Poems Context Flashcards
(52 cards)
What is some context in ‘Non Sum Qualis…’ that would suggest barriers to love is a theme?
- when Dowson was 23 he proposed to a family friend who was a minor
- obsessive/ forbidden love
While Dowson was at Oxford, what group was he a member of? What was their focus?
- The Rhymers’ club
- rejected literary naturalism and embraced experimental modes of writing
When was the point of Dowson’s decline?
- after the death and suicide of his parents
Ernest Dowson was involved in the Decadent movement. What was the 19th century artistic and literary movement inspired by?
- Gothic tradition
- symbolism
- aestheticism
How did aestheticism and decadence shock the Victorian establishment?
- challenging traditional values
- foregrounding sensuality
- promoting artistic, sexual and political experimentation
What are key features/ focuses of the Decadent movement?
- artificial imagery
- interest in perversity, paradox and in transgressive modes of sexuality
- classical references
19th-century saw earth-shattering scientific advances, this progressed blind faith in science and technology to solve problems. How did the Decadence movement react against this?
- Decadent imagination developed around the social and intellectual instability and uncertainty emerging after the scientific progression
What personal grief would suggest that John Keats was particularly conscious of his own mortality?
- death of his brother from TB
How does medieval literature connect women and water?
- water is used to weaken men
What genre/ style did Keats belong to?
- Romanticism (leading figure)
After Keats was infected with TB, he became acquainted with Fanny Brawne. How was their relationship?
- intimate and passionate, though unconsummated
- he was too ill and too poor to marry her
What are some features of Romanticism?
- emphasis on emotion and individualism
- glorification of all past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical
- authentic emotion
What was Romanticism a reaction to?
- partly to the Industrial Revolution, aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, scientific rationalisation of nature
What are some quintessentially Romantic concerns included in some of Keats’ great odes?
- beauty of nature
- relationship between imagination and creativity
- response of the passions to beauty and suffering
- transience of human life in time
How does Keats revive features of medieval literature?
- classic dream sequence in ballad form
What is the relevance of Hardy’s poem ‘At an Inn’ being written in 1898 and his wife’s death in 1912?
- it’s possible that his feelings for his secretary are close to love but cannot be public due to the sanctity of marriage
How is Thomas Hardy described?
- a Victorian realist
What were some of Hardy’s influences?
- Romanticism (especially Wordsworth)
- Charles Dickens
‘The Ruined Maid’ was written by Hardy in 1866, very early in his writing career. What relevance does this have?
- even as a young man he was ahead of his time in his views on women
- Victorian society had one acceptable rule for women, whereas Hardy was forcing his reader to question these conventional values
What was a particular focus of Hardy’s writing? How did Hardy use literature?
- exploring the effects of different social ills
- used it as a way of exploring the nature of contemporary society: its attitudes and moral codes
- especially focuses on the hypocrisy of Victorian society
How does Hardy’s writing show a shift from Romantic sensibility?
- focused more on accurately portraying the world and exploring its social and moral make-up, rules and hypocrisies
Within ‘The Ruined Maid,’ how is it evident that there was an attempt for literature to explore the differing experiences of people across the country and society?
- efforts made to represent the speech patterns of particular regions and social groups
- much broader social focus
What were some of the strict elements of Victorian morality promoted by Queen Victoria?
- wanted to promote image of a quiet, religious family unit with very clearly defined gender roles
How was the term “fallen women” used? How did the definition develop in the 19th century?
- to describe a woman who has ‘lost her innocence’ and fallen from the grace of God
- meaning came to be closely associated with loss/ surrender of a woman’s chastity
- fallenness was a result of a woman’s deviation from social norms
