Second Generation Romantics:

1. The most important second generation poets included Lord Byron (1788-1824), Percy Bysshe
Shelley (1792-1822), and John Keats (1795-1821). Died at 36, 30 and 26, respectively.

(A) Lord Byron (1788-1824):

Most popular poems are "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", “She Walks in Beauty” and “Don
Juan.”
Lord Byron was somewhat of a wild man, getting involved in several romantic affairs and
large debts. He fought for the Greeks in the Greek War of Independence which made him be
seen as a national hero by them.
Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular.
● Renowned as the “gloomy egoist” of his autobiographical poem Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage (1812–18) in the 19th century, he is now more generally esteemed for the
satiric realism of Don Juan (satire in the form of a picaresque verse tale) (1819–24).

● Byron’s first published volume of poetry, Hours of Idleness, appeared in 1807.

● His satire verse-English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, first published anonymously
in 1809. The poem was written in response to the adverse criticism that The Edinburgh
Review had given Hours of Idleness (1807).

● In English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, Byron used heroic couplets in imitation of
Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad to attack the reigning poets of Romanticism, including
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Francis Jeffrey (the editor of The
Edinburgh Review). He instead praised such Neoclassical poets as Pope and John
Dryden.

● In Childe Harold's Pilgrimage- The poem describes the travels and reflections of a
young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in
foreign lands. Besides furnishing a travelogue of Byron’s own wanderings through the
Mediterranean, the first two cantos express the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a
generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. In the
poem Byron reflects upon the vanity of ambition, the transitory nature of pleasure, and
the futility of the search for perfection in the course of a “pilgrimage” through Portugal,
Spain, Albania, and Greece.
● Byron's gloomy and remorseful Oriental verse tales: The Giaour (1813); The Bride of
Abydos (1813); The Corsair (1814), and Lara (1814).

● He wrote the third canto of Childe Harold (1816)-giving pictures of the Battle of Waterloo.
He wrote a fourth canto of Childe Harold (1818).

● Poetic drama Manfred (1817).

 ● He also wrote mock-heroic Beppo, a poem in ottava rima (Also Don Juan) that
satirically contrasts Italian with English manners in the story of a Venetian
menage-à-trois.
Ottava rima, Italian stanza form composed of eight 11-syllable lines, rhyming
abababcc.

● Don Juan (unfinished)- Byron's magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos,
ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since John Milton's
Paradise Lost, where legendary libertine Don Juan into an unsophisticated, innocent
young man who, though he delightedly succumbs to the beautiful women who pursue
him, remains a rational norm against which to view the absurdities and irrationalities of
the world. Upon being sent abroad by his mother from his native Sevilla (Seville), Juan
survives a shipwreck en route and is cast up on a Greek island, whence he is sold into
slavery in Constantinople. He escapes to the Russian army, participates gallantly in the
Russians’ siege of Ismail, and is sent to St. Petersburg, where he wins the favour of
the empress Catherine II the Great and is sent by her on a diplomatic mission to
England.
In England, Juan goes to a country estate and meets Duchess Fitz Fluke.

● Byron wrote The Prophecy of Dante; the poetic dramas Marino Faliero,
Sardanapalus, The Two Foscari, and Cain (all published in 1821).
● Satire on the poet Robert Southey, The Vision of Judgment, which contains a
devastating parody of that poet laureate’s fulsome eulogy of King George III.
● Irish Avatar (1821): Byron wrote the satirical pamphlet Irish Avatar after the royal visit
by King George IV to Ireland. Byron criticised the attitudes displayed by the Irish people
towards the Crown, an institution he perceived as oppressing them, and was dismayed
by the positive reception George IV received during his visit.

Questions:
(i) Which of the following is an autobiographical poem by Byron?
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Don Juan
Manfred
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

(ii) Who among the following romantic poets was a wild man, getting involved in several
romantic affairs and large debts?
Wordsworth
Coleridge
Byron
Shelley
(iii) In the poem English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, Byron follows the style of which poet?
John Milton
John Dryden
Alexander Pope
William Wordsworth

(iv) In which poem does Byron describe the travels and reflections of a young man who,
disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands?
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Don Juan
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
The Giaour

(v) In the poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which place is not visited by the protagonist?
Portugal
Spain
Greece
Denmark

(vi) Which among the following is not a poetic drama by Byron?

Manfred
Marino Faliero
Sardanapalus
Irish Avatar

(vii) The character Fitz Fluke is a character in which book by Byron?

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Don Juan
Beppo

(vii) The eunuch Baba appears in which poem by Byron?

Don Juan

(viii) Which one is an epic poem by Byron?

Don Juan

(ix) Leila, the small girl appears in which poem by Byron?

Don Juan

(x) The siege of Ismail by Russia scene appears in which play by Byron?
Don Juan
(xi) Which poem by Byron has been dedicated to lanthe?
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

(xii) In which poem by Byron does the protagonist arrive at the battlefield of Waterloo?
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

(xiii) Which poem by Byron was written as an influence of the unusual beauty of Mrs. Anne
Beatrix Wilmot, wife of Byron's first cousin, Sir Robert Wilmot?
She Walks in Beauty

(xiv) "And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win,
the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart
whose love is innocent", the following lines appear in which poem by Byron?
She Walks in Beauty

(B) P.B. Shelley (1782-1822)

He was a master of poetry who wrote “Queen Mab” as well as the dramatic plays “The Cenci”
and “Prometheus Unbound.” He married the writer Mary Shelley who wrote the extremely
famous novel “Frankenstein”.

He was a radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views.

American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without
rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."

Among his best-known works are:

(i) "Ozymandias" (1818), "Ode to the West Wind" (1819), "To a Skylark" (1820), and the
political ballad "The Mask of Anarchy" (1819) influenced by the 1819 Waterloo Massacre.
(ii) His other major works include the verse drama The Cenci (1819) and long poems such as
Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1815), Julian and Maddalo (1819), Adonais (1821),
Prometheus Unbound (1820)—widely considered his masterpiece—Hellas (1822), and his
final, unfinished work, The Triumph of Life (1822).
● He was an atheist.
(iii) He wrote two essays on vegetarianism: A Vindication of Natural Diet (1813).

Notable works: Started writing from 1810

(i) (1810) Zastrozzi- It is a Gothic novel. (St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance-
another Gothic novel by him)

(ii) (1813) Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem- It takes the form of a fairy tale that presents a
future vision of a utopia on earth. Queen Mab is a fairy queen. Ahasuerus the "Wandering Jew"
appears in Queen Mab as a phantom.
 Theme is the perfectibility of man by moral means.

(iii) (1815) Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (Published 1816)

(vi) (1816) Mont Blanc- It was written during his visit to Chamoini or Chamonix, France.

(vii) (1817) Hymn to Intellectual Beauty- (Ode)- It was influenced by Jean-Jacques

Rousseau's novel of sensibility Julie, or the New Heloise and William Wordsworth's "Ode:
Intimations of Immortality."
Shelley depicts beauty as a shadow of a strange power that floats unseen throughout the
world, entering into man, coming and going mysteriously.

(viii) (1818) The Revolt of Islam, A Poem, in Twelve Cantos- Originally titled: Laon and Cythna;
or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century.
The plot centres on two characters named Laon and Cythna, inhabitants of Argolis under
Ottoman rule who initiate a revolution against its despotic ruler. The work shows disillusionment
with the French Revolution.

(xi) (1818) Ozymandias- It is a Sonnet by Shelley written using iambic pentameter. The poem
tells about the story of the Persian King Ozymandias. A traveller comes from Egypt (Antique
land) and tells about his encounter with a broken statue in the desert. The poem tries to
highlight the impermanence of political power and permanence of arts.

(x) (1818) Rosalind and Helen: A Modern Eclogue (published in 1819)- The poem deals with
the themes of incest, love, marriage, condition of women.
Shelley seeks to show the role or plight of women under the traditional and conventional
laws and customs of marriage.

(xi) (1819) The Cenci, A Tragedy, in Five Acts- Play depicts the themes of incest and
parricide.
It is set in 1599 in Rome, of a young woman executed for premeditated murder of her
tyrannical father.
Characters: Count Francesco, Beatrice, Lucretia, Cardinal Camillo, Orsino, Savella, Marzio,
Olimpio, Bernardo.

(xii) (1819) Ode to the West Wind (Ode)- Written using terza rima. The poem was written in
Florence, Italy. It takes up these themes of political change, revolution, and role of the poet.
Shelley calls the West Wind as Autumn's breath. He calls the East wind as the Azure sister
of Spring.
Ends with the lines-"The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far
behind?"

(xiii) 1820- To a Skylark- The poem was written during an evening walk in the country near
Livorno, Italy, with his wife Mary Shelley.
 Shelley praises a Skylark (bird) for its magnificence. He calls it a Spirit, a poet.

(xiv) (1820) Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts. (Masterpiece)- The story
of the Greek titan Prometheus, who defies the gods and gives fire to humanity. It is a closet
drama, meaning it was not intended to be produced on the stage.
Act I begins in the Indian Caucasus where the Titan Prometheus is bound to a rock face
and he is surrounded by the Oceanides.
Prometheus talks to the Earth. Mercury, Jupiter's messenger, comes to negotiate on behalf of
Jupiter. Only Prometheus knows Jupiter's fate.
Characters: Prometheus, Demogorgon, Jupiter, The Earth, Ocean, Apollo, Mercury, Hercules,
Asia (Oceanides), Panthea (Oceanides), Ione (Oceanides).

(xiv) (1821)Adonais- It is a pastoral elegy for John Keats, Written using Spenserian stanzas.
The poem follows John Lycidas.

Essays by Shelley:
● On Frankenstein (1818; published in 1832)
● A Defence of Poetry (1821, published 1840)
Collaborations with Mary Shelley:
● (1817) History of a Six Weeks' Tour
● (1820) Proserpine
● (1820) Midas

Questions-
(i) Which among the following romantic poets wrote Ode to the West Wind?
Coleridge
Keats
Byron
Shelley

(ii) Who wrote the poem To a Skylark?

Coleridge
Keats
Byron
Shelley

(iii) Which poet does Shelley follow in writing the poem Adonais?
Petrarch
Spenser
Shakespeare
Earl of Surrey

(iv) Adonais by Shelley is dedicated to_.

 Wordsworth
Milton
Keats
Byron

(v) What verse form has been adopted by Shelley to write Ode to the West Wind?
terza rima
Heroic couplet
Blank verse

(vi) Which of the following is a Sonnet by Shelley?

Ozymandias
To a Skylark
The Cenci
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

(vii) Ahasuerus the Wandering Jew is a character from which poem by Shelley?
Queen Mab
Zastrozzi
The Cenci
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

(viii) Which among the following is generally regarded as the masterpiece of Shelley?
Prometheus Unbound
Queen Mab
To A Skylark
Adonais

(C) John Keats (1795-1821): was the most famous of the second generation romantics. English
Romantic lyric poet who devoted his short life to the perfection of a poetry marked by vivid
imagery, great sensuous appeal, and an attempt to express a philosophy through classical
legend.
Praised for his collection of odes (6odes), including "Ode to a Nightingale".
Collection of Odes-"Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode on Indolence", "Ode on Melancholy",
"Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode to Psyche" and "To Autumn" in September.

He coined the phrase "Negative capability" in a letter to his brothers (1817), a writer’s
ability, “which Shakespeare possessed so enormously” to accept “uncertainties, mysteries,
doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason."

Started Literary career from 1814 onwards:

He wrote- sonnets and long narrative poems.
His first extant poem, "An Imitation of Spenser," in 1814.
He was also a surgeon and in 1816, Keats received his apothecary's licence, which made him
eligible to practise as an apothecary, physician and surgeon.
He experimented with the Sonnet form- in 1816, his sonnet "O Solitude" was published.
Leigh Hunt, a close friend of Keats, Shelly and Byron, published the essay- "Three Young
Poets" (Shelley, Keats, and Reynolds) and the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's
Homer" in 1816.

On First looking into Chapman's Homer became an influential work, so that it demonstrates
the emotional power of a great work of art, and the ability of great art to create an epiphany
(experience of a sudden and striking realization) in its beholder.

● Keats first book- Poems in 1817.

● First long poem Endymion- appeared in 1818- divided into four 1,000-line sections, and
its verse is composed in loose rhymed couplets. The poem narrates a version of the
Greek legend of the love of the moon goddess for Endymion, the shepherd.

John Keats dedicated this poem to the late poet Thomas Chatterton. The poem begins
with the line "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". Endymion is written in rhyming couplets
in iambic pentameter (also known as heroic couplets).

● Darkness, disease and depression surrounded him, reflected in poems such as "The
Eve of St. Agnes" and "La Belle Dame sans Merci".

● Wrote “Isabella,” an adaptation of the story of the Pot of Basil in Giovanni Boccaccio’s
Decameron, in 1817–18. Keats called it a weak-sided poem.

● During the year 1819 all his greatest poetry was written—“Lamia,” “The Eve of St.
Agnes,” the great odes (“On Indolence,” “On a Grecian Urn,” “To Psyche,” “To a
Nightingale,” “On Melancholy,” and “To Autumn”).

● Lamia: a narrative poem, after Greek mythology.

● The two versions of Hyperion, an abandoned epic poem:

The first began in 1818 and published, unfinished, in 1820-The first poem narrates the
story of Hyperion, the sun god of the Titans, the earlier race of gods who were
supplanted by the Olympians.When the poem begins, the Titans have already been
deposed. Their one hope for regaining their former influence lies with Hyperion, who has
retained his powers. But the Titans’ era ends with the coming of Apollo, the Olympian
god of poetry, music, and knowledge.

The second, The Fall of Hyperion, a revised edition with a long prologue, was also left
unfinished and was published posthumously in 1856.
 The Fall of Hyperion is narrated by the poet, who, in a dream, is allowed to enter a
shrine. The goddess Moneta reveals to the dreamer that the function of the poet in the
world is to separate himself from the mere dreamer and to enter into and embrace the
suffering of humanity.

● He died of Tuberculosis.

Notable works in chronological sequence:

(i) 1816- “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”- It is an epiphany (Petrarchan sonnet)
that Keats experienced as a teenager, when he read Chapman's Translation of Homer's Iliad
and Odyssey.
The poem opens with the lines- "Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly
states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to
Apollo hold."

(ii) 1818- Endymion- The poem narrates a version of the Greek legend of the love of the moon
goddess (variously Diana, Selene, and Artemis; also identified as Cynthia by Keats) for
Endymion, a mortal shepherd.
The poem begins with the line "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness
increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and
a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.."
Endymion is written in rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter (heroic couplets).
The poem is divided into four books (4), each approximately 1,000 lines long.

(iii) La belle dame sans merci- It is a ballad about a Knight in Arms and a Beautiful fairy girl.
The title translates into English as- A Beautiful girl without mercy.
The girl tricks the Knight into falling in love. Then she takes him into her cave (elfin grot). The
Knight falls asleep, sees a horrible dream about dead and pale Kings, Knights, Princes- they tell
him they were all her lover's just like him, and that she is an imposter. The Knight wakes up, but
the girl is Nowhere to be seen.

(iv) 1818- Isabella- It is an adaptation of the story of the Pot of Basil in Giovanni Boccaccio’s
Decameron.

(v) 1819- the Great Odes (Ode to Psyche was written first- Ode to Autumn was written last).
All the odes were composed between March and June 1819 except “To Autumn,” which is from
September.

(vi) Lamia- It is a narrative poem.

The poem tells how the god Hermes hears of a nymph who is more beautiful than all. Hermes,
searching for the nymph, instead comes across Lamia, trapped in the form of a serpent. She
reveals the previously invisible nymph to him and in return he restores her human form.
She goes to seek a youth of Corinth, Lycius, while Hermes and his nymph depart together
into the woods. The relationship between Lycius and Lamia, however, is destroyed when the
sage Apollonius reveals Lamia's true identity at their wedding feast, whereupon she seemingly
disappears and Lycius dies of grief.

(vii) The Eve of St. Agnes- It is a narrative poem of 42 Spenserian stanzas set in the Middle
Ages.
Keats based his poem on the folk belief that a girl could see her future husband in a dream if
she performed certain rites on the eve of St. Agnes; that is, she would go to bed without any
supper, and transfer pins one by one from a pincushion to a sleeve while reciting the Lord’s
Prayer.

(viii) Odes By Keats:

● On Indolence- The poem is an example of Keats's break from the structure of the
classical form. It follows the poet's contemplation of a morning spent in idleness. Three
figures are presented—Ambition, Love and Poesy—dressed in "placid sandals" and
"white robes".

● On a Grecian Urn- The poet addresses an ancient Greek urn, describing and
discoursing upon the images depicted on it. In particular he reflects upon two scenes,
one in which a lover pursues his beloved, and another where villagers and a priest
gather to perform a sacrifice. The poet concludes that the urn will say to future
generations of mankind: "'Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.' – that is all / Ye know on
earth, and all ye need to know".

● To Psyche- Keats uses the imagination to show the narrator's intent to resurrect Psyche
and reincarnate himself into Eros (love).

● To a Nightingale- The poem opens- "My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But
being too happy in thine happiness."
This is a personal poem which describes Keats's journey into the state of negative
capability. The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within
Keats's earlier poems and, instead, explores the themes of nature, transience and
mortality.

● On Melancholy-

● To Autumn- The poem describe a progression through the season, from the late
maturation of the crops to the harvest and to the last days of autumn when winter is
nearing. The imagery is richly achieved through the personification of Autumn, and the
description of its bounty, its sights and sounds.
It opens- "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the
maturing sun;
 Conspiring with him how to load and bless."
Quotes — "And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head
across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings
hours by hours."
Quotes— "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too."

(ix) Hyperion — It is an abandoned epic poem.

The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream is a sequel to the first poem. (Unfinished)
The story is about the titans who were defeated by the Olympians. Hyperion is the
last hope of the Titans.
The language of Hyperion is very similar to Milton's Paradise Lost, in metre and
style. The story tries to allude to motifs similar to that of the story of Paradise Lost.

Questions:
(i) Who coined the phrase Negative capability?
John Keats

(ii) In which poem by Keats, appears a nymph, trapped as a serpent and rescued by the Greek
character Hermes?
Lamia

(iii) Arrange the following Odes by Keats in a chronological sequence.

On Indolence, On a Grecian Urn, To Autumn
To Autumn, On a Grecian Urn, On Indolence-
On Indolence, To Autumn, On a Grecian Urn
To Autumn, On Indolence, On a Grecian Urn

(iv) Which poem by Keasts, tells the story of Knight and fairy lady?
La Belle Dame Sans Merci

(v) Which poem by Keats has been written following the Spenserian stanzas and set in the
Middle Ages?
The Eve of St. Agnes

(vi) In which poem by Keats does these lines appear, "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.' – that is all
/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"?
On a Grecian Urn

(vii) In which poem by Keats does these lines appear, "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless"?
To Autumn
(viii) The following lines appear in which poem by Keats, "My heart aches, and a drowsy
numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to
the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk"?
To a Nightingale

(ix) Which poem by Keats depicts the poet's contemplation of a morning spent in idleness?
On Indolence

(x) In which poem does Keats uses his theory of negative capability?
To a Nightingale

(xi) Which among the following is a Sonnet by Keats?

On first looking into Chapman's Homer

(xii) Which Italian poet does Keats follow to write his sonnet On First looking into Chapman's
Homer?
Petrarch

(xiii) Which verse form does Keats use to write Endymion?

Heroic couplet.

(xiv) Which poem by Keats opens with the lines, "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its
loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness"?
Endymion

(xv) Which poem by Keats talks about the Greek legend of Cynthia, the moon goddess and a
shepherd's love story?
Endymion

___xxx___