Great Narrative Poemsof the Romantic AgeThe Eve of St. Agnes by John KeatsMorte d’Arthur by Lord Alfred TennysonMichael by William WordsworthChristabel by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeThe Haystack in the Floods by William MorrisPeter Grimes by George Crabbe Narrative poetry enjoyed an extraordinary revival during theRomantic period and throughout the Victorian age: almost all the great poets ofthe century made important contributions, many of which are represented in thisanthology.The medieval era had also been an age of narrative verse —Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales stands out, of course, but works like Gawain and theGreen Knight and the great ballads of Scotland and the border country arealmost as impressive in their vividness and artistry. Spenser’s The FaerieQueene and Milton’s Paradise Lost may represent the Renaissance period in England, while we should alsonotice (for example) Pope’s mock-epic The Rape of the Lock from the 18thcentury. Yet the richness of narrative poetry from the 19th centuryremains outstanding. Many of these poets found particularinspiration in the Middle Ages, responding to a world in which life, death andreligion — as well as the supernatural — were invested with a peculiarintensity, passion and significance. The sense of mystery — of ‘romance’ —appealed directly to the Romantic sensibility, reacting as it did to theapparently impersonal rationality of Augustan thought. But each poet respondsdifferently and distinctively: Coleridge emphasizes the struggle between goodand evil, between the Christian and the diabolic; Keats delights in a world ofsensation encompassed by the threat of death; Tennyson depicts the tragicdissolution of a golden age; while Morris stresses the brutality beneath theheraldic charm of ‘medievalism’. John Keats (1795-1821) Keats belongs to the second generation of Romantic poets.During his brief life he matured rapidly as a poet, producing not only theintense, philosophical and richly musical Odes but also a number of fine,narrative poems, of which The Eve of St. Agnes has long been a favorite. Thestory owes something to Romeo and Juliet in its emphasis on young lovethreatened by a family feud, but Keats enriches his tale by creating a powerfulseries of polarities: dreams and reality, youth and age, warmth and cold, lifeand death... Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) Tennyson, after a tentative beginning, became the mostpopular and respected poet of Victorian England. His sensitive nature wasbruised by a painful childhood dominated by domestic strife, and later by thetragically early death of his closest Cambridge friend, Arthur Hallam. Anexquisite musical characterizes his best poetry and evocative power tempered bya conflict between post-Darwinian doubt and a longing to believe. Morted’Arthur movingly dramatizes the passing of a golden age of noble deeds andaspirations, but the tragedy is mitigated by a faith in the future: perhaps theVictorian belief in progress struggling with a deep sense of loss? William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Wordsworth was born, brought up and lived in or near to theLake District. His intention was to write a new kind of poetry which would comecloser to the language and experience of ordinary people, and which would drawits inspiration from the sublime influence of Nature. Michael, written in aplain, blank verse, tells the moving story of a proud, industrious Cumberlandfarmer whose hard-won independence is threatened by the dissolute behavior of his beloved only child. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) Coleridge was born in Devonshire and educated at JesusCollege, Cambridge. His life was in many ways a failure — he failed in love,failed financially, and became helplessly dependent on laudanum (a form ofopium). Yet, especially in his association with Wordsworth, he was a seminalinfluence on the growth of Romanticism in English culture. Their joint publicationof Lyrical Ballads (1798) marked the beginning of a new kind of poetry.Christabel is a fascinating (and unfinished) experiment in which Coleridge usesand unconventional meter to tell a tale of disturbing import: the beautiful andpure Christabel is exposed to the sinister influence of Geraldine, a demonicspirit who, seemingly as fair as Christabel herself, gains access to thelatter’s home and heart, with destructive effect. William Morris (1834-1896) Morris was a man of extraordinary versatility: apart frombeing a poet and pamphleteer, he was also a highly influential designer and aradical thinker. He was profoundly moved and influenced by medieval life andart, but in The Haystack in the Floods, his view of the Middle Ages is surprisinglyblunt and unsentimental, although we feel most powerfully for the dreadfulplight of the lovers, Robert and Jehane. The language is strong and spare, thesituation utterly bleak, its climax terrible. Morris based the poem on anactual incident of the Hundred Years’ War. George Crabbe (1754-1832) Crabbe was born at Aldeburgh, a small fishing port on theSuffolk coast. He spent most of his life as a country parson, but acquired areputation as an original and powerful poet whose work was criticized by somefor its ‘disgusting representations’ — in other words, his attempt to portraysome of the more grimly realistic aspects of rural life. Peter Grimes — a taleof cruelty and horror — brilliantly combines an intense (and highly concrete)evocation of place with profound psychological insight. Notes by Perry Keenlyside