The Contributions of John Keats to the Period of Romantic Poetry

The period of Romantic poetry occurred between 1798 and 1832, starting with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge and ending with the death of Sir Walter Scott. Events such as the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution helped to inspire the time period’s poets to write in the romantic style (notes pg. 1).

Romantic poetry largely consists of the exploration of imagination and emotion. Poets of this period were drawn to medieval topics and were unhappy with the development of industrial life and science. They believed less in trying to explain life and more in experiencing it fully themselves. Nature, the transcendent, and the supernatural were also very popular topics during the time period.

John Keats is believed to have helped establish this romantic style as he used many of these elements in his own poems. He was born on October 31, 1795 in London. He grew up poor and lost his parents at a young age. Originally, he studied to be an apothecary, but instead decided to pursue a career as a poet. He wrote mainly about love, death, and nature because they were very important to him. Keats is believed to have died of tuberculosis, and because of his illness and his assumed depression he felt a connection to the idea of death.

Although love was very prominent in his work, he never settled down. In 1818 he met Fanny Brawne and fell in love with her, but because of his career and failing health they never married. In 1821, he died of his illness at age 25. The exact time Keats wrote his poem Bright Star is unclear, it’s believed to be written about Fanny Brawne. The poem begins with Keats saying, “would I were as stedfast as thou art,” implying that he would like to be as unmoving as a star. He goes on to explain all the reasons he would not like to be a star (lines 2-8). He didn’t want to be lonely, like a star, or look down on earth forever. The only trait he wanted from a star was to be steadfast, because he didn’t want to ever leave his lover’s breast or stop listening to her breathing. He says that if he can’t stay there forever “or else swoon to death.”

This poem fits with the romantic style in that it romanticizes the idea of dying for love as well as the impracticality of never moving from her breast. This was very common during the time period and defined the idea of romantic poetry.

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London By William Blake and Upon Westminster Bridge

London, the best place you could ever dream of or the worst nightmare? London in 1700’s was a different city, they didn’t have cars instead of that they had horses, there was less pollution and fewer roads. People used to wear more formal clothes. In this piece of coursework I am going to compare ‘London’ by William Blake and ‘Upon Bridge’ by William Wordsworth. William Wordsworth used to live on countryside, he only seen the positive side of London as William Blake lived in London and saw the realistic world. Blake only has seen the negative side of London.

When you are looking from the bridge you can have a good overview and the bad side about looking from the bridge is that you can’t see the details because you are distances. Wordsworth visit London in the morning and in most of the country’s in the morning everything is quiet because the city is asleep. Wordsworth had a sad life because when he was around 8 years his mother died, and when he was 13 his father died, when he visited London that could be a runaway from problems that he might have and be able to forget about the sad moments.

He also might feel that he is not overruled by somebody else, he could feel free. Both of the poems are about London but both of them got different background. Blake see the negative side when he written ‘Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear’ by this quote we can tell that every one live with a fear. Every child that was born must have a bad life because in those times they mum’s might been a prostitute because if a women needs money she was able to sell herself because she wasn’t able to find a better job. The poor people weren’t able to be educated.

Poor people in their times would be always poor. As Wordsworth seen only the good side of London but he never lived there so how could he rate London when he visits it only once? ‘The beauty of the morning: silent, bare, ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples’ by this quote we can see that he had written the poem in the morning when everybody is about to wake up. He tells the way as he sees it or imagines it, he is not realistic. The word ‘tear’ could also be a tear of happiness as well as of sadness. William Blake was a person that strongly was interest in religions.

In the first stanza he repeats himself twice, once by using “charter’d”. This shows that he is talking about the characters of people; he saw this as robbing ordinary people of their right and freedoms. The second repetition he used was the word “marks”. This has a double meaning one of them could be that the physical damages that are being made and leaving marks in everybody minds and they can’t forget about it. The other meaning could be that he is collecting evidences as he walks around. Blake’s poem is full of negative words that he used in every stanza such as “blood”, “weakness”, “cry” and many more.

The poem ends with words “marriage hearse” for everyone marriage is such a great thing but he compared it to funerals. This might shows that he prefers to be lonely. William Wordsworth used his imagination when he was writing the poem as well as being on the bridge and seeing the realistic world. He written something that cant happens in realistic world, “The beauty of the morning” “like a garment”, the city cannot be wearing clothes, but it’s already clothed itself by nature. Wordsworth used list to describe the things he was seeing. He doesn’t only show positive language in line 1, 9 and 11 he used negative language.

Most of the lines contain positive language words like “bright”, “glittering”, “splendour” and “glideth” create a magical world that is being like it fake and unrealistic. The poem is written as a sonnet which doesn’t just show love but it shows the poets love for London. The average number of syllables in each line is 10. William uses this because it suggests that he doesn’t want anything to change in London. The poem is very peaceful and calm. Evidence for this is ‘never did sun more beautifully steep’. This shows that London was a beautiful place, very calm, and a lot of country side might not have many buildings around.

William Wordsworth writes about what he can see in the morning when he stands on Westminster Bridge. ‘The beauty of the morning’ is evidence for this. It is written in the 3rd person and is also in the present tense. This shows that it was happening as he was writing the poem. This also helps the reader to visualise what is happening and to understand the poem more. The sestet is about how the poet feels. Evidence for this is ‘Ne’er saw I, never felt, calm so deep’. It is in the 1st person and is partially in the past tense, he shows positive language. Blake’s format of the poem is like lyrics of a song.

There are four stanzas, all of them shows different aspect of the city. Every single stanza talks about something else. His poem is like snapshots of loads of different scenes. In my opinion both of the poetess have right to give their own opinion, like every human being. William Blake showed the bad side of London and Wordsworth the good side, both of them has right to show the differences every person got different views for certain things. Blake was showing the negative things to show what makes him angry as Wordsworth has made his poem calm and enjoyable for everyone.

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This Room And Love After Love Comparison

Imtiaz Dharker’s ‘This Room’ is written to create an impression of seeking ‘freedom’, where her room is ‘breaking out’ and seeking ‘space, light and empty air’. In this poem dharker describes the room as going wild, with everything in it trying to escape to ‘freedom’. On the other hand, Derek Walcott’s poem of ‘Love After Love’ is telling us how to love our selves after ending a relationship or better how to love yourself before loving another. Walcott uses words such as elation and smile to show that his poem is all about learning, accepting and celebrating who you are.

Dharker personifies the bed as ‘lifting out of its nightmares’. This shows that all negativity is being left behind, as chairs move out their usual ‘dark corners’. Alliteration and metaphors are also used to create an image and convey a sense of freedom as the chairs ‘crash through clouds’. In love after love, Walcott shows that learning to love yourself will not come immediately, but ‘the time will come’. He emphasizes that there is joy involved, as he says that it will be with ‘elation’ as you ‘greet yourself’ as you look at yourself in the mirror. The first stanza ends with the idea that you will smile at your self.

Dharker’s stanza three of ‘this room’ goes on to carry the theme of celebration of the fact that life can be unpredictable. A description of the sounds and movements of the kitchen equipment that ‘bang together in celebration, clang’ and eventually ‘fly’ past the fan, they look to be following the chairs and bed upwards. The onomatopoeia also enhances the sound effects of the poem. In love after love, Walcott says ‘again the stranger who was yourself’, conveys the idea that the person you use to be is like a stranger now. Walcott also uses religious diction, where he uses short imperative sentences, ‘give wine, give bread’. The religious words give a formal and caring tone to the poem.

In ‘This Room’, ‘no one is looking for the door’ at the end of stanza three; this could either mean no one wants to leave this place because there is now a sense of celebration there or it could mean that, no one wants to use the easy way out, they want to have the feeling of expanding and growing, moving skywards and forward in life. ‘Love after love’ is a poem that represents the internal thoughts of the writer. Walcott uses the phrase ‘peel your own images from the mirror’; here Walcott emphasizes that you’re past, ‘all your life, whom you ignored’ has value and helps for you to realise the importance of being comfortable and happy with who you are, accepting who you are.

In ‘This Room’, the 1st person is not used until the fourth stanza, ‘I’m wondering where I’ve left my feet’. Again emphasizing the point that that the atmosphere was exciting. The structure of the poem is not straightforward it is written in free verse although; Dharker uses enjambment to connect the fourth and fifth stanza witch is one line which emphasizes the ‘space’ and ‘freedom’. ‘My hands are outside clapping’, once again the writer emphasizes the idea of celebration.

In love after love, Walcott uses enjambment to link one stanza with the next. In the third stanza he uses the imperative ‘take down the love letters from the book shelf’; the idea leads into the last stanza that continues with the ‘photographs, the desperate notes’ which you should also take down. ‘Peel your own images from the mirror’ and ‘Feast on your life’. Instead of reminding your self of your previous relationships and pictures of previous partners, Walcott wants us to look at our own life and appreciate who we are.

In conclusion both poems have similar themes. The celebration of personal growth and expansion, accepting and being comfortable with who you are, are the key themes of the poems. Freedom is the most important thing and we should make the most of it in our lives. Both poems stress that the past should be left behind for example ‘lifting out of its nightmares’ and ‘take down the love letters from the book shelf’. ‘This Room’ is a metaphor for life’ and ‘Love After Love’ is about appreciating life. We should grow and think forwards.

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Compare Nothing’s Changed with one other poem in Cluster 1, in relation to the theme of injustice

Compare Nothing’s Changed with one other poem in Cluster 1, in relation to the theme of injustice. I have decided to compare Limbo with Nothing’s Changed, about the theme of injustice. Both Tatamkhulu Afrika and Edward Kamau Braithwaite have shown in Nothing’s Changed and Limbo, that even through the unjust world that is described in the poems, there is still hope which prevails through the misery and despair.

In Limbo, the repetition of “Limbo, Limbo like me”, shows that even through the loneliness they are put through, there remains still a ‘pulse’, the constant beat of those two lines shows that the slaves’ dance and music, still prevails through what is slavery. The effect created is that through the bad times, there is still happiness which surpasses suffering, and this line still is repeated to the end of the poem, where we know is the end of the bad events, through the saying, “sun coming up” on line 40.

This effect is a main part of the poem, as the suffering at the start of the poem, is juxtaposed with the pulse and limbo dance through the slaves lives through the poem. In Nothing’s Changed, similar repetition techniques have shown injustice in the world. As Nothing’s Changed was based on the post apartheid times in South Africa, the poet writes how although it would be illegal to discriminate, and how there no longer are signs promoting this, it still happens, and is through the antithesis of District Six, and the “new, up-market” town, mentioned in line 22.

The repetition of “and” in lines 12-15 is using the poetic technique of caesura, which means through repeating the words it causes more of an effect. As the poet describes his growing anger at how society is understood in South Africa, and how the punctuation used in those lines, the commas hold a large significance to the poet’s exaggeration on those lines.

Visually, each line progresses longer than the previous one, which may be a way the poet is to show his growing anger about society. The poet also juxtaposes many of the features in his home of District Six to the new, up-market towns. “Amiable weeds”, shows that the poets believe that even the weeds are friendlier than “Brash” environment of the richer areas. The use of “guard at the gatepost” and “working man’s cafi??” shows juxtaposed opinions of the two different places.

As having a guard suggests that the environment is more hostile and that you may be overpriced, while the working man’s cafi?? suggests that it’s a more honest and friendly place to eat. The repetition of “glass” four times in Nothing’s Changed has a considerable significance, as it shows how even though the apparent apartheid is over, there is still an ‘invisible’ barrier which stops the people from doing what people would be doing in Port Jackson, which could be reflected through the usage of glass.

In both of these poems, there is a significant usage of onomatopoeia and harsh sounding words, which suggests that both poets, especially for Nothing’s Changed is writing in a pessimistic tone, whilst Limbo, shows optimism through the continuation of “Limbo, Limbo like me”. The harsh sounds, “Dark deck” in Limbo, line 21 and 23, use alliteration and through the sound of the words suggest hostility on board. Down, down, down” on lines 34-36 shows how they believe they are below everybody else and that they are sinking further into despair.

But then in lines 44-46, this is juxtaposed with “Up, up, up” where it shows that the slaves may have another chance for a better live and to rise from the suppression. In Nothing’s Changed, throughout the poem, there are many alliterative words, such as “labouring” and “lungs”, which shows alliterative words which increase the resentment and the dislike that the poet has of the “whites only inn”.

Assonance is used in the poem, in lines 20-22, “weeds”, “trees” and “cuisine”, which the tone of all these lines relate to the resentment that the poet has of Port Jackson, and how he feels that the apartheid may not have been lifted, but rather having a larger effect on their lives than before. The poet clearly shows his feelings, through relating to Port Jackson as “it”, which suggests that it’s a hostile and unfriendly place, whilst he relates to District Six as “we” which shows his strong allegiance with his past, and believes that times have not really changed even though the apartheid has been lifted.

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Storyteller by Liz Lochhead

Liz Lochhead’s poem “Storyteller” talks about a woman who worked on a shelter or orphanage for kids. Her formal work was to wash the dishes, cook and clean, but her really work, what mattered about her, was telling stories. In the first stanza Lochhead describes the situation before the woman started telling the story, when she “sat down at the” table in the already cleaned up room. Stanza number two the audience listening to the stories; none of them “could say the stories were useless”, this is because they were not.

Living in conditions were you have to be with kids that are alone, miss their parents or never had them, and having to deal with them and their possible frequent questions that are not easy to answer, the hunger, the tiredness, is not easy, so when they listen to the stories, they forget about all that stuff and imagine in their head a whole different world. The people listening to the story are presented as a whole, not as individuals, so this gives the reader the idea that there is a lot of people there working.

Also because it says: “five or forty fingers stitched”, this may suggest something uncountable. Stanza three says what people thought about her: they did not care whether “her soup” was “tasty” or not, or how good she “swept” the “kitchen”, that was not important. What was important were the stories she told, and how she told them. Because it is not only the story itself what mattered, it seems that she had a special talent to tell them, because even though workers “knew” “the ending” “by heart” they were still excited when the moment came.

The last stanza describes what happens while she is telling the story and when it finishes. They built “the fire”, “peasant’s feet” were looking for their “clogs”, and finally they went to rest. The poem is full of literary resources most of them alliterations spread all over the text. These alliterations are not only words together starting with the same sound, but in the whole of a stanza the same sound is repeated. For example in the first one, the “s” sound is very present: “she sat”, “scoured”, “swept”.

Also in the third line of the second stanza there is an alliteration beginning with “f”: “five or forty fingers”. All these resources make the reading easier and faster. It may suggest how the story flows. Other devices are used, not only alliteration, also enjambments, onomatopoeic sounds like “tongue clacked”, and a metaphor too. This metaphor compares the workers with bats; bats are wonderful animals that are awake at night and sleep “upside down”.

The metaphor is introduced in the second half of the last stanza that says they “hug themselves upside down” “till they flew” (like bats). The structure of the poem is completely irregular and has no rhyme. It consists of four stanzas, none of them have the same amount of lines, but the first two are shorter than the others. This may be the way the story she is telling is being told. It starts introducing the main ideas and then can not be controlled.

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Bei Dao’s poem Recollection Analysis

I will be using Bei Dao’s poem “Recollection” to demonstrate how his use of imagery and writing style can give a ‘simple’ poem written during a time of political turmoil in China during the 1970’s can have so much more in depth meaning as well as how his poetry baffles critics. The title of the poem, ‘Recollection’, suggests to readers an act of remembrance or reminiscence of something, someone, or a sequence of events that Bei Dao wants/hopes to elaborate and tell his readers about.

Here, the title of the poem does not indicate a simple reminiscence, but serving a far deeper meaning and purpose as well as a grasp of experience. One is unable to analyze and understand exactly why Bei Dao uses ‘Recollection’ as a title, as the title acts as a form of teasing and attraction for the reader to follow through and read the powerful words which are written down word for word; hear and visualize the imagery that is created within.

As one reads through the poem word for word, Bei Dao’s use of imagery is instantly caught, as the poem is based solely on the imagery of visualization and sound. Candle light / flickers on each face / leaving not a trace / the shadow’s spray / strikes the white wall lightly’. Throughout these five lines in the poem, each line contains at least on word that emphasizes and gives readers an image, i. e. light, flickers, trace, spray, strikes, white. Here, the imagery of visualization Bei Dao creates for his readers leaves them pondering about in a ‘unrealistic’ state of mind, where readers are able to understand that Bei Dao is using his imagination to portray a deeper message perhaps.

The visual imagery here can be tied in with the title as the visual images are pleasant, which hints the recollection of a pleasant and pure beauty that which the poet himself has encountered with different people (faces) on several occasions, although these people seem not to leave a trace which hints the numerous amounts of people the poet might have encountered with to emphasize his connection with all those he has come into contact with. Read also of the poem “Old Ladies’ Home”.

As ‘Recollection’ was written during a time of change and revolution, along with our understanding of how Bei Dao opposed the Maoist society, the first five lines use of unrealistic/imaginative imagery along with how these five lines tie in with the title, can suggest the numerous amounts of people who felt the same way about the changing society of China.

Thus, the use of the unrealistic/imaginative words creating this visual imagery is not stating that these encounters are in the poets head, but were most and very possibly true events – the people whom the poet has come into contact with are those who are true people, people who are unable to be contained and still have their own free thoughts, feelings as well as emotions; the unrealistic and imaginative part being the Chinese government that was reshaping and reforming its people in hope that all would think like a Maoist where freedom of thought, speech, etc was suppressed.

Here, the poet, Bei Dao is simply arguing that suppression of thought, speech, freedom, etc… are unrealistic achievements that the government is pressing for, for they will never succeed. Directly following the use of visual imagery, after the fifth line in the poem, one might notice how the imagery and tone, shifts in a very smooth, eloquent, and contained matter. the guitar hanging from the wall / begins to sound in the darkness / like the masthead light reflected in water / stealing whispers’.

Like the first five lines previously discussed, the use of imagery is crucial, however instead of using just visual imagery here, Bei Dao adds in sound. The ‘guitar’ mentioned in line 5 is a ‘hint’ of sound, as it can also have deeper meaning; Bei Dao continues his use of words to symbolize sounds such as ‘whispers’, etc. nd seems to get more serious in contrast to his pleasant tone from before. The new tactic where Bei Dao uses the addition of sound affects to his visual imagery creates a more in depth and less constrained opinion based on the people and the Maoist society; in retrospect, the peoples opinions towards the Maoist society as they seem to be speaking up for themselves after being suppressed for so long.

This is caught as Bei Dao uses more powerful imagery, tying in both vision and sound i. e. ‘begins to sound in the darkness’, ‘darkness’ merely representing the suppression of the people, and ‘begins to sound’ to emphasize that his encounter with all these people have shown him something different, as they seem to be starting to stand up for themselves by sharing opinions, which by itself is going against this ‘darkness’.

Subsequently/Next, Bei Dao gets more serious about the issue as he states ‘like the masthead light reflected in water’, the ‘masthead light’ representing all the people in China, and the ‘reflected water’ being a mere representation of purity and innocence or a ripple affect, symbolizing how all the people who are suppressed seem to realize their own rights and are slowly starting to rub off on one another as more and more people get influenced and start fighting for themselves and their own freedom and happiness. Notice, how drastic the change is from the beginning of the poem’s first five lines to the poems last four lines.

Although the first five lines of the poem is focused on the visual images that briefly gives its readers an understanding of what he, as a poet is trying to express in his own words, mind-set, and understanding towards society/things from his own experience; one can see how the visual images tie in with sound, creating an even more dramatic and strong emotional effect, just like his encounters with people during the time of the Chinese revolution when China was a Maoist society where people were being forced into suppression.

Bei Dao’s tactic and use of visual imagery ties in with sound to create and tell a story of what he had experienced, along with the millions of other Chinese, as he uses ‘Recollection’ to represent not only himself who suffered, but all citizens. Here, Bei Dao uses the creativity, tone, language, trope and theme of this poem to emphasize and be a representative of all the people who were stuck in a Maoist society, as he states the peoples capacity for freedom and their uprising and realization that suppression is acknowledged, however not and will never be achieved.

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Q88. What do you do in your leisure time and why do you enjoy it?

Essay Outline

Argument: One thing I like to do in my leisure time is write poetry.

Support 1: I’ve always enjoyed thinking of how things looked, smelled, felt, and sounded, and always come up with interesting ideas.

Support 2: I’m not very skilled at anything else.

Thesis: I’ve always had an imagination about how my senses interpreted the world around me and found writing the best way to express that. I’m not very good at sports of other hobbies and don’t like TV or other

kids like. Those are the reasons why I like to write poetry.

Model Essay

One thing I like to do in my leisure time is write poetry. I like doing this for two reasons. First, I have a very

good imagination that let me see in different ways. The second reason is that I don’t really have any other skills

other than writing and rhyming. I’m going to explain a little bit of this in more detail.

First off, I’ve always enjoyed thinking of how things looked, smelled, felt, and sounded, and can always come

up with interesting Ideas that equate those feelings. I’ve learned to wate at an early age and when I read my first

poems, I thought that these were interesting ideas that could create great imaginary pictures, so I tried to equate my feelings about the world I saw and experienced. I found that it helped me understand things a little better, so I

continued to write about things. I now have a collection of poems that I read to my family and friends. I

continue to write because it really brings out what I’m feeling.

The next reason why I enjoy writing during my leisure time is that I’m not very skilled at anything else. I can’t

do sports because I get tired too easily. I can’t draw very well and I like to keep my mind sharp, so I avoid popular

entertainment like video games. This may make sound uncool but I don’t care. I’m a very delicate person and don’t like the roughness that other kids my age are like. I also like beautiful old things hke paintings and statues. I feel quite alone in the things I enjoy and feel that everyone I know can’t understand that.

So these are the reasons why I like to write poetry during my leisure time. I have always an imagination

about how my senses interpreted the world around me and found writing the best way to express that. Also, I’m not very good at sports or other hobbies and don’t like TV or other things kids like. This is why I like to write poetry.

Useful Expressions

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