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Notes on Hamlet and Lyrical Ballads. Exam 2hrs. page 1

Lyrical Ballads
Themes and Related Poems

Childhood- The Nightingale Anecdote for Fathers We Are Seven The Idiot Boy

The Imagination- 'To examine a profound emotional reaction to the power of nature' The Ancient Mariner The Nightingale Goody Blake and Harry Gill Lines Written in Early Spring

Social Issues- The Female Vagrant Goody Blake and Harry Gill The Thorn The Dungeon The Convict

Nature and Supernatural- The Ancient Mariner The Nightingale Goody Blake and Harry Gill The Thorn Lines Written in Early Spring Expostulation and Reply The Tables Turned Lines left upon a seat in a Yew tree

Maternal Love- The Foster-Mother's tale The Female Vagrant The Thorn The Idiot Boy Madness- The Female Vagrant The Thorn

Context
Romanticism - A revolt against what was socially and politically correct at the time

The French Revolution-1789- 'Liberty, Fraternity, Equality' - French rev. motto. - link to Romantic theme that Man should be free and equal.

The Industrial Revolution -1750-1830

Rousseau quotations

'Man is born free yet everywhere he is in chains' 'The creative spirit should give free rein to its expression' 'In their earliest stages humans existed in a solitary state ... lonely... but happy and free' 'Oh nature, oh my mother. I am under your sole protection!' -(nature can be teacher, leader, healer, protector, god- pantheism)

Quotations
The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere (Coleridge)

'Glittering eye' - supernatural

'but still he holds the wedding guest' - force

'Storm and Wind' 'Mist and Snow' -power of natural phenomena -respect mother nature

'listen stranger!' repetition - command increases tension/urgency

'slimy things did crawl' 'upon the slimy sea' - hellish atmosphere, feeling of despair - grotesque, unnatural. (seaweed) alliteration.

'death-fires' 'Burnt green and blue and white' - colour and sight. imagery

'with throat unslack'd, with black lips bak'd' - vile image of parched men, rhyme within a line? repetition of line emphasizes physical state of trauma.

'betwixt us and the sun'- sudden threatening of darkness- mood changes.

'alone, alone, all all alone' 'alone on the wide wide sea' - isolation, barren vast scope of sea. suggesting our choices in life isolate us, punctuation isolates words - rhythm from repetition, broken lines. vowel sound 'o' an exclamation of sorrow.

The Foster-Mother's Tale - Coleridge -telling a story again

'a pretty boy' -demeaning because not teachable, more in tune with nature

'-he loved this little boy,/The boy loved him-'

'he read, and read, and read,' -danger of reading too much - bad thing 'he had unlawful thoughts' -innocence being corrupted by knowledge.

'The earth heaved under them with such a groan' - wall falls because of their discussion - power of mother nature. personifies earth?

(Typical R. work rather than typical ballad. iambic pentameter. Can link to context of Jean-Jacques Rousseau- who had aroused interest in 'natural education' and 'nobility' of primitive peoples.

Lines left upon a seat in a Yew tree (W)

'This lonely yew-tree stands' -loneliness, emptiness

'if the wind breathe soft, the curling waves' 'shall lull' 'soft impulse' - talk of nature,soft and soothing vocabulary. Contrasting vocab illustrates nature comfort here but no replacement for human emotions 'by one soft impulse saved from vacancy.'

'He was one who own'd no common soul' - talking of the person who wrote the lines

'tracing here /An emblem of his own unfruitful life' - serenity of place appeals to him as reminds him of his own unfruitful life. - does not engage with the sublime.

iambic pentameter defines poem as classic statement of collection of significant truths. Disappointing realisation that protagonist has allowed himself to become so bitter, has cut himself off from sustenance only nature can provide.

The Nightingale (C)-conversational poem. Dismisses presentation of bird as melancholy. Suggests man transfers own misery onto song- believes nature cannot be melancholy, uses central metaphor (nightingale) to explore views on nature.

Nightingale - mythical stories associated to it.

'no cloud' 'no obscure trembling hues' - begins with negatives yet is eluding to an optimistic scene.