"The Big Six"John Keats (1795-1821) Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) Romanticism: |
Casper David Friedrich. Wanderer above the Mist. 1817-1818. From Arts and Ideas. William Fleming, 9th ed: p. 532 |
The First Generation:W. BlakeW. Wordsworth
S.T. Coleridge
Romantic Novelist Emily Bronte |
"The Lady of Shalott"--
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![]() (Portrait of John Keats in Rome, shortly before his death from tuberculosis in February 1821, by his friend Joseph Severn.) From Portico - The British Library's Online information Server |
The poem can be divided into three parts: in the 1st
stanza the speaker addresses the urn and then asks it questions; in the
2nd to 4th stanzas, the speaker looks at the urn's designs and then imagine
stories, and then in the 5th, the speaker again talks to the urn.
1. The first stanza is difficult because it is filled with metaphors for the urn and then unanswered questions. The poem might interest you more if you glimpse through this part and move right into the middle part (2nd to 4th stanzas). |
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Stanza 3: This difference is what leads to the exclamations in stanza 3. What is the effect of the repetition of the words "happy" and "for ever"? If the speaker praises the "happiness" of the permanent music, love and youth on the urn, why, then, does he switch immediately to "breathing human passion" and its pains?
Stanza 4: From the questions asked here, obviously this side of the urn shows neither the altar (the destination) nor the little town (the starting point)--but the procession on their way to the alter. What is the significance? Also, why does the speaker addresses the little town which is not shown on the urn?
Compare stanza 4 with the previous two. What aspect of the urn do they all show, but treat differently?
The poem as a whole
2. With the stories described on the urn in mind, we can then
try to understand the metaphors and names for the urn in the 1st and last
stanzas. Is there, however, a difference between metaphors in the first
stanza ("bride," "child," "historian") and the names in the last ("attic
shape," "fair attitude" "cold Pastoral")? If so, why?
3. The last two lines may sound like a cliche and then a repeated praise of the urn. But can they also be read ironically? (Why does the urn only know, and only need to know, "Beauty is truth, and truth beauty)? Keep in mind the contrast between the human world and the worlds shown on the urn.
4. The poem is basically an apostrophe to an inanimate object. How does this rhetorical device function in the poem? Does the poet apostrophize the urn just to praise it? What does he get to understand? The urn, and/or human beings' difference from it?
5. Re-consider the development of the poem in terms of the poet's attitudes.
What stance, or attitude, does he take in each stanza? Can we say
that the poet "enter" the urn and then leave it (or going through an empathic
process)?
"Ozymandias" (readingvideo clip) --relevant linksRight: from the
Percy Bysshe Shelley Homepage
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1. logical structure
*Ozymandias, or Ramese II, was pharaoh of Egypt in
the thirteenth century B.C.
1. The poem, as an Italian sonnet, can be divided into two parts: the first eight lines (octave) and the next six lines (sestet). If the octave part describes the fragments of a sculpture the traveler sees on an ancient ruin, the sestet goes further to record the words on the pedestal and then describe the surrounding emptiness. How are the words on the pedestal in contrast to both the octave and the last three lines (triplet) of the poem? In other words, what does Ozymandias want to achieve, as opposed to what is left behind him? |
The feet of the colossus of Rameses II on which Shelley's poem Ozymandias is based. From Art, Space and the City p. 68. |
3. Structure of narration
The poem contains a story (told by Ozymandias) within a story (told
by the traveler) within a story (told by) the speaker of the poem). In
the core of this multiple story, the Ozymandias we know is only a sculpture
and the words on it. What does this, as well as the narrative structure,
say about history and art?
Application & Wild Association
Different Art Forms
and Life
Consider "The Dance"(by William Carlos Williams), "Musee des Beaux
Arts," (by W. H. Auden), "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ozymandias"
together.
(1788-1824) "She Walks in Beauty"
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Thomas Phillips. Lord Byron in Albanian Costume. 1814. from Arts and Ideas William Fleming, 9th ed: p. 532 |
2. How is the lady characterized? How do the sound effects (e.g. open vowels, "r" "l" and "m" sounds) help convey the meanings?
3. Does the fact that the actual lady is in mourning and is Byron's cousin affect your picture of her?
Application & Wild Association
1. Can you picture a woman like the one in this
poem? In your imagination, is she seen in slow motion, with soft-focus?
And with what background music?
2. This poem, as well as some sonnets and courtly love poetry you are going to read, has woman as the object of the poets' love, adoration and idealistic description. How is this woman different from the women characters you have read so far (e.g. Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen and Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, Emily in "A Rose for Emily," etc.)?
![]() The Lord Byron Homepage with links, a portrait, and an in-depth chronology: Virtual Newstead: Homepage of Lord George Gordon Noel Byron with a bio, and selected poetry "'He walks in beauty' - Byron's mania brought on bulimia" an interesting speculation about Byron and bulimia: A brief bio (with Byron in Albanian Costume): |
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General Introduction
Further Studies
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