The Age of Romanticism (I) Poetry towards the end of the eighteenth century the tide of democracy rose

in Europe. in France philosophers such Montesquieu and Rousseau criticized the monarchy. They suggested that all men have the same fundamental nature and that, therefore, no one man could claim as the kink did a God-given right to rules absolutely Governments, they asserted, were created to serve the people, not people, not people to serve the government. These ideas laid the intellectual foundations for the democratic revolutions which occurred in America in 1989. The British asserted that they had the right to govern themselves and rebelled against English rule. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the American Declaration of Independence that whenever any Form of Government become destructive, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it a revolutionary call to arms in the name of democracy. In France several years later, the masses of the people rose up in a bloody revolution which abolished both the monarchy and the aristocracy. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man proclaimed liberty equality and fraternity for all. The democratic philosophy of the right of the people and the dignity of the individual gave impetus to a literary and artistic movement known as Romanticism. Romanticism first appeared as a reaction to the eighteenth century stress upon. Scientist of the Age of Reason had shown that the universe is governed by immutable laws, but many rational descriptions of the universe such as one comparing it to a giant clock made life seem mechanical and barren to some writers. These writers insisted upon emotions instead of logic, upon the imagination in place of reason, upon the heart instead of the head. They exalted wildness, freedom, and individuality in opposition to the rational view that everything has its proper order and everyone his proper place. Not surprisingly, Romantic writers and painters took delight in depicting breath-talking landscapes like the Alps or a stormy sea instead of quit quiet, ordered gardens and country scenes favored by eighteenth-century artists. In fact, nature was a favorite subject of the Romantics. The Romantic view of nature was very different from that held by scientists and philosophers during the Age of Reason. While Newton had sought to describe nature in measurable ways, the Romantics sought to explore the immensurable aspects of nature. The beauties of a sunset or the mysteries of a starry-night sky interested the Romantics more than the physical laws governing the earths orbit. Instead

of trying to be objective to unlock the unknown by using scientific formulas, the Romantics reveled in subjectivity and the rich world of private emotion. In England in the 1790s appeared two highly sensitive poets whose work heralded the birth of the Romantic Age.

William Blake (1717-1827) Although he was virtually unknown in his own time, William Blake has come to be regarded as one of the greatest and most original of the English poets of the Romantic period and, indeed, of all time. Blake had the rare gift of being an excellent painter as well as a superb poet. An engraver by profession, he designed all his own books. These unusual works combine the two arts in a unique way. These drawings do not merely illustrate the text, nor does the text merely comment upon the design; rather the two form parallel narratives whose meaning depends upon a total image composed of both word and picture. Blakes aim was to portray symbolical the power at war with one another in the human soul. Blake scorned reason, science, and conventional religion while praising the imagination, which of him signified energy and freedom. In his Proverbs of Hell he turned the cool rationality of the eighteenth century upside down by declaring that that road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. If Reason was to be deified by the Enlightenment then Blake would be of the devils party. Insight, unrestricted imagination , and mythic vision Blake urges as the means of perceiving ultimate truth. His book of lyric, Songs of innocence and of Experience, powerfully indicts repressions of the spirit in law, science, and reason while railing the creative forces of man as godlike and eternal, outside of time. In the two poems below, both from the Songs of Experience, Blake attacks our easy, complacent notions of love and creation by presenting paradoxes and strange, disturbing images.

The Tyger BY WILLIAM BLAKE Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp! When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Questions for discursion 1. What democratic ideals come to be widely held at the end of the 18th century?

2. In what ways can these two poems be said to be typical of the Romantic Age? 3. What are the two opposing views of love in The Clod and the Pebble? 4. What does the tiger symbolize? 5. What do you understand by fearful symmetry?

The Tyger
"The Tyger" um poema do poeta Ingls William Blake publicado em 1794, como parte das canes da experincia coleo. Crtico literrio Alfred Kazinchama de "o mais famoso de seus poemas," [1] e O companheiro de Cambridge a William Blake diz que "o poema mais antologizada em Ingls".[2] uma das obras mais reinterpretados e dispostas de Blake . [3]

Fundo
As canes da experincia foi publicado em 1794 como um seguimento de Blake 1789 Canes da inocncia . [4] Os dois livros foram publicados juntos sob as msicas de ttulo incorporadas de inocncia e experincia, mostrando os dois estados contrrios da alma humana: o autor e impressora, W. Blake [5] com 54 placas. As ilustraes so organizados de forma diferente em algumas cpias, enquanto uma srie de poemas foram transferidos das canes da inocncia de Songs of Experience. Blake continuou a imprimir o trabalho ao longo de sua vida. [6] Dos exemplares do acervo original, apenas 28 publicado durante sua vida so conhecidos de existir, com um adicional de 16 publicado postumamente. [7] Apenas 5 dos poemas das canes da Experincia apareceu individualmente antes de 1839 com [8]

Estrutura
A primeira e ltima estrofes so idnticas, exceto a palavra "poderia" se torna "ousar" na segunda iterao. Kazin diz para comear a se perguntar sobre o tigre, e sua natureza, s pode levar a uma ousadia a me perguntar sobre isso. Blake alcana grande poder atravs do uso de aliterao ("frame" e "medo"), combinada com imagens , (queimadura, fogo, olhos), e ele estrutura o poema para tocar com incessante questionamento repetitivo, exigindo da criatura: "Quem fez ti? ". Na segunda estrofe o foco se move a partir do tigre, a criao, para o criador - de quem Blakes pergunta "O temor mo e que medo ps?".
[1]

"The

Tyger" de seis estrofes de comprimento, cada estrofe de quatro Longas filas. Grande parte do poema segue o padro mtrico de sua primeira linha e podem ser digitalizados como trocaica

tetrameter catalctico . Um nmero de linhas, no entanto, tais como linha de quatro na primeira estrofe de queda em tetrameter imbico . "The Tyger" no tem movimento narrativa. A primeira estrofe abre a questo central: "Que mo ou olho imortal, / Pode enquadrar tua terrvel simetria" A segunda estrofe perguntas "The Tyger" sobre onde ele foi criado, o terceiro sobre como o criador formou ele, o quarto sobre o que foram utilizadas ferramentas. Na quinta estrofe Blake se pergunta como o criador reagiu ao "Tyger" e que criou a criatura. Finalmente, o sexto reafirma a questo central, enquanto a elevar as apostas, ao invs de simplesmente questionar o que / quem poderia criar o Tyger, as maravilhas de alto-falante: quem se atreve.

Temas e anlise crtica

"The Tyger" o poema irm para " O Cordeiro "(de" Songs of Innocence "), um reflexo de idias semelhantes a partir de uma perspectiva diferente (conceito de" contrrios "de Blake), com" O Cordeiro "chamar a ateno para a inocncia. "The Tyger" apresenta uma dualidade entre beleza esttica e ferocidade primal, e Blake acredita que para ver um, a mo que criou "O Cordeiro", preciso tambm ver o outro, a mo que criou "The Tyger". As Canes de Experincia foram escritos como contrrio aos "Songs of Innocence" -. um princpio central na filosofia de Blake, e tema central em sua obra [1] A luta da humanidade baseado no conceito de natureza contrria das coisas, Blake acredita, e, portanto, para alcanar a verdade preciso ver os contrrios na inocncia e experincia. Experincia no a face do mal, mas sim uma outra faceta do que nos criou. Kazin diz de Blake que, "Nunca ele mais hertica do que ... onde ele glrias no martelo e fogo fora de que so atingidos ... o Tyger ". [1] Em vez de acreditar na guerra entre o bem eo mal, ou o cu eo inferno Blake pensou cada homem deve primeiro ver e depois resolver os contrrios de existncia e vida, no "The Tyger", ele apresenta um poema de "triunfante conscincia humana ", e" um hino para ser puro ", de acordo com Kazin. [1]