context

Core romantic beliefs

- power of the poetic imagination; transcend daily concenrs/mortality
- Change/transform the world
- nature and its connection to spirituality (the sublime = inspiring
beauty and terror)
- Rebellion -> critique the treatment of the poor
- Renewed focus on the individual’s feelings and the emotion

embedding context

• the human condition?

• poet presents… perhaps as a reflection on the Romantic
preoccupation with…

• poet’s portrayal of…reflects the poet’s own consideration of…

• poet’s depiction of…exemplifies his criticism of…

• poet’s fascination with…demonstrates his affiliation to the

Romantic poets who sought to…

embedding comparison

• poet’s image of… is clearly juxtaposed by

• poet’s exploration of…is mirrored by

• the poems stand in dialogue

 blake - likely; holy thursday (songs of innocence) and tyger - in ur

notes app

Conclusion; Blake’s work as a social and political writer is seldom

typical - the only place where is conventional is in his anti-
establishment ethos expressed in his writing. Yet, both of his
poems varied from the quintessential modes of the day as Blake
rebelled against the style and sentiments of Augustan writers

Whilst Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience imply

binary opposition, Blake was resistant to easy contraries as he wanted
the poems to interact in dialogue with one another.

Imagination for Blake was not just an agent of artistic expression but a
vehicle for revolutionary change.

Holy Thursday, innocence (compare to songs of experience)

1. In ‘Holy Thursday’ (Innocence), Blake is subtle in his anti-

clericalism through his use of lyrical tone in his depiction of the
charity school children entering St. Paul’s Cathedral, reflecting
the Romantic preoccupation with extolling children as divine
beings.

In ‘HTI’, Blake is slightly distinct in his more aggressive ‘Experience’

poem as he is incredibly subtle in expressing his anti-clericalism to
force readers to think critically of this introspective piece.

- From the onset of the poem, Blake’s lyrical voice depicts of the
charity school children being ushered through the physical
embodiment of Christian institution of ‘St Paul’s Cathedral…their
innocent faces clean’. The post-modification of clean suggests that
the children’s faces are typically begrimed due to their
impoverished conditions. This reflects Blake’s affiliation with
Romantics as they were often critical of the superficial, rather than
humane, nature of institutions beguiled as ‘philanthropic’ as Blake

 was drawn to English radical groups such as the London

Corresponding Society which drew collaborations between the
artisan class and intellectuals critical of the state of poverty.

- Blake continues to create a sense of parallelism between the

‘thousands of little boys and girls’ to the ‘multitudes of lambs’ - the
use of zoomorphism indicates that Blake was most likely connoting
the children to sacrificial lambs, as they would eventually grow into
the expendable workforce the industrial magnates of the 18th
century relied on as Romantics revered children as cherubim beings
rather than a workforce.

- This is reinforced by the presence of ‘grey haired beadles…with

wands’ as they served to reprimand and control the children. If the
poem is to be interpreted in the light where Blake is condemning
the laws and conventions which exploited children, the ‘beadles’
serve as choric characters as images of binding and imprisonment
recur throughout Blake’s songs, emblematic of the lamentable state
in which 18th century England operated

2. In ‘HTI’, Blake asserts an indirect political vision of a utopian

world whereby the pastoral imagery details how peace ensues as he
was ultimately still a Christian.

Contrastingly, Blake constructs a blissful state in ‘Holy

Thursday’ (Innocence) through the use of glamoured imagery to
subtly assert his political vision of an idyll that man is truly capable of
actualising. Indeed, whilst Blake was affiliated with English radicals
sympathetic to strong reform such as Mary Wollstoncroft - he was
unique in disposition as he exalted the capacity of a harmonious world
whereby children are safe to frolic.

-Indeed, if ‘Holy Thursday’ is perceived in a more optimistic reading,

the vibrant use of colourful imagery, immediately in the first stanza,
‘in red & blue & green’, - posits the lyrical voice as describing the
children in luxurious garments, against the natural imagery of

‘Thames waters flow’. If interpreted in a different light, Blake is

perhaps depicting that this harmonious world is sustained by an
ecological reconcilliation between human and physical nature as
removing anthropocentirc views can inspire healing

- Blake continues to sustain this through his use of aural imagery

where the children’s ‘harmonious thundering the seat of heaven’
which evokes biblical allusion reflects Blake’s Romantic desire for a
utopian world whereby the innocence of children is kept sanctified as
he subverts the traditional social hierarchy whereby these charity
school children are subservient to their masters as ‘beneath them sit
the aged men’ - as children are portrayed to have a more tangible and
feasible relation to divinity than the ‘aged men’.

Holy Thursday, Songs of experience

1. Whereas he adopts a more emboldened critique of the exploitative

nature of English institutions in ‘Holy Thursday’ (Songs of
Experience), perhaps galvanised by a sense of political urgency as
his ‘Experience’ collection was more overtly concerned with the
harsh realities of industrialised England.

- Yet, in ‘Holy Thursday’ (Experience), Blake sheds all subtlety in

his emboldened critique of the repressive nature of institutions,
beyond simply the Clergy depicted in ‘Innocence’

- Here, Blake was perhaps galvanised to be more explicit as he wrote

‘Experience’ in 1794, a year after the outbreak of the French
Revolution as the deeply Conservative government grew
increasingly resentful of reforms, lest England turn to revolution
like France or America. Indeed, the poem begins with stark
opposition to ‘Innocence’, immediately questioning society; ‘Is this
a holy thing to see?’

 - Here, Blake’s speaker sets a melancholic tone prompting 18th

century readers to contemplate their conditions as the Romantic
tradition was arguably defined by its’ emphasis on personal
introspection. The dramatic contrast within the first stanza of ‘rich
and fruitful land’ against ‘babes…fed with a cold and usurious
hand’. The ‘hand’ serves to be metonymic of the avaricious nature
of emergent capitalist blocs such as the East India Company which
had little regard for the individuals it exploited

- Blake utilises successive, interrogative questions progresses the

tenacity of the poem in its’ tempo, lacking the lyrical tone and light-
hearted AABB rhyme structure of ‘Innocence’ as he inquires ‘Is that
trembling cry a song? And so many children poor?’ As Blake is more
overt in reflecting the Romantic fascination with children as beings
yet to be corrupted by the state of reality as Rousseau’s philosophical
musings of the renowned aphorism; ‘man is born free, but everywhere
in chains’ as Blake desired to maintain the freedom of children,
similar to Coleridge who hoped for his son to never be tainted by
poverty as he was in the London Christ School

2. Contrastingly, in his ‘Experience’ poem - Blake employs an

accusatory frame as to how we can obtain the image in ‘Innocence’
through apocalyptic revolution.

Whilst in ‘Songs of Experience’ , Blake’s influences of the American

and French Revolution are implicit in his meditation on how society
can achieve the post-acolyptic realm conveyed in ‘Innocence’ through
emphasising the meagre reality the destitute will continue to face in
industrial England unless they are willing to take the onus and act on
this.

- The use of anaphora in the third stanza implies this, ‘And their sun
does never shine/And their fields are bleak & bare/And their ways
are fill’d with thorns’. This allusion to the cycle of poverty suggests
that the current state can only be rectified with an apocalyptic,
dramatic cleansing as Blake saw recourse to law and statute as an

 issue in and of itself as he set the precedent for Romantics’

unconventionality, arguing for a complete societal renewal
- This is further reinforced structurally, as the dramatic reduction in
line length in the fourth stanza, ‘It is eternal winter there.’ severs
the regularity of the quatrains emblematic of the monotony and
continuous exploitation of the proletariat

- The final stanza exemplifies how Blake’s attitudes since writing

‘Innocence’ progressed as he depicts the post-apocalyptic realm ‘For
whe-er the sun does shine/the rain does fall/Babes can never hunger
there/Nor poverty the mind appall’ as the end-stopped lines rather than
enjambement indicate that the cycle of deprivation will come to an
end if there is action

As such, Blake’s later poem serves to expose the ubiquity of the

corruption of the Church and is demonstrative of his affiliation to the
Romantic poets who, inspired by the French and American
revolutions, sought to bring about greater social justice for the
working class.

Tyger (compare to London, both Songs of Experience poems =

stand in dialogue with one another and reflect the dominant ideas
in Blake’s ouvre)

1. In ‘The Tyger’, Blake employs his characteristic, introspective

techniques to elicit a heretical desire within living entities to
consider their origins (say this in the intro)

Through the medium of anti-clericalism, Blake’s alignment with the

Romantic tradition is discernible in how the power of the imagination
can enable us to consider where we truly come from - irrespective of
the dogmas of the English Church.

- Indeed, Blake centres the contrarian nature of ‘God’ capable of both

destruction and creation just like us as ‘fearful symmetry’ refers to

 dual allusions which refer to both Tiger and the Creator as the speaker
ponders the origin of the sublime characteristic.

- Blake’s ‘Tyger’ is saturated with interrogative questions, reflecting

the speaker’s increasing curiosity and questioning the deeper
meaning of their faith as they ask ‘In what distant and deeps
orskies/Burnt the fire of thine eyes?’, demonstrative of Blake’s
affiliation to Romantics’ emphasis on the capacity of the individual
to question convention

- He goes on to contemplate ‘what immortal hand or eye…what

shoulder…could twist the sinews of thy heart?’ As his pondering of
the physical characteristics of ‘God’ in tandem with images of
industry to convey God’s image as an intelligent blacksmith with ‘a
furnace…and anvil’ can be read as a heretical poem whereby
likening God to humans implies that the individual bears the onus
for their own actions as Blake himself was staunchly critical of the
avarice and narrow doctrinaire of the English Church as Blake
resented didactic poetry, and advocated for one to perceive God as
an extension of themselves.

2. However, Blake is multidimensional as he accelerates how the

knowledge gained through introspection can be a source of strength
against despotism as his ‘Songs of Experience’ were written at the
advent of the French Revolution.

It would be reductive to solely consider Blake as a heretic who

advanced for personal reflection into how we were formed, as he
exemplifies the Romantics’ reactionary emphasis to social oppression
through the subversive capacity of man to disobey structures of
power.
- Indeed, the poem is primarily an apostrophe to ‘The Tyger’.
Blake’s choice to centralise the terrifying creature is emblematic of
how the French proletariats were disparaged by British media as
after the French Republic was declared in 1792, an English
statesman argued that the state ‘may as well be run by a tribunal of

 tigers’ as Blake derives strength from this indictment, centralising

the ‘Tyger’ as a figure of rebellion, continuously referred to in the
anaphoric refrain ‘Tyger Tyger’.

- This is evident in how the omniscient speaker inquires ‘On what

wings dare he aspire?’ As the veiled reference to the classical Greek
myth of Icarus defying his father is indicative of how controlling
forces permeated the social fabric, instilled within domesticity also.

- This is reinforced as the speaker grows in inquisitiveness, asking

‘What the hand, dare seize the fire?’ As Blake evokes the image of
Prometheus, a Grecian figure renowned within the Romantic
tradition as the myth of the human bringing ‘fire’ to civilisation
exalted the capacity of the individual - arguably the defining feature
of Romanticism.

- Indeed, whilst Blake himself was Christian he was not above

deriving inspiration from demonised figures as the incendiary image
of ‘the stars threw down their spears’ draws a parallel to Satan in
Paradise Lost, in his subversion against the powers that be serves as
Blake’s indirect political vision of the capabilities of the oppressed, no
matter how all consuming the powers against them are.

- Rhyming couplets grouped in quatrains

London (compare to Tyger)

1. This stands in dialogue to Blake’s London’s affiliation to the more

cynical Songs of Experience is apparent in his condemnation of
the avarice of the central institutions which enable for class
divide, reflective of Blake’s unique disposition within English
radicalism as he called for complete emancipation from existing
political systems.

Whilst in Blake’s ‘London’, he expands his condemnation of existing

systems beyond the clergy and he employs his characteristic
techniques of symbolism to express his criticisms of the increasingly
oppressive English state.

- Blake’s emphasis on personal introspection is echoed in London, as

the acrostic HEAR in the third stanza urges readers to consider
his description of the melancholic tonality of his description of
the poverty stricken London.
- Through the lens of the slightly misguided speaker
who ‘wanders thro’ each charter’d street,/Near where
the charter’d Thames does flow’, Blake illustrates how
commodification permeates the setting as corporate
monopolies frame ‘London’ as a place where the
poor are forcibly entrapped by the wealthy in
society as Blake wrote in 1794, a time where the
deeply Conservative English government were
fearful of revolt as Britain was in the throes of the
Industrial Revolution as emergent capitalism began
to dominate the political sphere

- This is reinforced by Blake’s characteristic use of contraries to

illustrate the moral degradation of London, as Songs of Experience
in and of itself serves to illustrate the contrasting states of the
human existence. This is indicative in the allegorical figure of the
‘chimney sweeper’, typically a child who he centres in many of his
Songs of Experience poems, as the foreground for society’s evils .

- This is further substantiated in the disillusioned, ‘hapless soldiers/

runs in blood down palace walls’ as Blake was sympathetic to the
overthrowing of the L’ancien Regime in the French Revolution a
year prior to the poem and cultivated his nonconformist attitudes in
his response, particularly as he was charged for speaking against
the King

2. However, Blake diverges from his more pointed emphasis on the

capacity of the individual to rebel against existing powers as ‘London’
centres his criticism against how societal institutions evoked passivity
rather than rebellion as ‘London’ lacks a discernible tonal shift
outlining the possibility for social renewal.

Indeed, Blake is multifaceted in how he rejected binaries - as

regardless of ‘Tyger’ espousing the possibilities of rebellion, London’s
consistently cynical tone reflects how in spite of his personal
contempt for the powers that be, his milieu is characterised by the
impoverished who have been conditioned into complacency.

- His extensive description of the tragic conditions caused by

institutions is evident in the nefarious image of ‘every blackening
Church appalls’ as Blake’s staunch anticlericalism is evident as he
was ambivalent over the inefficiency of philanthropy carried out by
the avaricious Church, growing disillusioned with the possibility of
reform as David Porter’s 1788 legislation to protect apprenticeships
was dismissed by the Lords.

- Blake is purposeful in how the existing powers were able to exploit

how the poor had no means to challenge what went on above their
heads as he noticed a ‘mark in every face I meet/Marks of
weakness, marks of woe’ as complacency marks the suffering of
the impoverished

- This is further reinforced by ‘every cry of every Man/In every

Infants’ cry of fear’ as the choric characters’ namelessness marks
the universality of the destitution the poor underwent, as Blake
acknowledges ‘the mind-forg’d manacles I hear’, a subtle reference
to the influences of Rousseau’s philosophical musings of the
aphorism ‘Man is born free but is everywhere in chains’ as Blake
embodies this cynicism at how social structures ideologically
imposed metaphorical shackles on the oppressed to maintain their
complacency

- The final stanza imparts the reader with a chilling image of how
society sullied innocence through poverty, as the oxymoron of
‘youthful harlot’ illustrates how the bodies of children were subject to
extremities simply to survive, a harrowing message which reflects the
Romantics’ emphasis on children as pure beings we are entrusted to
take care of.

Indeed, in accordance with the Songs of Experience reflecting the

contrary state of the human existence - Blake opts to navigate how the
callousness of institutions do not evoke rebellion as much as they do
passivity.

shelley - likely poems; west wind, the question

ode to the west wind

1. In line with the Romantic fascination with the transience the

restorative power of nature can bring, Shelley utilises vivid natural
imagery to exalt how communing with such an all-consuming force
can enable escapism.
- Whilst Shelley was unique in the Romantic tradition in drawing a
parallel between the individual and the power of nature, he
similarly follows first generation Romantic Coleridge’s ethos of
‘nature as the universal teacher’ as the central dichotomy of the
poem is that the wind is both ‘The Destroyer and the Preserver’
emphasises how the expanses of nature transcend mortal bounds, as
Shelley was resentful of the restrictive nature of contraries as he
stipulated in Prometheus Unbound, ‘didactic poetry is my
abhorrence’ as the wind can rise above

- Written in the aftermath of a turbulent period in his life, Shelley

centres his emphatic preoccupation with the renewal of life the

 ‘wind’ presents. This is reinforced by Shelley’s authorial choice to

format the poem in the lyrical, celebratory nature of an ‘Ode’ as he
deigns to engage in metamorphosis to become ‘a leaf’ and ‘a swift
cloud to fly with thee’, the conditional tense implying how Shelley
is almost pantheistic in his reverence of the wind.
- he speaks directly to it in his apostrophe; ‘one too like
thee; tameless, swift..in boyhood’ as Shelley is almost
mournful of how growing older has diminished his
ability to be as ‘tameless’ as the wind, ‘A heavy weight
of hours has chain’d and bow’d’. The harsh plosives in
tandem with the philosophical reference to Rousseau’s
cynical indictment of how ‘man is born free, but
everywhere in chains’ reflects how Shelley is initially
pessimistic, in line with the Romantics’ disapproval of
the emergent capitalistic society of the industrial era.

2. Furthermore, Shelley reflects the Romantic’s preoccupation with

the marginal, prophetic role of the poet precisely due to this
inextricable tether to an enlightened perception elusive to others.

- Indeed, Shelley’s parallel to the incendiary nature of the wind is

indicative in the images of fire in an ‘unextinguished hearth’,
emblematic of Prometheus, a classical symbol of the revolutionary
capacity of man as Shelley outlined in his preface to ‘Prometheus
Unbound’ that he would rather ‘go to hell with Plato than to heaven
with Malthus’ (a figure in political economy who believed in the
issues of class divides)

- Shelley stresses how his ideas will ‘quicken a new birth’, likening
his poetry to a catalyst for revolutionary change as he argued in ‘A
Defence of Poetry’ (1821), that poets are the ‘unacknowledged
legislators of the world’

- This is reinforced by Shelley’s personal fascination with the

obsolete, and how the values of a world being steadfastly eroded by
the empiricism of the Enlightenment which is reflected in how

 Shelley goes on to urge the wind to ‘drive my dead thoughts over

the universe’, emphasising the posterity of his indirect political
vision of the possibility of negating the increasingly industrial and
polarised reality of the 19th century
- ‘one too like thee: tameless, and swift
- ‘destroyer and preserver’ central dichotomy of the poem = shelley’s preface to prometheus unbound:
‘didactic poetry is my abhorrence’
- “winter’
reflects second generation Romantic’s preoccupation with the prophetic role of the poet // in ‘A Defence of
Poetry’ (1821), shelly said ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’

- ‘drive my dead thoughts over the universe’ = posterity of his ideals for a world not yet ready for him
- ‘like withered leaves to quicken a new birth’ = likens his ideas to catalysts for revolutionary change,
shelley was critical of the establishment
- ‘scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth’ = images of fire, alludes to Prometheus = ‘i had rather be
damned with plato than go to heaven with malthus’

the question

1. Shelley’s characteristic, sensory imagery in ‘The Question’

demonstrates his distinctiveness within the Romantic tradition as
his vivid illustration of the enlightened realm of the poet’s
imagination is articulated through the beautified image of nature.

- The poem is introduced en media res through a lens of ethereality

of a dream-like state as Shelley’s use of iambic pentameter
stimulates a walking-like rhythm, enabling the reader to be
surrealistically immersed into a realm whereby ‘Bare Winter was
suddenly was changed to Spring’ as the subversion of the laws of
nature illustrates the limitless nature of the mind

- Indeed, contrary to first generation Romantics such as Wordsworth

and Coleridge who stipulated that nature is what drives the poetic
imagination - Shelley commandeers the beauty of nature as an
instrument to articulate the power of the imagination as he
personifies ‘the green arms round the bosom of the stream’, the
connotations of warmth illustrating the sanctity of the poet’s
imagination

- This is reinforced by Shelley’s extensive use of natural imagery

running concurrently throughout the poem, as every stanza is
saturated with vivid images of ‘lush eglatine’, ‘pearled Arcuturi’,
‘tender bluebells’. This reflects the Romantics’ staunch criticism of
the rapidly industrialisation of 19th Century England, as it is telling
that the imagination - a fortified, safe haven - is articulated through
its’ proximity to nature.

Yet Shelley’s affiliation with Romanticism is apparent in how he

exalts the imagination as a medium through which the prophetic,
marginal role of the poet can provide an augmented perspective in
reaction to the empiricism of the emerging Enlightenment.
- Extended metaphor of flowers are emblematic of his ideas
- There is a subtle tonal change from introspective to prophetic, as he
makes it apparent that ‘The Question’ details the composition of the
poetic process as he forms ‘a nosegay bound in such a way’ of the
‘visionary flowers’, allegorical of his poetic ideas being eloquently
formed. Indeed, he stipulated in

- The classical allusion to Greek mythology in the ‘imprisoned

children of the Hours/Within my hand’ shifts the poem’s focus to
how Shelley interacts with poetry to articulate how his pensiveness
can present an augmented reality - as the possessive pronoun ‘my’
is indicative of the agency poetry grants him and is token of his
authorial commitment expressed in ‘Prometheus Unbound’ as he
vowed to ‘go to hell with Plato than to heaven with Malthus’
- The conclusive final line in fifth stanza; where he ponders the
rhetorical question ‘Oh - to whom?’, wondering who to
can see himself reflected in the forces of nature, as Romantics stressed the restorative power of nature
- extensive use of natural imagery
-
reflects second generation Romantic’s preoccupation with the prophetic role of the poet // in ‘A Defence of
Poetry’ (1821), shelly said ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’

- shifts from introspective to prophetic

-

 stanzas written in dejection

- effusion
-

keats

Any intro w/ keats; ‘In ‘Ode…’, Keats employs his characteristic

sensory imagery to highlight …. Yet, it would not truly be reflective of
Keats’ authorial intentions behind the element of escapism through the
poetic imagination…Similar to his second generation counterpart
Shelley, Keats exalted the visionary role of the poet’s imagination to
articulate an indirect vision to better the inauthentic, abrasive
industrial era. This stands in dialogue with…’

ode to a nightingale - compare to west wind

1. In ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, Keats centralised the interplay between

the individual who has grown weary of the banality of reality and how
the possibilities of the poetic imagination possibly negates this

- Indeed, Keats adopts the traditional, lyrical ‘Ode’ form to convey a

deep adoration for the figure of the Nightingale, or more
specifically; the visceral; image of transience. In the writing of his
‘Odes’, Keats had experienced a successive number of
bereavements which perhaps influenced his nihilistic disdain for
the basic tenets of human mortality evident in the extensive use of
quantitative language to stress the frustrating ephemerality of the
human conditon such as the ‘few, sad, last grey hairs’ we gain as
we age as Keats utilises figurative language to forlornly detail the
brevity of being young as ‘the youth grows pale, spectre-thin and
dies’.

- In line with the Romantic condemnation of the steadfastly

industrial, rationalist ethos of the zeitgeist, Keats makes a cultural
reference to the cynicism of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s indictment of
society whereby ‘man is born free, but everywhere in chains’ as
Keats concludes that ‘to think is to be full of sorrow’

- He reveres the contrasting image ‘Nightingale’, as the ‘light

winged Dryad of the trees’. In light of his own adoration of the
Classics, Keats’ extolling of the sentient being of the Nightingale to
divinity reflects his fascination with the ‘immortal Bird’s’ ability to
transcend the bonds of mortality that Keats so ardently desires in
the penultimate stanza where, en media res, it dawns on the speaker
(presumably Keats) that ‘the voice I hear this passing night was
heard/In ancient days by emperor and clown’ as the Nightingale has
the unearthly ability to transcend time which emphasises Keats
desire for disassociative activity to revel with the Nightingale,
through ‘opiates’ and ‘hemlock’.
- Here, Keats was perhaps influenced by his personal
philosophy of negative capability whereby the capacity of the poet
to pursue an artistic vision of beauty supersedes philosophical
certainty

2. However, in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ Keats is multifaceted in his

exploration of how this ephemerality granted by the Nightingale
enables an optimistic viewpoint of how the marginal role of the poet
and his imagination can present a utopian vision to better society.

- Keats’ pioneered philosophy of negative capability defies a single

interpretation and can perhaps be read as a means for gaining an
enlightened perception of how the faults of society can be rectified,
primarily through artistic expression

- This is discernible through his rejection of bacchanalian activity ‘I

will fly to thee/Not charioted by Bacchus… but on the viewless
wings of poesy’ as Keats promises to embrace reality in spite of its
ugliness. In accordance with the Romantic assertion put forward by

 his counterparts such as Shelley who deemed that ‘poets are the
unacknowledged legislators of the world’ as Keats employs his
characteristic, sensory imagery to form a vivid depiction of the
expanses of the poetic imagination of ‘verdurous gloom and
winding mossy ways’ yet ensuring to not lose himself entirely,
maintaining a tethered link back to reality as Keats himself
famously asked ‘Do you see how necessary a world of pain and
troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?’

- Indeed, this resounds in the final line which asks the question’Do
I wake or do I sleep?’ As the liminal state of transience granted by
his communing with the Nightingale altered his perception, as he
transmutes his findings into poetry to perhaps invigorate the
common reader. This exemplifies Keats’ close affiliation to the
liberal Leigh Hunter who co-founded the revolutionary
newspaper of ‘The Examiner’ as the aforementioned philosophy
of negative capability can also be read as Keats’ assertion of how
every man is capable of negating the constraints of modern
society and be more retrospective

profound desire to dulll his senses in order to feel proximity to the being of the
Nightingale, a being which is emblematic of freedom. Rousseau concept of
how ‘every man is born free but is everywhere in chains -> ‘to think is to
be full of sorrow’
- romantic verse was suffused with a reverence for nature
- creates a vivid sensory image to emphasise poetic imagination
- visceral image of the nightingale
- images of death, personifies death
keats conveys a similar sentiment to his second generation counterparts, in that
he derives poetic inspiration from nightingale/restorative power of nature

- ‘I will fly to thee…Not charioted by Bacchus’ Rejects bacchanalian activity,

will engage in reality in all its’ ugliness

- ‘but on the wings of poesy’ = emphasises poetry as a form to articulate his

imagination, keats was indeed anxious about whether he could properly
translate his imagination onto paper. if interpreted in light of keats’ personal

 philosophy of negative capability = the poem inspires readers to engage in

deep reflection of their own mortality.
-
- ‘Do I wake or do I sleep?’ similar to shelley’s view that the poet has a
marginal role in having an illuminated perception of reality as he has now
entered a liminal space between the transcendent space the nightingale
allowed him to temporarily experience, or go back. negative capability =
capacity of writers to pursue a vision of artistic beauty as opposed to
philosophical certainty // OR; BETTER TO TALK ABOUT LEIGH
HUNTER, THE EXAMINER,

ode to melancholy - compare to west wind,

In ‘Ode on Melancholy’

Keats: ‘do you see how necessary a world of pain and troubles is to
school an Intelligence and make it a soul?’
Demonstrates his affiliation to the Romantic movement as they sought
to highlight how ‘without contraries, there is no progression’

1. In ‘Ode on Melancholy’, Keats prefaces his poem through

recognising the implicit desire to transcend the trials and
tribulations associated with all-consuming nature of melancholy,
reflecting the Romantics’ preoccupation with personal
introspection.
- The poem beings en media res, immediately immersing the reader
into Keats directly addressing the desire to go ‘to Lethe’, the
classical allusion to Grecian mythological river which would allow
whomever frolicked in its waters, the ability to be ignorant of
emotion such as melancholy. Certainly, whilst writing of the
‘Ode’,Keats experienced a successive number of bereavements
which perhaps cultivated Keats’ consciousness of a nihilistic
disdain for the human experience.

- Indeed, the extensive use of poison imagery referring to

‘wolfsbane’ and ‘nightshade, he opens the possibility for
bacchanalian activity to nullify the senses -> which exemplifies the

 broader Romantic fascination with achieving a sense of transience

as Hazlitt in his essay ‘On Gusto’ disavowed the ‘frailities of
passion and pain’ man is susceptible to.
-
- Indeed, this is further reinforced by Keats’ classical allusion to
Grecian mythology to convey the universality, and antiquity, of the
implicit contempt for melancholy as he depicts the ‘ruby grape of
Proserpine’. The reference to Persephone, a figure symbolic of the
cyclicality of sorrow through her unwilling relegation to the
underworld, illustrates how we are forcibly subjected to a state of
sadness and pain in an uncomfortable state by remaining conscious
of our strife. This is derivative of the Romantics’ staunch criticism
of the industrial, monotonous reality token of the 18th century

Yet, Keates is multifaceted in his exploration of the human condition

as being enhanced by its’ vulnerable susceptibility to melancholy as
the idealisation of a transient state only diminishes the authenticity of
pleasurable experiences.
Indeed, in ‘Ode on Melancholy’, Keats rejects the Medieval notion
that melancholy is a singularly negative emotion which is indicative
of the celebratory, lyrical ode form of the poem, chiefly dedicated to
extolling melancholy.

- In line with the Romantic tradition of refuting rationalist ethos

token of the Enlightenment which sought to resolve ‘contraries’
Blake argued that without contraries there is no progression’ in
(Marriage of Heaven and Hell 1790-93) as Keats, second-gen,
argued the futility of ‘irritable reaching over fact and reason’. This
influence is discernible in the anaphoric repetition of ‘no, no, no,
go not to Lethe’ to urge readers not to disembroil themselves from
the ‘wakeful anguish’, which ultimately enriches their perspective

- Furthermore, Keats draws on his first-gen predecessor

Wordsworth’s shift articulating his poetic message in the ‘language
of the common man’ as he personifies intense emotions as he
exposes the dichotomous interconnection between ‘melancholy’ as

 ‘she dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die’ illustrates the

pervasive nature of melancholy in permeating even the
aesthetically easy part of our lives as syntactically, ‘veil’d
melancholy’ lies at the centre of the final stanza, reiterating how the
ephemeral nature of ‘joy’s grape’ emphasises how this transient
state lacks longevity as the oxymoronic ‘aching pleasure’ of
transience can only last for so long - before melancholy eventually
appears
- Keats arguably implores his readers to consider negative capability
as the inevitable arrive of melancholy should arguably be a means
of positivity as Keats evokes the notion that the liminal space
known as the human condition requires the individual to accept
‘uncertainties’ rather than seeking to deconstruct these emotions.
- This authorial commitment to highlighting how melancholy serves
to enrich the human experiences of pleasure is further clear d

to the masses incited by Wordsworth who began to subvert the

classicism of poetry, In the language of the common man

- Indeed, it may be reductive to consider that Keats’ pioneered

philosophy of negative capability is not wholly for the sole
satisfaction of the individual, as Keats was critical of such selfishness
evident in his affiliation to liberal Leigh Hunter behind the
revolutionary newspaper ‘The Examiner’ as Keats emphasises
Past notes
- #1 Images of suffering:
- Begins en media res, instantly thrown into frantic thought, Romantics desired to explore the human condition
- Keats acknowledges desire to dull your senses, natural imagery of poisonous plants, ‘nightshade’ ‘etc’. the fact that
this premise is what the poem is built on reflects how romantics were critical of the industrial, monotonous reality
and desired to obtain escapism
- Sensory images of gluttony, melancholy is all consuming -
- #2 Images of pleasure: Keats rejects the medieval notion that melancholy is a singularly negative emotion, this is
supported by the ode form. It is a pensive emotion that indicates sensitivity, he reveres this in the ode form = a
traditional lyrical celebratory poem

- ‘No, no no, go not to Lethe’ anaphoric repetition - urging the reader to not engage in dissociative activities.
- ‘Wakeful anguish of the soul’ = we must be conscious of this pain, to enrich our
- Implores the reader to consider how melancholy and pleasure are interlinked, similar to second generation
counterpart Shelley
- Personification of ‘melancholy’, ‘she dwells with Beauty—beauty that must die’ // ‘veil’d melancholy

- State of ephemerality, lack of permanence

ode on a grecian urn - compare to west wind

Keats creates an ambiguity between a joyful celebration of the urn -

‘the excellence of every art is its’ intensity’, critical of the limited
capacity of man.

- Ode form = a traditional, lyrical celebration of the subjects of the

poem, iambic pentameter
-
- ‘What men or gods are these?’ Intrigue in the artistic figures, the
Elgin Figures -> Lord Elgin in1816 believed he ‘saved them’ from
and preserves their beauty in British Museum -> sense of
immortality-> Will stay ‘youthful’ forever.

- Positive depiction of their stasis = final stanza, Hazlitt in his essay

‘On Gusto’ said that ‘they are raised above the frailties of passion
and pain’

- The aphorism in the final remark is an indictment on the

temporality of the human existence -> and the permanence of the
urns; beauty when ‘old age shall this generation waste’ as Keats
wrote his Ode at a time

However, Keats also considers how the flawed essence of human

nature is what makes it so integral. In line with the Romantic tradition
of personal introspection, it dawns on the speaker that the stasis and
inability of the figurines to progress are perhaps superficial in
comparison to human beings

- ‘Fair youth, thou canst not leave’ The use of apostrophe conveys a
the frustration of remaining in a liminal space

- ‘Never canst thou kiss’ = on the cusp of a pleasurable experience,

but will never truly actualise this

- Seasonal imagery ‘nor ever bid Spring adieu’ = will never

experience a crescendo of heat, as Keats’ sensory, vivid imagery
implies an implcit

- Vivid image of a ‘desolate’ town & aural imagery, ‘silent' a

dramatic shift - a discernible volta here which leads Keats to
conclude in his direct address to the urn; the more philosophical
reading that the ‘cold pastoral’ can be interpreted by the absence of
life - the art is a superficial depiction of the vibrancy of man as
despite Keats’ criticism of the temporality of man, his personal
philosophy of negative capability implies that there is no need for a
definitive answer to life’s questions

sonnet on the sea

1. Keats’ ‘Sonnet on the Sea’ creates a vivid sensory image through

sonic devices and language to illustrate the poet’s capacity for
immersion through the personal reflection through nature,
encapsulated in a state of insularity from the industrial,
monotonous reality

- The Petrarchan Sonnet form of the poem exalts the visceral image
of the sea primarily in the first octave, as Keats personifies the sea
with consonant verbs such as ‘gluttonous…gluts twice ten thousand
caverns’. The unfathomable nature of the vast, physical power of
the sea is exacerbated by the quantitative language of ‘twice, ten
thousand’ and implies the importance of reflecting on the striking
nature of the ‘sublime’ that inspire a ‘mighty swell of emotion’.

- In spite of the secularism of the Romantics, Keats is reminiscent of

his first generation counterparts’ exalting of a near divine power
associated with nature as the poem is saturated with sonic devices
such as the sibilance of ‘desolate shores’.

- Indeed, the influences of the Shakespearian text ‘King Lear’ are

discernible in how Keats reveres the ‘eternal’ sea as being
completely contrary to the restricted mortality of man, encouraging
deep reflection of our own mortality in light of Keats’ personal
philosophy of negative capability which placed emphasis on
pursuing a vision of beauty irrespective of philosophical certainty,
in reaction to the empiricism of the Enlightenment era which
Romantics argued confounded personal introspection.

- As such, the Keats encourages the reader to do so in the language

of the poem being written in that of ‘the common man’ - as the
universality of his message urging for personal reflection through
nature and considering the ephemerality of human life in contrast
resounds through the poem

2. Yet, Keats is multifaceted in his portrayal of _ as the subtle tonal

change in ‘Sonnet on the Sea’ embodies the Romantic preoccupation
with asserting an indirect political vision as personal reflection
enables one to meditate upon the implications of the wider social
implications emergent of the 19th century

- Indeed, it would be reductive to relegate Keats as a ‘poet of the

senses’ as the sestet of the Petrarchan Sonnet form turns the focus
of the poem to what the benefits they would gain from the sea as
the harsh plosive sounds in tandem with the direct address of ‘O
ye! Who have your eye-balls vex’d and tir’d’ indict the monotony
of the emergent capitalist, hyper-industrial era Keats operated
within as he was closely associated with Leigh Hunter, the co-
founder of the liberal newspaper ‘The Examiner’ and developed a
staunch criticism of wealth inheritance and hoarding as class
divides reared its’ ugly head as the gluttonous imagery of how the
individual is stifled, ‘fed too much with cloying melody’ in the
dreariness of daily life, obstructs the individual’s ability to be
introspective

 - Emblematic of how first-generation Romantic Coleridge hailed

nature as ‘Great universal Teacher!’ As Keats embodies a
Pantheistic perspective of how the divine nature of the ‘sea’ can
renew the individual’s psyche, distorted by the issues of
urbanisation, as Keats imperatively instructs the reader to ‘sit ye
near some old cavern’s mouth’ can distract from the ‘uproar rude’
of the shackles of commerce and industry.

- Keats’ use of assonance in in the verb ‘brood’ as well as the

alternate rhyme of the adjective ‘rude’ present the possibility of
vitality away from the ‘uproar’ of machinery exalt a transient state
whereby one can retain their individuality in the face of the
seemingly all consuming conventions of society, a clear reflection
of his alignment with the primarily subversive Romantic tradition.
As such, Keats utilises personal reflection here as a medium for an
indirect political vision against the rapidly capitalistic nature of
industrial society

byron
Likely; roving
WHEN COMPARING BYRON TO BYRON; Byron characterises the
emotion of _ as _ through its’ interplay with his evolving attitudes to
death.

Roving (compare to On this Day 1. Roving = details the inner turmoil

of byron as he can no longer sustain his profligate lifestyle 2. In a
similar vein, Byron is more critical of the detriments of his life as a
libertine - its’ lack of substance, 3. Roving = is resolute in that he will
remain in a state of stasis, cyclical structure = inevitability, transience
of life-> momento mori 4. Byronic preoccupation w/ legacy
ameliorates *negative feeling* as the volta reflects a desire to
transcend passivity)

1. In accordance with the second generation Romantic’s emphasis on

personal reflection, Byron is artful in illustrating the inner conflict
between his more aged, corporal frame in comparison to his
youthful desire to pursue a more profligate mode of living.

In ‘Roving’, Byron varies from his famed epics to simply characterise

his reluctance to accept the denouement of his unsustainable,
hedonism.

- The poem begins in media res, with the declarative sentence ‘We’ll
go no more a roving’ yet this impetus behind emancipating himself
is immediately contrasted by the conditional ‘Though the heart be
still as loving’ which relates to how, by this stage in his life, Byron
had been living in near destitute exile in Venice and Rome after
quitting Britain in 1816

- This subtle frustration at having to withdraw from this cycle of

hedonism is reinforced in the natural imagery of ‘the moon be still
as bright’ as he explained in his letter to Moore that Lenten season
had begun, and the nights of festivities were being ‘replaced with
abstinence’, a jarring discrepancy which originates from Byron’s
affiliation to the secularism of the Second Generation Romantics’
lack of desire to seek a divine realm or conventional arbiter as
Byron perhaps felt increasingly anachronistic in his contrasting
beliefs to his milieu of Roman Catholicism

- Indeed, a more deft reading of ‘Roving’ indicates how Byron

universalises his plight in the collective pronoun ‘we’, in tandem
with the light-hearted format of an ABAB rhyme scheme (roving/
night/loving/bright) - illustrating his affiliation to the broader
Romantic precedent set by Wordsworth who disavowed
neoclassical poetry not in ‘the language of men’ as Byron’s
emphatic reluctance to accept the constant physical reminder of
ageing, lamenting how ‘the day returns too soon’

 2. Albeit, Byron is multifaceted in his portrayal of theme as he evokes

the ‘memento mori’ literary tradition to ground his aforementioned
turmoil to passively accept the end of his past state of living.

In ‘Roving’, Byron’s lack of tonal change distinguishes him from his

Romantic counterparts as the literary maxim of ‘memento mori’
substantiates his passivity into recusing himself.

The refrain of ‘we’ll go no more a roving’ runs concurrently

throughout the poem, immediately following his internal desire to
pursue his desires as the pervasive nature of the anaphoric phrase
serves as an affirmation which must be repeatedly stated to negate his
desire of ‘loving’ in the ‘night’. This evokes the Romantic sentiment
behind personal reflection collected in solitude, as Byron’s uncouth
and immoral liberties he pursued in his youth with women such as his
own sister and Lady Caroline Lamb pushed him to the fringes of
society.

- Byron is purposeful in utilising synecdoche in the second stanza to

depict how his aged corporality can no longer physically stand his
activities ‘the soul outwears the breast/and the heart must pause to
breathe’ as the repository images of the heart and soul illustrate
how Byron lacks the physical faculties as his lifestyle takes a toll.
This evokes his literary attraction to manifesting the memento mori
tradition, as he views his inability to be indulgent as the erosion we
undergo as we age
- - it is indicative that Byron is not emancipating
himself for moral reasons, but simply because he can
no longer bear it as he lamented feeling as if his
sword is wearing out his scabbard in his letter to
Thomas Moore, ‘the sword’ perhaps alluding to
phallic imagery.

- The simple future tense in the final stanza is emboldened by the end-
stopped line ‘Yet we’ll go no more a roving/By the light of the moon’

 as Byron is seemingly resolute in accepting that he can no longer live

as he once did, as when explaining the poem’s genesis in the letter to
his friend Thomas More, Byron likened his social milieu to a
‘carnival’ which he could no longer participate in as he aged.

Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup

1. In comparison to his poem ‘Lines Inscribed Upon A Cup Formed

from a Skull’, written when Byron was nineteen and living a
hedonistic lifestyle - Byron discusses how one can placate _
through merriment in line with his philosophy of carpe diem

In a similar vein, Byron in ‘Lines Inscribed’ emphatically discusses how engaging in

hedonistic tendencies whilst one is still alive can absolve one of *theme* nature of
life.
- This was likely spurred on by Byron’s desire to stress the significance of the
‘carpe diem’ tradition he exercised in practise as a wealthy young gentleman
touring the continent with the Shelleys in 1823.
- In an ironic sense, Byron manipulates a quintessential skeleton repurposed to
eternally facilitate pleasure as a glass for alcohol to illustrate how one must ‘quaff
whilst thou canst’ - the sudden direct address shifting the tone from introspective
to prophetic

- Indeed, the lexical field of ‘I lived, I loved, I quaff’d’ depicts tenets of

‘unrestrained liberty as Byron inherited the Rochdale estate at only ten years old
which broadened his scope for personal autonomy as his Romantic commitment to
indulgences

- In accordance with the Romantic fascination with personal introspection, Byron

continues to provide a sense of recourse at the inevitable elements one can never
truly negate such as ‘life’s little day’, the quantitative language in ‘little’
emphasises the brevity one has to enjoy themselves (the transience of life) and
how ‘our heads such sad effects produce’ refers to the intrusive thoughts which
encroach upon us - he finally concludes at the end-stopped line that ‘This chance
is theirs, to be of use’- arguing that one must actualise their desires of fulfilment in
spite of the circumstances associated with being cognisant of what first generation
Romantic Wordsworth referred to as ‘the dreary intercourse of daily life’

- Indeed, Byron was only nineteen when authoring ‘Lines

Inscribed’ and the realm of possibilities seemed infinite as

 he was yet to be dogged by sexual scandals and debt of his

profligate lifestyle which ostracised him from Britain in
1816 - thus his ‘carpe diem’ perspective.

2. Similarly, the Byronic preoccupation with legacy is discernible here

- yet in the ‘memento mori tradition’ as Byron urges readers not to be
resigned to - but rather indulge in life’s pleausures

Although Byron incorporates the maxim of ‘memento mori’ in ‘Lines

Inscribed’- his musings of how satisfaction can be found through
legacy lacks the element of honour he would later discover in Venice.

- Rather, as a second generation Romantic, Byron departs from the

classical belief of a divine realm post-mortem, thus his attitude to
death emboldens the concept of hedonism as (theme) remains
imperative to the Byronic perception of individual indulgent.

- The aforementioned skull speaker’s corporal frame is associated

with grotesque imagery as they have been decomposed by ‘the
earth-worm’s slimy brood’. Rather, it is ‘better to hold the sparkling
grape’ as this refers to the alleged skeleton found in Byron’s home
Newstead Abbey which (in true libertine mode), he had fashioned
into a goblet for drinking.

- It is worht noting that Byron does not adopt a melancholic tone

despite the grotesque imagery of the inevitable biological processes
anticipating us all, as he utilises sardonic humour through the
ABAB rhyme scheme (‘grape/brood/shape/food’ lightheartedly
embodies a sense of aestheticism associated with Byron’s
behaviour as a young member of Britain’s upper echelons) to
reiterate how one can negate * by being of use to the living after
dying, abetting their own joy whilst acknowledging the maxim
‘memento mori’; ‘remember, you will die’.

Ultimately, Byron’s exploration of - is most notably navigated

through his relationship to death - an idea notable across his ouvre.
In ‘OTD’, he mourns an ego-death of the profligate lifestyle he could
no longer sustain as it is this very lifestyle which placed himi in dire
straits. In a more celebratory sense, Byron embodies a carpe diem
philosophy to highlight the power of the individual in the face of
uncontrollable forces remnant of death. Yet, the Byronic
preoccupation with an impactful legacy is portrayed as -theme- if one
dies for a worthy cause as in ‘OTD’, Byron engages in a radical,
revolutionary vision evoked by Greek independence. Yet, the younger
and wealthier Byron who penned ‘Lines Inscribed’ depicts _ as
avoidable through any derivation of a pleasurable lifestyle, as he
departed from the religious concepts of divinity,

the bold is the points

Byron on this day - in his dedication to don juan, he referred to

english viscount foreign secretary castlereigh as an intellectual eunuch
-> despite the imprtance of the individual, a dedication to mankind,
reflected in his role in italian nationalism and his participation in the
war effort to liberate greece from ottoman rule

On This Day

1. (You would say this bit in the intro) Byron utilises the
introspective piece to alleviate his personal woes of destitution
prior to actualising a higher purpose in the Greek struggle for
independence.
In ‘OTD’, Byron adopts a sense of theme as he morns the death of his
hedonistic lifestyle which exemplifies Byron’s unique disposition
within the Romantic as he could be seen to have championed the
importance of the individual more extremely than other Romantics
- The poem begins with the use of figurative language to depict the
diminishing essence of the lexical field of ‘the flowers and fruits

 are gone’ allude to the brevity of these beautiful yet short-lived

sources of pleasure.

- Yet, they also serve as superficially beautiful, reflecting Byron’s

cognisance of how he could not sustain his mode of living and is
now resigned to (theme)

- Byron continues to express a sense of self-loathing as he struggles

to find meaning in the liminal space where has grown out of his
gallavanting, yet clearly not of his own accord as he reaped the
consequences of quitting Britain in 1816 due to his extreme debt
and scandal, as Lady Caroline Lamb indicted him as ‘mad, bad and
dangerous to know’
- This is evident in his melancholic proclamation, ‘ Yet
though I cannot be beloved / still let me love!’ As
Byron deigns for the euphoric experience of love, he
falls into despair in his reference to the ‘canker’ a
corruption difficult to eradicate - as he begs an
unknown cosmic force for divine intervention - his
contradiction of the Second Generation Romantic
tradition which was secular in how they sought for no
divine realm or arbiter, emphasising his clear
desperation

- *theme* is further reinforced as Byron concludes that he is left with

no choice but ‘to wear the chain’ in the final, end-stopped line of the
fourth stanza. This reflects the influences of Rousseau’s philosophical
musings on Byron’s attitudes as he embodies the cynical aphorism
‘Man is born free but everywhere is in chains’ - *theme* ensues.

2. The Byronic preoccupation with legacy suggests there is a lack of

permanence associated with (negative feeling) as the Volta in ‘On this
Day’ introduces the prospect of an honourable death as ameliorating
his previous strife

 However, it would be reductive to consider Byron’s portrayal of the

interplay between theme and his perspective of death as he evolved
beyond his hedonism as the Byronic engrossment with the nature of a
satisfactory legacy enters the fore after the Volta.

- Albeit Byron’s political attitudes towards the reconciliation of class

divides were a constant affirmation of his affiliation to the
Romantic tradition, as prior to being exiled he indicted the
Conservative English Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh in
the foreword to Don Juan, the tonal shift charts Byron’s bolstered
desire to seek purpose in an honourable cause greater than himself

- He speaks ardently of ‘the Sword, the Banner, and the Field’ where
the non-standard capitalisation creates a vivid image of glory
gained solely through military victory. This perspective was
cultivated when Byron received an invitation to fiscally support the
Greek struggle from Ottoman rule in 1833.

- This is reinforced through Byron’s extensive use of classical

allusion to the military posture of Ancient Greece as the poem
dramatically increases in tempo as he glorifies the militaristic
image of the ‘Spartan borne upon his shield’. This choric character
is emblematic of Byron’s romanticisation of Hellenistic military
rituals which celebrated death in war as the most satisfactory way
to die.

- Although his honour was acquired post-humously, Byron’s work as

a medium between the British philhellenes and Greek
revolutionaries earned him renown as a Homeric hero. Byron’s
reverie at the possibility of dying in a form of the Elysium Fields, ‘the
land of honourable death’ solidifies his acknowledgement of the
maxim ‘memento mori’ - yet he portrays this through beautified
imagery to convey how the deepest *theme* can arise from dying
without an impactful cause greater than the individual - a political
vision of self-determination

 explore the presentation of dissatisfaction in ‘on this day’ by byron

and another ronanric poem.

BOTH ABOUT attitudes to DEATH

on this day’ Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup
Formed from a Skull’
byron conveys a sense of in a similar vein, byron
dissatisfaction at his celebrated the lifestyle of a
dejected sense of libertine as satisfactory
listlessness, as he mourns through embodying a carpe
his past life of indulgences - diem philosophy
romantics stressed
importance of individual
-> ‘ owers and fruits’ gurative -> ‘i lived, i loved, i quaff’d’
language depicts natural -> ‘quaff whilst thou canst’
imagery which lacks longevity -> ‘through life’s little day/ Our
-> ‘yet though i cannot be head such sad effects
beloved / let me love!’ produce’ - dissatisfaction
exclamatory phrase and tone
of self loathing. deigning for
euphoria -> ‘But wear
the Chain’ re ects Rousseau’s
philosophical musings on how
societal preconceptions are
ingrained into us, curbing our
freedom
fl
fl
fi

 byron’s later preoccupation in a similar vein, the byronic

w/legacy. yet, the volta in preoccupation w/ legacy is
‘on this day’ is evoked by a visible as he believed there
resolution to a more was no realm one
committed cause - the only experiences post-mortem.
honourable way one should yet, the 19 year old poet
spend their lives - byron believes this only
became actively involved in substantiates the notion
the struggles for italian that one should engage in
nationalism and liberation as much merriment and is
of greece from ottoman rule not melancholy in his
presentation of memento
-> ‘the Sword, the Banner, incorporate a memento mori
and the Field’ - non-standard attitude to an extent - the skull
capitalisation illustrates the persona says ‘redeem’d’
signi cance of military -> -> ‘Better to hold the
imagery -> extended use sparkling grape/Than nurse
of classical allusion to ancient the earth-worm’s slimy brood’
greek traditions of war and In accordance with the poet’s
camaraderie ‘the Spartan own indulgent behaviours,
borne upon his shield’ Byron dors not adopt a
references ancient greek melancholy tone in spite of the
tradition of dead soldiers grotesque imagery. -> he is
being carried with their shield rather using sardonic humour
‘The land of honourable via the abab rhyme scheme
Death/ Is here’ = momento and reiterating an idea of
mori. tone of not only post-mortem use in abetting
acceptance, but of reverence the living’s indulgences ->
of the battle eld ‘Our
fi
fi