This survey module offers an introduction to the first generation of Romantic poets, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Robert Burns and S. T. Coleridge as well the lesser-known poets Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson.  The module emphasises the importance of poetic analysis as well as the context of first-generation Romanticism and is aimed at students who have not previously studied poetry of the Romantic age or who wish to broaden their knowledge of the field.  As such, the module provides a relatively broad survey (rather than an in-depth study of the work of any one poet) and is organized around key themes and concepts.  Students will develop an ability to draw associations between individual works and the movement known as ‘Romanticism’ itself, exploring Romantic aesthetics, the creative imagination, the supernatural, the ballad, nature, the French Revolution, and the city.  We will also pay close attention to poetic form and metre.

Over the course of one semester we will cover a selection of poems by the first-generation Romantic poets, Wordsworth, Blake, Burns and Coleridge as well the lesser-known poets Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson. The module emphasises the importance of poetic analysis alongside key Romantic concepts and contexts.

On completion of the module students should be able to discuss selected poems in detail and demonstrate an understanding of key Romantic themes and concepts.

Two one-hour lectures and one one-hour seminar weekly. Where appropriate, students will be given handouts and power-point presentations in lectures.  These will be made available to students on Learning Central directly after the session.  During the seminar students will be invited to give a ‘flash’ presentation of 3 minutes (approx.) that serves as trigger for further conversation and analysis undertaken in small discussion groups.  The ability to present information orally in a precise and succinct manner is a key employability skill, and one that will be practised in the ‘flash’ presentations as well as in collective group discussion.

This module will develop specific skills.  Students will become familiar with the techniques and tools of poetic analysis, as they develop and enhance their ability to assimilate knowledge of key Romantic concepts and formal techniques.  The close reading of poetic texts and discussion of their contexts will develop a literary and historical awareness.  Employability skills include the ability to synthesise information, debate ideas and produce written arguments in a clear, precise and professional manner.

A one and a half-hour examination in poetry analysis and one essay of 1600 words. The module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the module guide; there are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

Essay (1600 words) = 50%
Approx date of assessment in January

Poetry Analysis Exam (1.5 hours) = 50%
Approx date of assessment in January

One
Lecture 1: Introduction to British Romantic Poetry
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), ‘Daffodils’ (‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’), from Poems (1815), (Wu, p. 558)
Lecture 2: From Enlightenment to Romanticism

Two
Lecture 1: Charlotte Smith and ‘the Failure’ of the Creative Imagination
Charlotte Smith (1749-1806), Selection from Elegiac Sonnets (1784).  ‘Sonnet I’ (Wu, p. 88), ‘Sonnet VIII. To Spring’ (Wu, p. 91),  ‘Sonnet V. To the South Downs’ (Wu, p. 90)
Lecture 2: Women Poets and Publishing

Three
Lecture 1: The Wordsworthian Imagination (childhood and personal narrative)
William Wordsworth, A selection of Lyrical Ballads (1798): ‘We are Seven’ (Wu, pp. 380-2), ‘Old Man Travelling’ (Wu, p. 411), ‘Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, 13 July 1798’, (Wu, pp. 415-20)
Lecture 2: Metre

Four
Lecture 1: Wordsworth, Shelley, and the Political/Personal Imagination
William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book X ‘Residence in France’, lines 689-727 (not in Wu – see LION and/or class hand out).  Shelley, ‘England in 1819’, Wu, p. 1134
Lecture 2: Romantic Legacies: Song, Sport, Seamus Heaney and The Prelude

Five
Lecture 1: Coleridge’s ‘One Life’ Philosophy and Conversation Poems
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), ‘The Eolian Harp’ (1834, (composed 1795), Wu, pp. 621-5), ‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’ (1797) Wu, pp. 633-7, ‘Dejection: An Ode’, composed c. July 1802, from Sibylline Leaves (1817), Wu, 693-7
Lecture 2: Coleridge and ‘New Criticism’

Six
Lecture 1: Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
William Blake (1757-1827), ‘The Lamb’ (Songs of Innocence, 1789) (Wu, p. 187-8), ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ (Songs of Innocence, 1789)  (Wu, p. 189-90), ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ (Songs of Experience, 1794) (Wu, p. 202) ‘London’ (Songs of Experience, 1794) (Wu, p. 207), ‘The Tyger’ (Songs of Experience, 1794) (Wu, pp. 203-4)
Lecture 2: Romantic Art 

Seven
Lecture 1: Coleridge and the Supernatural   
S.T. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  In Seven Parts, from Sibylline Leaves (1817), Wu, pp. 714-31
Lecture 2: The Romantic Gothic

Eight
Lecture 1: Mary Robinson and the Lake Poets
Mary Robinson (1758-1800), ‘A London Summer Morning’ (1804), Wu, pp. 253-4, ‘The Haunted Beach’ (1800), Wu, pp. 255-7, ‘Mrs Robinson to the Poet Coleridge’ (1801), Wu, pp. 259-61)
Lecture 2: The Romantic Sublime & Gender

Nine
Lecture 1: Burns and the Ballad
Robert Burns (1759-1796), ‘Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale’ (1790), Wu, pp. 275-81), ‘Song: Oh my love’s like the red, red rose’ (1796), Wu, p. 281
Lecture 2: Celtic Romanticism

Ten
Lecture 1: Revision Lecture: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Lyrical Ballads
Lecture 2: Conclusion and feedback

Eleven
Guided Study Week

Duncan Wu, ed., Romanticism.  An Anthology.  Fourth Edition (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2012).  This is the best anthology in the field.  It provides the widest available selection of the poetry of the period with in-depth historical headnotes and footnotes as well as valuable reading lists and a time-line. 

Further information about recommended reading will be provided at the start of the module.