel youth among brutal sailors.A．Walt WhitmanB．Nathaniel HawthorneC．Herman MelvilleD．Ralph Waldo Emerson32．The period ranging from ________ to ________ has been referred to as the Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States.A．1865 (1945)B．1865 (1914)C．1783 (1945)D．1783 (1914)33．________thought that the writer should use language to probe the deepest reaches of the psychological and moral nature of human beings rather than simply hold a mirror to the surface of social life in particular times and places. He is a realist of the inner life.A．Mark TwainB．William Dean HowellsC．Henry JamesD．Theodore Dreiser34．〞I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn’t do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking —thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. 〞The above passage is taken from ________.A．The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnB．The Adventures of Tom SawyerC．Uncle Tom’s CabinD．Life on the Mississippi35．The following statements are all true of Daisy Miller EXCEPT________.A．Frederick Winterbourne, the narrator of the story, es an American expatriate.B．With the publication of Daisy Miller, William James reputation was firmly established on both sides of the Atlantic.C．With the publication of Daisy Miller, Daisy Miller has ever since become the American Girl in Europe, a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World.D．Daisy Miller’s defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between the two different cultures.36．Which one of the following statements is true of Dickinson’s “I like to see it lap the Miles〞A．This poem describes a mare dancing at midnight.B．This poem describes a horse galloping through valleys.C．This poem describes a train running through the mountainous area.D．This poem describes a traveler’s joyous journey through the scenic mountainous area.37．________ is considered to be a spokesman for the alienated youth in the post —war era and his The Catcher in the Rye is regarded as a students’ classicA．Allen GinXergD．Henry James38．Towards the end of After Apple —Picking，Frost writes “ Were he not gone, /The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his /Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, /Or just some human sleep.〞The “human sleep 〞here refers to ________.A．a trip to the countrysideB．deathC．rest after a day’s work in the orchardD．exaltation of mind39．In the third chapter of The Great GatXy by Fitzgerald, there is a wonderful description of GatXy’s party which evokes both ___________ of that strange and fascinating era that we call________.A．the pride and the prejudice…Victorian AgeB．the romance and the sadness…Jazz AgeC．the love and the hatred…Age of ReasonD．the Vanity and the disillusionment…Age of Reason40．Faulkner once said that ___________ is a story of 〞lost innocence〞, which proves itself to be an intensification of the theme of imprisonment in the past.A．The Sound and the FuryB．Go Down, MosesC．Light in AugustD．Absalom, Absalom!PART TWO (60 POINTS)II．Reading Comprehension (16 points in all, 4 for each)Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.41．〞To be, or not to be —that is the question;Whether’ tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them〞Questions:A．Identify the author and the title of the passage from which this part is taken.B．Explain the meaning of “To be, or not to be〞.C．How do you understand the last two lines42．〞The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,Awaits alike the inevitable hour.The paths of glory lead but to the grave.〞Questions:A．Identify the author and the title of the passage from which this part is taken.B．What does the phrase 〞inevitable hour〞meanC．Write out the main idea of the passage in plain English.43．〞I glanced back once. A wafer of a moon was shinning over GatXy’s house, making the night fine as before, and surviving the laughter and the sound of his still glowing garden. A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host, who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal gesture of farewell. 〞Questions:A．Identify the author and the title of the passage from which this part is taken.B．The passage describes the end of an event, What is itC．What implied meaning can you get from reading this passage44．We passed the School, where Children strove AT Recess—in the Ring—We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—We passed the Setting Sun—Questions:A．Who is the author of this stanza taken from the poem “Because I could not stop for Death—〞？B．What do the underlined parts symbolizeC．Where were “we〞heading towardIII．Questions and Answers (24 points in all,6 for each)Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English. Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.45．Edmund Spenser is one of the poets of English Renaissance. What are the qualities of his poetry46．The Man of Property is the first novel of the Forsyte trilogies by Galsworthy. What is the theme and the tone of The Man of Property47．Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown〞is often read as a conventional allegory. What does the work symbolically concern48．William Faulkner is one of the greatest American novelists. What do you know about his narrative techniques IV．Topic Discussion (20 points in all, 10 for each)Write no less than 150 word on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.49．Discuss Charles Dickens’ art of fiction: the setting, the character —portrayal, the language, etc., based on his novel Oliver Twist.50．Discuss the symbolism employed in Moby Dick.。

自考《英美文学选读》（英）浪漫主义时期（2）-1二该时期的重要作家I. William Blake1.一般识记：His lifeEnglish poet，artist，& philosopher，born in London England，Nov 28，1757，and died in London，Aug 12，1827. Blake made distinguished contributions to both Literature & art. He ranks with great poets in the English language & may be considered the earliest of the major English Romantic poets. His poems range from lyrics of childlike simplicity to mystical or prophetic works of great complexity. As an artist he is best known for his engravings，which are among the masterpieces of graphic art.2. 识记His political，religious & literary viewsBlake never tried to fit into the world; he was a rebel innocently & completely all his life. He was politically of the permanent left & mixed a good deal with the radicals like Thomas Paine& William Godwin. Like Shelley，Blake strongly criticized the capitalists’’ cruel exploitation，saying that the “dark satanic mills left men unemployed，killed children & forced prostitution.” Meanwhile he cherished great expectations & enthusiasm for the French Revolution，& regarded it as a necessary stage leading to the millennium predicted by the biblical prophets. Literarily Blake was the first important Romantic poet，showing contempt for the rule of reason，opposing the classical tradition of the 18th century & treasuring the individual’’s imagination.3. 领会His poems(1) Early worksThe Songs of Innocence (1809) is a lovely volume of poems，presenting a happy & innocent world，though not without its evils & sufferings. For instance，“ Holy Thursday” with its vision of charity children lit “ with a radiance all their own” reminds us terribly of a world of loss & institutional cruelty. The wretched child described in “ The Chimney Sweeper，” o rphaned，exploited，yet touched by visionary rapture，evokes unbearable poignancy when he finally puts his trust in the order of the universe as he knows it. His Songs of Experience (1794) paints a different world，a world of misery，poverty，disease，war & repression with a melancholy tone. The benighted England becomes the world of the dark wood & of the weeping prophet. The orphans of “ Holy Thursday” are now “fed with cold & usurious hand.” The little chimneysweeper sings “notes of woe” while his parents go to church & praise “God & his Priest & King”——the very instruments of their repression. In “London”，the city is no longer a paradise，but becomes the seat of poverty & despair，of man alienated from his true self. Blake’’s Marriageof Heaven & Hell (1790) marks his entry into maturity. The poem was composed during the climax of the French Revolution & it plays the double role both as a satire & a revolutionary prophecy. In this poem，Blake explores the relationship of the contraries. Attraction & repulsion，reason & energy，love & hate，are necessary to human existence. Life is a continual conflict of give & take，a pairing of opposites，of good & evil，of innocence & experience，of body & soul. “Witho ut contraries，” Blake states，“there is no progression.” The “marriage，” to Blake，means the reconciliation of the contraries，not the subordination of the one to the other.(2) Later worksIn his later period，Blake wrote quite a few prophetic books，which reveal him as theprophet of universal political & spiritual freedom and show the poet himself as the spokesman of revolt. The major ones are：The Book of Urizen(1794)，The Book of Los(1795)。

自考《英美文学选读》（英）浪漫主义时期（3）-32. 识记His Literary CareerIn 1807, a volume of Byron’’s poems, Hours of idleness, was published. In 1809, he wrote a satirical reply to a harsh review in the Edinburgh Review in heroic couplets, entitled English Bards & Scotch Reviewers. The publication in 1812 of the first two cantos of Childe Harold’’s Pilgrimage, a poem narrating his travels between 1809 & 1811 in Europe, brought Byron fame. In the following two years. He had written a number of long verse-tales, generally known as the Oriented Tales, with similar kind of heroes. In 1816, he wrote the third canto of Childe Harold & the narrative poem The Prisoner of Chillon. From 1816 to 1819, he produced, among other works, the verse drama Manfred (1817), the first two cantos of Don Juan (1818-1819), & the fourth & final canto of Childe Harold (1818)。

Chapter III The Romantic Period ⼀、本章的学习⽬的和要求 通过本章的学习，了解浪漫主义⽂学的产⽣的历史，⽂化背景，认识该时期⽂学创作的基本特征，基本主张，及其对时代及后世英国⽂学⽤⾄⽂化的影响；了解该时期重要作家的⽂学⽣涯，创作思想，艺术特⾊及其代表作品的主题结构，⼈物刻画，语⾔风格，思想意义等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特⾊，培养理解和欣赏⽂学作品的能⼒。

⼆、本章考核知识点及考核要求 （⼀）考核知识点 1.浪漫主义时期概述 1）浪漫主义时期英国社会的政治，经济，⽂化背景 2）浪漫主义⽂学创作的基本主张 3）英国浪漫主义⽂学的特⾊ 4）浪漫主义⽂学对同时代及后世英国⽂学的影响 2.浪漫主义时期主要作家的⽂学创作思想及其代表作品的主题结构，⼈物塑造，语⾔风格，艺术⼿法及社会意义等。

威廉.布莱克；威廉.华兹华斯；塞.特.科勒律治；乔治.⼽登.拜伦；珀.⽐.雪莱；约翰.济兹；简.奥斯汀 （⼆）考核要求 1.浪漫主义时期概述 1）识记：a.浪漫主义时期的界定 b.历史⽂化背景 2）领会：a.浪漫主义思潮的意义与影响。

b.浪漫主义⽂学创作的基本主张及对后世⽂学的影响。

、 3）应⽤：a.名词解释：浪漫主义 b.浪漫主义时期⽂学特点的分析 2.该时期的重要作家 1）识记：浪漫主义时期的重要作家，代表作品及其主要内容。

2）领会：重要作家的创作思想，艺术特⾊及其代表作品的主题结构，⼈物塑造，语⾔风格，社会意义等。

3）应⽤：a.浪漫派诗歌（所选作品）的主题，意象分析 b.⼩说《傲慢与偏见》的主题和主要⼈物的性格分析。

⼀、概述 1. ⼀般识记 English Romanticism English Romanticism, as a historical phase of literature, is generally said to have began in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth & Coleridge''''s Lyrical Ballads & to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott''''s death & the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament. 2. 识记 Historical & Cultural background During this period, England had experienced profound economic & social change. The biggest social change in English history was the transfer of large masses of the population from the countryside to the towns. As a result of the Enclosures & the agricultural mechanization, the peasants were driven of their land； some emigrated to the colonies； some sank to thelevel of farm laborers & many others drifted to the industrial towns where there was a growing demand for labor. But the new industrial towns were no better than jungles, where the law was "the survival of the fittest." The cruel economic exploitation caused large-scale workers'''' disturbances in England. 3. 领会 （1） Influences of the Romantic Movement Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. In essence it designates a literary & philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life & all experience. It also places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression of this or her unique feelings & particular attitudes & valuing its accuracy in portraying the individual''''s experiences. （2） The Romantic views about literature a. The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley & Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. b. The Romantic period is also a great age of prose. The two major novelists of the Romantic period are Jane Austen & Walter Scott.c. Besides poetry & prose, there are quite a number of writers who have fried their hand at poetic dramas in this period. 4.应⽤ （1） Literary Terms a. The Romantic Movement It expressed a more or less negative attitude towards the existing social & political conditions that came with industrialization & the growing importance of the bourgeoisie. The Romantics felt that the existing society denied people their essential human needs, so they demonstrated a strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18th-century writers & philosophers. Where their predecessors saw man as a social animal, the Romantics saw him essentially as an individual in the solitary state & emphasized the special qualities of each individual''''s mind. Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer. b. The Gothic novel It is a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century & was one phase of the Romantic movement, its principal elements are violence, horror & the supernatural, which strongly appeal to the reader''''s emotion. With its descriptions of the dark, irrational side of human nature, the Gothic form has exerted a great influence over the writer of the Romantic period. Works like The Mysteries of Udolpho （1794） by Ann Radcliffe & Frankenstein （1818） by Mary Shelley are typical Gothic romance. （2） Characteristics of Romantic literature in English history. The Romantic period is an age of poetry Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley & Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. Wordsworth & Coleridge were the major representatives of this movement. They explored new theories & innovated new techniques in poetry writing. They saw poetry as a healing energy： they believed that poetry could purify both individual souls & the society. The Romantics not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also stress the concept of spontaneity & inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true poetry. The natural world comes to the forefront of the poetic imagination. Nature is not only the major source of poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter. Wordsworth is the closest to nature. To escape from a world that had became excessively rational, as well as excessively materialistic & ugly, the Romantics would turn to other times & places, where the qualities they valued could be convincingly depicted. Romantics also tend to be nationalistic, defending the great poets & dramatists of their own national heritage against the advocates of classical rules who tended to glorify Rome & rational Italian & French neoclassical art as superior to the native traditions. To the Romantics, poetry should be free from all rules. They would turn to the humble people & their everyday life for subjects, Romantic writers are always seeking for the Absolute, the Ideal through the transcendence of the actual. They have also made bold experiments in poetic language, versification & design, & constructed a variety of forms on original principles of structure & style.。