Romantic Poets

These questions, like all the study questions we offer, are meant to point up some patterns that are central to the text. They are by no means exhaustive, and they are not meant to be prescriptive. Although we won't be able to touch upon all of them in our discussions, they may serve to get you started on critical readings of our texts. Our discussions will be guided by the interests of the group rather than structured strictly in response to these questions.

Study Guide for Romantic Poetry

Wordsworth:
1. “Tintern Abbey” describes an occasion when the speaker revisits a beautiful natural site after an absence of five years. What are his reactions? What is his mood? What is the psychology of the speaker in the poem?
Locate the source(s) of tension or conflict in the poem. (What makes this a more complex poem than “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”?) How is tension or conflict resolved by the end--if it is?

2.a. “Tintern Abbey” is usually approached as an internal meditation about personal change, loss, and growth. It can also be illuminated by an awareness of external, historical change: specifically, the English Industrial Revolution. Think about Wordsworth's attitudes toward nature (throughout his poems) in light of changes in the English countryside that happened during his lifetime as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

b. How is the role of the Industrial Revolution reflected in Wordsworth's shorter poems: “It is a beauteous evening,” “The world is too much with us,” “Composed upon Westminster Bridge,” “London 1802”? What other related issues are raised? Do any of these issues apply to contemporary times? In what ways?

Coleridge:
3. Read “Kubla Khan” aloud. What seem to be the significant features of the poem? Does it matter that it is a fragment? Would it be improved if it were complete?

b. How does the important Romantic theme of vision or dream relate to this poem?

4. What are the principal themes of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”? What is the purpose of his journey? How does his journey compare or contrast to that of other famous travelers: Odysseus, Aeneas, Dante? Does the character of the Ancient Mariner recall that of the Old Man in Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale?

b. Why does Mary Shelley quote from the poem in Frankenstein?

Keats:
5. “The Eve of St. Agnes” tells a story reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, though it has distinctive qualities and emphases all its own. One of these is the central event in Madeline's bedroom. After you've read the whole poem, reread stanzas 25-39. What happens in these stanzas, in terms of plot, characterization, theme?

b. Like “Kubla Khan,” Keats' poem shows a Romantic fascination with dreams, imagination, and their relationship to the “real world.” How does the imagery and mood complicate the action and enrich the texture of the plot?

6. Keats' odes, “Grecian Urn” and “Nightingale,” are addressed, respectively, to a product of art and a product of nature. That said, one might still claim remarkable similarities in the two poems. For instance, what is the attitude toward time and change in each? How do the sight of the urn and the sound of the nightingale's song make the speaker feel in each? “Grecian Urn” emphasizes the distance between the represented passions on the vase and human passion, while “Nightingale” introduces some stunning lines about the speaker's longing for death. What is the psychology in each poem? Could these two poems actually be spoken by the same person?

b. What particular romantic themes and motifs are treated in Keats' other odes: “Ode to Psyche,” “To Autumn,” and “Ode to Melancholy”? Odes are a type of poem which the romantic poets found particularly appealing. Why? How do odes differ from sonnets?

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