第12章拜伦、雪莱和济慈1. What are the differences between the Lake Poets and the younger generation of English Romanticists?Key: The main difference between the Lake Poets and the younger generation of English Romanticists lies in the latter poets’ constantly active participation in and support to the democratic cause in Britain and Europe. Not only their poems express the advanced bourgeois ideology of freedom, liberty and justice to all, but they involved themselves in the actual fight or struggle of the people against tyranny. Perhaps because of the turbulent and eventful life they chose to live, they also shared a sad fate of dying young. For them, there was no retreat from the front of fighting and not much time either for idle contemplations in retirement. They raised their voice against all sorts of oppression and in this sense; they are more positive and active than the first generation of Romanticists.2. Describe the Byronic hero and the main thematic and artistic features of Byron’s poetry.Key: A Byronic hero is defiant of the traditional bondages of life, sympathetic toward the oppressed and advocates freedom, liberty and justice. Speaking specifically, he is a young man, handsome and melancholy. He is from a noble family, extremely talented, gallant and courageous, and is also warm andsympathetic toward the oppressed and downtrodden people. He calls on people to fight for freedom and liberty and goes through the world to help and support struggles against tyranny. But, he lives a loose sexual life, and along the way of his trip, he seduces beautiful young women and is always having love affairs. Such a young man also appears in his other works such as the hero of his verse drama Manfred (1817). They closely resemble Byron the poet himself and thus obtain the name of the “Byronic Hero”, which becomes a character type in English literature.His literary career was closely linked with the struggle and progressive movements of his age. He opposed oppression and slavery, and had an ardent love for liberty. He praised the people’s revolutionary struggles in his works. His poems are favorites of the British workers and the laboring people of other countries. His poems show energy and vigor, romantic daring and powerful passion. He was a great admirer of Dryden and Pope, but he lacked Pope’s care for artistic finish; many of his lines are harsh, rugged and unrhythmical.3. What are Shelley’s social ideals seen in his poetry? And illustrate your points with his poems we introduce in this chapter.Key: “Song to the Men of England” is a militant lyric poem that shows the poet’s democratic an d socialist world outlook as well as his patriotic concerns for England. The poet further awakens the dormant consciousness of the working classes to the unfair treatment they have been receiving through questions andresponding answers. Shelley calls upon the English people to stand up and fight against tyranny for freedom by prophesying their destined doom if they fail to fight to change their present situations.Shelley loved the people and hated their oppressors and exploiters. He called on the people to overthrow the rule of tyranny and injustice and prophesied a happy and free future for mankind. He remained in this social and political ideal and fought for it all his life.4. What is John Keats’ idea about beauty, immortality and love? Analyse one poem by him to show your point.Key: “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is taken generally as a central poem of Keats, because in it we find all the important notions of the poet concerning his life philosophy and aesthetic ideas. To John Keats, beauty and love are immortal, with which people can make their lives eternal.The urn in the poem is one from the classical age of Greece. Many scholars have tried to define the actual one. The ode begins with a direct address of the poet to the urn, calling it “bride of quietness”. It is again a symbol of beauty, of perfection and purity, and of love. Then we are told that the urn is a historian of the rural ancient Greece and it rescues the life and beauty by freezing a particular moment from that remote age to keep it always new. And to keep its perfection, it must withdraw outside of human world to stay in silence and solitude. Keats compares the urn to a poem, and like the nightingale, it is a symbol of art and thepower of art to give immortality to transient human existence.。