They all lived in the lake area of Cumbria, Wordsworth's hometown in the northwest of England for many years, wrote many pastoral poems praising the lakes and mountains, and all had the ideological tendency of "returning to nature". In the Edinburgh Review of August 18 17, their pen pal Francis Jeffrey nicknamed it "lake poets" or "Lakeside School". Byron reduced them to "people by the lake". Generally speaking, Huxiang poets represent the negative romantic tendency, while Devil School represents the positive romantic spirit. The poems of the Lake School poets have made great contributions in the struggle against classicism, and they also have profound attainments in poetic art, but their historical status is far less important than Satan's. They yearned for the French Revolution in their early years, then turned to a conservative position and advocated the restoration of the feudal patriarchal clan system. In literature, * * * opposes the classical tradition, yearns for sentimentalism and praises nature. Deny the realistic urban civilization by recalling the simplicity of the Middle Ages. Among them, Wordsworth's Lyric Ballads became the declaration of English romanticism. His masterpiece is Tinden Abbey. Coleridge's masterpiece is Ode to an Ancient Ship, which is full of mysterious and grotesque colors. Southey's long poem Phantom of the Trial is a flattering work of the British royal family.
The beginning of the British Romantic Movement was marked by a collection of lyric poems published by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798. Wordsworth's preface, written in 1800, became the first artistic declaration of English romanticism. They are also called "Romantic Rebellion" because they rebel against classical traditional laws and advocate romantic artistic techniques. The beginning of the British Romantic Movement was marked by a collection of lyric poems published by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798.
When the negative tendency of the Lake School poets became more and more obvious, young poets Byron and Shelley began to enter the literary world and argue with the Lake School poets. Byron's satirical poem "English Poet and Scottish Critics" written in 1809 not only responded to the attack on Byron's poems by the Edinburgh Review, a publication manipulated by negative romantics, but also severely condemned the negative tendency of the lakeside poets. Byron, Shelley and Keats were called "demons" in the history of literature because they dared to fight against Huxiang poets and were denounced as Satan by British gentlemen.
Generally speaking, Huxiang poets represent the negative romantic tendency, while Satan represents the positive romantic spirit. Although the Lake School poets have made contributions in the struggle against classicism and made great achievements in the art of poetry, their historical position is far less important than Satan's. The main representatives are Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey. Because the three of them once lived in seclusion together in Kundelalan Lake area in northwest England, and lived in two lakes, Grassmill and Windmeier, and praised the lakes and mountains with poems, they were called "Lake Poets".
Wordsworth (1770 ~ 1850) Wordsworth, William, English poet. 1770 was born in Kirkmouth, Cumberland, and died in Domonte on April 23rd, 2008. Lost his mother at the age of eight. Five years later, my father left him again. Relatives and friends sent him to a boarding school near his hometown. 1787 entered Cambridge university, 1790 and 179 1 visited France twice. During this period, she fell in love with the French girl arnett Walloon and had a daughter. 1795 received an annuity from a friend. With the guarantee of life and the possibility of returning to nature, he and his sister Dorothy moved to the countryside. 1797, he met the poet Coleridge, and the following year, both of them published a collection of lyric songs. From 1798 to 1799, he traveled with Coleridge to Germany, where he wrote Picking Dried Fruits, Ruth and Lucy, and began to write an autobiographical poem "Overture". Married Mary Hutchinson on 1802. At this time, I began to pay attention to the sublimation of human spirit in the communication with nature, and found that this theme was actually in line with the traditional religious view, so I converted to religion again. At the same time, it is increasingly conservative in politics.
The golden age of Wordsworth's poetry creation was from 1797 to 1807. As his fame gradually rose, so did his creation. By 1830, his achievements had been widely recognized, and he was named the poet laureate of England in 1843. Because he and Coleridge and other poets often live in the mountainous and lake areas of northwest England, Edinburgh Review 1807+00 in June called them lake poets.
In the early poems "Late Step" and "Essays Collection", the description of nature basically did not exceed the tradition of18th century. However, judging from Lyric Ballads Collection, it broke with the poetic style of18th century, which brought a brand-new style to poetry creation and opened a new era of romantic poetry in the history of English literature. The preface he wrote for the second edition of Lyric Songs is regarded as the declaration of romantic literature. His other works include immortal signs and hermits, a long philosophical poem composed of overture and roaming.
He is a great poetic theorist. Although his main work is only the preface to the second edition of Lyric Songs (1800), that prose contains explosives that can destroy18th century classicism.
Robert southey is the less talented of the three "lakeside poets". Born into a cloth merchant family in Bristol, he was radical when he was young and read the works of Voltaire and Rousseau. When he was studying at Westminster School, he was expelled from the school for writing an article against corporal punishment of students. After entering Oxford University, he became more fascinated by the French Revolution, wrote an epic poem Joan of Arc praising the Revolution, and later planned with Coleridge to establish a utopian society in the forests of America. However, after middle age, Southey's political attitude became very conservative, and he was keen on courting the powerful and became a royal scholar of the rulers, thus winning the title of "Poet Laureate". 182 1 year, he wrote the ode "Phantom of Judgment" as a poet laureate, praising King George III of England who died soon after, and attacking Byron, Shelley and other progressive poets, calling them "demons". Byron wrote a long satirical poem of the same name, which made a hearty mockery of George III and Sao Plug.
Southey wrote several long narrative poems with oriental color and exotic flavor, and also wrote some short poems with medieval style to express his ambition. Although the former has romantic passion and adventure plot, it seems long and artificial; After that, the overall score was not high, but some songs were still readable. The preface written by Wordsworth and Coleridge for the second edition of Lyric Songs and the appendix of the third edition of Poems reflect the artistic thoughts of Hunan poets. On the theme of poetry, they advocate writing about the daily life of the lower class, emphasizing the poet's inner exploration and natural expression of feelings; In the aspect of poetic style, it advocates carrying forward the artistic tradition of folk poetry, adopting folk spoken language and exerting the poet's imagination.
Wordsworth said that poetry must contain strong emotions, which excludes all works suitable for situations and games; Poetry must be written in ordinary and vivid real language, excluding "poetic rhetoric" and cliches; The function of poetry is to enable readers to gain a keen ability to distinguish between good and bad, so as to get rid of "fanatical flood of novels, morbid and stupid German tragedies and boring and exaggerated verse stories"; He believes that poetry is not a matter of course, but "the starting point and ending point of all knowledge are as immortal as the human heart", while the poet is "the strongest defender, supporter and defender of human nature, spreading the friendship and love of the people everywhere". Has such a lofty poetic theory ever existed before? But the theory alone is not convincing enough, and new poems are needed to reflect it!
Lake's theory and practice ended the rule of English classical poetics and played a great role in the reform and development of English poetry. But they denied the social function of poetry, beautified the pastoral life in the Middle Ages, and advocated idealism, Zockerism and mysticism. Take "resignation" as "an eternal part of human nature"; Byron and Shelley criticized this fiercely. Wordsworth, the leading figure of Huxiang poets, experienced great ups and downs-his early ardent yearning for the French Revolution turned into a worship of nature that later disappeared in the landscape, and he achieved epoch-making innovation in poetry art, so that some people called him the first modern poet. Their poetic theory has shaken the rule of English classical poetics and strongly promoted the innovation of English poetry and the development of romantic movement. Therefore, British and American critics call Wordsworth's Lyric Ballads a declaration of British romanticism. Wordsworth's short poems are fresh and his long poems are fresh and profound, which is against neoclassicism and elegance and creates a new romantic poetic style. His sonnets are magnificent, and the overture (1805) is the first time to write autobiographical Growth of a Poet's Mind in verse, which has created a new style in content and art. Wordsworth's poems about nature are beautiful and moving, and one of his outstanding features is full of emotions and scenes. This style is reflected in the author's choice of theme, language, meter, style and vocabulary.
He not only founded this theory, but also personally practiced it. His short book Lyric Ballads, which was co-written with Coleridge, not only started their literary career, but also started the whole romantic poetry movement in Britain. Wordsworth is not a very familiar name for readers in China. Of course, everyone who can read English has read some of his short poems, such as Lonely Maid, but people who don't know English have little impression of his poems. One of the reasons is that his poems are difficult to translate-philosophical poems are more difficult to translate than narrative poems, while Wordsworth's writing is concise and fresh, which is more difficult to translate. The second reason is that he was once rated as the representative of "reactionary romanticism", so many people didn't like him before reading his works. Another reason may be that his poems about nature are not uncommon in China, and his thoughts are similar to those of Laozi and Zhuangzi, so people are not fresh to him. But he is worth reading. In addition to his historical importance, he has many advantages, such as clear writing, but the content is not dull, but often a stroke of genius, seemingly ordinary truth, but combined with a high degree of passion. The French Revolution deeply stimulated him, which made him later write such a famous sentence:
Happiness, living at that dawn,
Young people are like going to heaven!
-"Overture" Chapter 1 1
His landscape poems are extremely humorous, such as: I am like a lonely cloud. His love poems, such as those related to a girl named Lucy, are also extremely sincere and touching, without a line of vulgar words, and write lofty artistic conception with fresh words. He can accurately and clearly express complex and profound thoughts, and the short poems in folk songs are exquisitely written. The application of blank poems has reached a new peak in his hands, and there is a long poem that turns to reason. With this passage, he wrote a long poem "Next to Tintern Abbey", which expressed the comfort and inspiration given to him by nature. Then, after years of operation, he wrote an autobiography "Overture-The Growth of a Poet's Mind", which created a new form of autobiographical poetry. In his sonnets, he carried forward Milton's bold poetic style and wrote high passion with heroic style. 1, a poet of the English Lake Poetry School, refers to1an earlier school in the English Romantic Movement in the 9th century. The main representatives are Wordsworth (1770- 1850), Coleridge (1772- 1834) and Southey (1774- 1843).
The beginning of the British Romantic Movement was marked by a collection of lyric poems published by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798. Wordsworth's preface, written when the poetry anthology was reprinted in 1800, became the artistic program of English romanticism declaring war on classicism. Because they rebelled against the traditional laws of classicism and advocated romantic artistic methods, they also called Huxiang poets "romantic rebels".
At first, lake poets sympathized with the French Revolution. With the deepening of the revolution, they retreated from the fear of the revolution, and then escaped from reality, obsessed with the past, beautified the patriarchal clan system in the Middle Ages, and fantasized about seeking spiritual comfort and sustenance from the ancient feudal society. Southey and Wordsworth were successively named Poets Laureate, and Southey even openly opposed young poets Byron and Shelley.
2. There are similarities in style between the poems of China Huxiang poets and the works of British Romantic Huxiang poets, among which the most distinctive is the poems praising love. In the 1920s, China's love poems once again entered a prosperous period. Before and after the May 4th Movement, under the influence of democracy and scientific concepts, the sleeping China people began to wake up and began to pursue individual liberation and freedom of marriage. The regretful master Gongzi Jun shouted "I am myself, and no one interferes with my rights". The hero of Sinking boldly declared, "I don't want knowledge or fame, all I want is love, and all I ask is the love of the opposite sex". Starting from Zhou Zuoren's Little River and Kang's Out of the Window, the curtain of love poems slowly opened. 1922 In April, Lakeside Society was established in Hangzhou. They wrote more love poems, which showed their courage and passion for freedom of marriage and opposition to feudalism. Four poets, Pan Mohua, Ying Xiuren and Wang Jingzhi, specialize in the creation of love poems, and have successively published poems by the lake and songs of spring, which set off a new upsurge in the creation of love poems during the May 4th Movement.