Oscar Wilde

Wilde's career ended in catastrophe because of his homosexuality. Although society was overlooking it his father did not. Wilde sued his father and as a result, his personal life was exposed in court. Because in Britian it was a crime to be homosexual, he was prosecuted and had to serve two years doing hard labor.After this Wilde was a disgrace and out of money. He was shunned by all but a few, forbidden to see his sons and their last names were changed so as not to cause them any more pain or humiliation.

Symphony in Yellow

An omnibus across the bridge
Crawls like a yellow butterfly,
And, here and there, a passer-by
Shows like a little restless midge

Here is is describing the beauty of the bus and watching the people go by. During this time yellow was associated with sunflowers and the color of paper back French novels, and they were associated with the Aesthetic movement. I really did not care for Wilde's writing, to me it really did not speak. I did not understand it all that well. As it said in his mini-biography he liked to talk. I hope that he communicated better verbally than he did in his writings.

Thomas Hardy

Hardy was a Victorian fiction novelist as well as a poet. After Hardy wrote the book Jude the Obscure and got shocking reviews and the Bishop of Wakefield burned the book, Hardy did not write books anymore he began to only write poetry.

On the Depature Platform, was about a young man watching the woman he loved leave. He was sad to see her go although he would see her again.

We have penned new plans since tht fair fond day,
And in season she will appear again
Perhaps in the same soft white array
But never as then!

It is almost as if he is talking about nature, in season she will appear again but will not look as good as it does now. Sometimes we see things the first time and they appear breathtaking, great, and wonderful. But, when we see them again they are still beautiful but not as beautiful as when we first saw them. The same goes for relationships you always remember that first date you have with the person you are in a relationship, you have other dates but nothing compares to the first date. I guess that is just the way life is.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Hopkins was Jesuit Priest. Hopkins tried to publish his works one time and was turned down after that he never tried to publish again. I was particularly fond of the poem Pied Beauty. This poem is about the beauty that God provides in all things.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled(who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour, adazzle, dim
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him

No matter what God creates it is beautiful. God sees the beauty in everything, that is why he created it. All of God's creations are beautiful. I like this poem becuase it is true, sometimes I feel that people need to take the time to realize the beauty in everything.

John Stuart Mill

Mills views were considered radical during this time period. He believed in equal rights for men and women, dicorcer, suffrage for everyone, free speech, and equal representation. It sounds pretty much like what we have today correct? But, a little over a 100 years ago it was considered radical. Mill founded the Utiliarian society,in which their goal was to bring happiness to the greatest number of people.

I particularly liked Mill's Of Liberty of Thought and Discussion. "He is capable of rectifying mistakes, by discussion and experience. Not by experience alone. There must be discussion, to show how experience is to be interpreted." Is this not true for life. One learns through experience, that is why they have things such as on the job training. Experience is crucial as well as discussion if we do something wrong how are we going to know if we do something wrong unless someone tells us what we did wrong and how to fix it. I believe that discussion and exprience go hand in hand. They are imperative to any learning experience and for anyone to be successful at anything.

"Because he has felt, that the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion."
The way that we learn is through interaction with others and hearing different sides and opinions so as to grasp every angle of something. Someone else may have a point or knowledge that we do not have that may prove relevant our ultimate goal.

Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen

During the Victorian time period the society did prosper, however, people became more aware of class. Social distinctions were determined by birth, people who were born into aristocracy were seen as ladies and gentlemen, people who worked the land or in the factory were not. To determine one's social status you were to take into account, manners, money, birth, occupation, and what they did in their lesuire time. Also, their roles in society were different. Ladies and gentlemen were to conform to a different ideology during the Victorian time. Middle class women were to take care of the family, and men were to work. Then there was seperation between middle class men, thos who attended public school and those who did not. Education was not important for the women to be considered a lady, her position depended upon her parents or her husband.

I liked John Henry Cardinal Newman who wrote "The ideal of gentlemanliness was central to the Victorians' notion of themselves, yet for a society in flux it was a concept increasingly difficult to pin down." It appears that during this time that people strived to be perceived as a gentleman or a lady, because during this time social status was important it determined what you did as well as your wealth. A womans social class however depended upon the man she married or her father. So it was more important for a man to be educated and do well than for a woman. For a man to be considered a gentleman it was synomous that he was a Christian. Newman did not agree with this stigma attached to being a gentleman. "Thus for Newman, who was both, a gentleman is not necessarily a Christian: one may have character and education but not faith." One must think does some of these characteristics of their society influence us today?

Robert Browning

Robert Browning, alas someone we have read thus far whose parents, or siblings did not die at a young age!!! Brownng used the poetic form of dramatic monologue. Browning began correspondence with Elizabeth Barrett. When they met they instantly fell in love and eloped. After he married her, his writing began to suffer because he wanted a name of his own, since he was referred to as Mrs. Browning's husband. I do not completely understand why that bothered him because the plays and poetry he wrote before he wrote anonomyously or under other assumed names. Maybe it was the male ego. It was not until she died that he began to write seriously again, and wrote a successful pieve of dramatic poetry.
Brownings Porhyria's Lover, was a rather interesting poem. I gathered from this poem that Porphyria's Lover, loved her so much that he granted her one wish to die.
Porphyria's love: she guessed not how
Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now

He was so in love with her that he granted her wish to die, it only took him an instant to debate whether or not to kill her

Made my hear swll, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment was mine, mine, fair

One would question if you really loved someone could you really kill them like that? I know I couldn't. I do not understand how you can kill the person you love, and watch them die by your own hand. One might say that the person who does that is crazy. But, then again it can be seen as when a person you love is in the hospital and they are on life support and they are brain dead whether or not to pull the plug. However, I still believe those are different circumstances, you have a living breathing person in front of you that you love and you are going to kill them, I do not think so.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Browning came from a wealthy family and lived in Jamacia. Since her family was wealthy she took advantage of this and educated herself, which unordinary for women during this time. She was very ill throughout her life, it only got better when she was in warm climate. It seems as if after reading the backgrounds of the different poets that they have all of these catastrophic events happen to them in order for them to write good poetry. Like Browning for example her father did not want any of his children to marry and she eloped and the father never talked to her again, her illness, and her mother dying when she was young. It is as people with happy childhoods, or people with both parents living did not write good poetry.

But my favorite poem of Browning's was Aurora Leigh. Which basically was a tale of a young woman as she discovered herself and who she was it took us from her childhood through her education, to when she discovered poetry, and her life. This poem was supposed to be a self potrait. It even talked about her love life.
Then, must it be
Indeed farewell? And was I so far wrong
In hope and in illusion, when I took
The woman to be nobler than the man,
Yourself the noblest woman, in the use
And comprehension of what love it,--love

In this stanza Romney was responding to Aurora's rejection of him. He was a married man and was still seeking fulfillment outside of his marriage, and Aurora was not interested in a man who belonged to someone else, she felt it to be wrong.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Tennyson suffered set backs when first starting writing his poetry, he was financially unstable and could not afford to marry his fiance. It took him twelve years to be able to afford to marry her, his financial situation affected him so much that people thought he might commit suicide. Things however changed and he became a favorite among the people. He was named Poet Laurette, then Lord, and finally Baron. He began to make thousands a year, and even offered a hundred thousand dollars for a three stanza poem.

My favorite poem was Marina, to me it seemed as if it was about the one that Marina loved who had left her and in everything she saw she was reminded of him and the fact that he left her depressed and hurt.

And wild winds bound within their cell,
The shadow of the poplar fell
Upon her bed, across her brow.
She onnly said, "the night is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, " I am aweary,aweary
I would that I were dead!"

Angelo, had refused to marry Marina after her brother and her dowry are lost in a ship wreck. So in this stanza of the poem Tennyson is using the wind possibly to symbolize the ship wreck and that is the reason he left her. This could be a possible interpetation. Every stanza in this poem Marina is reminded of Angelo who left her and at the end of every stanza she repeats

She onnly said, "the night is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, " I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"
The fact that he left her has devastated her that she wants to die. She wishes she were dead rather than living without him. This poem is a little melodramatic for me, but none the less good.

Charles Dickens

In Charles Dickens Visit to Newgate, he describes his visit to Newgate and goes into detail about the process that the condemned prisoners who face death go to. When he is describing this process it seems as if he does not approve of it. "Immediately below the reading desk, on the floor of the chapel, and forming the most conspicous object in its little area, is THE CONDEMNED PEW; a huge black pen in which wretched people, who are single out for death, are placed on the Sunday preceeding their execution, in sight of all their fellow-prisoners." It is bad enough that the prisoners are sentenced to death but in addition to that before they die they must be seperated and riducled in front of everyone and treated worse, they already have their punishment for death but even that is not enough. They added public humilation to their sentence in doing this.

Dickens did not agree with this treatment of the prisoners sentenced to death. "Let us hope that the increased spirit of civilistion and humanity which abolished this frightful and degrating custom, may extend itself to other usages equally barbarous." It was inhumane to treat the prisoners like this, they tortured them in addition to sentencing them to death and isolating them. They would place the coffins in front of them while they were sitting in the pew on Sunday mornings in the church. Did this practice make those who partook in it any better than the criminals?

Thomas Carlyle

Carlyle did not believe in the government regulating Industry or Labor. Carlyle believed that the market was able to regulate itself without the intervention of the government.
In Labour, Carlyle " Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these like helldogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor dayworker, as over ever man: but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all thse are stilled, all thse shrink murmuring far off into their caves. This man is now a man." Carlyle believed in good honest work, and that working made you a better person. He believed that if you would work then you would find out about yourself.

In Captains of Industry, Carlyle spoke of Mammonism, in which the market regulates itself. He spoke of this theory a lot. This is the type of government the US has. We regulate ourself, with little government intervention. " Government can do much, but it can in nowise do all." What if the government controlled every little aspect of life? That would not be much fun. "

Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; e have to say. Like People like Government" The people who are in the government are no different than me or you so what makes them experts on what works and what does not work. We as people make up the government and decide what works. "Problem of Organising Labour, and first of all of Managing the Working Classes, will, it is very clear, have to be solved by those who stand practically in the middle of it, by those who themselves work and preside over work." I agree with Carlyle, let the people decide they are the ones who work.

Industrialism

The Industrial Age, marked the age of advances in technology which caused Britians wealth to increase significantly. There were consequences that came along with these technological advances, people lost jobs because the jobs were now being done at factories instead of at home. People had to leave their homes to find jobs. Although, Britian gained wealth it was not the poor who got the wealth it was the wealthier who got wealthier. Isn't this true to a certain extent today? The wealthier get wealthier? The factories that were now being used not only caused people to be out of jobs but also changed family life, the culture. Because people were employed at these factories, parents were no longer around to spend time with their children. Because people worked in the city, they wanted to live in the city causing it to be overcrowded.

"Factories, mills, and mines all employed women and children as cheap labor. They often worked grueling hours under appalling conditions, for wages that barely enabled them to subsist." (p.493). The Industrial Age may have allowed for Britian to be wealthier but it also resulted in the mistreatment of their citizens. They were making sacrifices and not reaping the benefits of it.

"Here one is really and truly in a district which is quite obviously given over entirely to the working classes, because even the shop keepers and publicans of Long Millgate make no effort to give their establishments a semblance of cleanliness" The morale of the people went down as a result of the Industrial Age, people no longer cared about the way their city looked, they no longer took pride in it, because of the conditions they were in. Because of the sacrifices they made during this time.

Felicia Hemans

Hemans experienced what would today be considered discrimination. Her colleagues or fellow writers did not want her writing because she was a woman and they felt she belonged at home cooking a cleaning. They also did not approve of her being a "single mother", which happened because her husband left to start a new life. Some of what Hemans experienced in her day is still prevelant today. Some men still do not want to see women in the workplace with them and feel that they should be at home tending to the children.

The Wife of Asdrubal, in this poem Asdrubal had accepted defeat and had surrendered himself to the enemy. Did she stab her kids and throw them into the flames? Then go after them?
"Having thus spoken, she drew out a dagger, stabbed them both, and while they were yet struggling for life, threw them from the top of the temple, and leaped down after them into the flames"
In the poem,

Are those her infants, that with suppliant-cry
Cling round her, shrinking as the flame draws nigh,
Clasp with their feeble hands her gorgeous vest

I assume she is talking about the flames that were engulfing the children, and that the flames were raging as if the children belonged to it now.

This poem was about a mothers love the wife would have soon died and killed her children instead of having them stay with a coward who surrendered to the enemy and would not go down with out a fight.

And knelt to win the worthless boon of life
"Live, traitor, live!" she cries, "since dear to thee,

One cannot help but question did she feel her husband to be a traitor for walking out on her and her kids. Was this poem somehow a reference to how she felt? I would imagine that she felt betrayed when her husband walked out on her and her kids. She might have even felt as if he fed her and the kids to the fire, leaving them with nothing and to fend for themselves. Just speculation...I may be reaching... :-)

John Keats

Keats experienced a hard childhood with his mother coming in and out of his life, when she returned one time after four years she was ill and he had to take care of her until her death. He never got over her not caring enough to be around and take care of him and his siblings. This affected his writing style and caused it to be somewhat somber.

I liked Keats' La Belle Dame sans Mercy, this poem is about a man and a woman who fall in love but do not end up together, he ends up alone.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too

This is where the somberness of Keats' writings are shown. The lily is a sign of death, and the rose of love. So he is saying I see death ahead for you, but you do love, but that is going away as well. Maybe, this is somewhat how he could have felt when his mother came back and he was nursing her until her death. He saw death ahead for his mother and he had to watch her die, of course he loved her and she loved him. But, because she was dying he might have felt that her love was dying for him. Could this have been why he wrote this? Could this be the reason he didn't really write poetry with happy endings, the people died or were unhappy?
I think that it is good to see poetry from different people in the same time period and know their backgrounds because when seeing what someone writes it gives insight into their life, their thoughts and feelings. Some of the other writers in this period also experienced many trials and tribulations but their writings were not always as dark as Keats.

Percy Shelley

In Shelley's early days, Shelley's writing proved to be controversial resulting in him getting expelled from two schools. Shelley however still continued to press boundaries. Shelley encountered many losses in his personal life. Shelley's and his second wife lost three children. Shelley's writings I actually did not care that much for they were a little hard to understand. Out of Shelley's writings I enjoyed Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.

Spirit of Beauty, that dost consecrate
With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon
of human thought or form,---where art thou gone

Here Shelley is saying that intellectual beauty comes in many sizes, shapes and forms. Meaning that it is not the same for everyone, everyone is not going to see things the same way.

Thou, that to human thought art nourishment
Like darkness to a dying flame
Depart not- as thy shadow came
Depart not, lest the grave should be,
Like life and far, a dark reality

Shelley goes on to say that if you do not cultivate your intellectual beauty then your human intellect will not grow. If you do not embrace your intellectual beauty then it will die, your intellectual beauty is a complement to your human intellect as the darkness is to the flame.

Of life at that sweet time when winds are wooing
All vital things that wake to bring
News of birds and blossing
Sudden, thy shadow fell on me;
I shrieked and clasped my hands in ecstacy

Here is where Shelley's writing is indicative of Romantic writing. He brings in nature and uses it as a metaphor. Basically here Shelley is using nature to describe what it is like when you are in tune and using your intellectual beauty to help mold your human intellect.

Lord Byron

After reading about Lord Byron, it would seem that he definently enjoyed women. He started at a young age with a nurse. Byron, did not have an easy childhood his father left him and his mother penniless so he had to grow up early and deal with his mother who blamed him for his father leaving her. These insecurities might have been the reason that he had affairs with many women, seeking approval that his mother denied him of when he was younger. When he was given the title Lord after his Uncle died he sought approval from his mother then asking if there were any difference in him since the title of Lord was bestowed upon him. Maybe these are the reasons that Byron had many relationships with women, and it seems as if he loved the women easily and often, and allowed the relationships to affect his actions in life. Again, Byron's writing has the typical style of Romantic writings, describing man, nature, and life experiences. My favorite Byron poem is She Walks In Beauty. I like the simplicity of this poem. This poem just is about a man who sees a woman who he finds very attractive and breath taking.
" She walks in beauty, like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies/ And all that's best of dark and bright"

Byron, did not know know her at first, but when he saw her he experienced something simple infactuation. I like this poem because the everyday person can relate to it. We have all seen someone at a party or at a gathering that we have been attracted to and felt a connection with even if nothing ever came of it.
"So soft, so calm, yet eloquent/ The smiles that win, the tints that glow,/A mind at peace with all below"
Byron's writing is easier to read than some of the others I have read thus far such as Williams.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coledridge, writes about the same things the the rest of the Romantics do, life, nature, and man. It was interesting reading about Coleridge and the problems he faced in his personal life, he faced drug addiction and it affected his life. However, during this time they did not understand addiction and it was not dealt with daily. Coleridge regarded his problem as a moral flaw. I found interesting that although they did not have rehab facilities as we do today, that he still went and stayed with a doctor to help him with his addiction to laudanum. My favorite Coleridge writing was The Eolian Harp.
This poem was about Coleridge's feelings for his wife Sara Fricker, which did not end up working out. I am speculating that part of the reason that Coleridge had been attracted to the idea of marrying her is because everything else in his life had failed, he had been sent to the boarding school and marrying Sara would help him socially.

In The Eolian Harp, again as the Romantic poets tend to do they use nature as a metaphor to describe their feelings and happiness. " Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land/Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers/ Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise" He is using nature to describe how happy he is on his honeymoon with his wife.
"O the one life within us and abroad/ Which meets all motion and becomes its soul/A light in sound, a sound like power in light/ Rythmn in all thought, and joyance everywhere"
He is in tune with nature, and appreciating everything in nature. It does seem as if when one is in love then everything seems a little prettier and everything in life seems easier. That is one of the reason I like this poem because it shows that no matter how old or what century you come from love has the same effect on everyone.