This module studies the canonical second-generation Romantic poets, John Keats, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, together with some of their lesser-known contemporaries, who were tremendously popular in their day but have since fallen into relative critical neglect, such as the Welsh-identified poet Felicia Hemans, the Irish poet Thomas Moore and the Indian poet Henry Derozio. The module emphasises the importance of poetic analysis as well as the context of early nineteenth-century Romanticism, and provides a relatively broad survey of Romantic poetry, rather than an in-depth study of the work of any one poet. 

You will develop an ability to draw associations between individual works and the movement known as ‘second-generation Romanticism’, exploring Romantic aesthetics, the creative imagination, national identities and cosmopolitan ideals, eroticism, and song. We will also pay close attention to poetic form and metre.

Please note: it is not necessary to have taken SE2450 Introduction to Romantic Poetry to enrol on this module.

• analyse the different themes and forms of Romantic-period poetry
• evaluate the importance of historical and cultural contexts
• combine a range of contextual and critical perspectives to build convincing arguments
• interpret critical issues and key concepts that inform or are raised by the texts

This module will be delivered through a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous activities, as part of this programme’s blended provision, which will include on-campus and online teaching and support.

The precise mode of delivery and details – subject to Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance – of the teaching and support activities will be made available at the start of the semester via Learning Central.

Academic skills: this module will develop skills in close textual analysis, independent scholarly research and critical thinking, while paying attention to questions of poetic form and historical contexts. Assessment will develop skills in poetry analysis and in organizing and evaluating complex ideas with clarity. Analysis will focus on a range of canonical and non-canonical poetic texts by both male and female poets. The module will address the themes of national identity and selfhood, music and song, imagination and transcendence, gender, power, and the social role of poetry, as well as examining the significance of poetic form.   

Employability skills: these include the ability to synthesise information; a critical awareness of how texts generate meaning in a given period; and operating in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas and producing clear, informed arguments. Student-led research will encourage skills of information collation, selection and synthesis. 

The methods of summative assessment for this module are detailed in the table below.

Formative work to be submitted before each summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:
As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period.

Indicative Syllabus:

• Lord Byron and Don Juan (1819–24)
• John Keats’s odes and narrative poetry
• Percy Bysshe Shelley and the imagination
• Felicia Hemans: gender, cosmopolitanism and Welsh Melodies (1822)
• Henry Derozio: India and ‘Brown Romanticism’
• Thomas Moore: Romantic patriotism and Irish Melodies (1808–34)
• John Clare and the ecocritical turn