## Task 2: Romantic poetry

Two iconic romantic poets are William Wordsworth and Samual Taylor Coleridge. Their joint publication of poems in Lyrical Ballads in 1798 is seen as the start of the Romantic Period.

One of the most famous poems by William Wordsworth is I wandered lonely as a cloud. Read this poem in your Poems and Extracts reader. You can click on the video below for a reading of the poem.

Assignment: Wordsworth

- The poet tries to draw a picture of what he has seen during one of his wanderings. However, he does not use factual language. Instead he uses a lot of figurative speech (=beeldspraak). Find at least three examples of this in the poem and try to explain what is meant by the phrases you have chosen.
- What element(s) of poetry in the Romantic Period can you retrace in this particular poem?
- The joy the sight of the daffodils gave him is not something that disappears. It is an experience of lasting value, to be recollected in a moment of peace while lying on his couch. We all have these kind of recollections of something that gave us joy in the past. What happy memory do you sometimes recall when you are on your own in peaceful relaxation?

Assignment: Coleridge

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samual Taylor Coleridge is one of the longest and spookiest poems in British literature. Read the introduction to this poet in your Poem and Extracts reader (page 16)

Coleridge focuses on other elements in his poetry than Wordsworth did.

Before reading the extract from this poem in your Poems and extracts reader, you are going to listen to a song by Iron Maiden, an English heavy metal band formed in the 1970s. Although this music genre might not be your cup of tea, the lyrics of this song is based on the original poem and gives a modern English rendition of the poem's story.

What element(s) of poetry in the Romantic Period can you retrace in this poem by Coleridge?

Now read the extract of the original poem in your Poems and Extracts reader (page 14 + 15) and answer the following questions:

- What elements of the Romantica Period did you discover in this poem?
- What is the attitude of the sailors towards the Ancient Mariner?
- From listening to the Iron Maiden version you know that Death and Life in Death gamble on the Mariner's life. Death wins the crew, while Life in Death wins the Mariner. How does the Mariner's fate compare to that of the rest of the crew? What could be considered worse and why? In your answer refer to the original poem.