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Assalamualaikum. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Welcome
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back to our hopefully beautiful journey into
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English literature. Today we move, finally we move
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from the Augustan literature, the neoclassicism
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and the rules of the Quran to speak about one of
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the most interesting, one of the most fascinating
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literary movements in England. but also in Europe.
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But our focus is English literature, so we're
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going to be focusing on the romantic poets or
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romanticism or romantic literature in England. So
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far, we have been speaking about poetry in so many
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ways. We've seen how, for example, that men
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dominate poetry. Not because there's something
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wrong with women, but because the way the society
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was treating men and women, we have something
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different here. We've seen how, for example, in
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the Augustan Age, Those people, those poets, those
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great poets like Dryden, Alexander Pope, and other
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poets even like Milton, how they preferred to
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follow a particular etiquette, a particular
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decorum, particular rules in order to write
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particular types of poetry? Before these people
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were preaching what is called the Rules of
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Decorum, we've seen something from Alexander Pope
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from his poem Essay on Criticism, how he was
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saying that poetry has to be methodized because
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these rules were discovered from nature, and
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that's why we have to follow them, to follow, to
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imitate the great ancient poets in order to
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produce poetry. Only John Donne probably was
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writing different poetry. And we've seen how he
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was hated. He was negatively framed in so many
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ways. Now, we move to a group of people who were
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really fed up with the classical or neoclassical
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Augustan way of expressing yourself as a poet. And
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this movement is called Romanticism, Romantic
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Literature, or Romantic Poetry. This is a movement
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that started in the late 18th century, actually
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beginning from The French Revolution. Remember we
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said this before about the 17th, 18th century,
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there were like so many changes taking place. In
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the 18th century, in a way or another, it was
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called the Age of Revolutions. People wanted real
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change, radical change. In America, we have the
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American Revolution. In France, we have the French
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Revolution, in addition to the Industrial
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Revolution and the revolutions in all walks of
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life. But England did not like to change radically
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because After the Commonwealth and the
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restoration, they realized that stability is the
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best thing we could possibly have. However, some
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people said, okay, if we can't do political and
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social changes, real changes, at least we can do a
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revolution in poetry, in literature, and this is
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the romantic poets, basically William Wordsworth
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and Coleridge. So as a movement, the beginnings,
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go to more or less, again these dates are not
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clear cut. It doesn't mean like this is the French
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Revolution, the next day people wake up and they
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find themselves writing different poetry. It's
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gradual, it takes time sometimes. More or less. So
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after the Age of Revolutions was sweeping all
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across America and Europe, England had to do
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something. It didn't do it in politics. It didn't
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do it in other areas. It was literature. And this
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is how I usually focus on this, how literature
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changes lives. how literature changes societies,
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how literature makes us different people,
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hopefully better people, affects us, how it
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influences us positively. And this is true because
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literature addresses the heart and the mind in a
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way or another. It's similar to watching a movie.
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Sometimes you watch a movie and you weep, you cry,
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you feel sorry for something or you decide to
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change something about your behavior. And this is
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the power of literature. So don't undermine the
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fact that It was only a revolution in literature
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in England. So we speak about the two major
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romantic poets, William Wordsworth and his friend,
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his best friend, he's also a romantic poet and
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critic, Samuel Coleridge. So Wordsworth and
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Coleridge. Together, they published a book they
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called The Lyrical Ballads. They called it the
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lyrical palace. And they were writing totally
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radically different poetry from the Augustan
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poetry. Remember, The Age of Reason, The Rules.
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The satire where poetry was basically an elite
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subject matter, elite, highly sophisticated
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language, and it's generally about the court life,
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about the king, the queen, battles, heroism. Here,
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everything changed. We'll talk about this in more
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details today and in the coming classes. When they
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published this book, many people wanted to read
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it, and they sold out. So they had to work on
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another edition and they added a preface. You know
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preface? An introduction to the second edition.
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And this introduction is so significant. In Arabic
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we know, where the introduction could be more
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significant than the book itself in many ways.
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Here the preface is so significant because William
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Wordsworth and Coleridge together in a way or
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another, they defined poetry. They gave us a
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different definition of poetry. And they told us
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poetry has to be one, two, three. I'll talk about
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this in a bit. Okay, so it was later, the same
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book was republished, but there was an extra
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preface, introduction in which they defined poetry
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and they told the people what they were doing. The
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tenets, the fundamentals of Romanticism. Okay, now
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one significant point. is the comparison between
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the Romantics and the Neoclassicists or the
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Augustans. When I say the Neoclassicists or the
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Augustans or the Age of Reason, think of Dryden,
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think of Samuel Johnson, and think of Alexander
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Pope. You know, the couplets, the rules of
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decorum, the subject matter that has to be a
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particular issue. Some people say, The Romantics
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were almost the very opposite of the Augustan Age.
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This is true. But we have to be careful, again.
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This is true, but we need to be careful because we
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don't want to give the impression that the
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romantics were writing poetry only to oppose and
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contrast the Augustans. No. They had their own
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idea of what poetry means. So what did they
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change? Number one, what is poetry? In the past,
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poetry was following the rules of decorum to speak
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about an important issue in the society using
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important, highly sophisticated language. But now,
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for the romantics, poetry is an expression of
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feelings. Poetry is the overflow, this is part of
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the definition, the overflow of emotions, of
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powerful emotions.
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It's the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion.
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In a way, when you ask a romantic poet, why do you
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write poetry? He's not going to tell you, I'm
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writing poetry to teach and delight. I'm not
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writing poetry to assert eternal providence and to
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justify the means of God to man or something. I'm
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not writing poetry to teach you how poetry is
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methodized and how poetry is discovered in nature.
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I'm not writing poetry to teach you that a little
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learning is a dangerous thing. No. I'm writing
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poetry to self-express myself. What is poetry?
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Self-expression. And this is beautiful and new and
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revolutionary and different. So why would you
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write poetry? I don't care. In a way, it doesn't
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mean that they didn't care about the audience.
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They did. But more significant than teaching and
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delighting first is to express yourself as an
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individual. As an individual. So what is poetry?
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It's emotions. It's feelings. It's expressing
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powerful emotions and feelings. The overflow of
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powerful emotions.
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What is the language of poetry?
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For the romantics? Highly sophisticated language,
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you know, embellished. We spoke about embellished,
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highly embellished language where you sometimes
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usually you need to check the dictionary to see
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what a particular word means. Oh yeah. So the
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romantics, for the romantics poetry was the common
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Language, or the language of everyday man.
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What does it mean everyday man? Like the language
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we use normally as we speak. And not, no, no, no,
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not slang. General, I don't even want to say
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colloquial. It's poetic still, but you don't go
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for the difficult words. One simple thing, when
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students sometimes come to me and say, I want to
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write poetry. I write poetry. I want to learn how
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to write English poetry. I always tell them, try
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to read something by William Blake. Try to read
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these poems by William Wordsworth because
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sometimes you would read the whole poem and you
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don't even use the dictionary once because you
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know all the words. It doesn't mean it's very
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easy, very simple, no, but they don't go for the
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difficult expressions, for the difficult language,
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the language that only people who go to
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university, they understand. It's a language that
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if you say it to anyone, They will understand.
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We'll take examples in a bit. So poetry is
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different. The language of poetry is different.
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The subject matter in
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the past, remember, was about heroism, about God,
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about Adam, about Eve, about the queen, the fairy
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queen, right? Yes. About paradise lost. So the
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subject matter has always been about generally
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courtly life. And that's why we have courtly love
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poetry about the king and the queen and even about
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Adam and Eve and God and the creation. Mostly
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issues according to the Augustan definition like
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something of importance to the society as a whole.
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But now for the romantics they said no. I can't
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fix the whole society. I can't make one poem
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change the whole society. I can't change one
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person at a time. I can't change an individual at
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a time. So the subject matter is also taken from
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For example, the sick rose, the daffodils, Lucy Gray.
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Who's Lucy Gray? She's not the fairy queen. She's
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an ordinary little girl. The chimney sweeper,
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little lamb, nature, simple people. And what does
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this mean? When you change the language, when you
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break the rules of decorum, you are certainly
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employing new poetic forms. I always like to liken
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John Donne to the romantics in the way he broke
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the rules, in the way he wanted to change so many
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things. But there are different issues. Those
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people were focusing more on feelings, emotions,
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powerful emotions, personal individual
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experiences. We have this in John Donne, but not
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in this particular way. And those people were
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fascinated with nature. Fascinated with nature. So
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like John Donne, the idea, the meaning is more
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important than the rule. And that's why we'll see
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new poetic forms. We'll see long lines, short
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lines. We'll see extra, many extra syllables here
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or there if this is necessary. So like John Donne,
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they would follow the rules unless the rule is
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hindering, is not helping the message, so they
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break the rule of the Koran. How did the
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mainstream predict poetry's move from the Quran?
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That's a very interesting question. When John
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Donne was writing poetry, it was the beginning of
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the Renaissance, the heyday of neoclassicism.
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People were writing poetry imitating horrors of
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people in the past. And John Donne was alone. So
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many people criticized him. But here this came,
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this movement naturally came at the end of an era
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where people in a way or another were tired of the
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same poetry, were fed up with the same poetry
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about the same subject matters. People wanted
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change, wanted things to be different. And now the
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romantics started doing this. So yeah, many people
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were like, oh wow, we like this, we want this.
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especially after the giants were no longer around.
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Dryden was dead. Alexander Pope, I think, was
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dead. They were nowhere to be seen. So sometimes
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you're lucky to be born in a particular age.
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Okay, so important features here. And then for the
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romantics, they focus on the heart, the emotions,
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the feelings. They care more about particular
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feelings rather than the mind and the intellect
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and the age of reason. The Augustan age is called
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the age of reason, where the mind is more
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important, more significant. The heart was
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dangerous, but now for the romantics, the mind is
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dangerous. Meaning feelings and imagination, the
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power of imagination, feelings and imagination are
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above reason and intellect. They were encouraging
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individual people to just depend, rely, express
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themselves, their feelings, rely more on their
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hearts, just release and free their imaginations.
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In the past, you didn't have the freedom to
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express yourself. And by the way, naturally, if
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you want to depend on imagination and feelings,
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naturally, you will break the rules, because
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sometimes the rules would limit your imagination,
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right? When I tell you, for example, write me a
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Shakespearean sonnet about a particular
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experience, you will find yourself tied up. But
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here, the experience, the feelings are more
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important. So you break the rules in order to fit
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your feelings. And nature was the source of
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inspiration. Those people hated the city very
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much. Some people consider romantic poetry to be
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anti-city literature. Can you guess why? They
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hated the city. Remember Marvel? He didn't like
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the city. They hated the city, but in principle,
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Marvel was getting old and tired of politics, so
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he said, okay, I want to go to the countryside and
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enjoy my life because the society is corrupt. When
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we speak about... Yes, please. Countryside
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symbolizes love, nature. Yeah, also purity,
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innocence. Symbolizes trading, maybe money and
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00:18:57,510 --> 00:18:59,890
Europe. Money, corruption, but more than this, we
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have the Industrial Revolution. attracted a lot of
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people from the countryside and the villages to
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work in factories. So many people thought, OK, if
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I go to the city, to London, to work in the town,
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00:19:14,190 --> 00:19:16,530
in the cities, in the factories, I will be rich. I
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will make a lot of money, and I'll be rich. I'll
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improve my life. So people were, in a way, moving
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00:19:21,770 --> 00:19:25,940
in masses. But they ended up being slaves to
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capitalism, to factories. And the factories were
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00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,720
polluting everything. London was one of the most
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polluted cities in the world. There was
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corruption, there was poverty, there was death,
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there was disease. Only very few people, the
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00:19:41,820 --> 00:19:44,700
owners, the rich people were getting richer, but
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the poor were still getting poorer. The ordinary
316
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:51,500
people would only take the bare minimum just to
317
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keep themselves alive so that they can work. And
318
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this destroyed the relationships in the society.
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00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:04,120
It depersonalized human beings. You are no longer
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00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:06,600
a human being. You are no longer a name, a person
321
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,860
with a story, with feelings and emotions. You are
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part of the machine. And that's why They said, OK,
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00:20:15,380 --> 00:20:17,940
nature is our mother. Let's go back to our
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innocence and purity. And this is, by the way,
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00:20:21,420 --> 00:20:24,260
criticized by many people. If there's a problem in
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00:20:24,260 --> 00:20:28,420
your society, you escape. Do you escape? Do you
327
00:20:28,420 --> 00:20:31,080
escape? What do you do if there are a lot of
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00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:35,360
problems in your society? You either face them or
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you just deal with them. Yeah, like you deal with
330
00:20:37,820 --> 00:20:40,380
them or you run away. Now, the romantics, many of
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00:20:40,380 --> 00:20:44,640
them were like, OK, let's go back to nature. They,
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00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:47,160
that's why some people call them escapists. You
333
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:50,540
know escape when you escape, oh sorry, I escaped.
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When you escape here, it's just you don't want to
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deal with the problems at all.
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00:21:00,420 --> 00:21:03,580
So they are escapists, many of them. They just
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00:21:03,580 --> 00:21:07,080
want to leave the trouble behind. But I don't
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think this is accurate because poetry itself is
339
00:21:10,630 --> 00:21:13,470
change. Poetry itself is a revolution. When you
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change individuals and people's ways of life and
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00:21:16,610 --> 00:21:21,530
thinking, I think you can do a lot to real life.
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00:21:21,990 --> 00:21:24,330
So the city was a source of corruption and vices
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and sins. Another feature, childhood is a source
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00:21:29,890 --> 00:21:32,330
of innocence and inspiration. In the past,
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remember all the texts we read before this was
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00:21:36,210 --> 00:21:41,690
about old people, adults. Children were nowhere to
347
00:21:41,690 --> 00:21:43,690
be seen because they were supposed to be
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00:21:43,690 --> 00:21:46,710
controlled, to be educated, to be regulated. But
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00:21:46,710 --> 00:21:48,950
for the romantics, actually William Wordsworth
350
00:21:48,950 --> 00:21:55,190
says the child is the father of man. The child is
351
00:21:55,190 --> 00:21:58,870
the father of man. That's a paradox, right? Why?
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00:22:00,770 --> 00:22:05,150
Is the child the father of man in real life? In
353
00:22:05,150 --> 00:22:08,490
real life, no, literally. But how can,
354
00:22:08,850 --> 00:22:11,030
metaphorically speaking, the child be the father
355
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of man? Please.
356
00:22:16,710 --> 00:22:21,070
Wow, this is an amazing idea. So our childhood
357
00:22:21,070 --> 00:22:24,510
influences the way we grow up, defines us as we
358
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grow up. Wow, that is an amazing idea. But what
359
00:22:27,170 --> 00:22:32,810
else? Can we learn from the kids? Do we learn from
360
00:22:32,810 --> 00:22:37,110
the babies? Do we change? I know a friend of mine
361
00:22:37,110 --> 00:22:43,170
was telling me some time ago that he only really
362
00:22:43,170 --> 00:22:46,150
started appreciating his parents when he had kids.
363
00:22:47,110 --> 00:22:51,470
He then realized that because kids teach us to be
364
00:22:51,470 --> 00:22:54,870
selfless, to give, to love, to care, to work hard.
365
00:22:55,700 --> 00:22:59,520
In many ways. So childhood was significant and a
366
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,240
source of inspiration. So this is basically the
367
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:07,240
major features. We'll come to them again and
368
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:09,380
again, especially when we talk about individual
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00:23:09,380 --> 00:23:13,640
poets. Any question before we move to William
370
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:14,120
Blake?
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00:23:16,780 --> 00:23:20,260
Everything is new, different type of language,
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00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:23,600
subject matters, structures, poetic forms,
373
00:23:24,020 --> 00:23:27,760
inspirations, feelings, hearts, childhood, nature.
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00:23:31,340 --> 00:23:37,380
Any questions? Okay. The first romantic poet is
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00:23:37,380 --> 00:23:41,480
William Blake. Many people describe William Blake
376
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:47,750
as a pre-romantic, because he was writing poetry
377
00:23:47,750 --> 00:23:53,710
this way before even William Wordsworth and Samuel
378
00:23:53,710 --> 00:23:59,350
Coleridge. Now, William Blake, he was born in
379
00:23:59,350 --> 00:24:01,650
London and he lived in London, and this will see
380
00:24:01,650 --> 00:24:04,490
the difference between him and the other poets who
381
00:24:04,490 --> 00:24:06,970
went to the countryside to live in the village,
382
00:24:07,570 --> 00:24:13,230
you know, among natural elements. Two things to
383
00:24:13,230 --> 00:24:17,150
focus here or to focus on. Number one, he has a
384
00:24:17,150 --> 00:24:20,710
particular individual view of the world. And this
385
00:24:20,710 --> 00:24:25,690
individuality is actually a romantic feature. It's
386
00:24:25,690 --> 00:24:28,390
no longer collective. You know the collective
387
00:24:28,390 --> 00:24:33,470
idea? of we must praise God, every individual is
388
00:24:33,470 --> 00:24:36,890
free to do whatever he or she wants to do, as long
389
00:24:36,890 --> 00:24:40,630
as you're following your pure and innocent nature,
390
00:24:41,170 --> 00:24:46,020
your purity, your original pure status. And in his
391
00:24:46,020 --> 00:24:50,080
poetry, we'll see, for example, how this
392
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:53,280
influences his styles and ideas and sensibilities.
393
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:58,480
Everything he writes, in a way, contrasts with the
394
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:01,020
order and control of the Augustans. Again, this is
395
00:25:01,020 --> 00:25:06,100
a romantic feature. You can say a romantic feature
396
00:25:06,100 --> 00:25:11,340
contrasts the order and control of the Augustans.
397
00:25:11,420 --> 00:25:16,120
Who are the Augustans? Remember? Like Dryden, like
398
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:19,080
Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, the
399
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:25,880
neoclassicists. Another feature we'll see in a bit
400
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,720
for William Blake is symbolism. He uses a lot of
401
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:29,140
symbolism.
402
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:36,520
What is a symbol? Yeah, in English, how would you
403
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:41,510
define it? When you use something, to refer to
404
00:25:41,510 --> 00:25:45,970
something else. To inspire a particular idea of
405
00:25:45,970 --> 00:25:48,850
something else. Like how a rose inspires,
406
00:25:49,570 --> 00:25:55,590
symbolizes what? Love, childhood, nature. Now some
407
00:25:55,590 --> 00:25:58,910
of his symbols are clear to understand, easy to
408
00:25:58,910 --> 00:26:00,690
understand. We'll see in a bit. But some of his
409
00:26:00,690 --> 00:26:04,510
symbols are really very personal and not easy to
410
00:26:04,510 --> 00:26:06,030
understand. It doesn't mean like we can't
411
00:26:06,030 --> 00:26:09,450
understand it. It means we can't agree what it
412
00:26:09,450 --> 00:26:14,590
means. We'll see this in a bit. He published two
41
445
00:28:18,070 --> 00:28:20,590
experience. It's about power. Thank you. It's
446
00:28:20,590 --> 00:28:24,590
about mystery. Thank you. And some of his symbols,
447
00:28:24,950 --> 00:28:30,430
especially in his late poems, are really, again, I
448
00:28:30,430 --> 00:28:32,610
don't want to say complex or difficult to
449
00:28:32,610 --> 00:28:37,310
understand, but they don't easily reveal what they
450
00:28:37,310 --> 00:28:40,450
indicate, in the sense that you could read a poem
451
00:28:40,450 --> 00:28:42,230
and we could have ended up with 10
452
00:28:42,230 --> 00:28:46,070
interpretations. So what does the symbol refer to?
453
00:28:46,830 --> 00:28:50,660
It's not clear. It refers to many things. It's
454
00:28:50,660 --> 00:28:54,460
very personal. He uses symbols for the first time
455
00:28:54,460 --> 00:28:58,600
that no one else has used them before. Two
456
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:04,240
examples here for symbolism. Number one, from the
457
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:07,380
lamb, how it symbolizes innocence. In
458
00:29:07,380 --> 00:29:10,640
Christianity, it symbolizes Christ. You know,
459
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,840
Jesus Christ is usually like the shepherd, and we
460
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,850
are like, the people are like the lambs. Little
461
00:29:18,850 --> 00:29:23,330
lamb, look at the poetry. These are difficult
462
00:29:23,330 --> 00:29:28,930
words here. It's like poetry for the kids, but
463
00:29:28,930 --> 00:29:32,430
it's also for us because it addresses this state
464
00:29:32,430 --> 00:29:36,630
of innocence. Little lamb, who made the dust down?
465
00:29:37,010 --> 00:29:40,370
Who created
466
00:29:40,370 --> 00:29:44,760
you? Oh, little lamb. Notice the repetition of
467
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:47,580
the. We have never seen a repetition of the same
468
00:29:47,580 --> 00:29:52,260
word in the previous poetry. Because I think in,
469
00:29:52,420 --> 00:29:54,960
I'm not sure about English. In Arabic, when you
470
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,560
have a poem, you can't repeat the same word at the
471
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:01,900
end of the line, unless you count like seven
472
00:30:01,900 --> 00:30:07,620
lines. So you say, you can't
473
00:30:07,620 --> 00:30:13,560
repeat the word, until you go for seven more lines
474
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,100
and if it shows up again, it's okay. But before
475
00:30:16,100 --> 00:30:19,360
that, it's a sign of weakness. In English,
476
00:30:19,900 --> 00:30:22,200
definitely there's something similar here. But
477
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:26,320
here, it's just a couplet with the same word. And
478
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:28,760
this is why how a romantic poet doesn't care much
479
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:32,740
about the sophistication of the rules as long as
480
00:30:32,740 --> 00:30:36,740
this conveys the message. And yes, this could be a
481
00:30:36,740 --> 00:30:39,240
poem for kids, but it is about simplicity of life.
482
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,820
This is the lamb. Little lamb who made the dust
483
00:30:42,820 --> 00:30:46,030
down, who made the... Even the language, even the
484
00:30:46,030 --> 00:30:49,350
tone, the atmosphere. Very poetic and very
485
00:30:49,350 --> 00:30:53,570
innocent in. However, when he talks about the
486
00:30:53,570 --> 00:30:57,710
tiger as a symbol of experience. Can someone read?
487
00:30:58,870 --> 00:31:02,990
Please. Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forest
488
00:31:02,990 --> 00:31:06,950
of the night. What immortal hand or eye could
489
00:31:06,950 --> 00:31:13,630
frame thy fearful? Fearful. Symmetry. Someone
490
00:31:13,630 --> 00:31:15,570
else, thank you. Hin, please.
491
00:31:21,190 --> 00:31:25,750
Not immoral,
492
00:31:25,930 --> 00:31:26,470
immortal.
493
00:31:32,190 --> 00:31:38,370
Thy fearful, thy meaning your fearful symmetry.
494
00:31:39,090 --> 00:31:44,160
Can you think of a better tone or atmosphere than
495
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,730
this because if you're saying tiger tiger it's
496
00:31:47,730 --> 00:31:50,070
like saying little lamb who made thee but this is
497
00:31:50,070 --> 00:31:53,870
a tiger here can you give it a try please yeah go
498
00:31:53,870 --> 00:31:59,150
on very
499
00:31:59,150 --> 00:32:05,150
good
500
00:32:05,150 --> 00:32:08,210
so i think it's more like this tiger look at the
501
00:32:08,210 --> 00:32:13,630
old writing here tiger tiger burning bright in the
502
00:32:13,630 --> 00:32:18,000
forest of the night What immortal hand or eye
503
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,420
could frame thy fearful symmetry? Even the word
504
00:32:21,420 --> 00:32:27,940
fearful here is part of the tone. The ta-ta, burn
505
00:32:27,940 --> 00:32:31,060
it, taiga, taiga, burning bright. And even the
506
00:32:31,060 --> 00:32:33,820
burning bright. Ta-ta. There is alliteration.
507
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,090
Thank you for seeing this. So he creates the
508
00:32:38,090 --> 00:32:41,370
atmosphere of the whole poem changes, shifts from
509
00:32:41,370 --> 00:32:44,430
innocence of the lamb to the seriousness, the
510
00:32:44,430 --> 00:32:49,570
darkness, the complexity, the experience of the
511
00:32:49,570 --> 00:32:53,530
tiger. If you count the syllables, can we count
512
00:32:53,530 --> 00:32:58,110
the syllables together? Tiger, two, three, four,
513
00:32:58,330 --> 00:33:03,570
five, six, seven, right? So seven syllables. One,
514
00:33:03,690 --> 00:33:08,430
two, three, four, five, six. Seven syllables. One,
515
00:33:08,590 --> 00:33:14,550
two, three, four, five, six, seven. Interesting.
516
00:33:15,510 --> 00:33:22,590
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Symmetry.
517
00:33:24,590 --> 00:33:29,570
Symmetry. Two. Symmetry. Two or three? Three.
518
00:33:33,070 --> 00:33:33,870
Symmetry.
519
00:33:37,540 --> 00:33:40,560
Vowel, vowel, vowel. You can take out this as a
520
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,580
schwa. You can remove the schwa and say it
521
00:33:43,580 --> 00:33:47,480
symmetrically. But it's still going to do the same
522
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:52,860
thing. So this is A. Look at the rhyme scheme. A,
523
00:33:52,920 --> 00:34:00,760
A. I think
524
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:05,260
it's B, B. But it is imperfect.
525
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:14,780
Symmetry is three. Even if you say symmetry, there
526
00:34:14,780 --> 00:34:16,680
is something the poet is doing. Listen, in poetry,
527
00:34:17,240 --> 00:34:19,220
in literature in general, poetry in particular,
528
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:24,100
the poet usually hides, indicates a message or an
529
00:34:24,100 --> 00:34:26,880
idea where he or she creates something called
530
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:30,610
tension. You know tension, something that doesn't
531
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:32,490
fit, something that is different, something that
532
00:34:32,490 --> 00:34:34,950
doesn't follow the norm, the pattern, the rules.
533
00:34:35,590 --> 00:34:38,510
Listen, here we have seven, seven, eight. Why? Why
534
00:34:38,510 --> 00:34:40,990
did he shift from seven, seven, eight? And we have
535
00:34:40,990 --> 00:34:44,090
A, A, perfect rhyme, and then A, B, imperfect
536
00:34:44,090 --> 00:34:48,370
rhyme. So we raise a question here. Why is the
537
00:34:48,370 --> 00:34:51,730
poet doing this? What is he doing? Can someone
538
00:34:51,730 --> 00:34:54,850
tell? Can you guess? Why is he adding an extra
539
00:34:54,850 --> 00:35:00,060
syllable And why is there an imperfect rhyme here?
540
00:35:00,740 --> 00:35:02,720
There is always a reason.
541
00:35:05,820 --> 00:35:09,260
Okay, interesting suspense, like, Oh, what's going
542
00:35:09,260 --> 00:35:12,540
on? Why is this extra here? Maybe we can't count
543
00:35:12,540 --> 00:35:14,880
the extra syllable as we read, but we definitely
544
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:20,160
can feel the imperfect rhyme. I symmetry. Yes,
545
00:35:20,240 --> 00:35:25,900
more. Why? The question is again, why is there an
546
00:35:25,900 --> 00:35:29,380
extra syllable, and an imperfect rhyme here,
547
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:34,580
Shayman. Very good, very interesting answer. He's
548
00:35:34,580 --> 00:35:37,660
not following the rules, simply. But he doesn't
549
00:35:37,660 --> 00:35:40,140
break the rules because he wants to break the
550
00:35:40,140 --> 00:35:45,160
rules. He wants to indicate something. He wants to
551
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:48,740
tell us something. What is he telling us? That's
552
00:35:48,740 --> 00:35:51,220
my question, in a way or another. How?
553
00:36:01,530 --> 00:36:04,990
What does the tiger symbolize, in your opinion?
554
00:36:05,930 --> 00:36:10,590
Power. Power. Yes. Wow. What else? Nature. Nature.
555
00:36:11,290 --> 00:36:16,290
The dark side of nature. What else? The forest.
556
00:36:16,830 --> 00:36:20,310
The forest? Like, tiger, tiger. Seriously, look.
557
00:36:20,670 --> 00:36:25,470
When you go home today, Google image pictures of
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tigers. And look at them. They're really
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00:36:28,050 --> 00:36:31,730
fascinating. Beautiful creatures. How everything
560
00:36:31,730 --> 00:36:36,670
is like a perfect painting. And indeed, when you
561
00:36:36,670 --> 00:36:39,750
look at it, it's perfect. And it's fearful. It
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00:36:39,750 --> 00:36:46,490
creates this, whoa, whoa. So in my opinion, the
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00:36:46,490 --> 00:36:51,090
tiger could symbolize the Industrial Revolution.
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00:36:53,260 --> 00:36:56,380
or the machines, or the factories, or the city
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00:36:56,380 --> 00:36:59,860
itself. The city sounds... When you look at the
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00:36:59,860 --> 00:37:02,860
city from afar, maybe you hate a particular city,
567
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:05,280
but you are in a plane and you look down, they all
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00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,340
sound majestic, magisterial and beautiful. Why
569
00:37:09,340 --> 00:37:11,820
would the poet do this? The irony, I'm not sure if
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00:37:11,820 --> 00:37:14,460
you paid attention to this, the irony is the word
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00:37:14,460 --> 00:37:16,080
symmetry. What's symmetry? What does it mean in
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00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,560
Arabic? Balance. Balance, like perfect, something
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00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:23,390
perfect. And the word symmetry itself is not
574
00:37:23,390 --> 00:37:23,870
symmetrical.
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00:37:26,590 --> 00:37:30,510
The word symmetry breaks the symmetry of the
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00:37:30,510 --> 00:37:33,990
poetry. And that's in a way ironic. How does it
577
00:37:33,990 --> 00:37:38,430
break the symmetry? By the extra syllable and by
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00:37:38,430 --> 00:37:42,300
the imperfect rhyme. In my opinion, I think The
579
00:37:42,300 --> 00:37:44,760
idea I have in mind is that the poet is saying
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00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,560
that if this symbolizes life or the Industrial
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00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:51,400
Revolution, it looks perfect. But in reality,
582
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:54,980
there is something missing. There is a problem
583
00:37:54,980 --> 00:38:00,340
here. There is something lacking here. This is the
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00:38:00,340 --> 00:38:02,540
facade. This is just the appearance. But the
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00:38:02,540 --> 00:38:08,160
essence and the reality, they are lacking. There
586
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:13,340
is something missing here. How does he do it? by
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00:38:13,340 --> 00:38:16,120
playing on the rules, playing on the number of
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00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,720
syllables and the number, the perfect rhyme, the
589
00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:25,500
imperfect rhyme, yeah. One more example from our
590
00:38:25,500 --> 00:38:28,460
friend William Blake. We actually have this one
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00:38:28,460 --> 00:38:31,340
and another one. So let's see quickly. This is a
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00:38:31,340 --> 00:38:34,440
poem, sorry I didn't add this, I was in a rush.
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00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:37,460
The inverted commas, never forget the inverted
594
00:38:37,460 --> 00:38:41,800
commas for the text. The Sick Rose. Look at the
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00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:43,560
title of the poem. It's again and it's a very
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00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,480
short poem. This is the whole poem. It's no longer
597
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,680
a thousand lines, two hundred lines. It's no
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00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:51,860
longer about Adam and Eve and some synagogist and
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00:38:51,860 --> 00:38:56,920
a paradise lost. A Sick Rose. Can someone read
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00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:58,320
here, please?
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00:39:13,540 --> 00:39:19,680
Okay. What's going on here? Do you think there are
602
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:20,920
many difficult words here?
603
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:31,600
Which one? Crimson? It's a color, crimson like red
604
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,840
or pink or something like red. I think other than
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00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,660
this, if you don't know what howling is, and
606
00:39:37,660 --> 00:39:40,220
listen, think of yourself as a native speaker.
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00:39:40,780 --> 00:39:43,340
Even if you are 13 or 14, you will be able to know
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00:39:43,340 --> 00:39:47,680
what crimson is. Storm and howling. So, oh rose,
609
00:39:47,780 --> 00:39:50,400
there's a personification here. Thou means you
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00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:57,340
are, are, are here. Oh rose, thou art sick. The
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00:39:57,340 --> 00:40:00,800
invisible worm, so who are the people, who are the
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00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:04,320
characters in this text? Number one? Rows. Rows,
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00:40:04,420 --> 00:40:07,120
or the rows, because here he says the sick rose,
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00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:11,120
here he says rose. And then there is? A worm. A
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00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:15,460
worm. And this worm is? Invisible. Invisible. And
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00:40:15,460 --> 00:40:20,340
secrecy, darkness, generally not positive. The
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00:40:20,340 --> 00:40:27,620
invisible worm that flies might darkness, In the
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00:40:27,620 --> 00:40:33,040
storm, in the howling storm. Howling storm. Yeah,
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00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:38,660
the sound is there. Has found out thy bed, thy,
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00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:44,120
the rose's bed, your bed, of crimson joy, and his
621
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:52,880
refers to? His? The rose seemingly female. The
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00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:59,110
one, yes? So the rose is personified as a sick
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00:40:59,110 --> 00:41:05,770
human being and also the worm is personified as a
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00:41:05,770 --> 00:41:11,690
woman or a man? A man. His love. Love is good,
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00:41:11,790 --> 00:41:17,310
right? But this is not only secret, but also dark.
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00:41:17,390 --> 00:41:21,750
It's like a horrible person in secrecy at night,
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00:41:21,950 --> 00:41:24,590
in the storm, in the howling storm, invisibly
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00:41:24,590 --> 00:41:30,190
trying to take advantage of the rose, making it
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00:41:30,190 --> 00:41:37,390
sick. And his dark, secret love does thy life,
630
00:41:37,450 --> 00:41:42,090
your life, destroy. That's the poem. What is it
631
00:41:42,090 --> 00:41:45,690
about? What does the rose stand for? Can you
632
00:41:45,690 --> 00:41:50,350
guess? Okay, could be about how life was
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00:43:51,050 --> 00:43:53,810
beautiful and how simple in its language. The
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00:43:53,810 --> 00:43:56,330
features are there. Simplicity, subject matter,
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00:43:56,870 --> 00:43:58,130
nature, imagination.
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00:44:00,670 --> 00:44:03,670
The symbolism, I don't think this is complex.
671
00:44:03,910 --> 00:44:06,590
There are more complex than this. But yeah, there
672
00:44:06,590 --> 00:44:09,810
is symbolism here. This is William, William Blake.
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00:44:10,230 --> 00:44:10,750
Individual.
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00:44:13,610 --> 00:44:17,110
Thank you. As Palestinians here, we could take
675
00:44:17,110 --> 00:44:20,350
this as how colonizers and imperialists, how
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00:44:20,350 --> 00:44:24,390
occupiers come, take everything good, and destroy
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00:44:24,390 --> 00:44:28,330
our lives. Pretend to be good, in love, that we
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00:44:28,330 --> 00:44:31,690
care about you. Thank you. It could be many
679
00:44:31,690 --> 00:44:35,010
things. Okay, in one minute, before I stop here,
680
00:44:35,750 --> 00:44:46,990
can we see the rhyme scheme? Sek. Wam. B, C, I
681
00:44:46,990 --> 00:44:49,190
think this is B but it's still not perfect because
682
00:44:49,190 --> 00:44:54,130
this is torn, this is one, one, has found the eye
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00:44:54,130 --> 00:45:04,000
secret, bed of crimson joy, C, destroy, B. So one
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00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,180
imperfect, and the imperfect works with the one,
685
00:45:06,260 --> 00:45:08,100
because the one is the imperfect that destroys
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00:45:08,100 --> 00:45:10,940
this perfection of the whole thing, disrupts it in
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00:45:10,940 --> 00:45:15,480
a way. If you count the, you're not required to do
688
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:18,160
this, but it's really cool if you start counting
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00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:22,960
the feet, how many feet we have, and the
690
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:24,760
syllables, because in my opinion, there is
691
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,480
something here. So if you say one, two, three,
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00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:33,660
four, five. One, two, three, four. And then one,
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00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:37,900
two, three, four, five, six. See? He doesn't have
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00:45:37,900 --> 00:45:40,260
to follow. Is this poetry? This is beautiful
695
00:45:40,260 --> 00:45:43,210
poetry. But many people will say, no, no, no. This
696
00:45:43,210 --> 00:45:44,650
is not poetry. It's not following the rules. You
697
00:45:44,650 --> 00:45:47,410
have to go for 10 syllables or eight syllables, so
698
00:45:47,410 --> 00:45:50,670
you have four feet or eight feet in a way or
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00:45:50,670 --> 00:45:55,450
another. I think if Alexander Pope or Samuel
700
00:45:55,450 --> 00:45:57,610
Johnson or Dryden were alive, they would be
701
00:45:57,610 --> 00:46:00,430
pulling their hair. They would be acting angry
702
00:46:00,430 --> 00:46:04,130
like they reacted to John Donne. I wanted to have
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00:46:04,130 --> 00:46:06,590
time for this poem, but we can do it next class.
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00:46:07,470 --> 00:46:11,830
Blake's London. Thank you very much and please if
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00:46:11,830 --> 00:46:14,490
you have any questions, do ask.