romanticismromanticism as presented by jacintha lee

RomanticismRomanticismRomanticismRomanticismAs presented by Jacintha LeeAs presented by Jacintha LeeAs presented by Jacintha LeeAs presented by Jacintha Lee

What is Romanticism?What is Romanticism?What is Romanticism?What is Romanticism?

Romanticism is the literary period from the late 18th century to the early 19th century, and is characteristised by a strong focus on nature, a heightened aesthetic sensibility and a rejection of the tendencies of classicism. But most importantly, it involved a focus on the imagination.

Romanticism is the literary period from the late 18th century to the early 19th century, and is characteristised by a strong focus on nature, a heightened aesthetic sensibility and a rejection of the tendencies of classicism. But most importantly, it involved a focus on the imagination.

What is Imagination? What is Imagination? Imagination is a key aspect of Romanticism. It is the action of forming new ideas, images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses, and this force enables man a connection with nature, and allows one to transcend beyond their physical state or circumstances in order to gain freedom or a new perspective.

What is Imagination? What is Imagination? Imagination is a key aspect of Romanticism. It is the action of forming new ideas, images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses, and this force enables man a connection with nature, and allows one to transcend beyond their physical state or circumstances in order to gain freedom or a new perspective.

Washing Day Washing Day (1797)(1797)

Washing Day Washing Day (1797)(1797)

A Poem by Anna Laetitia BarbauldA Poem by Anna Laetitia BarbauldFirst Published in First Published in Monthly MagazineMonthly MagazineA Poem by Anna Laetitia BarbauldA Poem by Anna Laetitia Barbauld

First Published in First Published in Monthly MagazineMonthly Magazine

Washing DayWashing Day (1797) (1797)A poem by Anne Laetitia BarbauldA poem by Anne Laetitia Barbauld

Washing DayWashing Day (1797) (1797)A poem by Anne Laetitia BarbauldA poem by Anne Laetitia Barbauld

What is it about?Context “Washing day was a major event in the Victorian household. Due to the labour involved, it was also infrequent, occurring perhaps once a month to be more economically viable. The less frequent the washing, the more affluent a family could claim to be, as they would have sufficient clothing to wear until next wash day...” - POWYS

What is it about?Context “Washing day was a major event in the Victorian household. Due to the labour involved, it was also infrequent, occurring perhaps once a month to be more economically viable. The less frequent the washing, the more affluent a family could claim to be, as they would have sufficient clothing to wear until next wash day...” - POWYS

The Chimney The Chimney Sweeper (1789)Sweeper (1789)

The Chimney The Chimney Sweeper (1789)Sweeper (1789)

A Poem by William BlakeA Poem by William BlakeFrom From Songs of InnocenceSongs of InnocenceA Poem by William BlakeA Poem by William BlakeFrom From Songs of InnocenceSongs of Innocence

The Chimney SweeperThe Chimney Sweeper (1789) (1789)A poem by William BlakeA poem by William Blake

The Chimney SweeperThe Chimney Sweeper (1789) (1789)A poem by William BlakeA poem by William Blake

What is it about?"I have two boys working for me. after work their arms and legs are bleeding so I rub them with salt-water before sending them up another chimney" Sweep Master

What is it about?"I have two boys working for me. after work their arms and legs are bleeding so I rub them with salt-water before sending them up another chimney" Sweep Master

Structure of Supplementary texts

Structure of Supplementary texts

Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper Begins in first person from POV of young, presumably male chimney sweeper - “your chimneys I sweep”, introducing a woeful tone.Concludes a combined perspective, written in first person again with “we” and “our” used as a collective whole.

Barbauld’s Washing Day✦ Begins from the POV of the female adult persona - Negative

imagery used (“little whimpering boy, with rueful face” whose lost shoes his mother cannot help to find). The feminist voice present uses irony and sarcasm - “if the sky should lour / from that last evil, oh preserve us, heavens!” - to establish a acerbic yet melancholy tone.

✦ Change in POV from adult to child marked by tonal shift - Mocks young maids who “looked cross, and drove [her] from them”, and ends with Barbauld examining how the imagination allows an escape from this horror of washing day, and how they would realise the true importance of life, thus bringing the poem to a close on a optimistic note.

Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper Begins in first person from POV of young, presumably male chimney sweeper - “your chimneys I sweep”, introducing a woeful tone.Concludes a combined perspective, written in first person again with “we” and “our” used as a collective whole.

Barbauld’s Washing Day✦ Begins from the POV of the female adult persona - Negative

imagery used (“little whimpering boy, with rueful face” whose lost shoes his mother cannot help to find). The feminist voice present uses irony and sarcasm - “if the sky should lour / from that last evil, oh preserve us, heavens!” - to establish a acerbic yet melancholy tone.

✦ Change in POV from adult to child marked by tonal shift - Mocks young maids who “looked cross, and drove [her] from them”, and ends with Barbauld examining how the imagination allows an escape from this horror of washing day, and how they would realise the true importance of life, thus bringing the poem to a close on a optimistic note.

Theme - Religion/ God Through Nature Theme - Religion/ God Through Nature leading to Self-Discoveryleading to Self-Discovery


Blake’s Chimney Sweeper

✦ Symbolism: When my mother died I was very young, and my father sold me...”

Coleridge’s Frost at Midnight

Exuberant Tone + Metaphoric indication of Nature helping oneto unite with God:“...it thrills my [his] heart... to think that thou shalt learn far other lore and in far other scenes”.

Nature is presented as a much better place to be - Coleridge laments his seclusion in the city and saw “nought lovely but the sky and stars”. This reinforces the idea that Nature, even in its simplest form in the skies above, is essential for man to survive and be truly one with himself and his God.


✦ Symbolism: When my mother died I was very young, and my father sold me...”


Exuberant Tone + Metaphoric indication of Nature helping oneto unite with God:“...it thrills my [his] heart... to think that thou shalt learn far other lore and in far other scenes”.

Nature is presented as a much better place to be - Coleridge laments his seclusion in the city and saw “nought lovely but the sky and stars”. This reinforces the idea that Nature, even in its simplest form in the skies above, is essential for man to survive and be truly one with himself and his God.



Constantly promoted by Coleridge throughout his poetry - Comes from his role as a minister of the Unitarian Church (writes from a church-oriented POV)

Coleridge’s This Lime Tree Bower my Prison address the pain of solitude but through the comforting presence of Nature & the imagination the pain is eased. The tone, reverent but of child-like wonderment, enforces Nature’s splendour.

Refers to the “glorious Sun”

Constantly promoted by Coleridge throughout his poetry - Comes from his role as a minister of the Unitarian Church (writes from a church-oriented POV)

Coleridge’s This Lime Tree Bower my Prison address the pain of solitude but through the comforting presence of Nature & the imagination the pain is eased. The tone, reverent but of child-like wonderment, enforces Nature’s splendour.

Refers to the “glorious Sun”Blake’s poem encourages the view that it is religion, or the church that is part of the problem, but Coleridge (Lime Tree Bower and Frost at Midnight) supports the idea that sometimes religion in the man-made cities may be warped, and one can always connect with God through Nature.

Blake’s poem encourages the view that it is religion, or the church that is part of the problem, but Coleridge (Lime Tree Bower and Frost at Midnight) supports the idea that sometimes religion in the man-made cities may be warped, and one can always connect with God through Nature.

THEME - Imagination allows one To Transcend Social Class Divisions


✦ Barbauld’s Washing Day examines the destructive nature of the male imagination through the historical context for the poem with the advances in science during this period

✦ Allusion to Montgolfier Brothers ✦ Juxtaposition of Montgolfier’s success with the flight of

a hot air balloon to soap bubbles - It took “little dreaming then to see, Montgolfier, thy silken ball... so near approach the sports of children and the toils of men”.

✦ Barbauld is commenting between the serious juxtaposition between the dangerous nature of the male imagination, and the female/ the child’s imagination.

✦ Barbauld’s Washing Day examines the destructive nature of the male imagination through the historical context for the poem with the advances in science during this period

✦ Allusion to Montgolfier Brothers ✦ Juxtaposition of Montgolfier’s success with the flight of

a hot air balloon to soap bubbles - It took “little dreaming then to see, Montgolfier, thy silken ball... so near approach the sports of children and the toils of men”.

✦ Barbauld is commenting between the serious juxtaposition between the dangerous nature of the male imagination, and the female/ the child’s imagination.

MALE vs FEMALE: Coleridge and Blake are writing from a male perspective, whilst Barbauld writes from a feminist perspective, often challenging the males.

MALE vs FEMALE: Coleridge and Blake are writing from a male perspective, whilst Barbauld writes from a feminist perspective, often challenging the males.



✦ “I would build that dome in air... And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware!”

✦ “I would build that dome in air... And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware!”

MALE vs FEMALE

✦ Coleridge’s Kubla Khan celebrates the power of the imagination but hints at its repercussions with the haunting “shadow of the dome of pleasure” floating on the waves and the building uneasy tone.

✦ “... the sacred river ran then reached the caverns measureless to man, and sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean”

MALE vs FEMALE

✦ Coleridge’s Kubla Khan celebrates the power of the imagination but hints at its repercussions with the haunting “shadow of the dome of pleasure” floating on the waves and the building uneasy tone.

✦ “... the sacred river ran then reached the caverns measureless to man, and sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean”

Barbauld and Coleridge both agree that the male imagination often has more dangerous repercussions than that of the female, not simply due to the way that the different sexes think, but because of the already-existing social stigma that insists that women stay in their domestic roles as males take on the scientific natural world.

Barbauld and Coleridge both agree that the male imagination often has more dangerous repercussions than that of the female, not simply due to the way that the different sexes think, but because of the already-existing social stigma that insists that women stay in their domestic roles as males take on the scientific natural world.



WORKING CLASS vs RICH

✦ Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper examines the impact which child labour had upon London - thus its political context.

✦ The speaker tells the dream of a boy Tom Dacre who speaks of a better life after death – Ultimately help to maintain the social class structure.

✦ “If all do their duty, they need not fear harm”.

WORKING CLASS vs RICH

✦ Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper examines the impact which child labour had upon London - thus its political context.

✦ The speaker tells the dream of a boy Tom Dacre who speaks of a better life after death – Ultimately help to maintain the social class structure.

✦ “If all do their duty, they need not fear harm”. On the other hand, Coleridge was a minister of the

church, and although he was not rich, he would have commanded a certain respect within society. In that sense, he was not a struggling member of the working class, but neither was he rich.

On the other hand, Coleridge was a minister of the church, and although he was not rich, he would have commanded a certain respect within society. In that sense, he was not a struggling member of the working class, but neither was he rich.

THEME - Elevation of the individual through imagination


The Romantic poets were mostly well-read, and many make constant references to ideas that prolific poets or writers before them had written of. These contribute to our understanding of the texts and their significance.

The Romantic poets were mostly well-read, and many make constant references to ideas that prolific poets or writers before them had written of. These contribute to our understanding of the texts and their significance.Barbauld’s Washing Day

✦ “The Muses are turned gossips...” - The Greek muses are inspiration for imagination. It holds to the Romantic sensibility of a refined awareness of one’s own social context, losing their “clear high-sounding phrase, language of gods”

Barbauld’s Washing Day

✦ “The Muses are turned gossips...” - The Greek muses are inspiration for imagination. It holds to the Romantic sensibility of a refined awareness of one’s own social context, losing their “clear high-sounding phrase, language of gods”

✦ “Saints have been calm while stretched upon the rack...”

✦ “Ask not...thy stockings mended, though the yawning rents gape wide as Erebus.”

✦ “Saints have been calm while stretched upon the rack...”

✦ “Ask not...thy stockings mended, though the yawning rents gape wide as Erebus.”



Coleridge’s Kubla Khan

✦ Allusion of Title character: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree”

✦ Symbolic nature of river and thus importance of imagination: “Where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea”

✦ “Weave a circle round him thrice an close your eyes with holy dread, for he on honey-dew hath fed and drunk the milk of Paradise”

Coleridge’s Kubla Khan

✦ Allusion of Title character: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree”

✦ Symbolic nature of river and thus importance of imagination: “Where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea”

✦ “Weave a circle round him thrice an close your eyes with holy dread, for he on honey-dew hath fed and drunk the milk of Paradise”



Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper

✦ Repetition and double meanings: “... my tongue could scarcely cry ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!...”

✦ Imagery: Later in Tom Dacre’s dream, the boys are freed from their “coffins of black” by an angel.

✦ Thus, the imagination has elevated the individual - the boys - by helping them to discover a new hope for life and to continue persevereing despite their distress.

Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper

✦ Repetition and double meanings: “... my tongue could scarcely cry ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!...”

✦ Imagery: Later in Tom Dacre’s dream, the boys are freed from their “coffins of black” by an angel.

✦ Thus, the imagination has elevated the individual - the boys - by helping them to discover a new hope for life and to continue persevereing despite their distress.

In all three texts (Coleridge’s Kubla Khan), they all agree that through the imagination, the individual can lift themselves beyond the norm and discover a new perspective of their own social or political context, or restore hope within themselves and their fellow man for a brighter future

In all three texts (Coleridge’s Kubla Khan), they all agree that through the imagination, the individual can lift themselves beyond the norm and discover a new perspective of their own social or political context, or restore hope within themselves and their fellow man for a brighter future

THEME - the childhood experience being both inspiration & aspiration


Through the imagination, an individual is provided with the means to regain childhood innocence that is lost with age and maturity


✦ The characters within the poem are young boys, and they lose their childhood innocence through the circumstances of their hardships in life. Thus, this contrasts with both Coleridge’s and Barbauld’s ideas about childhood experience.


Barbauld demonstrates the simplicity and unconditional uplifting spirit of childhood that is lost with the complex challenges that life presents to individuals, in this case, women, through the opposing views of a common event.

POV/ Perspectives:“Shouldst thou try the ‘customed garden walks, thine eye shall rue... thy tender shrubs... all crushed...”

Through the imagination, an individual is provided with the means to regain childhood innocence that is lost with age and maturity


✦ The characters within the poem are young boys, and they lose their childhood innocence through the circumstances of their hardships in life. Thus, this contrasts with both Coleridge’s and Barbauld’s ideas about childhood experience.


Barbauld demonstrates the simplicity and unconditional uplifting spirit of childhood that is lost with the complex challenges that life presents to individuals, in this case, women, through the opposing views of a common event.

POV/ Perspectives:“Shouldst thou try the ‘customed garden walks, thine eye shall rue... thy tender shrubs... all crushed...”




✦ Mysterious undertone develops from the start with the unsettling owlet cry.

✦ The flame is symbolic of the imagination, with their uncontainable unordered natures. This nature of the flame provides a conduit for Coleridge to reflect upon his school days, and also acts as a connecting link between the stanzas in Frost at Midnight. In the city, he was separated from them, and through the imagination or his ‘dreams’ with “unclosed lids”, he is able to envision his family and regain a semblance of connection with them. In Coleridge’s desperation, he uses the imagination as a conduit for him to escape the situation he is in - lonely, and separated from Nature.


✦ Mysterious undertone develops from the start with the unsettling owlet cry.

✦ The flame is symbolic of the imagination, with their uncontainable unordered natures. This nature of the flame provides a conduit for Coleridge to reflect upon his school days, and also acts as a connecting link between the stanzas in Frost at Midnight. In the city, he was separated from them, and through the imagination or his ‘dreams’ with “unclosed lids”, he is able to envision his family and regain a semblance of connection with them. In Coleridge’s desperation, he uses the imagination as a conduit for him to escape the situation he is in - lonely, and separated from Nature.



All the poems (Coleridge’s Frost at Midnight )support the idea that the childhood experience forms the basis for the inspiration for individuals, but while Barbauld aspires to return to that innocent stage where a connection with nature can be regained and strengthened, Blake and Coleridge seek to escape that state for their childhood was not as idyllic a state. However, the imagination is often stimulated by events formed in ones childhood, and thus, reinforces the importance of ones temporal context and previous experiences.

All the poems (Coleridge’s Frost at Midnight )support the idea that the childhood experience forms the basis for the inspiration for individuals, but while Barbauld aspires to return to that innocent stage where a connection with nature can be regained and strengthened, Blake and Coleridge seek to escape that state for their childhood was not as idyllic a state. However, the imagination is often stimulated by events formed in ones childhood, and thus, reinforces the importance of ones temporal context and previous experiences.

THE IMAGINATIONTHE IMAGINATIONTHE IMAGINATIONTHE IMAGINATION

Imagination is absolutely crucial as it enables the persona to

Escape the physical boundaries of the limited and perhaps unimpressive or oppressive landscape around them and enter the varied world of the imagination

Place themselves in other positions, enabling them to gain clearer perspectives on the world around them and relate to the experiences of others.

Enable the reader, through the persona, realise hidden truths and understand the message of the poem,

These works of poetry celebrate the importance of the creative imagination, placing it firmly within the Romantic concerns of both creativity and change, as Imagination had “become, indirectly if not directly, the central theme of poetry itself” (James Engell).

Imagination is absolutely crucial as it enables the persona to

Escape the physical boundaries of the limited and perhaps unimpressive or oppressive landscape around them and enter the varied world of the imagination

Place themselves in other positions, enabling them to gain clearer perspectives on the world around them and relate to the experiences of others.

Enable the reader, through the persona, realise hidden truths and understand the message of the poem,

These works of poetry celebrate the importance of the creative imagination, placing it firmly within the Romantic concerns of both creativity and change, as Imagination had “become, indirectly if not directly, the central theme of poetry itself” (James Engell).

Questions? Questions? Questions? Questions?

It’s really just a courtesy... :DIt’s really just a courtesy... :DIt’s really just a courtesy... :DIt’s really just a courtesy... :D

Discussion! Discussion! Discussion! Discussion! The daily grind of life may The daily grind of life may

prove to become monotonous. prove to become monotonous. Do you believe that this has an Do you believe that this has an impact on one’s imagination?impact on one’s imagination?

The daily grind of life may The daily grind of life may prove to become monotonous. prove to become monotonous. Do you believe that this has an Do you believe that this has an impact on one’s imagination?impact on one’s imagination?

Discussion! Discussion! Discussion! Discussion! The dangers of imagination: The dangers of imagination:

Would you say that the Would you say that the Imagination, though often used Imagination, though often used

for ‘good’ in overcoming for ‘good’ in overcoming boundaries etc, also causes boundaries etc, also causes

harm?harm?

The dangers of imagination: The dangers of imagination: Would you say that the Would you say that the

Imagination, though often used Imagination, though often used for ‘good’ in overcoming for ‘good’ in overcoming

boundaries etc, also causes boundaries etc, also causes harm?harm?

romanticismromanticism as presented by jacintha lee

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