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List of works which must be read (2 nd term)

1) John Donne: “Valediction: Forbidden Mourning”, “The Flea”, “Elegy XIX”,
“The Anniversary”
2) George Herbert: “The Collar”, “The Pearl”
3) Andrew Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress”, “The Definition of Love”
4) John Milton “Paradise Lost”
5) Alexander Pope: “Essay on Criticism”, “The rape of the Lock”
6) Henry Fielding “Tom Jones”
7) Samuel Richardson “Pamela”
8) Horace Walpole “The Castle of Otranto”
9) Robert Burns: “To a Mouse”, “Auld Lang Syne”
10) William Blake” “The Lamb”, “The Tyger”, “The Little Vagabond”, “Holy
Thursday”, “The Chimney Sweeper”
11) William Wordsworth: “The Preface to Lyrical Ballads”, “We Are Seven”,
“Tintern Abbey”
12) Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Kubhla Khan”
13) George Gordon Byron: “When We Two Parted”, “Don Juan cantos I, II, X,
XI”
14) Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ode to the West Wind”, “The Cloud”
15) John Keats : “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode to a Grecian Urn”.
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The metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel
Johnson to describe a group of British lyric poets of the 17 th century, who shared
an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them.
Their poetry was influenced greatly by the changing times and new sciences of the
17 th century. It is highly intellectualized poetry which is less concerned with
expressing feeling than with analyzing it. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by
conceits (metaphors drawing sometimes parallels between apparently dissimilar
ideas or things); wit; unusual similes; complex and subtle thought; pun; frequent
use of paradox; dramatic directness of language, the rhythm of which derives from
living speech, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion . John
Donne was the leading metaphysical poet; others include George Herbert, Henry
Vaughan, Andrew Marvell and Abraham Cowley. Their poetry diverged from the
style of their times, containing neither images of nature nor allusions to classical
mythology, as were common. They tried to use a wide range of sources including
science, theology, alchemy and travel to make their imagery more innovative and
effective. Several metaphysical poets, especially John Donne, were influenced by
Neo-Platonism. One of the primary Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry
is the idea that the perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of a
perfect beauty in the eternal realm.
John Donne (1572-1631). John Donne was born in London in a Roman Catholic
family at a time members of that faith were under pressure to conform to the newly
established Church of England. He was educated at Oxford and possibly
Cambridge. John Donne travelled abroad, visiting Italy and Spain before returning
to London with a view to starting a career as a diplomat. Throughout this period
Donne was tormented by the question of his religion. If he remained loyal to the
Roman Catholic faith, he would have to give up any hope of a successful career.
On the other hand, three generations of his family had suffered exile and even
death to defend their right to be Catholic. Donne spent years of studying all the
points of dispute between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, and
finally in 1593 he decided to convert to the Protestant faith.
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He started his diplomatic career when he entered the service of Sir Thomas
Egerton, Lord Keeper of England, as his chief secretary. In 1601 he was elected
Member of Parliament and at the age of twenty-nine seemed to have a striking
political career. A single act destroyed his bright prospects. He secretly married
Lord Egerton’s niece and was imprisoned for marrying her without her guardian’s
consent. He was soon released, but he was dismissed from his position as
Egerton’s secretary. He and his wife moved from London and managed as well as
they could under difficult financial circumstances.
In his personal life this was a happy time for Donne, and he wrote many of the
“Songs and Sonnets” which deal with the theme of love in this period.
Professionally, however, things were going from bad to worse. He made
applications for some posts but he was unable to get a new state appointment. He
became seriously ill in 1608-1609 and wrote a treatise in favour of suicide. Many
of the “Divine Poems”, in which Donne explores the concepts of sin and
judgement, date from this period. After unsuccessful trying to regain a career in
politics and diplomacy, Donne turned his attention to the Church. He wrote essays
and pamphlets condemning the Church of Rome. In 1615 he was ordained into the
Church of England and was later made an honorary Doctor of Divinity at
Cambridge. When he was elected Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral he made a series of
memorable sermons which earned him the reputation of being the greatest preacher
of his generation. John Donne died in 1631 aged fifty-nine.
While his sermons won him public acclaim, John Donne wrote poetry
exclusively for personal pleasure. During his lifetime his poems were read only by
his circle of friends in manuscript form. Two years after his death they were
published. His literary production includes:
1) “Satires” written in the 1590s based on the Latin models of Juvenal and Horace.
The aim of these works was to show the social evils of the day;
2) “Songs and Sonnets”, a collection of love poems;
3) “Divine Poems”, a collection of religious poetry;
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4) Sermons and meditations which include Donne’s weekly sermons and his
opinions on a wide range of religious topics.
In general, he dealt with different genres and styles: sonnets, love poetry,
religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons.

George Herbert (1593-1633). George Herbert was a Welsh born English poet,
orator and Anglican priest. His father died when he was young, and he was brought
up by his mother. After taking his degrees with distinction at Cambridge, Herbert
was elected Public Orator of the university. In 1620s he also served as a member of
Parliament. But the sudden death of his influential patrons drew him in another
direction. In 1626 he took a minor office in the church; in 1629 he married Jane
Danvers; and in 1630 he accepted the living of Bemerton near Salisbury, and took
holy orders, spending the rest of his life as a rector of the little parish. Throughout
his life he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision of language, a
metrical versatility and ingenious use of imagery or conceits. He was a master of
the unexpected, climactic quiet simplicity. A lot of his poems were written in
Greek and Latin. In 1633, after his death, all of Herbert’s poems were published in
“The Temple: Sacred poems and private ejaculations” by one of his friends. Some
of his poems have been used as hymns and set to music by some composers.

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). He was born in 1621. He started writing poetry,

mostly in Greek and Latin, during his life as a student at Cambridge University,
from which he graduated in 1638. From 1642 to 1646 he travelled abroad to
France, Holland, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. When he returned to England, he
became the tutor of twelve-year-old Mary Fairfax at her Yorkshire home. It was at
this time that he wrote some of his greatest poems, including “To His Coy
Mistress”. His friend John Milton recommended him for the position of Assistant
Latin Secretary to the Council of State, a post he got in 1657. In 1659 Marvell was
elected M.P. for his home town of Hull. He remained in politics for over twenty
years, taking part in diplomatic missions to Holland and Russia. He died in 1678.
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Today Andrew Marvell is best remembered for the lyrical poems he wrote
during the two-year period he spent as a tutor in Yorkshire. At the time of writing
these poems were only known to a few of Marvell’s close friends including Milton,
and only three years after his death they were published. His poetry shows his
passion for life and his great love of nature. Marvell was in some respects a
forerunner of the Romantic movement in his enjoyment of the open air and country
life.
From 1667 to the end of his life Marvell wrote satirical poems about public
figures and the events of the day. His satirical attacks were directed towards
political leaders, members of the aristocracy, the Court and the king himself. These
poems were only circulating among friends and existed in manuscript form. Only
ten years after his death they were published.
Marvell’s prose work consists of political pamphlets and a lone series of
newsletters he wrote to his constituents on the work of Parliament. The letters are
important historical documents because they give us information about
proceedings in Parliament at a time when no other records were kept.
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THE PURITAN AGE AND THE RESTORATION
The period from the accession of Charles I in 1625 to the Revolution of 1688 was
filled with a mighty struggle over the question whether king or Commons should
be supreme in England. On this question the English people were divided into two
main parties. On one side were the Royalists, or Cavaliers, who upheld the
monarch with his theory of the divine right of kings; on the other were the
Puritans, or Independents, who stood for the rights of the individual man and for
the liberties of Parliament and people. The latter party was at first very small; it
had appeared in the days of Langland and Wyclif, and had been persecuted by
Elizabeth; but persecution served only to increase its numbers and determination.
Though the Puritans were never a majority in England, they soon ruled the land
with a firmness it had not known since the days of William the Conqueror. They
were primarily men of conscience, and no institution can stand before strong men
whose conscience says the institution is wrong. That is why the degenerate theatres
were not reformed but abolished; that is why the theory of the divine right of kings
was shattered as by a thunderbolt when King Charles was sent to the block for
treason against his country.

The struggle reached a climax in the Civil War of 1642, which ended in a Puritan
victory. As a result of that war, England was for a brief period a commonwealth,
disciplined at home and respected abroad, through the genius and vigor and
tyranny of Oliver Cromwell. When Cromwell died (1658) there was no man in
England strong enough to take his place, and two years later “Prince Charlie,” who
had long been an exile, was recalled to the throne as Charles II of England. The
next twenty years are of such disgrace and national weakness that the historian
hesitates to write about them. It was called the period of the Restoration, which
meant, in effect, the restoration of all that was objectionable in monarchy. Another
crisis came in the Revolution of 1688, when the country, aroused by the attempt of
James II to establish despotism in Church and state, invited Prince William of
Orange (husband of the king’s daughter Mary) to the English throne. That
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revolution meant three things: 1)the supremacy of Parliament, 2) the beginning of
modern England, and 3) the final triumph of the principle of political liberty for
which the Puritan had fought and suffered hardship for a hundred years. Among
the writers of the period three men stand out prominently – John Milton, John
Bunyan and John Dryden.

John Milton (1608-1674). John Milton was born in London in 1608 in a wealthy,
well-educated family. His father, who had been disinherited by his family for
becoming Protestant, instilled in his son from an early age a love of learning and
strong religious beliefs. By the age of sixteen he could write in Latin and Greek
and had a good knowledge of philosophy. He attended Christ’s college,
Cambridge, where he took his master of Arts degree and distinguished himself as
an outstanding student. For a period of time he considered taking religious orders,
but finally decided to move back home, where he continued his studies and wrote.
John Milton’s work can be divided into three periods. Period I: Early poems
and a masque. The first period covers his years as a student. Being only fifteen
years old he wrote his first poems, which were paraphrases of Psalms. While
studying at Cambridge he wrote poetry in Latin. In 1629 he wrote his first
masterpiece, “The Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”, a celebration of the
coming of Christ and the abandonment of pagan Gods. Milton was fascinated by
Italian culture. He studied writers like Petrarch, Dante and Tasso, and their works
influenced his early poems “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso” (1632). In 1634 his
masque “Comus”, which combined music, verse and dancing, was first performed.
In 1637 he published his greatest minor poem, “Lycidas”, a pastoral elegy in
remembrance of the death of a fellow student. Period II: Prose writings. In his
second period of creativity Milton focused on prose writing. In 1643 he published
“The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce”, claiming the right of a husband or wife
to dissolve a marriage on the grounds of incompatibility. In his personal life Milton
had married a seventeen-year old girl in 1642. She left him after just a few weeks
 8
because of his austere attitude to life and their religious differences. The two were,
however, reconciled, but Milton never fully forgave his wife and became a strong
supporter of divorce.
One of his greatest prose works, “Areopagitica” (“Things to be declared before
the Areopagus”, a hill in Athens where a respected council met to take important
decisions) was published in 1644. In this work there is Milton’s plea for freedom
of speech and the press. In his pamphlet he compares the Greek council and the
English Parliament, which had just passed a law controlling the press.
In the same year (1644) he wrote the pamphlet “Of Education” which
promoted encyclopaedic educational schooling for the formation of humanistic
leaders. However, while publicly Milton explained the importance of broad
education, in private he did nothing to educate his daughters. His eldest daughter
was totally illiterate. Because his eyesight was falling he taught his other daughters
to read mechanically to him in foreign languages, without understanding the words
they read. Period III: Poetic masterpieces. In 1660 Milton retired from public life
and dedicated himself to the writing of his great poetic masterpieces. He had
always wanted to write an epic poem in English in the classical style of Virgil’s
“Aeneid”, and initially he had considered the legend of King Arthur as a suitable
subject matter. However, he finally chose the Fall of Man as his theme and set to
work on “Paradise Lost”. Published in 1667, “Paradise Lost” tells the story in
twelve books of Satan’s banishment from Heaven and his attempt to take revenge
on God through the temptation of Adam and Eve. The poem is written in blank
verse and follows the classical epic requirements:
1) the hero is a figure of great importance. Adam represents the entire human race;
2) the setting of the poem is ample in scale: the action takes place on Earth, in
Heaven and in hell;
3) the action involves superhuman deeds in battle and a long and arduous journey:
“Paradise Lost” includes the war in Heaven and then Satan’s journey to the newly-
created world to corrupt mankind;
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4) an epic poem is narrated in an elevated style that is deliberately distanced from
ordinary speech: Milton’s grand style is created by the use of Latinate diction (the
choice of words in a literary work), words of Latin origin, and syntax, wide-
ranging allusions (there are references to Homer, Virgil, Dante, Tasso, Ariosto,
Spenser and the Bible) and long listing of names;
5) the narrator begins by stating his theme and invoking a muse: in the opening
lines Milton calls on God to be his guiding spirit in writing his “adventurous
song”;
6) the narrative starts when the action is at a critical point: “Paradise Lost” opens
with Satan and the fallen angels in Hell, gathering their forces and plotting
revenge. It is not until Books V-VII that we learn from the angel Raphael about the
events in Heaven that led to this situation.
Milton wanted to write a poem in praise of God. As he said in one of his
sonnets, he wanted to use his literary gifts “to serve therewith my maker”. Some
critics have claimed that the true hero of “Paradise Lost” is, however, Satan. It has
also been suggested that Milton may have identified a parallel between Satan’s
struggle against the absolute power of God and his own fight against the absolute
authority of the monarchy.
In 1671 Milton published “Paradise Regained” in four books. Written in the
same epic style as “Paradise Lost”, it tells the story of Christ’s temptation by Satan
in the desert.
For over two hundred years Milton was regarded as one of the greatest writers
in the English language. At the beginning of the twentieth century some influential
literary figures such as Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot criticized his “grand style”,
claiming that it was artificial and rhetorical and too removed from the speech of
common people. Other critics have since argued that his style is appropriate to the
subject matter and epic form, and have rehabilitated him to a prominent role in
English literature.
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THE AGE OF REASON
The Age of Reason was an 18 th-century movement. It represented a genesis in the
way man viewed himself, the pursuit of knowledge and the universe. This was the
beginning of an open society where individuals were free to pursue individual
happiness and liberty. The concepts of medieval world were abandoned. The Age
of Reason included the shorter time period described as the Age of Enlightenment;
during this time great changes occurred in scientific thought and exploration. New
ideas filled the horizon and man was eager to explore these ideas freely. Man
began to embrace an exaggerated belief in the perfection of humanity based on
reason and clear thinking; they happily abandoned reliance on biblical truth and
lost their fear of God. They left the medieval extremes of mysticism and
superstition and swung to the other extremes of reason and rationality. Reason,
rationality and enlightenment became “new gods”. The Age of Reason saw the
introduction of the Scientific Revolution and various progressions of new schools
of thought. The Age of Reason was associated with attacks on basic Christian
beliefs, rejection of God and denial of miracles. Man, during the Age of Reason,
applauded intellect and disdained spirit. God was believed to be unknowable, if he
existed at all.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744). Alexander Pope was the only son of a cloth
merchant. At the age of twelve he suffered from tuberculosis of the bone, which
stunted his growth and left him deformed and sickly for the rest of his life. As his
family was Catholic, he could not attend public schools or go to University, so he
was largely self-educated. He based his studies on the Classics and French and
Italian authors.
From a very early age he showed a gift for writing. When he was just sixteen
years old he wrote his “Pastorals” (1709), which were based on classical models
and showed his skill in using poetic metre. In his twenties he wrote “Essay on
Criticism” (1711), a didactic poem based on Horace’s “Art of Poetry”, where he
set out his principles for writing poetry. The essay may be described as falling into
three parts, with the following subdivisions:
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I. General qualities needed by the critic:
A. Awareness of his own limitations
B. Knowledge of nature in its general forms
C. Imitation of the Ancients, and the use of rules
II. Particular laws for the critic:
A. Consider the work as a total unit
B. Seek the author’s aim
C. Examples of false critics who mistake the part for the whole
D. Need for tolerance and for aloofness from extremes of fashion and personal
mood
III. The ideal character of the critic
A. Qualities needed: integrity, modesty, tact, courage
B. Their opposites
C. Concluding eulogy of ancient critics as models
While he was still in his mid-twenties he wrote his masterpiece “The Rape of
the Lock” (1712-1714). Its genre is mock-heroic poem, or mock-epic poem. Such
genre imitates the elevated style and conventions of the epic genre in dealing with
a frivolous or minor subject. The mock-heroic has been widely used to satirize
social vices such as pretentiousness, hypocrisy, superficiality, etc. The
inappropriateness of the grandiose epic style highlights the trivial and senseless
nature of the writer’s target. Pope uses the lofty, serious style of classical epics not
to describe battles or supernatural events, but to satirize the seriousness with which
friends in his circle treated a breach of manners at a social gathering: the stealing
of a lock of hair. This poem concerns the quarrel between two families caused by
Lord Petre’s cutting a love-lock from the head of Arabella Fermor, Belinda in the
poem. It is a playful poem full of paradoxes, witty observations and humorous epic
allusions. It makes fun of the fatuous upper-class society it depicts. “The rape of
the Lock” established Pope’s reputation in literary circles. He became friends with
Jonathan Swift and together with some other literary figures they formed the
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“Scriblerus Club” to discuss topics of contemporary interest and to ridicule all
false tastes in learning.
In 1720 he completed a translation of Homer’s “Illiad”, and his translation of
“The Odyssey”, which appeared in 1726, gave him financial independence.
“The Dunciad” (1728) is Pope’s most celebrated satire. It is written in the
mock-heroic style and is an attack on the author’s literary rivals, critics and
enemies, who are grouped together and called “Dulness”. In it Pope describes the
triumph of banality (Dulness) which takes over all the arts, sciences, the theatre
and the court and leads the world to cultural chaos and artistic bankruptcy.
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The origins of the novel. The word “novel” (which wasn’t even used until the
end of the 18 th century) is an English transliteration of the Italian word “novella”
– used to describe a short, compact, broadly realistic tale popular during the
medieval period. The novel appeared from the desire to depict and interpret human
character. The reader of a novel is both entertained and aided in a deeper
perception of life problems. The novel deals with a human character in a social
situation, man as a social being. It places more emphasis on character than on plot.
Another major characteristic of the novel is realism – a full and authentic report of
human life. The traditional novel has:
1) a unified and plausible plot structure;
2) sharply individualized and believable characters;
3) a pervasive illusion of reality.
The English novel developed during the 18 th century, partly in response to an
expansion of the middle-class reading public. More people could read and they had
money to spend on literature. The early English novels concerned themselves with
complex, middle-class characters struggling with their morality and circumstances.
“Pamela”, a series of fictional letters written in 1741 by Samuel Richardson, is
considered the first real English novel. Other early novelists include Daniel Defoe
who wrote “Robinson Crusoe” (1719) and “Moll Flanders” (1722) and Jonathan
Swift with his “Gulliver’s Travels”. Novelists from the mid to the late 18 th
century include Laurence Sterne who wrote “Tristram Shandy” and Henry Fielding
with his “Tom Jones”.
Daniel Defoe. His major works are “Robinson Crusoe” (1719) and “Moll
Flanders” (1722). All of his novels share the same characteristics: 1) they are
presented as memoirs or autobiographies and are narrated in the first person; 2) the
setting is contemporary and realistic; 3) there is no real plot: the protagonist is
presented in a chronological series of episodes; 4) the main character overcomes
misfortune through self-reliance, hard work and belief in God; 5) each of the
characters repents his evil actions and prays to God for salvation; 6) the prose style
is plain yet powerfully effective. In Defoe’s works there is no psychological
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development of characters, only in their external condition. His characters often
seem to be simply fighting their way out of circumstantial dilemmas.
Samuel Ruchardson. He wrote epistolary novels. His first work, “Pamela”,
began as a collection of “model” letters. The letters were intended as a model of
correct moral conduct and included a special section dedicated to young women
who were to became servant, teaching them how to avoid being seduced by their
employers. Richardson’s importance lies in his rejection of adventure. His novels
are the first to have a domestic setting and characters who are ordinary middle-
class people. He is the first novelist to write love stories, exploring the psychology
of his characters and the world of passion and feelings. His novels represent the
beginning of a debate about the roles of men and women in society. Samuel
Richardson created the novel of character.
Henry Fielding. He is the father of the English comic novel. His first novel,
“Shamela”, is a parody of Richardson’s “Pamela”, attacking its hypocritical
morality. He continued to ridicule Richardson in his second novel “Joseph
Andrews”. His novels use a playful and ironic omniscient narrator who comments
on and criticizes his characters and who controls their destinies. He was also
innovative in several ways: in “Tom Jones” he invented an extremely complex
plot involving many characters that went beyond the episodic structure of previous
novels. This enabled him to portray not just the lives of a few individuals but the
life of society in all its variety. Each of the novel’s eighteen books is prefaced by
an introductory chapter in which the reader is reminded that what he is reading is
fiction, and instructions are given on how to approach what for contemporary
readers was a relatively new literary form. An omniscient third-person narrator is
used to comment on the action. The reader is not asked to identify with the
protagonists, and the detachment allows him to appreciate the comic episodes. The
story is not used as a vehicle for moralising.
Jonathan Swift. He is known principally as a journalist and a satirist. His great
novel “Gulliver’s Travels” was conceived as a satire on the political situation in
England of his time. Indeed “Gulliver’s Travels” are travels through a surrealistic
 15
dream world. Swift uses the properties of his fantastic worlds to explore complex
philosophical problems. The great problem is how we can reconcile the needs of
our minds with those of our bodies.
Laurence Sterne. He is the father of the English anti-novel. This term refers to
novels that break with the traditional conventions of the genre. Anti-novels rely for
their effect on the confounding of the reader’s expectations by: 1) the omission or
annihilation of traditional elements (character, plot); 2) the introduction of
innovative elements. Some of the anti-novel features of his masterpiece “Tristram
Shandy” include: a) a non-conventional plot in which the hero of the story is born
in the third volume of the book; b) an eccentric narrator who tells the reader to turn
back several pages and read a passage a second time; c) syntactical, layout and
typographical innovations such as unfinished sentences, blank pages and dashes or
asterisks which the reader must interpret; d) the fragmented storyline, in which the
sequence of events is deliberately disordered. The author thought that this non-
linear approach to storytelling was more successful in capturing the essence of
human experience. e) a new perception of time. Sterne thought that time as
measured by the clock had little relation to time as perceived by the human mind.
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Gothic novel. The gothic novel was mainly popular in the late 18 th and early 19
th century. Originally term meant “medieval” as in architecture, but it gradually
came to mean strange, macabre and usually supernatural. A typical setting for a
gothic novel might be a ruined castle, in the depths of wild, rugged countryside,
preferably haunted and with a large graveyard or family crypt nearby.
Kidnappings, stolen inheritances and shocking deathbed confessions are routine.
This genre was created and popularized by Horace Walpole in “The Castle of
Otranto” in 1764. This genre is also traced in Ann Radcliffe’s “The Mysteries of
Udolpho” and “The Italian”, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, William Beckford’s
“Vathek”, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”.
Gothic elements include the following:
1. Setting in a castle. The action takes place in and around an old castle, sometimes
abandoned, sometimes occupied. The castle often contains secret passages, trap
doors, secret rooms, dark or hidden staircases, and possibly ruined sections. The
castle may be near or connected to caves or a forest.
2. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The work is full of threatening feeling,
a fear enhanced by the unknown. Often the plot is built around a mystery, such as
unknown parentage, a disappearance, or some other inexplicable event.
3. An ancient prophecy is connected with the castle or its inhabitants (either former
or present). The prophecy is usually obscure, partial or confusing.
4. Omens, portents, visions. A character may have a disturbing dream vision, or
some phenomenon may be seen as a portent of coming events.
5. Supernatural or inexplicable vents. Dramatic, amazing events occur, such as
ghosts or giants walking, or inanimate objects coming to life.
6. High, even overwrought emotion. The narration may be highly sentimental, and
the characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, surprise, and especially terror.
Characters suffer from nerves and a feeling of impending doom.
7. Women in distress. The female characters often face events that leave them
fainting, terrified, screaming, sobbing. A lonely, pensive and oppressed heroine is
often the central figure of the novel, so her sufferings re the focus of attention.
 17
Women suffer because they are often abandoned, left alone and have no protector
at times.
8. Women often threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male. One or more
male characters has the power as king, lord of the manor, father, or guardian to
demand that one or more of the female characters do something intolerable. The
woman may be commanded to marry someone she does not love or commit a
crime.
9. The metaphor of gloom and horror.
In England, the gothic novel as a genre had largely played itself out by 1840. It
left a lasting legacy, however in works of Edgar Allan Poe. From these the gothic
genre gave way to modern horror fiction.
Pre-Romanticism. In the second half of 18 th century there appeared the so-called
Pre-Romanticism. It originated among the conservative groups of men as a
reaction against Enlightenment and the French revolution. Robert Burns and
William Blake are the representatives of Pre-Romanticism.
Robert Burns (1759-1796). He was born in Scotland. His father was a poor farmer
but a man who valued knowledge. It was from his father that Robert received his
learning and his love for books. His mother had a beautiful voice and taught
Robert old Scottish songs and ballads which he later turned into his best poems.
Burns wrote his first verses when he was fifteen. Very soon his poems became
popular among his friends. In 1785 he met a girl who became the great love of all
his life and inspirer of his numerous lyrical verses. She had a wonderful voice and
knew a lot of old melodies to which Burns composed his songs. In 1786 Burns
published his first book under the title “Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect”.
The book was a great success. He was invited to Edinburgh. He conquered the
Edinburgh society by his wit and manners as much as by the poetry. There he was
advised to write in Standard English on noble themes but he refused. He wanted to
write poetry about the people and for the people, that’s why he wrote both in
standard English and in Scottish dialect. While he was in Edinburgh, he got
acquainted with some enthusiasts of Scottish songs and ballads and became
 18
engaged in collecting the treasures of the Scottish folklore. He travelled about
Scotland collecting popular songs. The collection was entitled “The Scots Musical
Museum” and included 160 songs. His prolific output includes thousands of songs
and poems, the best known of which are “Auld Lang Syne” (“Old Times Past”),
which is sung all over the English-speaking world on New Year’ Eve, and “My
Heart’s in the Highlands”. His poetry was inspired by his deep love for his
motherland. Its history and folklore. His poems are dedicated to the descriptions of
beautiful Scotland’s nature; national struggle of the Scottish people for their
liberation from English oppression and Scottish peasantry.
William Blake (1757-1827). William Blake had a very individual view of the
world. His religious philosophy is seen through his works “Songs of Innocence”
(1789), “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (1790) and “Songs of Experience”
(1794). His poems are simple but symbolic. For example, in his poems “The
Tyger” and “The Lamb”, the tiger is the symbol of mystery, the lamb – the symbol
of innocence. The lyrics in the “Songs of Innocence” are fresh, direct observations
and show life as perceived by children. The poems in the “Songs of Experience”
reflect a gloomier vision of the world, where evil has the upper hand over God.
Innocence and experience are the two contrary states of the human soul which are
shown in direct contrast in such poems as “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”. “The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell” develops Blake’s idea that without contraries there
is no progression. The work includes aphorisms, anecdotes and proverbs. In
“Prophetic Books”, a series of long symbolic poems which he started writing in
1789, Blake expresses his condemnation of 18 th-century political and social
tyranny. The inspiration for these poems was Milton. The “Prophetic Books”,
which contain some of his most powerful images, denounce authority in often
abstruse language through a cast of imaginary mythological characters.

Romanticism. The Period of Romanticism began from the last decade of the 18
century and continued up to 1830s. Romanticism as a literary current can be
regarded as a result of two historical events: 1) the Industrial Revolution in
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England and 2) the French Revolution of 1789. These two events had a great
influence on the cultural life of the country. Romanticists were dissatisfied with the
present state of things in their country. Some of the writers were revolutionary:
they denied the existing order, called upon the people to struggle for a better
future, shared the people’s desire for liberty and objected to colonial oppression.
Such writers were George Gordon Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Others, though they had welcomed the French Revolution and the slogan of
liberty, fraternity, later abandoned revolutionary ideas. They turned their attention
to nature and simple problems of life. Among these writers were the poets William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others who formed the “Lake School”,
called so because they all lived for a time in the beautiful Lake District in the
north-west of England. They dedicated much of what they wrote to nature.
Legends, tales, songs and ballads became part of the creative method of the
romanticists.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850). In 1795 William Wordsworth met the poet
Samuel Taylor Coleridge who became his closest friend. This friendship had an
influence on both poets. They discussed political issues, read, wrote, exchanged
theories on poetry and made comments on each other’s work. In 1797 (1798) they
published their best work “Lyrical Ballads”. Coleridge contributed 4 poems and
Wordsworth 19 to the collection. The poem deals with “low” subjects – rural life,
rustic characters and are written in simple and unelaborated expressions. The long
preface, written by Wordsworth for the second edition (1800), is considered the
manifesto for the Romantic movement. It includes such main ideas about poetry:
1) the language of poetry should be simple;
2) the subject of poetry should consist of incidents and situations from common
life;
3) the poet’s imagination can reveal the inner truth of ordinary things, to which the
mind is blind;
4) the poet is a man speaking to men. He uses his special gift to show other men
the essence of things.
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Many critics consider the long poem “The Prelude, published after his death in
1850 in 24 books, to be his greatest achievement. The poem describes the crucial
experiences and stages of the poet’s life and is an introspective account of his
emotional and spiritual development.
He was a great innovator. He found his greatest inspiration in nature, which he
believed could elevate the human soul and exert a positive moral influence on
human thoughts and feelings. He identified nature with God. His poetry celebrates
the lives of simple rural people, whom he sees as more sincere than people living
in cities. Children are also regarded as pure and innocent, uncorrupted by the evils
of the world.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). While Wordsworth wrote poetry inspired
by the simple things of everyday life, Coleridge turned to the past for mystery and
wonders and took the readers into the fantastic world of the imagination.
Wordsworth asked readers to enjoy his natural descriptions, Coleridge, on the
other hand, asked them to let him lead them into mysterious, extraordinary and
supernatural worlds. For his most famous poem “The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner” he chose the medieval ballad form. Here one can see the combination of
ordinary experience with supernatural events, the use of powerful symbols and
striking images which stimulate the reader’s imagination. One more famous poem
of Coleridge is “Christabel”. The poem is a medieval romance of the supernatural,
which includes many Gothic elements.
Though he is best known today for his poetry, Coleridge also turned his
attention to literary criticism and in 1817 published “Biographia Literaria”, where
he developed theories that had to be the introduction to a great philosophical work,
which he never produced.
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824). Byron experimented with different literary
genres, including poetry and drama.
Poems. Byron dealt with a great variety of themes in his poems. In “She Walks in
Beauty” and “Ode on Venice” the poet celebrates the city’s beauty and laments its
decay. “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812) tells the story of a young disillusioned
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nobleman who travels to the places that Byron had visited. Harold is enchanted by
the glorious past of the Mediterranean countries, reflected in different monuments;
he admires the wonders of the natural world. The unfinished poem “Don Juan”
(1818), which many critics consider his masterpiece, is a satire with several
autobiographical references. The hero’s travels, adventures, love affairs, ideas,
impressions and feelings are very close reflections of what Byron did, felt and
thought. The poem is a satire against conventional restraint and society.
Drama. In the drama “Manfred” (1816) the protagonist is the stereotype of the
romantic hero: handsome, passionate, melancholic, emotional, solitary. Torn
between noble aspirations and sin, and unable to solve the dualism, he commits
suicide.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). His works are characterized by intense
political passion. In his poem “Queen Mab” (1813) Shelley attacks such ‘evils” as
commerce, the monarchy, marriage, religion and the eating of meat. In place of
these vices he proposes republicanism, free love, atheism and vegetarianism. “The
Revolt of Islam” (1817) is a long allegoric poem which transposes a highly
personalized version of the French Revolution into an Oriental setting. The poem
contains many autobiographical references and introduces the theme of struggle
and renewal.
Italian period (1818-1822). His best works during his staying in Italy:
“The Cenci” (1819), a verse tragedy based on the true story of Beatrice Cenci, who
was executed for murdering her father in Rome at the end of the 16 century. The
story, which involved incest and atheism, fascinated Shelley and so made it the
basis of a play which shows strong Shakespearean influences.
“Prometheus Unbound” (1820): a lyrical drama in 4 acts. Prometheus, the giant
who in Greek mythology stole fire from Heaven and gave it to people, becomes a
hero who embodies the moral salvation of Man from tyranny.
Odes. In 1819 there were produced some of Shelley’s best lyrics: “Ode to Liberty”,
“The Cloud”, “Ode to the West Wind”. The latter is considered his greatest short
poem. In it the poet asks the spirit of the West Wind to be both destroyer and
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preserver, and to regenerate hope and energy in nature, in the poet himself and in
mankind in general.
“A Defence of Poetry” (1821) is an essay in which Shelley argues that the poetry
can reform the world. In it he claims that the poet is a missionary, a prophet and a
leader who, through his quest for the eternal truths of beauty, can show the way to
a better society.
John Keats (1795-1821). John Keats was born in London, where his father was
the manager of a large livery stable. His early life was marked by a series of
personal tragedies: his father was killed in an accident when he was 8 years old, his
mother died when he was 14 and one of his younger brothers died in infancy. He
received relatively little formal education and at the age of 16 he became an
apprentice to an apothecary-surgeon. His first attempts at writing date from the
years of his apprenticeship and include “Imitation of Spenser”, a homage to the
Elizabethan poet he greatly admired.
First poems. In 1816 Keats obtained a licence to practice apothecary, but
abandoned the profession for poetry. He became friends with Shelley and in 1817
his first book of poems was published. Although it sold poorly, this first volume of
work introduced him into important literary circles. He met several great literary
figures, including Wordsworth, who influenced his approach to writing poetry. His
early poems included the sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”
(1816), which describes the poet’s delight at first reading Chapman’s 17 th-century
translation of the Greek epic poem. “Endymion” (1817) tells the story of a young
shepherd whom the moon-goddess Selene puts to sleep eternally so that she can
enjoy his beauty. Although the poem is structurally weak and often obscure, it
shows flashes of immature genius. “The Eve of St. Agnes” is a romantic love story
which blends elements of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Chaucer and
Boccaccio.
Odes. In 1819 he produced some of his finest works, including his five great odes
– “Ode to Psyche”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode on
Melancholy’ and “To Autumn”. In those odes he reached the pinnacle of his
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creative powers. They are lyrical meditations on art and real life, experience and
aspirations, life and dreams. These odes, which are so rich in exquisite and
sensuous detail, represent for the many the crowning achievement of English
Romanticism.