The Early Romanticism

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Of the 19th Century

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English Literature

Romanticism

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The Age of Romanticism

Britain became a large trading empire. The cities grew fast. London remained the largest one. In the 19th century Britain was at its height and self-confidence. It was called the "work­shop" of the world. The rich feared the poor both in the countryside and in the fast-growing towns.

Nevertheless, the great emphasis was made on the individual based on interdependence of Man and Nature.

During the second half of the 18th century economic and social changes took place in England. The country went through the so-called Industrial Revolution when new industries sprang up and new processes were ap­plied to the manufacture of traditional products. During the reign of King George HI (1760-1820) the face of England changed. The factories were built, the industri­al development was marked by an increase in the export of finished cloth rather than of raw material, coal and iron industries developed. Internal communications were largely funded. The population increased from 7 mln to 14 mln people. Much money was invested in road- and canal-building. The first railway line which was launched in 1830 from Liverpool to Manchester allowed many people inspired by poets of Romanticism to discover the beauty of their own country. Romanti­cism was the greatest literary movement in the period between 1770-1840. It meant the shift of sensibility in art and literature and was based on interdependence of Man and Nature. It was a style in European art, liter­ature and music that emphasized the importance of feeling, emotion and imagination rather than reason or thought. Romanticism in literature was the reaction of the society not only to the French Revolution of 1789 but also to the Enlightenment connected with it. The common people didn't get what they had expected: neither freedom nor equality. The bourgeoisie was dis­appointed as well, because the capitalist way of devel­opment hadn't been prepared by the revolution yet. And the feudals suffered from the Revolution, because it was the Revolution that had made them much weaker. Everybody was dissatisfied with the result. In such a situation the writers decided to solve the social prob­lems by writing. In England the Romantic authors were individuals with many contrary views.

But all of them were against immoral luxuries of the world, against injustice and inequality of the society, against suffering and human selfishness.

The period of Romanticism in England had its pecu­liarities. The Romantic writers of England did not call themselves romanticists (like their French and German contemporaries). Nevertheless, they all depicted the interdependence of Man and Nature. The Romantic writers based their theories on the intuition and the wisdom of the heart. On the other hand, they were violently stirred by the suffering of which they were the daily witnesses. They hoped to find a way of changing the social order by their writing, they believed in liter­ature being a sort of Mission to be carried out in order to reach the wisdom of the Universe.

The Industrial Revolution in England had a great influence on the cultural life of the country. The writers tried to solve the problems, but we can't treat all the Romantics of England as belonging to the same literary school. William Blake (1757-1827) was bitterly dis­appointed by the downfall of the French Revolution. His young contemporaries, Samuel Coleridge (1772— 1834) and William Wordsworth (1770-1850), both were warm admirers of the French Revolution, both escaped from the evils of big cities and settled in the quietness of country life, in the purity of nature, among unsophisticated country-folk. Living in the Lake coun­try of Northern England, they were known as the Lak-ists. The Late Romantics, George Byron (1788— 1824), Percy Shelley (1792-1822), and John Keats (1795-1821), were young rebels and reflected the inter­ests of the common people. That is why the Romantic Revival of the 18th—19th centuries can be divided into three periods: the Early Romantics, the Lakists and the Later Romantics.

The representatives of the early stage of English; Romanticism were George Crabbe (1754-1832), Wil­liam Blake (1757-1827) and Robert Burns_(1759-1796). It's not easy to speak about Crabbe and Blake because both were unread in their time. Nevertheless, each of them used his particular style of writing. George Crabbe was a realist, while William Blake followed the symbolic manner of expressing his thoughts and ideas. Crabbe showed simple and beautiful nature.

— When tides were neap and in the

sultry day, Through the tall bounding mud-banks made

their way,

Which on each side rose swelling and below The dark warm flood ran silently and slow;

(from "Peter Grimes")

His verse tales were very realistic, like short stories.

Unlike Crabbe, Blake followed the symbolic mode of writing which is traced in all his works. He was consid­ered eccentric, even mad. In "The Songs of Innocence" (1789) William Blake is full of innocent hopes connected with the symbolic image of the child seeking for God:

— The little boy lost in the lonely fen,
Led by the wand'ring light,

Began to cry; but God, ever nigh, Appeared like his father in white.

(from "The Little Boy Found")

In "The Songs of Experience" (1794) the author reveals his disillusionment caused by ruthlessness and injustice.

— I went to the garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen...

And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tomb-stones where flowers should be...

(from "The Garden of Love")

The idea of unhappiness is continued in his poem "London" where instead of happy, strong people in the "charter'd streets" we see only "marks of weakness, marks of woe". The atmosphere is gloomy and miser­able. The symbols of suffering help to create the de­pressing feeling of the author who was against the use of cheap child labour in the new factories.

I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban The mind-forg'd manacles I hear...

The most outstanding representative of the Early Romanticism in England was Robert Burns. Unlike George Crabbe and William Blake, he was very popular in his time. Robert Burns «became the national bard of Scotland. His hatred of injustice was firmly rooted in his personal life experience full of trouble and sufferings.

His attitude to life Robert Burns shows in his "Poet on Life" written in the year of his death:

— Dame Life, tho' fiction out may trick her, And in paste gems and flipp'ry deck her, Oh! flick'ring, feeble and unsicker I've

found her still, Aye wav'ring like the willow wicker,

tween good and ill.

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Robert Burns was born on 2. January 1759 in Alloway, near Ayi His father, William Burnes, was hard-working small farmer who hai come from the north-east of Scotland. William Burnes (Robert dropped the "e" from the spelling of the family name) took great trouble to give his children education, he had the traditional Scottish respect for education "...valuing knowledge, possessing some and open-minded for more" (wrote Thomas Carlyle, the influ­ential writer and historian born not far from Dumfries in 1795).

Robert's mother was Agnes Brown, a farmer's daughter from South Ayrshire. Although his mother was uneducated, Robert Burns nevertheless inherited from her a great love for the rich tradition of Scottish balladry. When Burns was seven, his family moved to Mount Oliphant farm not far from Alloway. Robert got much of his schooling there. Burns at early age worked 92

on the family farm. Despite the desperate hardship of the farm (where by the age of thirteen Burns did most of ploughing and reaping and threshed the corn with his own hands) he would always have a volume of Scottish ballads ready to read in any spare minute. It was the combination of hard labour and poor food that caused his heart attacks which troubled him during all his life and from which he died.

Meanwhile, from his mid-teens onwards, Burns was conscious of the Scottish folk songs and dances of Ayrshire where he was brought up. He wrote his first poem at fourteen. The poem was inspired by and devot­ed to a young girl with whom Robert worked in the fields.

By 1777 Robert Burns had acquired a good knowl­edge of English Literature, Greek, Latin and French. He attended a young men's debating society in Tarbolton.

In 1781 Burns went to Irvine to train as a flax dresser; linen was one of the profitable branches of the Scottish economy in the 18th century. Burns worked with his father and brothers. But in 1784 his father died, and Burns moved to Mossgiel farm which they had rented from the Ayr lawyer Gavin Hamilton when it was clear that William Burnes was going to die. During this period Robert Burns met Jean Armour, his future wife. He seemed to have married her some time later because of the objections of her father. Fortune was against Robert. As a farmer he was very unsuccessful. Therefore, he decided to emigrate to the West Indies. His most bril­liant poems appeared in 1785-1786. He published them in August, 1786 in Kilmarnock under the title "Poems Chiefly in Scottish Dialect". This volume contained some of his most popular early songs, as well as "To a Mouse", "To a Mountain Daisy" and others.

To a Mountain Daisy

Wee modest crimson-tipped flow'r

Thou's met me in a evil hour;

For I maun crush amang the stoure

Thy slender stem: To spare thee now is past my pow'r,

Thou bonnie gem.

Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet, The bonnie lark, companion meet, Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet

Wi' spreckl'd breast When upward springing, blythe to greet

The purpling east.

Cauld blew the bitter-biting north Upon thy early humble birth; Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth

Amid the storm, Scarce rear'd above the parent-earth

Thy tender form.

Although Burns never received more than £20 for] his book, it was a great success, being admired by everyone from ploughboys to the educated circles of Edinburgh.

Burns was so encouraged by such a warm reception given to his poems that he decided to move to Edin­burgh, the capital of Scotland since 1452. Robert Louis Stevenson said that "no situation could be more com­manding for the lead city of a Kingdom; none better chosen for noble prospects." Edinburgh lies between the Pentland Hills and the Firth of Forth — a situation which gives a different view from whichever point of the compass the arrivals approach.

Edinburgh Castle

They call Edin­burgh "the Athens of the North". Edin­burgh Castle domi­nates the city and is an irresistible start­ing point. In addi­tion the Royal Mile and the Old Town are admirable. In contrast the New

Town with its wide leafy streets and splendid buildings is enjoyed on a casual stroll from Princes Street.

The development of the New Town, the birth of Classical Edinburgh, the concept of Athens of the North made the capital the most beautiful city in Britain.

The Old Town was a centre of not only Royal Court and Parliament, but the centre of culture, science and thought. It was a place where men like David Hume, the philosopher, and Adam Smith, the economist, strolled the High Street. Robert Burns was introduced to many famous people there, he found love, comfort and appreciation in Edinburgh. All were impressed by his modesty and talent. That was the Golden Age, the end of the 18th century when the first New Town was at the peak of its intellectual power.

The first Edinburgh edition of Burns's poetry ap­peared in spring of 1787. He became famous. The so-called "ploughman poet" was befriended and courted. No party in Edinburgh was held without him. He was respected in the capital of-Scotland. He made friends with Lord Newton and Walter Scott. Robert Burns was called the "Caledonia's Bard".

My Heart's in the Highlands

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer; Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe, My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North, The birth-place of valour, the country of worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Farewell to the mountains, high cover'd with snow; Farewell to the straths and green valleys below; Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods; Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer; Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

In 1789 Burns bought a farm of his own on the banks of the river Nith. But the farm again caused only a disappointment and suffering. By this time Robert Burns was married to Jean Armour and having lost his money he felt compelled to take up a position as an Excise Officer. Burns held the position of the excise­man for his district until his death. But he continued his literary work as well. For the next few years Burns's major literary activity was his work on James John­son's "Scots Musical Museum" and George Thom­son's "Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs".

Working without payment, Burns collected old songs and wrote more than two hundred of his own. During that period of time his most popular songs ap­peared. The world famous "My Love is Like a Red Red Rose" was among them.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07