ENGL 3653: English Literature II

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 1: Blake, Burns, and Wollstonecraft

Revised 1-14-10

 

                                                “The Romantic Period, 1785-1830”

You may wish to do extra-credit research to help you answer some of these questions.

 

  1. What is meant by the concept of the literary canon?
  2. When was the French Revolution and Napoleonic Period?  What is the significance of these events to the Romantic Period of English literature?
  3. When was the Industrial Revolution?  What is the significance of the Industrial Revolution to the Romantic Period of English literature?
  4. What is laissez-faire economics?  What is the First Reform Bill (1832)?  What is the connection between these two?  What is their significance to the Romantic Period of English literature?

 

William Blake

Be able to explain the process of relief etching or “illuminated printing” that Blake invented and used for printing Songs of Innocence and of Experience and other books.  In this process, Blake  

 

  • integrated his poems with his illustrations of them
  • applied (backwards, as in a mirror image) words and pictures to the copper plates
  • used acid to etch away the rest of the surface of the copper plates
  • printed the etchings on paper to create books
  • added water colors by hand

 

Because this process was so labor-intensive, Blake made very few copies of his books.  Only 28 copies of Songs of Innocence and of Experience are still extant, and no 2 are exactly alike. 

 

  1. Extra credit: Go online to find photographs of Blake’s color prints.  (I will also show some prints in class.)

 

Blake considered himself primarily a painter and engraver; he was relatively unknown as a poet in his lifetime.  Today, however, he has a high reputation as both a poet and an artist.

 

Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience

These are Blake’s best-loved poems today and were the ONLY ones admired in his lifetime.  They are much more approachable than Blake's other highly symbolic, prophetic works.

 

Songs of Innocence was first published in 1789. 

 

The phrase “of Innocence” does NOT mean ABOUT innocence; rather, the words of the poems are spoken by someone in a state of innocence.  Possible meanings of “innocence” in this context include guiltlessness, freedom from sin, inexperience, and naiveté.

 

In 1794, Blake added Songs of Experience to Songs of  Innocence.  Songs of Experience was never published separately; it needs to be balanced by Songs of Innocence.

 

"Experience" for Blake is the state of the human "soul" exposed to evil, cruelty, death, disillusionment, and cynicism. 

 

In fact, the complete title is Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the two contrary states of the human soul.  This title suggests

  • an ongoing conflict between the two states
  • not just the movement from childhood to adulthood
  • rather, necessary cycles that adults continually pass through
  • the need to integrate or balance the two perspectives because neither attitude alone is the whole truth about the human condition

 

Blake is considered a Romantic poet because of

  • the publication dates of Songs of Innocence and of Experience: 1789, 1794
  • his break with the poetic tradition of neoclassicism by emphasizing imagination, creativity, and emotion.  Blake once had a vision of meeting the biblical prophet Ezekiel under a tree in a field.

 

                                                                              Blake’s Poems

  1. The poem titled “Introduction” to Songs of Innocence (81) is a narrative created to explain the origin of the Songs of Innocence.  What happens in this story?   In what sense is this story “pastoral”?  (Look up this word in your college dictionary.)

 

Explain the contrast between "innocence" and "experience" in each of the following pairs of contrasting poems.  Note that in many cases the paired poems have identical titles.

  1. "Nurse's Song," 86, 90
  2. "Holy Thursday," 86, 90
  3. "The Lamb," 83, "The Tyger," 92
    1. What is meant by the question “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”
    2. How do you interpret the tiger’s appearance in Blake’s illustration on page 92?  To what extent does this picture match what the poem says about the tiger?  If there is a discrepancy between the poem and the illustration, why does Blake create this discrepancy?
  4. "The Chimney Sweeper," 85, 90
    1. Explain how the naïve optimism in the Innocence poem contrasts with the cynical ending of the Experience poem.
  5. "The Divine Image," 85, "The Human Abstract," 95
    1. Explain what “The Human Abstract” says.
  6. “The Divine Image,” 85, “A Divine Image,” 97

Explain how each of the following single poems exemplifies Blake’s concept of Experience:

  1. "Clod and Pebble," 89
    1. In what sense does this poem include both innocence and experience?
  2. "My Pretty Rose Tree," 93
    1. In what sense does this poem include both innocence and experience?
  3. "The Sick Rose," 91
    1. What does the rose symbolize?

 

Robert Burns

In the Scots dialect of English, spoken in the Lowlands (southern part) of Scotland and used by Burns in many of his poems, the name “Robert Burns” is pronounced something like "Robbit Buddens”!  The Scots dialect in Burns’s poems is actually of the early 18th century rather than of his own day (the late 18th century). 

 

    1. Extra credit: To learn more about the Scots dialect of English, watch the episode entitled “The Guid Scots Tongue” from The Story of English video series in the NSU-BA library, or read the chapter by the same title in the book The Story of English, also in the NSU-BA library.
    2. Find Ayr, Scotland, on the map in the front or back endpapers of your textbook.  Burns was born in a two-room cottage at Alloway, near Ayr (also near Lockerby, site of the late 1980s TWA plane crash). For warmth, the barn was part of, not detached from, this humble cottage. I visited here in 1971.  Extra-credit research:  Find photographs and additional information about Burns’s birthplace.
    3. Both Burns and his father were unsuccessful farmers.  Which assigned poem reflects Burns’s experience as a farmer?

 

Burns was a collector and adapter of Scottish folk songs, such as “A Red, Red Rose” and “Auld Lang Syne.”

 

Burns also wrote his own original poetry.  Two subgenres of Burns’s poems are love songs and

patriotic poems praising Scotland.  (He is considered the national poet of Scotland.) 

    1. Which assigned poems are love songs?
    2. Which are patriotic poems?
    3. Which assigned poems don’t fit into either of these categories?

 

Burns was uneducated, a "primitive" poet.  He was hailed by early Romantics as a "natural genius," close to nature.

 

    1. Extra credit: On Norton Literature Online at <wwnorton.com/literature>, locate and listen to an audio recording of Burns’s “Tam o’ Shanter” (and any other poems and songs) and write a response.  Audio recordings of Burns’s songs and poems should also be available at libraries.

 

Burns’s Poems

The poems are listed here in the order in which they appear on my audiotape, not the order in your textbook.  Since the Scots dialect of English can be difficult to understand, you may want to look at the standard English translations of Burns’s poems at www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/index.htm. 

 

  1. To a Mouse," 135       
    1. What HAPPENS in this poem? 
    2. Quote the lines in which the speaker states a moral concerning what has happened. Extra credit: Memorize these lines and recite them to me.   

 

  1. “Song: For a' that,” 146
    1. In Scots, “a’” is a contraction for “all.”  Why does the song repeat the phrase “for a’ that”?  What does it mean in the context of particular lines? 
    2. What VALUES does this song reject?  What values does it champion?

 

  1. "To a Louse," 136
    1. What HAPPENS in this poem? 
    2. Quote the lines in which the speaker states a moral concerning what has happened.  Extra credit: Memorize these lines and recite them to me.

 

  1. "Tam o' Shanter," 139
    1. This narrative poem is the longest and most difficult in this week’s assignment.  What is the main sequence of events?  (Extra-credit research: Find a plot summary of this poem.) 
    2. This is a mock-heroic poem or mock epic.  What does this term mean?  How does this poem fit the definition?
    3. What does Tam, in his drunken stupor, see at the Old Alloway Kirk (church) that night?  (Even in the 18th century, this church was in ruins.  Extra-credit research: Learn more about the history of Old Alloway Kirk.)
    4. What does Tam do that gets him in trouble with the witches?
    5. What happens to his horse Maggie as a result?

 

  1. AA Red, Red Rose,@ 145
    1. Hyperbole, also known as overstatement, is the deliberate use of exaggeration for effect. What purpose does hyperbole serve in this famous love song/poem? Identify several examples of this device in the poem.

  

  1. "Auld Lang Syne," 137
    1. What is the literal meaning of the title?
    2. Translate or paraphrase this well-known song into standard English. 
    3. Why is it appropriate to sing this song on New Year’s Eve?

 

  1. “Robert Bruce=s March to Bannockburn,” 145
    1. “Wha hae” means “who have.”  Translate or paraphrase this poem into standard English.
    2. What is the theme of this poem?
    3. Extra credit: Research Robert Bruce and/or William Wallace.  Also, watch the film Braveheart, in which Mel Gibson plays William Wallace.  How does the content of the film relate to the theme of this poem?

 

Mary Wollstonecraft

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is an important early feminist work.  It was not, however, invoked by feminists before the 20th century because of Wollstonecraft’s sensational, scandalous life.  (Many male Romantic writers also had scandalous reputations, including Burns, Coleridge, Shelley, and especially Byron.)  Highlights of Wollstonecraft’s tumultuous life:

 

  • Her father physically abused her mother.
  • She bore an illegitimate child to an unscrupulous lover.
  • She attempted suicide twice because of her lover=s faithlessness.
  • After finally finding a true soul mate, she soon died while giving birth to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (known to us as Mary Shelley), who married the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and wrote Frankenstein.
  1. When did Wollstonecraft die?  What other Romantic writer in this week’s assignment died before the end of the 18th century?

 

Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Answer the following questions based on what Wollstonecraft says in this chapter.

 

  1. What aspects of women’s lives do not receive enough emphasis?
  2. What aspects of women’s lives receive far too much emphasis?  What is the reason for this undue emphasis?
  3. In what one respect are men truly superior to women?  What has this one superiority caused men to conclude?
  4. How should women be treated?
  5. Wollstonecraft notes that women are warned against becoming masculine.  What does she believe is the real reason for this warning?
  6. What aspirations should women have?