1 00:00:20,850 --> 00:00:24,290 Assalamualaikum. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Welcome 2 00:00:24,290 --> 00:00:28,610 back to our hopefully beautiful journey into 3 00:00:28,610 --> 00:00:33,470 English literature. Today we move, finally we move 4 00:00:33,470 --> 00:00:38,370 from the Augustan literature, the neoclassicism 5 00:00:38,370 --> 00:00:41,750 and the rules of the Quran to speak about one of 6 00:00:41,750 --> 00:00:44,010 the most interesting, one of the most fascinating 7 00:00:44,010 --> 00:00:48,710 literary movements in England. but also in Europe. 8 00:00:49,010 --> 00:00:51,130 But our focus is English literature, so we're 9 00:00:51,130 --> 00:00:54,770 going to be focusing on the romantic poets or 10 00:00:54,770 --> 00:01:00,070 romanticism or romantic literature in England. So 11 00:01:00,070 --> 00:01:04,170 far, we have been speaking about poetry in so many 12 00:01:04,170 --> 00:01:07,580 ways. We've seen how, for example, that men 13 00:01:07,580 --> 00:01:10,640 dominate poetry. Not because there's something 14 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:13,120 wrong with women, but because the way the society 15 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,340 was treating men and women, we have something 16 00:01:16,340 --> 00:01:19,040 different here. We've seen how, for example, in 17 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,120 the Augustan Age, Those people, those poets, those 18 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,940 great poets like Dryden, Alexander Pope, and other 19 00:01:25,940 --> 00:01:30,700 poets even like Milton, how they preferred to 20 00:01:30,700 --> 00:01:32,600 follow a particular etiquette, a particular 21 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,140 decorum, particular rules in order to write 22 00:01:35,140 --> 00:01:41,430 particular types of poetry? Before these people 23 00:01:41,430 --> 00:01:44,590 were preaching what is called the Rules of 24 00:01:44,590 --> 00:01:47,690 Decorum, we've seen something from Alexander Poppe 25 00:01:47,690 --> 00:01:50,310 from his poem Essay on Criticism, how he was 26 00:01:50,310 --> 00:01:53,290 saying that poetry has to be methodized because 27 00:01:53,290 --> 00:01:57,030 these rules were discovered from nature, and 28 00:01:57,030 --> 00:01:59,410 that's why we have to follow them, to follow, to 29 00:01:59,410 --> 00:02:02,510 imitate the great ancient poets in order to 30 00:02:02,510 --> 00:02:07,450 produce poetry. Only John Donne probably was 31 00:02:07,450 --> 00:02:11,240 writing different poetry. And we've seen how he 32 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:13,960 was hated. He was negatively framed in so many 33 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:17,020 ways. Now, we move to a group of people who were 34 00:02:17,020 --> 00:02:20,340 really fed up with the classical or neoclassical 35 00:02:20,340 --> 00:02:24,320 Augustan way of expressing yourself as a poet. And 36 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:27,520 this movement is called Romanticism, Romantic 37 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,480 Literature, or Romantic Poetry. This is a movement 38 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:37,920 that started in the late 18th century, actually 39 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:43,730 beginning from The French Revolution. Remember we 40 00:02:43,730 --> 00:02:46,530 said this before about the 17th, 18th century, 41 00:02:46,690 --> 00:02:50,390 there were like so many changes taking place. In 42 00:02:50,390 --> 00:02:53,030 the 18th century, in a way or another, it was 43 00:02:53,030 --> 00:02:56,030 called the Age of Revolutions. People wanted real 44 00:02:56,030 --> 00:02:59,490 change, radical change. In America, we have the 45 00:02:59,490 --> 00:03:03,990 American Revolution. In France, we have the French 46 00:03:03,990 --> 00:03:05,870 Revolution, in addition to the Industrial 47 00:03:05,870 --> 00:03:10,110 Revolution and the revolutions in all walks of 48 00:03:10,110 --> 00:03:14,310 life. But England did not like to change radically 49 00:03:14,310 --> 00:03:17,760 because After the Commonwealth and the 50 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,840 restoration, they realized that stability is the 51 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,500 best thing we could possibly have. However, some 52 00:03:24,500 --> 00:03:28,100 people said, okay, if we can't do political and 53 00:03:28,100 --> 00:03:32,000 social changes, real changes, at least we can do a 54 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,520 revolution in poetry, in literature, and this is 55 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,280 the romantic poets, basically William Wordsworth 56 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,480 and Coleridge. So as a movement, the beginnings, 57 00:03:43,510 --> 00:03:46,770 go to more or less, again these dates are not 58 00:03:46,770 --> 00:03:49,830 clear cut. It doesn't mean like this is the French 59 00:03:49,830 --> 00:03:53,070 Revolution, the next day people wake up and they 60 00:03:53,070 --> 00:03:55,030 find themselves writing different poetry. It's 61 00:03:55,030 --> 00:03:59,630 gradual, it takes time sometimes. More or less. So 62 00:03:59,630 --> 00:04:05,190 after the Age of Revolutions was sweeping all 63 00:04:05,190 --> 00:04:08,210 across America and Europe, England had to do 64 00:04:08,210 --> 00:04:10,670 something. It didn't do it in politics. It didn't 65 00:04:10,670 --> 00:04:14,990 do it in other areas. It was literature. And this 66 00:04:14,990 --> 00:04:19,450 is how I usually focus on this, how literature 67 00:04:19,450 --> 00:04:23,660 changes lives. how literature changes societies, 68 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:26,400 how literature makes us different people, 69 00:04:26,740 --> 00:04:30,220 hopefully better people, affects us, how it 70 00:04:30,220 --> 00:04:33,680 influences us positively. And this is true because 71 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:36,480 literature addresses the heart and the mind in a 72 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,480 way or another. It's similar to watching a movie. 73 00:04:40,580 --> 00:04:43,600 Sometimes you watch a movie and you weep, you cry, 74 00:04:43,700 --> 00:04:46,400 you feel sorry for something or you decide to 75 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:48,880 change something about your behavior. And this is 76 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:52,500 the power of literature. So don't undermine the 77 00:04:52,500 --> 00:04:56,400 fact that It was only a revolution in literature 78 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:01,220 in England. So we speak about the two major 79 00:05:01,220 --> 00:05:04,900 romantic poets, William Wordsworth and his friend, 80 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:07,440 his best friend, he's also a romantic poet and 81 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,540 critic, Samuel Coleridge. So Wordsworth and 82 00:05:10,540 --> 00:05:13,120 Coleridge. Together, they published a book they 83 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:17,490 called The Lyrical Ballads. They called it the 84 00:05:17,490 --> 00:05:19,670 lyrical palace. And they were writing totally 85 00:05:19,670 --> 00:05:22,630 radically different poetry from the Augustan 86 00:05:22,630 --> 00:05:26,470 poetry. Remember, The Age of Reason, The Rules. 87 00:05:27,410 --> 00:05:31,670 The satire where poetry was basically an elite 88 00:05:31,670 --> 00:05:34,450 subject matter, elite, highly sophisticated 89 00:05:34,450 --> 00:05:38,150 language, and it's generally about the court life, 90 00:05:38,590 --> 00:05:42,490 about the king, the queen, battles, heroism. Here, 91 00:05:42,630 --> 00:05:46,110 everything changed. We'll talk about this in more 92 00:05:46,110 --> 00:05:51,630 details today and in the coming classes. When they 93 00:05:51,630 --> 00:05:54,270 published this book, many people wanted to read 94 00:05:54,270 --> 00:05:57,900 it, and they sold out. So they had to work on 95 00:05:57,900 --> 00:06:02,800 another edition and they added a preface. You know 96 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:08,060 preface? An introduction to the second edition. 97 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,550 And this introduction is so significant. In Arabic 98 00:06:11,550 --> 00:06:14,790 we know, where the introduction could be more 99 00:06:14,790 --> 00:06:17,050 significant than the book itself in many ways. 100 00:06:17,450 --> 00:06:21,550 Here the preface is so significant because William 101 00:06:21,550 --> 00:06:24,810 Wordsworth and Coleridge together in a way or 102 00:06:24,810 --> 00:06:27,410 another, they defined poetry. They gave us a 103 00:06:27,410 --> 00:06:30,810 different definition of poetry. And they told us 104 00:06:30,810 --> 00:06:33,410 poetry has to be one, two, three. I'll talk about 105 00:06:33,410 --> 00:06:39,620 this in a bit. Okay, so it was later, the same 106 00:06:39,620 --> 00:06:42,260 book was republished, but there was an extra 107 00:06:42,260 --> 00:06:47,220 preface, introduction in which they defined poetry 108 00:06:47,220 --> 00:06:51,380 and they told the people what they were doing. The 109 00:06:51,380 --> 00:06:57,160 tenets, the fundamentals of Romanticism. Okay, now 110 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:02,740 one significant point. is the comparison between 111 00:07:02,740 --> 00:07:06,480 the Romantics and the Neoclassicists or the 112 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,360 Augustans. When I say the Neoclassicists or the 113 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:12,700 Augustans or the Age of Reason, think of Dryden, 114 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,460 think of Samuel Johnson, and think of Alexander 115 00:07:15,460 --> 00:07:17,680 Pope. You know, the couplets, the rules of 116 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:21,240 decorum, the subject matter that has to be a 117 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:26,570 particular issue. Some people say, The Romantics 118 00:07:26,570 --> 00:07:31,810 were almost the very opposite of the Augustan Age. 119 00:07:32,690 --> 00:07:36,950 This is true. But we have to be careful, again. 120 00:07:37,650 --> 00:07:41,770 This is true, but we need to be careful because we 121 00:07:41,770 --> 00:07:43,370 don't want to give the impression that the 122 00:07:43,370 --> 00:07:46,730 romantics were writing poetry only to oppose and 123 00:07:46,730 --> 00:07:49,810 contrast the Augustans. No. They had their own 124 00:07:49,810 --> 00:07:53,090 idea of what poetry means. So what did they 125 00:07:53,090 --> 00:07:59,030 change? Number one, what is poetry? In the past, 126 00:07:59,210 --> 00:08:02,450 poetry was following the rules of decorum to speak 127 00:08:02,450 --> 00:08:05,830 about an important issue in the society using 128 00:08:05,830 --> 00:08:10,050 important, highly sophisticated language. But now, 129 00:08:10,630 --> 00:08:13,470 for the romantics, poetry is an expression of 130 00:08:13,470 --> 00:08:20,370 feelings. Poetry is the overflow, this is part of 131 00:08:20,370 --> 00:08:26,390 the definition, the overflow of emotions, of 132 00:08:26,390 --> 00:08:29,750 powerful emotions. 133 00:08:31,750 --> 00:08:35,130 It's the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion. 134 00:08:37,830 --> 00:08:40,890 In a way, when you ask a romantic poet, why do you 135 00:08:40,890 --> 00:08:44,670 write poetry? He's not going to tell you, I'm 136 00:08:44,670 --> 00:08:47,640 writing poetry to teach and delight. I'm not 137 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:50,380 writing poetry to assert eternal providence and to 138 00:08:50,380 --> 00:08:53,260 justify the means of God to man or something. I'm 139 00:08:53,260 --> 00:08:56,460 not writing poetry to teach you how poetry is 140 00:08:56,460 --> 00:08:59,060 methodized and how poetry is discovered in nature. 141 00:08:59,100 --> 00:09:02,860 I'm not writing poetry to teach you that a little 142 00:09:02,860 --> 00:09:06,080 learning is a dangerous thing. No. I'm writing 143 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:10,880 poetry to self-express myself. What is poetry? 144 00:09:11,260 --> 00:09:14,280 Self-expression. And this is beautiful and new and 145 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:16,830 revolutionary and different. So why would you 146 00:09:16,830 --> 00:09:19,050 write poetry? I don't care. In a way, it doesn't 147 00:09:19,050 --> 00:09:20,630 mean that they didn't care about the audience. 148 00:09:20,770 --> 00:09:23,930 They did. But more significant than teaching and 149 00:09:23,930 --> 00:09:26,690 delighting first is to express yourself as an 150 00:09:26,690 --> 00:09:30,870 individual. As an individual. So what is poetry? 151 00:09:31,290 --> 00:09:36,310 It's emotions. It's feelings. It's expressing 152 00:09:36,310 --> 00:09:43,010 powerful emotions and feelings. The overflow of 153 00:09:43,010 --> 00:09:44,350 powerful emotions. 154 00:09:47,050 --> 00:09:48,690 What is the language of poetry? 155 00:09:52,690 --> 00:09:57,170 For the romantics? Highly sophisticated language, 156 00:09:57,390 --> 00:09:59,150 you know, embellished. We spoke about embellished, 157 00:09:59,250 --> 00:10:01,470 highly embellished language where you sometimes 158 00:10:01,470 --> 00:10:03,390 usually you need to check the dictionary to see 159 00:10:03,390 --> 00:10:07,730 what a particular word means. Oh yeah. So the 160 00:10:07,730 --> 00:10:12,030 romantics, for the romantics poetry was the common 161 00:10:13,970 --> 00:10:18,390 Language, or the language of everyday man. 162 00:10:21,930 --> 00:10:25,390 What does it mean everyday man? Like the language 163 00:10:25,390 --> 00:10:29,710 we use normally as we speak. And not, no, no, no, 164 00:10:29,770 --> 00:10:32,330 not slang. General, I don't even want to say 165 00:10:32,330 --> 00:10:36,570 colloquial. It's poetic still, but you don't go 166 00:10:36,570 --> 00:10:40,430 for the difficult words. One simple thing, when 167 00:10:40,430 --> 00:10:43,070 students sometimes come to me and say, I want to 168 00:10:43,070 --> 00:10:45,990 write poetry. I write poetry. I want to learn how 169 00:10:45,990 --> 00:10:49,630 to write English poetry. I always tell them, try 170 00:10:49,630 --> 00:10:53,440 to read something by William Blake. Try to read 171 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,640 these poems by William Wordsworth because 172 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:58,380 sometimes you would read the whole poem and you 173 00:10:58,380 --> 00:11:00,920 don't even use the dictionary once because you 174 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:03,020 know all the words. It doesn't mean it's very 175 00:11:03,020 --> 00:11:06,620 easy, very simple, no, but they don't go for the 176 00:11:06,620 --> 00:11:09,800 difficult expressions, for the difficult language, 177 00:11:10,180 --> 00:11:11,920 the language that only people who go to 178 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:15,300 university, they understand. It's a language that 179 00:11:15,300 --> 00:11:18,840 if you say it to anyone, They will understand. 180 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:22,540 We'll take examples in a bit. So poetry is 181 00:11:22,540 --> 00:11:24,880 different. The language of poetry is different. 182 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:32,180 The subject matter in 183 00:11:32,180 --> 00:11:35,740 the past, remember, was about heroism, about God, 184 00:11:35,820 --> 00:11:38,700 about Adam, about Eve, about the queen, the fairy 185 00:11:38,700 --> 00:11:43,720 queen, right? Yes. About paradise lost. So the 186 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:48,350 subject matter has always been about generally 187 00:11:48,350 --> 00:11:52,450 courtly life. And that's why we have courtly love 188 00:11:52,450 --> 00:11:55,610 poetry about the king and the queen and even about 189 00:11:55,610 --> 00:11:58,990 Adam and Eve and God and the creation. Mostly 190 00:11:58,990 --> 00:12:02,630 issues according to the Augustan definition like 191 00:12:02,630 --> 00:12:05,370 something of importance to the society as a whole. 192 00:12:05,970 --> 00:12:09,320 But now for the romantics they said no. I can't 193 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:12,140 fix the whole society. I can't make one poem 194 00:12:12,140 --> 00:12:14,640 change the whole society. I can't change one 195 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:18,560 person at a time. I can't change an individual at 196 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:22,000 a time. So the subject matter is also taken from 197 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:28,880 common life. Simple and 198 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:31,320 generally about ordinary people. 199 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:42,020 Sometimes, The people take even the title of the 200 00:12:42,020 --> 00:12:45,560 book, the poem. We'll find a poem called, for 201 00:12:45,560 --> 00:12:48,560 example, Chimney Sweeper. Lucy Gray. Who's Lucy 202 00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:53,620 Gray? Is she the queen? Is she a princess? She's a 203 00:12:53,620 --> 00:12:58,280 poor little girl. A poem called Sick Rose. will 204 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:03,120 find a lot of nature. So basically, everything we 205 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:07,260 learned about the Augustans was changed. Poetry is 206 00:13:07,260 --> 00:13:12,800 no longer written in order to please the king or 207 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:15,320 the court or important, highly educated people. 208 00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:18,100 It's to please, to address, to communicate 209 00:13:18,100 --> 00:13:22,070 internal powerful emotions with the masses. with 210 00:13:22,070 --> 00:13:25,330 the individuals, with the individuals. Simple 211 00:13:25,330 --> 00:13:29,510 language, subject matters are taken from ordinary 212 00:13:29,510 --> 00:13:33,290 life, from nature mainly. The romantics were 213 00:13:33,290 --> 00:13:34,970 fascinated with nature. 214 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:40,360 I'll come back to this many times, especially when 215 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:45,720 I talk about William Wordsworth. So the general 216 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,980 features of the romantic poetry, these are very 217 00:13:48,980 --> 00:13:51,500 significant. We have general features for the 218 00:13:51,500 --> 00:13:55,340 whole school, and we have each individual poet has 219 00:13:55,340 --> 00:14:00,120 extra particular features. We'll see William Blake 220 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:03,000 in a bit. So the romantics, number one, they use 221 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:08,520 simple language. And then also simple subject 222 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:11,320 matter from common life, common daily life. For 223 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,980 example, the sick rose, the daffodils, Lucy Gray. 224 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,140 Who's Lucy Gray? She's not the fairy queen. She's 225 00:14:21,140 --> 00:14:25,060 an ordinary little girl. The chimney sweeper, 226 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:32,130 little lamb, nature, simple people. And what does 227 00:14:32,130 --> 00:14:34,590 this mean? When you change the language, when you 228 00:14:34,590 --> 00:14:38,130 break the rules of decorum, you are certainly 229 00:14:38,130 --> 00:14:44,590 employing new poetic forms. I always like to liken 230 00:14:45,850 --> 00:14:48,390 John Donne to the romantics in the way he broke 231 00:14:48,390 --> 00:14:51,210 the rules, in the way he wanted to change so many 232 00:14:51,210 --> 00:14:53,450 things. But there are different issues. Those 233 00:14:53,450 --> 00:14:56,590 people were focusing more on feelings, emotions, 234 00:14:56,790 --> 00:14:58,990 powerful emotions, personal individual 235 00:14:58,990 --> 00:15:01,770 experiences. We have this in John Donne, but not 236 00:15:01,770 --> 00:15:04,030 in this particular way. And those people were 237 00:15:04,030 --> 00:15:09,590 fascinated with nature. Fascinated with nature. So 238 00:15:09,590 --> 00:15:14,330 like John Donne, the idea, the meaning is more 239 00:15:14,330 --> 00:15:16,230 important than the rule. And that's why we'll see 240 00:15:16,230 --> 00:15:19,570 new poetic forms. We'll see long lines, short 241 00:15:19,570 --> 00:15:23,510 lines. We'll see extra, many extra syllables here 242 00:15:23,510 --> 00:15:28,450 or there if this is necessary. So like John Donne, 243 00:15:28,510 --> 00:15:32,860 they would follow the rules unless The rule is 244 00:15:32,860 --> 00:15:36,660 hindering, is not helping the message, so they 245 00:15:36,660 --> 00:15:40,760 break the rule of the Koran. How did the 246 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:43,620 mainstream predict poetry's move from the Quran? 247 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,500 That's a very interesting question. When John 248 00:15:47,500 --> 00:15:50,680 Donne was writing poetry, it was the beginning of 249 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:54,260 the Renaissance, the heyday of neoclassicism. 250 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:56,860 People were writing poetry imitating horrors of 251 00:15:56,860 --> 00:16:01,400 people in the past. And John Donne was alone. So 252 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,300 many people criticized him. But here this came, 253 00:16:04,420 --> 00:16:08,800 this movement naturally came at the end of an era 254 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,800 where people in a way or another were tired of the 255 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,420 same poetry, were fed up with the same poetry 256 00:16:15,420 --> 00:16:17,740 about the same subject matters. People wanted 257 00:16:17,740 --> 00:16:21,860 change, wanted things to be different. And now the 258 00:16:21,860 --> 00:16:24,740 romantics started doing this. So yeah, many people 259 00:16:24,740 --> 00:16:26,920 were like, oh wow, we like this, we want this. 260 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:32,340 especially after the giants were no longer around. 261 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:35,940 Dryden was dead. Alexander Pope, I think, was 262 00:16:35,940 --> 00:16:40,480 dead. They were nowhere to be seen. So sometimes 263 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:45,580 you're lucky to be born in a particular age. 264 00:16:47,130 --> 00:16:51,310 Okay, so important features here. And then for the 265 00:16:51,310 --> 00:16:55,150 romantics, they focus on the heart, the emotions, 266 00:16:55,830 --> 00:16:58,690 the feelings. They care more about particular 267 00:16:58,690 --> 00:17:02,170 feelings rather than the mind and the intellect 268 00:17:02,170 --> 00:17:04,750 and the age of reason. The Augustan age is called 269 00:17:04,750 --> 00:17:08,130 the age of reason, where the mind is more 270 00:17:08,130 --> 00:17:10,630 important, more significant. The heart was 271 00:17:10,630 --> 00:17:13,610 dangerous, but now for the romantics, the mind is 272 00:17:13,610 --> 00:17:18,640 dangerous. Meaning feelings and imagination, the 273 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:22,800 power of imagination, feelings and imagination are 274 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:26,600 above reason and intellect. They were encouraging 275 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:32,140 individual people to just depend, rely, express 276 00:17:32,140 --> 00:17:35,080 themselves, their feelings, rely more on their 277 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:40,150 hearts, just release and free their imaginations. 278 00:17:40,250 --> 00:17:44,330 In the past, you didn't have the freedom to 279 00:17:44,330 --> 00:17:47,210 express yourself. And by the way, naturally, if 280 00:17:47,210 --> 00:17:49,770 you want to depend on imagination and feelings, 281 00:17:49,910 --> 00:17:52,590 naturally, you will break the rules, because 282 00:17:52,590 --> 00:17:56,410 sometimes the rules would limit your imagination, 283 00:17:56,550 --> 00:18:00,970 right? When I tell you, for example, write me a 284 00:18:00,970 --> 00:18:02,830 Shakespearean sonnet about a particular 285 00:18:02,830 --> 00:18:06,450 experience, you will find yourself tied up. But 286 00:18:06,450 --> 00:18:09,150 here, the experience, the feelings are more 287 00:18:09,150 --> 00:18:11,450 important. So you break the rules in order to fit 288 00:18:11,450 --> 00:18:16,210 your feelings. And nature was the source of 289 00:18:16,210 --> 00:18:20,570 inspiration. Those people hated the city very 290 00:18:20,570 --> 00:18:24,470 much. Some people consider romantic poetry to be 291 00:18:24,470 --> 00:18:30,110 anti-city literature. Can you guess why? They 292 00:18:30,110 --> 00:18:33,230 hated the city. Remember Marvel? He didn't like 293 00:18:33,230 --> 00:18:38,290 the city. They hated the city, but in principle, 294 00:18:38,590 --> 00:18:41,150 Marvel was getting old and tired of politics, so 295 00:18:41,150 --> 00:18:43,430 he said, okay, I want to go to the countryside and 296 00:18:43,430 --> 00:18:47,310 enjoy my life because the society is corrupt. When 297 00:18:47,310 --> 00:18:49,450 we speak about... Yes, please. Countryside 298 00:18:49,450 --> 00:18:52,890 symbolizes love, nature. Yeah, also purity, 299 00:18:53,930 --> 00:18:57,510 innocence. Symbolizes trading, maybe money and 300 00:18:57,510 --> 00:18:59,890 Europe. Money, corruption, but more than this, we 301 00:18:59,890 --> 00:19:03,810 have the Industrial Revolution. attracted a lot of 302 00:19:03,810 --> 00:19:06,070 people from the countryside and the villages to 303 00:19:06,070 --> 00:19:10,510 work in factories. So many people thought, OK, if 304 00:19:10,510 --> 00:19:14,070 I go to the city, to London, to work in the town, 305 00:19:14,190 --> 00:19:16,530 in the cities, in the factories, I will be rich. I 306 00:19:16,530 --> 00:19:18,710 will make a lot of money, and I'll be rich. I'll 307 00:19:18,710 --> 00:19:21,770 improve my life. So people were, in a way, moving 308 00:19:21,770 --> 00:19:25,940 in masses. But they ended up being slaves to 309 00:19:25,940 --> 00:19:29,320 capitalism, to factories. And the factories were 310 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,720 polluting everything. London was one of the most 311 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:36,640 polluted cities in the world. There was 312 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:38,280 corruption, there was poverty, there was death, 313 00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:41,820 there was disease. Only very few people, the 314 00:19:41,820 --> 00:19:44,700 owners, the rich people were getting richer, but 315 00:19:44,700 --> 00:19:47,480 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 00:19:51,500 --> 00:19:56,460 keep themselves alive so that they can work. And 318 00:19:56,460 --> 00:19:59,020 this destroyed the relationships in the society. 319 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:04,120 It depersonalized human beings. You are no longer 320 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 322 00:20:09,860 --> 00:20:15,300 part of the machine. And that's why They said, OK, 323 00:20:15,380 --> 00:20:17,940 nature is our mother. Let's go back to our 324 00:20:17,940 --> 00:20:21,380 innocence and purity. And this is, by the way, 325 00:20:21,420 --> 00:20:24,260 criticized by many people. If there's a problem in 326 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 328 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:35,360 problems in your society? You either face them or 329 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:37,820 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 331 00:20:40,380 --> 00:20:44,640 them were like, OK, let's go back to nature. They, 332 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. 334 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:54,260 When you escape here, it's just you don't want to 335 00:20:54,260 --> 00:20:56,420 deal with the problems at all. 336 00:21:00,420 --> 00:21:03,580 So they are escapists, many of them. They just 337 00:21:03,580 --> 00:21:07,080 want to leave the trouble behind. But I don't 338 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:10,630 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 340 00:21:13,470 --> 00:21:16,610 change individuals and people's ways of life and 341 00:21:16,610 --> 00:21:21,530 thinking, I think you can do a lot to real life. 342 00:21:21,990 --> 00:21:24,330 So the city was a source of corruption and vices 343 00:21:24,330 --> 00:21:29,890 and sins. Another feature, childhood is a source 344 00:21:29,890 --> 00:21:32,330 of innocence and inspiration. In the past, 345 00:21:32,790 --> 00:21:36,210 remember all the texts we read before this was 346 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 348 00:21:43,690 --> 00:21:46,710 controlled, to be educated, to be regulated. But 349 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? 352 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 00:22:11,030 --> 00:22:11,690 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 00:22:24,510 --> 00:22:27,170 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 369 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? 371 00:23:16,780 --> 00:23:20,260 Everything is new, different type of language, 372 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. 374 00:23:31,340 --> 00:23:37,380 Any questions? Okay. The first romantic poet is 375 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 Wadsworth 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 413 00:26:14,590 --> 00:26:17,930 collections. The first one is called Songs of 414 00:26:17,930 --> 00:26:22,870 Innocence. Songs of Innocence. Even the name 415 00:26:22,870 --> 00:26:26,950 suggests purity and innocence. And the other one 416 00:26:26,950 --> 00:26:29,910 is Songs of Experience. Experience doesn't 417 00:26:29,910 --> 00:26:31,810 necessarily mean like when you work and have a job 418 00:26:31,810 --> 00:26:33,650 and work for two, three, five years and then you 419 00:26:33,650 --> 00:26:35,770 have a lot of experience. Here it means the 420 00:26:35,770 --> 00:26:39,150 opposite of innocence. It's like corruption in a 421 00:26:39,150 --> 00:26:43,610 way. So most of his poems, you will have the poem 422 00:26:43,610 --> 00:26:48,450 and its contrast, a state of innocence when you 423 00:26:48,450 --> 00:26:50,630 are pure, when you are good, when you are a child. 424 00:26:51,330 --> 00:26:54,270 But for him, innocence is not necessarily for 425 00:26:54,270 --> 00:26:58,110 children. But most children are almost always 426 00:26:58,110 --> 00:27:02,240 innocent. You can grow up. keeping and protecting 427 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:04,760 this state of innocence, and you are still 428 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,500 innocent. But some people will be corrupted by 429 00:27:07,500 --> 00:27:11,720 life, by society, by the city. And he exposes this 430 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:17,760 in the songs of experience. Songs of experience. 431 00:27:17,900 --> 00:27:22,320 Let's see the examples here. So this is taking us 432 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:23,500 back to the symbolism issue. 433 00:27:26,850 --> 00:27:29,450 So, generally, two types of symbols for William 434 00:27:29,450 --> 00:27:33,030 Blake. What are they? Number one, simple, direct 435 00:27:33,030 --> 00:27:39,590 symbols. Simple and? Simple. And direct. Like, you 436 00:27:39,590 --> 00:27:43,050 can see where he's going. Like, for example, he 437 00:27:43,050 --> 00:27:47,110 uses the lamb. You know the little lamb? The lamb? 438 00:27:47,710 --> 00:27:51,890 Yes. Silent B here? Lamb, silent B? Yes, lamb. The 439 00:27:51,890 --> 00:27:54,630 lamb, the little lamb, the little sheep. Yes. What 440 00:27:54,630 --> 00:27:55,390 does it symbolize? 441 00:27:59,090 --> 00:28:04,690 Innocence, purity, simple life, simplicity, right? 442 00:28:05,310 --> 00:28:10,970 But what if the poem is tiger? It's going to be 443 00:28:10,970 --> 00:28:16,270 more. It's about more than simplicity and 444 00:28:16,270 --> 00:28:18,070 innocence. It's about complexity. It's about 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 558 00:36:25,470 --> 00:36:28,050 tigers. And look at them. They're really 559 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 562 00:36:39,750 --> 00:36:46,490 creates this, whoa, whoa. So in my opinion, the 563 00:36:46,490 --> 00:36:51,090 tiger could symbolize the Industrial Revolution. 564 00:36:53,260 --> 00:36:56,380 or the machines, or the factories, or the city 565 00:36:56,380 --> 00:36:59,860 itself. The city sounds... When you look at the 566 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 568 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 570 00:37:11,820 --> 00:37:14,460 you paid attention to this, the irony is the word 571 00:37:14,460 --> 00:37:16,080 symmetry. What's symmetry? What does it mean in 572 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,560 Arabic? Balance. Balance, like perfect, something 573 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. 575 00:37:26,590 --> 00:37:30,510 The word symmetry breaks the symmetry of the 576 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 578 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 580 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,560 that if this symbolizes life or the Industrial 581 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 584 00:38:00,340 --> 00:38:02,540 facade. This is just the appearance. But the 585 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 587 00:38:13,340 --> 00:38:16,120 playing on the rules, playing on the number of 588 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 591 00:38:28,460 --> 00:38:31,340 and another one. So let's see quickly. This is a 592 00:38:31,340 --> 00:38:34,440 poem, sorry I didn't add this, I was in a rush. 593 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 595 00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:43,560 title of the poem. It's again and it's a very 596 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 598 00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:51,860 longer about Adam and Eve and some synagogist and 599 00:38:51,860 --> 00:38:56,920 a paradise lost. A Sick Rose. Can someone read 600 00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:58,320 here, please? 601 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 605 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. 607 00:39:40,780 --> 00:39:43,340 Even if you are 13 or 14, you will be able to know 608 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 610 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:57,340 are, are, are here. Oh rose, thou art sick. The 611 00:39:57,340 --> 00:40:00,800 invisible worm, so who are the people, who are the 612 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:04,320 characters in this text? Number one? Rows. Rows, 613 00:40:04,420 --> 00:40:07,120 or the rows, because here he says the sick rose, 614 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:11,120 here he says rose. And then there is? A worm. A 615 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:15,460 worm. And this worm is? Invisible. Invisible. And 616 00:40:15,460 --> 00:40:20,340 secrecy, darkness, generally not positive. The 617 00:40:20,340 --> 00:40:27,620 invisible worm that flies might darkness, In the 618 00:40:27,620 --> 00:40:33,040 storm, in the howling storm. Howling storm. Yeah, 619 00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:38,660 the sound is there. Has found out thy bed, thy, 620 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 622 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:59,110 one, yes? So the rose is personified as a sick 623 00:40:59,110 --> 00:41:05,770 human being and also the worm is personified as a 624 00:41:05,770 --> 00:41:11,690 woman or a man? A man. His love. Love is good, 625 00:41:11,790 --> 00:41:17,310 right? But this is not only secret, but also dark. 626 00:41:17,390 --> 00:41:21,750 It's like a horrible person in secrecy at night, 627 00:41:21,950 --> 00:41:24,590 in the storm, in the howling storm, invisibly 628 00:41:24,590 --> 00:41:30,190 trying to take advantage of the rose, making it 629 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 destroyed 633 00:41:50,350 --> 00:41:53,950 by the industrial revolution, by the city, the 634 00:41:53,950 --> 00:41:54,750 corruption. 635 00:41:58,150 --> 00:42:01,790 Could be. So life was good, was pure, innocent 636 00:42:01,790 --> 00:42:05,730 until Capitalism and Industrial Revolution. Yes. 637 00:42:08,090 --> 00:42:13,390 Thank you very much. This could be a symbol of 638 00:42:13,390 --> 00:42:16,210 women. It could, by the way, it could be a 639 00:42:16,210 --> 00:42:20,150 particular woman. He knows. Or all women 640 00:42:20,150 --> 00:42:22,190 destroyed. What could be about childhood? 641 00:42:22,470 --> 00:42:25,710 Children. How children are destroyed by life, by 642 00:42:25,710 --> 00:42:30,310 parents, by corruption. Or it could be about a 643 00:42:30,310 --> 00:42:33,010 simple rose. It could be about nature. 644 00:42:36,050 --> 00:42:38,670 One of your friends in another group was saying 645 00:42:38,670 --> 00:42:42,730 that this could also be about women nowadays, 646 00:42:42,890 --> 00:42:47,120 today. I said, how? He said, there are many people 647 00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:50,440 on Facebook, many guys, many dudes, who just go on 648 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,580 Facebook and try to stalk particular girls and 649 00:42:52,580 --> 00:42:55,520 tell her, deceive her, trick her, oh, I like you, 650 00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:57,520 I love you, something, and then they destroy her 651 00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:01,940 life. And then they just disappear. I was like, 652 00:43:02,140 --> 00:43:05,000 hmm, interesting. I'm sure William Blake did not 653 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:10,460 mean this. But as readers here, we can see this 654 00:43:10,460 --> 00:43:14,200 idea in this poem. In my opinion, this poem is 655 00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:17,420 about everything you said. And it's about the 656 00:43:17,420 --> 00:43:20,000 power of imagination. Remember when we read 657 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:22,470 Alexander Pope? The poem was about one thing, 658 00:43:23,910 --> 00:43:26,850 satire. Remember? We had one meaning, one idea, 659 00:43:26,930 --> 00:43:29,850 one interpretation. Don't feel sad for this if a 660 00:43:29,850 --> 00:43:33,030 poem has several interpretations. Because as a 661 00:43:33,030 --> 00:43:36,410 reader or in your exam, you only need to pick one 662 00:43:36,410 --> 00:43:38,470 idea. If you tell me in your exam that I think 663 00:43:38,470 --> 00:43:40,390 this symbolizes nature and you explain it, it's 664 00:43:40,390 --> 00:43:42,370 OK. It's correct. I think this symbolizes 665 00:43:42,370 --> 00:43:46,490 childhood and loss of innocence. Yeah, show me how 666 00:43:46,490 --> 00:43:51,050 in the text. But look at this poem and how 667 00:43:51,050 --> 00:43:53,810 beautiful and how simple in its language. The 668 00:43:53,810 --> 00:43:56,330 features are there. Simplicity, subject matter, 669 00:43:56,870 --> 00:43:58,130 nature, imagination. 670 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. 673 00:44:10,230 --> 00:44:10,750 Individual. 674 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 676 00:44:20,350 --> 00:44:24,390 occupiers come, take everything good, and destroy 677 00:44:24,390 --> 00:44:28,330 our lives. Pretend to be good, in love, that we 678 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 683 00:44:54,130 --> 00:45:04,000 secret, bed of crimson joy, C, destroy, B. So one 684 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 686 00:45:08,100 --> 00:45:10,940 this perfection of the whole thing, disrupts it in 687 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 689 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, 692 00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:33,660 four, five. One, two, three, four. And then one, 693 00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:37,900 two, three, four, five, six. See? He doesn't have 694 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 699 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 703 00:46:04,130 --> 00:46:06,590 time for this poem, but we can do it next class. 704 00:46:07,470 --> 00:46:11,830 Blake's London. Thank you very much and please if 705 00:46:11,830 --> 00:46:14,490 you have any questions, do ask.