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Romanticism and Modern Literature(36151-01)
Midterm Exam
October 30, 2020
Name: Student Number:
I. Explain the impact of "The Napoleonic Wars in Britain" based on the British Library article linked to the introduction page(5)
II. Explain the meaning of the following passage within its poetic context(5)
How the Chimney-sweepers cryEvery blackning Church appalls,And the hapless Soldiers sighRuns in blood down Palace walls
III. Write a short analytical essay on the following passages with the given topics(10*3=30)
III-1. Topic: Blake and the French Revolution
Let the Priests of the Raven of dawn, no longer in deadly black, with hoarse note curse the sons of joy. Nor his accepted brethren, whom, tyrant, he calls free, lay the bound or build the roof. Nor pale religious letchery call that virginity, that wishes but acts not!
For everything that lives is Holy.
III-2. Topic: Nature and Human Life
The sounding cataractHaunted me like a passion: the tall rock,The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,Their colours and their forms, were then to meAn appetite; a feeling and a love,That had no need of a remoter charm,By thought supplied, not any interestUnborrowed from the eye.—That time is past,And all its aching joys are now no more,|And all its dizzy raptures. Not for thisFaint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other giftsHave followed; for such loss, I would believe,Abundant recompense. For I have learnedTo look on nature, not as in the hourOf thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimesThe still sad music of humanity,Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample powerTo chasten and subdue.
III-3. Topic: The Morality of Mourning
"It were a wantonness and would demandSevere reproof, if we were men whose heartsCould hold vain dalliance with the miseryEven of the dead, contented thence to drawA momentary pleasure never markedBy reason, barren of all future good.But we have known that there is often foundIn mournful thoughts, and always might be found,A power to virtue friendly; were't not so,I am a dreamer among men, indeedAn idle dreamer. 'Tis a common tale,By moving accidents uncharactered,A tale of silent suffering, hardly clothedIn bodily form, and to the grosser senseBut ill adapted, scarcely palpableTo him who does not think.
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