5 English Literature in the Romantic PeriodⅠ. Essay questions.1. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen explored three kinds of motivations of marriage the middle-class people had in the second half of the 18th century. Try to make a brief discussion about them with specific examples from the novel. Make comments on Austen’s attitude towards these motivations.2. What are the general features of English Romanticism?3. Tell the story of Pride and Prejudice and make a comment on it.4. Make a comment on Wordsworth concerning his contribution to poetry.5. Irony abounds in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. Please illustrate it with reference to some examples.6. Make a general comment on Walter Scott.’Ⅱ. Define the following terms.1. Romanticism2. Ode3. Byronic hero4. Ottava rima5. Terza rima6. Irony7. Lyric8. Motif9. Theme10. Symbol11. Imagery12. Foil13. Synaesthesia14. Character15. Flat character16. Round character17. Negative capacityⅢ Fill in the blanks.1. As an age of romantic enthusiasm, the Romantic Age began in 1798 when ______and ______published _______ and ended in 1832 when ______died.2. In the Preface of the 2nd and 3rd editions of __________, Wordsworth laid down the principles of poetry composition.3. The English Romantic Age produced two major novelists, _________ and ______.4. _____, ________, and_________ are referred to as the “Lake Poets” because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England.5. In 1805, Wordsworth completed his long autobiographical poem entitled__________.6. Scott’s historical novels depicted Scotland, England, and the Continent covering a period ranging from _______ up to, and including, _______.7. _______ mourned for _______’s premature death in an elegy “Adonais”, writing “He is made one with Nature.”8. “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” is a long poem created by ________.It contains four cantos in the_______ stanza, namely a 9-line stanza rhymed ababbcbcc, in which the first eight lines are in iambic pentameter while the ninth in iambic hexameter, 9. _______ is Byron’s masterpiece, written in the prime of his creative power. He called it an “epic satire”, “a satire on abuses of the present state of society.”10. The great novelist in the Romantic period_______ marked the transition from Romanticism to the period of Realism which followed it.11. The plot of Shelley’s lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound is borrowed from _______, a play of the Greek tragedian Aeschylus.12. In “To Autumn”, Keats writes,” Season of mists and me llow fruitfulness, / Clise bosom-friend of the maturing sun; / Conspiring with him how to load and bless / With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; / …” The figure of speech used in the lines is _______.13. “Ode to a Nightingale” expresses the contrast between _______ and _______.14. The unifying principle in Don Juan is the basic ironic theme of _______, i.e., what things seem to be and what they actually are.15. Byron employed _______ from Italian mock-heroic poetry. His first experiment was made in Beppo. It was perfected in Don Juan in which the convention flows with ease and naturalness.16._______ was memorized and honored as “the heart of all hearts” after his death.17. Many critics regard Shelley as one of the greatest of all English poets. They point especially to his_______.18. Romanticism was in effect a revolt of the English _______against the neoclassical _______, which prevailed from the days of pope to those of Johnson.19. _______ are generally regarded as Keats’s most importa nt and mature works.20. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” shows the contrast between _______and _______.21. Among the Romantic figures, _______has a fundamental conviction of the health of the social system, of its ability to reform itself, and of the assurance of social well-being and the likelihood of a reasonable personal happiness.22. Scott is considered “the father of _______” which open(s) up to fiction the rich and lively realm of history.23. Two prevailing themes of Pride and Prejudice are _______ and _______.24. _______ was composed in a dream after the poet Coleridge took the opium.25. All such works of Coleridge as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Christable” and “Kubla Khan” revealed his keen interest in_______,26. _______ is regarded as a “worshipper of nature”.27. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, “An Evening Walk”, “My Heart Leaps up” and “Tintern Abbey” are all masterpieces on _______.28. The main idea running through the dramatic poem Prometheus Unbound is that of_______.29. _______, with a triumphant praise of the imagination, highly exalts the role of poetry, thinking that poetry alone could free man and offer the mind a wider viewof its powers. He holds that poetry “is a more direct representation of the actions and passions of our intern al being”.30. The Romantic period is an age of poetry. The major Romantic poets such as Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as _______.31. _______ and _______ gave great impetus to the rise of the Romantic Movement.32. _______ is a great critic of the romantic period on Shakespeare, Elizabethan drama, and English poetry. He is also a maser of the familiar essays.33. With _______, the essay is no longer chiefly a mode of intellectual inquiry and moral address. Rather, the essay becomes a medium for a delightful literary treatment of life’s small pleasures and reassurances.Ⅳ. Choose the best answer1. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” is an epigrammatic line by _______.A. Kohn KeatsB. William BlakeC. William WordsworthD. Percy Bysshe Shelley2. William Wordsworth, a romantic poet, advocated all of the following EXCEPT _______.A. Normal contemporary speech patternsB. Humble and rustic life as subject matterC. Elegant wording and inflated figures of speechD. Intensely subjective feeling toward individual experience3. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”, “A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice “_______.A. Refers to the palace where Kubla Khan once livedB. Vividly describes a building of poor qualityC. Is the gift given to a beautiful girl called AbyssinianD. Symbolizes the reconciliation of the conscious and the unconscious4. _______is one of the first generation of English Romantic poets.A. KeatsB. ShelleyC. ByronD. Wordsworth5. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” is taken from _______.A. The Solitary ReaperB. Ode to the West WindC. To AutumnD. Song to the Man of England6. _______is NOT among the representative essayists in the romantic times.A. Charles LambB. William HazlittC. Thomas De QuinceyD. Walter Scott7. In_______, _______set forth his principles of poetry, “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling”.A. The Preface to Lyrical Ballads; WordsworthB. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”; ColeridgeC. “A Defence of Poetry”; ShelleyD. “Lectures on the English Poets”; Hazlitt8. _______is NOT a lyric written by Wordsworth.A. My Heart Leaps UpB. Intimations of ImmortalityC. Love’s PhilosophyD. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud9. All the poems were written by Byron EXCEPT_______.A. Childe Harold’s PilgrimageB. Don JuanC. The Isle of GreeceD. The Masque of Anarchy10. Keats wrote five long poems. _______ is NOT among them.A. EndymionB. IsabellaC. The Eve of St. AgnesD. Annabel Lee11. It is said that all Keats’s personality seems to be breathed into his odes, of which the more famous odes are “de to Autumn”, “Ode on Melancholy”, ”Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to Nightingale”, all with the praise of _______ as their general theme.A. loveB. beautyC. natureD. art12. The first poem in The Lyrical Ballads is Coleridge’s masterpiece_______.A. The PreludeB. Kubla KhanC. The Time of the Ancient MarinerD. Tintern Abbey13. _______can be found among Shelley’s love lyrics.A. One Word is Too Often ProfanedB. When We Two PartedC. A Red, Red RoseD. Song to Celia14. Among the following, _______is an elegy.A. LamisB. IsabellaC. AdonaisD. Queen Mab15. _______is NOT a historical novel written by Scott.A. Rob RoyB. IvanhoeC. MarmionD. Waverly16. In Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the mariner suffers the horror of death, because _______.A. He experiences a shipwreckB. He is tortured with starvationC. He undergoes much sufferingD. He kills an albatross17. _______ is the poetic drama written by Byron.A. Hours of IdlenessB. Prometheus UnboundC. CainD. Oriental Tales18. The following statements are about “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”. Among them which one is NOT true?A. It is about a young aristocrat whose “world-weariness” bespeaks his loathing forEnglish high society.B. Besides Harold’s impressions of the countries he visits, the poem is interspersedwith Lyrical outbursts which give utterance to the poet’s own philosophical and political views.C. The first canto deals with Albania and Greece.D. The last canto sings of Italy and the Italian people who have given the worldgreat writers and thinkers like Dante.19. All the following are novels written by Jane Austen EXCEPT_______.A. Mansfield ParkB. ShirleyC. EmmaD. Persuasion20. Which one of the following statements about Don Juan is true?A. Byron began its writing in Italy in 1818, and finished it in 1823.B. It is in 10 cantos.C. The story of the poem takes place in the latter part of the 16th century.D. It displayed Byron’s genius as a romanticist and a realist simultaneously.21. In 1843, _______was made poet laureate.A. SoutheyB. ShelleyC. WordsworthD. Keats22. The revolutionary Romantic poet went to Greece to help that country in its struggle for liberty and died of fever there.A. ShelleyB. ByronC. KeatsD. Burns23. is Shelley’s well-known political lyric, which calls upon the working class to fight against their rulers and exploiters.A. Don JuanB. The CenciC. Prometheus UnboundD. Song to the Men of England24. is Byron’s poetic drama with the material taken from Biblical story or stories.A .Cain B. Don JuanC. Song for the LudditesD.Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage25. ’s poetry is always sensuous, colorful and rich in imagery, which expresses the acuteness of his senses. In his poetry, sight, sound, scent, taste and feeling are all taken into give an entire understanding of an experience.A. KeatsB. ShelleyC. WordsworthD. Byron26. All the following statements about “Ode on a Grecian Urn” are true EXCEPT .A. In this poem Keats shows the contrast between the permanence of art and thetransience of human passion.B. The poem presents Keats’ ambivalence about time and the nature of beauty.C. It has often been celebrated, together with “Ode to a Nightingale”, as the heightof Keats’ achi evement in poetry.D. In this poem, the poet spoke as bitterly of human woes as he did in “Ode to aNightingale”.27. Pride and Prejudice is noted for its vividly depicted characters who are revealed through comparison and contrast with each other. Among the following pairs of characters are NOT in contrast.A. Darcy and WickhamB. Elizabeth and CharlotteC. Elizabeth and JaneD. Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins28. At the beginning of Pride and Prejudice, the attitude of Darcy and Elizabeth toward each other is that of .A. mutual affectionB. mutual repulsionC. mutual hatredD. mutual indifference29. All the sonnets were written by Keats EXCEPT .A. London 1802B. When I Have FearsC. Bright StarD. On the Grasshopper and Cricket30. The Romantic Movement expressed a attitude toward the existing social and political conditions that came with industrialization and the growing importance of the bourgeoisie.A. negativeB. neutralC. positiveD. indifferent31. The prevailing tone in Pride and Prejudice is .A. bitter satireB. mild satireC. strong approvalD. strong disapproval32.”Ode to the West Wind” is concluded with mood.A. triumphant and hopefulB. pessimistic and skepticalC. desperate and sadD. indifferent33. Which one of the following does NOT describe the characteristics of Scott’s writing?A. The central heroes of his novels are young men of valor, who, taken as a whole,are rather superficial, lacking in virility and lacking depth of psychological characterization.B. His works display his marvelous command of the Scottish dialect.C. His plotting is often closely knitted.D. He has an eye for the telling detail.34. Of the following statements about Lyrical Ballads, which is NOT true?A. The poems are noted for the uncompromising obscurity of much of thelanguage.B. The poems show the strong sympathy not merely with the poor in general butwith particular, dramatized examples of them.C. The poems Wordsworth added to the1800 edition of the Lyrical Ballads areamong the best of his achievements.D. The natural description and expressions of inward states of mind fused into onein most of the poems.35.”You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party.” The figure of speech used in the sentence is .A. simileB. ironyC. antithesisD. metaphor36. All the following about Romanticism are true EXCEPT .A. Where their predecessors saw man as a social animal, the Romantics saw himessentially as an individual in the solitary state.B. Where the Augustans emphasized those features that men have in common, theRomantics emphasized the special qualities of each individual’s mind.C. Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the inner worldof human spirit to the outer world of social civilization.D. Romantics also tended to be nationalistic, defending the great poets anddramatists of their own national heritage against the advocates of classical rules who tended to glorify Rome and Rational Italian and French neoclassical art as superior to the native traditions.37. The Romantic period is a great age of all literary genres EXCEPT .A .poetry B. proseC. dramaD. novel38. Romantic writers employ all the following EXCEPT as their poetic materials.A. the commonplaceB. the naturalC. the simpleD. the abstract39. Jane Austen’s view of life is a totally one.A. romanticB. sentimentalC. realisticD. pessimistic40. is NOT the essay written by Charles Lamb.A. Dream ChildrenB. The Praise of Chimney SweepersC. A Bachelor’s Complaint of the Behavior of Married PeopleD. Characters of Shakespeare’s PlaysⅤ. Short-answer questions.1. Explain and comment on the sentence with respect to its function in the novel where it is taken from,” It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”2. To Shelley, what kind of noble qualities does the image of Prometheus unite?3. State briefly the artistic features of Jane Austen.4. Tell about the theme of Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.5. Name five representative essay writers of the romantic period.6. How is Shelly’s Prometheus Unbound different from the traditional Greek interpretation? What is the significance of this difference?7. Tell in a few words the theme of Don Juan.8. Name five of Keats’s immortal odes.9. Name the first and second generations of the Romantic poets.10. Why is Keats, unlike the radical Shelley and Byron, among the active Romantic poets?11. Tell the theme of “Ode to the West Wind”.12. What is the symbolic meaning of “the west wind”?13. Tell about Coleridge’s artistic ide as.Ⅵ. Answer the questions according to the followings passage.Passage 1O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s beingThou from whose unseen presence the leaves deadAre driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thouWho chariot test to their dark wintry bedThe winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,Each like a corpse within its grave, untilThine azure sister of the Spring shall blowHer clarion o’er the dream ing earth, and fill(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)With living hues and odours plain and hill;Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere;Destroyer and preserver ; hear, O hear!Questions:1. What is the title of the poem? Who is the poet?2. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?3. What figures of speech are used? Give examples.4. What do “Pestilence-stricken multitudes” refer to?5. Give examples to illustrate the life and death images employed in this excerpt. Comment briefly on them.6. Why is the West Wind called “Destroyer and preserver”?Passage 2It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, have you hea rd that Netherfield Park is let at last?”Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.“Do not you want to know who has taken it?”cried his wife impatiently.“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”This was invitation enough.“Why, my dear, yo u must know, Mrs., Long says that Netherfied is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”“What is his name?”“Bingley.”“Is he married or single?”“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune four or fi ve thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”“How so? How can it affect them?”“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”“Is that his design in settling here?”“Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”“I can see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party.”“My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be any thing extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.”“In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of.”Questions:7. This excerpt is taken from the novel entitled _______ by_________.8. Comment on the characters of Mr., and Mrs. Bennet.9. What methods are used to depict the character of Mr., and Mrs. Bennet?10. This except is taken from a chapter that has been highly praised as an opening chapter. Do you consider such praise justified? Give reasons for your answer. Passage 3Wherefore, Bees of England, forgeMany a weapon, chain, and scourge,That these stingless drones may spoilThe forced produce of your toil?Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm?Or what is it ye buy so dearWith your pain and with your fear?The seed ye sow, another reaps;The wealth ye find, another keeps;The robes ye weave, another wearsThe arms ye forge, another bears.Sow seed,—but let no tyrant reap;Find wealth,—let no impost or heap;Weave robes,—let not the idle wear;Forge arms,—in your defence to bear.Questions:11. What is the title of the poem this excerpt is taken from?12. Who is the writer of this poem?13. What do “Bees of England” and “these stingless drones” refer to?14. What is the possible theme of this poem?Passage4I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the Milky Way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand say I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced; but theyOut did the sparkling waves in glee;A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company;I gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.Questions:15. What is the recurrent central image in this poem?16. What does the persona feel at the end of the poem?17. Explain “What wealth the show to me had brought”.18. Explain in a few words “that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”.19. This poem is considered by many the most anthologized poem in English literature, and one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth’s poetic beliefs. How is the core manifested?Passage5Fade faraway, dissolve, and quite forgetWhat thou among the leaves hast never known,The weariness, the fever, and the fretHere, where man sit and hear each other groan;Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;Where but to think is to be full of sorrowAnd lead en-eyed despairs,Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow.Away! Away! for I will fly to thee,Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,But on the viewless wings of Poesy,Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:Already with thee! tender is the night,And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays;But here there is no light,Save what from heaven is with the breezes blownThrough verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.Questions:20. Which poem is this excerpt taken from?21. “Tender is the Night” has been taken and used as the title of a novel written by .22. Explain the first stanza of the excerpt.23. What does the poet express in the poem?KeysⅠ. Essay questions.1. In this book, three kinds of motivations of or attitudes towards marriage are presented for manifestation.First, there is marriage merely for fortune, money and social rank. This is to be found in Miss Bingley’s pursuit of Darcy, Lady de Bourgh’sintention to arrange a marriage between her daughter and Darcy, and in Charlotte Lucas’ marriage to Mr. Collins. The snobbery and vanity of the rich and the practicality of the poor gentry women are fully accounted for.The second is the tendency to marry for beauty, attraction and passion regardless of economic conditions or personal merits. This is generally known as “love at first sight”. Typical examp les are found in the marriages of the skeptical Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet who has a beautiful face but an empty head and of their youngest daughter Lydia to the handsome, charming but morally weak and penniless Wickham. The terrible aftermath of such marriage is only too obvious in the marriages of the two generations of the Bennets.Lastly comes the ideal marriage, which is a love match with considerations of the lover’s personal merits and economic conditions. Such perfect happiness is to be found in the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth and that of Mr. Bingley and Jane, although the satisfaction of both the personal and economic conditions like this is really a bit too idealistic.What Jane Austen tries to say is that it is wrong to marry just for money or for beauty, but it is also wrong to marry without consideration of economic conditions.Of the three types, she prefers the last one. And in the last type, she seems to give her particular preference to the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth.2.(1) Expressi veness: Instead of regarding poetry as “a mirror to nature”, theromantics hold that the object of the artist should be the expression of the artist’s emotions, impressions, or beliefs. The role of instinct, intuition, and the feelings of “the heart” is stressed instead of neoclassicists’ emphasis on “the head”, on regularity, uniformity, decorum and imitation of the classical writers.Romantic poets describe poetry as “the spontaneous over flow of powerful feelings”.(2) Imagination: Romantic literature puts great emphasis on the creative functionof imagination, seeing art as a formulation of intuitive, imaginative perceptions that tend to speak a nobler truth than that of fact, logic, or the here and now.(3) Singularity: Romantic poets have a strong love for the remote, the unusual, thestrange, the supernatural, the mysterious, the splendid, the picturesque, and the illogical.(4) Worship of nature: Romantic poets see in nature revelation of truth, the “livinggarment of God”. In their view, the natural world is the dominant influence in changing people’s sensibilities nature to them is a source of mental cleanness and spiritual understanding.(5) Simplicity: Romantic poets tend to turn to the humble people and the everydaylife for subjects employing the commonplace, the natural and the simple as their materials and seeking always to find the absolute, the ideal by transcending the actual. They take to using everyday language spoken by the rustic people as opposed to the poetic diction used by neoclassic writers.(6) The romantic period is an age of poetry with Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge,Byron, Shelley and Keats as the major poets.3. The story centers around the heroine Elizabeth Bennet and the hero FitzwilliamDarcy and a minor couple, her sister Jane and his friend Charles Bingley. The Bennets have five grown-up daughters. They live at Longbourn near London. The marriage prospects of the girls are Mrs. Bennet’s chief concern in life, since under the law of the time the family estate will, on Mr. Benn et’s death, passion to his nearest male relation. Mr. Bingley, a rich bachelor, takes Netherfield Park, an estate near Longbourn, and brings there his friend Darcy. Bingley falls in love with Jane, the oldest Bennet girl. Darcy is attracted to her next sister, the lively and witty Elizabeth, but offends her by his supercilious behavior. He proposes to her but is rejected. Her prejudice against him increases as further misunderstandings arise. Thus Darcy’s pride is pitted against Elizabeth’s prejudice.After many twists and turns, however, things are cleared up, and false pride is humbled and prejudice is dissolved. In the end the two couples are happily united.Pride and Prejudice is generally considered one of the author’s most successful as well as popular works. The plot is very thin, but around it Austen has woven vivid pictures of everyday life of simple country society. The style is lucid and graceful, with touches of humor and mild satire. The conversations are interesting and amusing and immediately bring the characters to life.4. Wordsworth’s deliberate simplicity and refusal to decorate the truth of experience produced a kind of pure and profound poetry which no other poet has ever equaled. In defense of his unconventional theory of poetry Wordswort h wrote a “Preface” to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, which appeared in1800 (actual date of publication, 1801). His premise was that the source of poetic truth was the direct experience of the senses. Poetry, he asserted, originated from “emoti on recollected in tranquility”. Rejecting the contemporary emphasis on form and an intellectual approach that drained poetic writing of strong emotion, he maintained that the。