The stereotype of the passionate, rebellious Romantic poet was premised largely on Byron (“mad, bad, and dangerous to know”), but, to some degree, all the Romantic poets were rebels against the political and literary conventions of their day. Out of the revolutionary ferment of the late eighteenth century, the six major Romantic poets-Blake, Wordsworth, Colderidge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats-speak prophetically and often paradoxically of the spirit of this spirited age from 1783-1832. Their poetry honors the imagination, a supreme organizing and unifying power that plays on all that is and ought to be from the dimplicity of the common day to the complexity of self-realization. The American and French Revolutions initiated a revolution in the minds and hearts of every man and woman of the age, a revolution that remains active in our own day. Romantic poetry ushers in the modern world with its focus on subjectivity (the reader’s own as well as the poet’s) rather than objectivity, its elaboration of metaphorical suggestion rather than definitive idea, its exaltation of the individual rather than the species of humankind.

Through close reading and broad thinking, we will examine the poetry and some prose as well in an attempt to understand not only the intricacies of poetic structures and voices but also the representation of philosophical positions, cultural values, and biographical relationships. Twice we will pause for prose: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus and Mathilda and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park as fictional reflections of Romantic strategies and themes and as an example of the writing of women in an age dominated by male poets. The incorporation of the feminine in Romantic poetry ranges from the ordinary (domestic life and mother nature) to the extraordinary (the Romantic and often androgynous ideal), and we’ll find the surprising ramifications of the feminine in both the prose and the poetry. The continuing interest in the fascinating literary figures of this period testifies to the relevance of ideas, the beauty of lyricism, and the accessibility of language in both the prose and the poetry.

In addition to some ungraded exercises, students will write two papers and take two exams or some reasonable combination of such tasks. The class will proceed by a combination of lecture and discussion, assisted by handouts on how to read the poetry and prose of this remarkable period of English literature. The optional class time on Thursday afternoons will focus on specific strategies in reading particular poems and will give us time to view and review videos, posters, props, art, and music relevant to and illuminating of these interesting and enigmatic rebels. Majors and non-majors are both welcome.