Poor John. Shelley loved him, Byron hated him - but John was his own man. He went to Rome before dying, not to admire the art of Rome as stated here in this video - but under doctor's orders to get to a warmer, drier climate because his doctor said another English winter would kill him. His love for his Fanny Brawne is the stuff of legends. Byron did not love women - he only used them - with their permission (an abusive mother and nursemaid had much to do with that), but Keats loved Fanny till the end of his short life. Shelley admired Keats and was friends with him, and when Shelley himself drowned in Italy the following year at the age of 29, they found an open book of poetry by his friend John Keats in his pocket. Byron died 2 years later, 1824, in Greece, at the age of 36, after fighting with the Greeks in their revolution. He died of a fever. The three poets burned excessively bright - and burned out like spent flares within 3 years of each other. Fiction is not half so intense. Remarkable lives. But - poor Harriet - Shelley's first wife and the mother of his first 2 children - could not handle his abandonment and drowned herself in the River Serpentine at the age of 21,, freeing him to wed Mary of Frankenstein fame. Oh, the things we do to each other and to ourselves.
I enjoy this program but they do seem to "print the legend" when given the choice. They probably shouldn't take Coleridge's account of the composition of Kubla Khan at face value, either.
I am from India and want to do PhD in English literature and reading your comment I realized that I don't know actually anything about these poets thanks for writing this ....
@@bandanasharma5356 - I only know so much because I have studied all three lives, but most especially John Keats, for 20 years - and wrote a play on it. I have no ides why I was so drawn, but I was. I studied, "Oblivion" by painter Joseph Severn who accompanied Keats to Rome to be his nursemaid until the end. They lived on the 2nd floor of a building next to "The Spanish Steps" in Rome which is now a Keats and Shelley museum, notwithstanding Shelley never visited there. But the letters that speak of the love Keats had for Fanny and many of his other letters, detail his life as a medical student at Guy's Hospital right to the end of his life. A free version can be found at the Gutenberg Project here www.gutenberg.org/files/35698/35698-h/35698-h.htm. If you wish to spend money, there are all sorts of other books out there on the subject. Less voluminous are the letters of Shelley and Byron - - but you can find them. They don't whitewash history, being written in real time. Best wishes in your study of the great poets. They painted with the beauty of language - something the modern day English writer has largely lost. I think texting on mobiles might have something to do with that :):)
I learned from this video that Byron and Shelley are just lads who wanted to get laid, not holding themselves accountable for their actions, justifying their promiscuity by saying that love is free. Am I missing something here? Have I misunderstood something?
Surprising that they didn't mention that the 'Mary' of Shelley's affair was Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and the grave was that of Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneer of Western 1st wave feminism, and that her father was the great William Godwin.
That's another story. I'm reading Mary Wollstonecraft's 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' at the moment, and I'm typing this on Mary Shelley's birthday. I think in many ways, the women involved with the Shelleys & and the Godwins are more interesting than the men. I'm planning to get a book called Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon that focuses on them in more detail.
Mary Wollstonecraft...@19.15. They talk about Mary Shelley and Percy and her mother's grave. Pay attention in class. Watch the previous episode. They tell all about Mary Shelley. Just saying. No offence meant.
You know this programme has to be good when I’m watching at 3am in the middle of the night having left my girlfriend in bed to hear a critical review about Percy Shelley!
Tell me about it:/ and it was her mother's tombstone indeed.. It's like having sex in your parent's bed. I couldn't avoid the picture in my head of them while doing it; and no, it does not appealing to me in any stretch of imagination. Was he thinking about his mother anyway? Some mother issues in here?
I don't get why you're all so offended by it it is THE symbol of life and death the two main themes in Frankenstein. Sex and life and art, sexuality, freedom everything The Romantics stood for. We all are conceived due to sex, live and then die, why is everyone still so offended by sex and death?
@@anniejane255 the problem here is not with sex. It's about the disgusting act of having sex with a girl on her mother's grave. It seems sick to my mind.
Blake and Keats are true greats. In France, you have the greatest French Romantic poet, Victor Hugo. In addition, Emerson, Whitman, and Dickinson are the three greatest Romantic American poets.
+Anand Venigalla How can you put Keats and Hugo to the same level ?! I'm french and i can say that Hugo had no talent. But Keats... he is the best poet who has ever lived.
@@DuskAndHerEmbrace13 Are you referring to his poetry specifically? His essays are so unlike anything else I’ve ever read. I don’t know much of his poetry, save for The Rhodora, which is an excellent poem by my standards! Those essays of his though, there was something writing through him when he penned those. Mesmerising!
I watched this documentary during English class and I loved it. We were learning about the poets during romanticism and reading some of their poems then we watched a movie about John Keats but don't remember the movie and I want to watch it again.
Disingenuousness. The world of lies that propagates an industrial civilization. Human exceptionalism - Almost everyone is guilty! Thank you, this was excellent to watch.
If you like this, listen to End Of The Night, The Crystal Ship, Waiting For The Sun and Spanish Caravan by The Doors, if you haven't heard them before. You'll love it.
chrish - great point. They haven't heard of Keats, either. I went looking for his house in Hampstead - was literally just around the corner about a one minute walk, and nobody in the shops knew who he was. Nor were they familiar with his poetry ''Ode to a Nightingale,'' ''Ode to a Grecian Urn '' Modern British education, right there. Meanwhile Keats himself knew both Latin and Greek by the time he was 8.
@@Blurb777 honestly it's sad I was born and raised in London and knew NOTHING of it's history until now I am educating myself aged 25. In school in English Literature we were taught James Bond and Of Mice and Men by AMERICAN author John Steinbeck and Sylvia Plath another AMERICAN author, ridiculous. I don't understand why they don't just stick to classic literature of Keats, Shelley, Byron, Shakespeare etc We were never taken to the homes, or graves or taught about our great literature revolutionary history, very strange.
@@anniejane255 - You're right. What is the motive to keep British school children ignorant of their own geniuses? Globalization? Making them ignorant of their own heritage? I don't understand, but it does create a dearth of vital knowledge - on purpose, it would seem. I'm an American but was lucky, in that my English teacher was actually from Wales and a great Keats fan - which is what turned me onto him. I ended up writing a play about Keats, with Shelley and Byron in supporting roles - and they loved it in NY's off Broadway venue -but it didn't quite catch on right there in Highgate where Keats, Shelley and Byron actually drank their pints. One of the reviewers thought I had made up one dinner scene with intense dialogue, when I actually spent a year researching that scene with the actual dialogue taken from diaries and letters of those present who had recorded that very dialogue said at that dinner, calling it "The Immortal Dinner." The critic thought I had made it up because she was not educated in Keats, Shelley and Byron. Oh well. I think it's not too late for British education to catch up with their past geniuses.
i'm sure you guys would be happy to note that many gcse english literature poetry courses now include shelly, byron and shakespeare as well as more modern english poets such as larkin and john cooper clarke
@Dorian Phoenix - Actually, Keats had to learn Latin and Greek by age 8 - part of his curriculum. He may not have been as fluent as Byron, but Byron was born to wealth and was pursued a higher ed. Keats pursued medicine. And if the heckling came from Byron (I've never read anywhere that Keats was heckled for his lack of knowledge of those languages), then the heckling is understandable as Byron actually loathed Keats and his "piss a bed poetry." Shelley was the only kindly link between them for he truly seems to have loved both. Byron had mother issues and overcompensated for his feeling unloved and his history of having been abused both by the cruelty of his mom and the sex abuse of his governess when he was still a young child. Add to that his club foot and one can easily see he had a lot to overcome, his wealth notwithstanding; he thereafter genuinely cared for only a select few - the others he heaped insults upon, one of which was John Keats and his lowly status in life - even though they never actually met. Hunt and Shelley were their only link..
honestly it's sad I was born and raised in London and Sussex England and knew NOTHING of it's history until now I am educating myself aged 25. In school in English Literature we were taught James Bond and Of Mice and Men by AMERICAN author John Steinbeck and Sylvia Plath another AMERICAN author, ridiculous. I don't understand why they don't just stick to classic literature of Keats, Shelley, Byron, Shakespeare etc. We were never taken to the homes, or graves or taught about our great literature radical, revolutionary history of our culture that has changed the way the world thinks, very strange.
20:14 "most innocently..." "Shelly's own intensity of feeling was most important thing, to him. He was relentless in the pursuit of self-gratification and self,-knowledge Woahh
There are a couple of people I have always wished I could go back in time and 'rescue' from their fates. Van Gough is one, Keat's the other, both 'innocents' in many ways, both blessed with deep empathy, genius and tragedy in equal measure.
I just wish the treatment weren't quite so heavy-handed and glum with that funereal music in the background that communicates dread rather than liberation.
He was in danger of being publically lynched had he been found guilty of, or even accused of incest. Maybe you didnt mean to, but the way you put it makes it seem that incest wasnt considered that bad. "Homosexuality was considered even worse" would get your point across, I suggest. Cheeers
Is the presenter Ackroyd himself? He looks a little unhealthy I hope he is still ok. He shared in another documentary that he suffered a heart attack around that time.
That's because it's their lives more than their works that have been assimilated into the lifestyles of people today. Ask the man on the street if they've read Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the answer will probably be no. Ask them if they've heard of free love, atheism and celebrities and they'll say yes.
I think it’s something that is frankly over stated. ‘Whoa man you must have been really high to come up with that’ is just the common opinion these days
Can't help but comment on the semi pro - christian narrative, particularly when describing Byron's escapades, as if the reason he endeavored in his activities was solely because he was godless.
Byron was a self absorbed libertine thinking only with his penis & not about the people he would hurt in the wake of his self-gratification for sex not relationship. I have no respect for self-absorbed egotistic men (or women) no matter how poetically they write about their debauchery. I agree with "testosterone onions" Byron & Shelley have ruined generations of men by romanticizing the image of man as a "rolling stone" taking his pleasure where ever he will, regardless of the lives they ruin.
@@Takuto94 Well, maybe Byron too was somewhat unsound of mind.. (A bit borderline perhaps.) But, it seems that for Byron himself, the fact that he went against convention, against Christianity in those days, was the most important aspect of his poetic works. The fact that Byron himself was unpretentious about his own writing and rather stressed the experiences in life, could account for the interpretation of being godless. But admittedly, the "without a god to give meaning into his existence"-explanation seems a bit blunt to explain Byron's versatility. Then again, his political endeavours may not necessarily have attributed to the "eternity" theme...
@@patriciacombs6289: I do agree with you in the sense that I have troubles too with reuniting Byron and Shelley erotic adventures with the Blake's visions, Wordsworth's ecocriticism, or Keats's odes. Especially in our times, where women's rights and "MeToo" have remained (and have been reinvented) important issues in society. I can't help but feel sorry for Shelley's first wife: there's nothing heroic about leaving a vulnerable woman and you two children for a "purer emotion", only to have her drown herself later out of misery. In addition, the woman who wrote "fanmail" to Byron somewhat remind me of contemporary victims of sexual violence. In the sense that their admiration for an artist was abused and in the sense they were probably spat at by society around them.
It was very important. This was the first time since the Ancient Greeks and Romans that at least some civilized people weren't terrified of going to hell if they thought for themselves. The dethroning, to some extent, of Christianity, in the 18th and 19th C, was hugely important. Ironically, since the Romantics were in rebellion against science, it was Darwin and evolution that had a huge effect on throwing off the yoke of religion. Of course this started with the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries
could someone please tell me if percy's childen by harriet westbrook--Charles and ianthe-- survived to adulthood--they get lost in the shuffle and the bio.'s don't say anything about them....
Hold on, I thought Keats copied Byron... I read in journals that he'd styled his own image on Byron's look. Even though it may be true that Byron didn't reciprocate the idealism in grief that Keats did - Keats definitely styled this idealism on Byron's act of sensation. Am I right? I swear I am.
Shame Shelly and the likes didn't stick around long enough to explore transcendentalism. Writers they may have been, but philosophers they were not, Nietzsche himself decimated these authors.
We are not all romantics or individuals.Very few of us wear the mantle of Shelley Keats Byron and the others.Maybe only a handful.I am one of them.You are not.
56:37 Give me a break. So the chest cavity was gone and the heart fell out? Try to picture this if you will. They reached into the flames and scooped it out unaffected like the rest of the body? A bit to obvious an attempt Im afraid. Poetry and its main flaw. Not exactly distinct from bulls##t. But who knows? It could be true. One thing is for certain , the world likes it to be true. And in the end Legend trumps memoirs. Man is an idiot.
Byron was the most pretentious poet. Keats was more real. Childe Harold is authentic and unpretentious yes, but after that--anything he wrote was on show.
ninxoon30 Yes but Byron's bitchy self-deprecation, in places, can be quite funny, if you're in the mood for it, though I admit it's a bit perverse: Self-satire can be a very uncomfortable mode to go into, even when it's as suave as his. He was also a sharp judge of the character of others, and an eloquent defender of Shelley, next to whom, he said, most men looked like beasts.
James Roach I agree Byron was a great judge of human character, and also an eloquent, loyal defender of his friends. Shelly included. But having read a lot about his bio, I am left with sour taste in my mouth in regards to his character. Had he lived today--he would have been openly Gay, and never pursue boxing as he did. But without question, he was a paradox. The way he treated Lady Carolyn Lamb is so revealing to the man he was, that you will be left with utter disgust. One of his best traits I like about him, and also dislike about him is his love for Gossip! As a history lover, I find his gossip amazingly valuable. But as a human being--it was a bit vulgar and ungentle man like.
+ninxoon30 Byron certainly full of conflict--he used it to create, thank goodness--whatever one thinks of him as a poet---I adore "She Walks in Beauty" its as good as anything Keats or Shelley wrote--intensely lyrical...
Blake was not free from ..god...nor Keats..nor Coleridge...nor Novalis and Goethe...it does a great disservice to ..the romantics..to label it as an atheistic movement.....the same with ..the beats...kerouac’s beatific vision of the beat in beatitude...etc..yes yes...even holy Shelley..visionary angel of adonais and poetic holiness.......
....yes..that first flush of youthful vision..to blossom thru grace into holy holy holy..beatific. grace in adoration of ..Christ within..Jesus the imagination...always follow brother William..shake fruit from the tree...no door shall Be closed to thee....Frater Seraph Be..the Song of Cosmic Man
Who else was sent by their English teacher?
The more I read _Keats_ , The more I value Life and the importance of Living, it's not enough to merely exist.
Poor John. Shelley loved him, Byron hated him - but John was his own man. He went to Rome before dying, not to admire the art of Rome as stated here in this video - but under doctor's orders to get to a warmer, drier climate because his doctor said another English winter would kill him. His love for his Fanny Brawne is the stuff of legends. Byron did not love women - he only used them - with their permission (an abusive mother and nursemaid had much to do with that), but Keats loved Fanny till the end of his short life. Shelley admired Keats and was friends with him, and when Shelley himself drowned in Italy the following year at the age of 29, they found an open book of poetry by his friend John Keats in his pocket. Byron died 2 years later, 1824, in Greece, at the age of 36, after fighting with the Greeks in their revolution. He died of a fever. The three poets burned excessively bright - and burned out like spent flares within 3 years of each other. Fiction is not half so intense. Remarkable lives. But - poor Harriet - Shelley's first wife and the mother of his first 2 children - could not handle his abandonment and drowned herself in the River Serpentine at the age of 21,, freeing him to wed Mary of Frankenstein fame. Oh, the things we do to each other and to ourselves.
thank you for sharing this
I enjoy this program but they do seem to "print the legend" when given the choice. They probably shouldn't take Coleridge's account of the composition of Kubla Khan at face value, either.
I am from India and want to do PhD in English literature and reading your comment I realized that I don't know actually anything about these poets thanks for writing this ....
@@bandanasharma5356 - I only know so much because I have studied all three lives, but most especially John Keats, for 20 years - and wrote a play on it. I have no ides why I was so drawn, but I was. I studied, "Oblivion" by painter Joseph Severn who accompanied Keats to Rome to be his nursemaid until the end. They lived on the 2nd floor of a building next to "The Spanish Steps" in Rome which is now a Keats and Shelley museum, notwithstanding Shelley never visited there. But the letters that speak of the love Keats had for Fanny and many of his other letters, detail his life as a medical student at Guy's Hospital right to the end of his life. A free version can be found at the Gutenberg Project here www.gutenberg.org/files/35698/35698-h/35698-h.htm. If you wish to spend money, there are all sorts of other books out there on the subject. Less voluminous are the letters of Shelley and Byron - - but you can find them. They don't whitewash history, being written in real time.
Best wishes in your study of the great poets. They painted with the beauty of language - something the modern day English writer has largely lost. I think texting on mobiles might have something to do with that :):)
Thanks for.your prompt reply sir....and your guidance.
Of the three poets discussed, Keats is the one the I truly respect the most. As a poet and a person, he was a pure soul : )
I learned from this video that Byron and Shelley are just lads who wanted to get laid, not holding themselves accountable for their actions, justifying their promiscuity by saying that love is free. Am I missing something here? Have I misunderstood something?
He was the best poet of the three in my view and I think also the view of posterity.
@@dan-3268 talk about cheapening Shelley's pursuit of love.
Such a personally tragic life.
@@dan-3268 Moron
These videos are the best on Romanticism on UA-cam. Succinct and sometimes shocking, they convey the spirit of Romanticism with evocative realism.
I respect John Keats as a poet, a person & a man.
I feel inspired after watching this documentary. Thanks for posting.
"this experience would change the course of pizza's life" , thank you, subtitles.
Surprising that they didn't mention that the 'Mary' of Shelley's affair was Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and the grave was that of Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneer of Western 1st wave feminism, and that her father was the great William Godwin.
That's another story. I'm reading Mary Wollstonecraft's 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' at the moment, and I'm typing this on Mary Shelley's birthday. I think in many ways, the women involved with the Shelleys & and the Godwins are more interesting than the men. I'm planning to get a book called Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon that focuses on them in more detail.
Mary Shelley is given considerable consideration in the previous episode - "Nature".
@ Pallavi Sanyal - Even funnier they don't go into the fact Percy is the real author of Frankenstein.
Pallavi Sanyal ...if your watching these videos...you probaly already know that☺
Mary Wollstonecraft...@19.15. They talk about Mary Shelley and Percy and her mother's grave. Pay attention in class. Watch the previous episode. They tell all about Mary Shelley. Just saying. No offence meant.
"he would meet another woman in old some pantless churchyard", thank you yet again, subtitles.
Great vid, btw.
This is a very educative and informative documentry I have ever watched on Romanticism. I love it so much, it is useful for my research.
I totally agree Adewale....
If you haven't seen it, "The Romantic Spirit" is another great one. Some episodes may still be posted on UA-cam.
.. While Wilde is still on my side from my teens to 53 plus.. 📚💙🙏😉
Wonderful documentary , it was written by ackroyd , who is a highly knowledgeable writer and has written many biographies and poetry of his own
You know this programme has to be good when I’m watching at 3am in the middle of the night having left my girlfriend in bed to hear a critical review about Percy Shelley!
i hope you went back to yo girl 😐
6am here
The image of Percy and Mary frick fracking on a tombstone will haunt my mind forever. Don't know if it's a good or bad thing.
Celeste I
Tell me about it:/ and it was her mother's tombstone indeed.. It's like having sex in your parent's bed. I couldn't avoid the picture in my head of them while doing it; and no, it does not appealing to me in any stretch of imagination. Was he thinking about his mother anyway? Some mother issues in here?
I don't get why you're all so offended by it it is THE symbol of life and death the two main themes in Frankenstein. Sex and life and art, sexuality, freedom everything The Romantics stood for. We all are conceived due to sex, live and then die, why is everyone still so offended by sex and death?
@@anniejane255 the problem here is not with sex. It's about the disgusting act of having sex with a girl on her mother's grave. It seems sick to my mind.
@@amulyamishra5745 R u agitated?
I'm inspired to read all the romantic poets.
Blake and Keats are true greats. In France, you have the greatest French Romantic poet, Victor Hugo. In addition, Emerson, Whitman, and Dickinson are the three greatest Romantic American poets.
+Anand Venigalla How can you put Keats and Hugo to the same level ?! I'm french and i can say that Hugo had no talent. But Keats... he is the best poet who has ever lived.
Emerson was shit; would only recommend as an academic curiosity.
@@DuskAndHerEmbrace13 Are you referring to his poetry specifically? His essays are so unlike anything else I’ve ever read. I don’t know much of his poetry, save for The Rhodora, which is an excellent poem by my standards! Those essays of his though, there was something writing through him when he penned those. Mesmerising!
Brilliant!!! Beautifully done!❤
I watched this documentary during English class and I loved it. We were learning about the poets during romanticism and reading some of their poems then we watched a movie about John Keats but don't remember the movie and I want to watch it again.
Bright star ?
Disingenuousness.
The world of lies that propagates an industrial civilization.
Human exceptionalism - Almost everyone is guilty!
Thank you, this was excellent to watch.
This is the best television,realy well done.thanks
I wasn't intending on watching this to be scared- best turn the light on!
indeed, thy dark eyes threw their soft persuasion on my brain
Oh Shelley loved Keats' poems, I love Shelley's, Keats' and Byron's poetry. The romantics were like me, full of passion and love.
Modest like you as well 😂
Interesting choice to show Byron strutting around the woods when he had a club foot that made him limp.
Can´t believe they didn't mention the chapter at the Villa Diodati, that would be enough for a whole documentary itself.
whenever I watch the documenter series, I suddenly remember sherlock holmes series
Herdina Primasanti because England my friend the British lads
If you like this, listen to End Of The Night, The Crystal Ship, Waiting For The Sun and Spanish Caravan by The Doors, if you haven't heard them before. You'll love it.
Brilliant series. Wordsworth is my man...
MY HERO
Excellent
99% of the uk population havent even heard of shelley so how on earth can they claim that their actions are based on his
chrish - great point. They haven't heard of Keats, either. I went looking for his house in Hampstead - was literally just around the corner about a one minute walk, and nobody in the shops knew who he was. Nor were they familiar with his poetry ''Ode to a Nightingale,'' ''Ode to a Grecian Urn '' Modern British education, right there. Meanwhile Keats himself knew both Latin and Greek by the time he was 8.
@@Blurb777 honestly it's sad I was born and raised in London and knew NOTHING of it's history until now I am educating myself aged 25. In school in English Literature we were taught James Bond and Of Mice and Men by AMERICAN author John Steinbeck and Sylvia Plath another AMERICAN author, ridiculous. I don't understand why they don't just stick to classic literature of Keats, Shelley, Byron, Shakespeare etc We were never taken to the homes, or graves or taught about our great literature revolutionary history, very strange.
@@anniejane255 - You're right. What is the motive to keep British school children ignorant of their own geniuses? Globalization? Making them ignorant of their own heritage? I don't understand, but it does create a dearth of vital knowledge - on purpose, it would seem. I'm an American but was lucky, in that my English teacher was actually from Wales and a great Keats fan - which is what turned me onto him. I ended up writing a play about Keats, with Shelley and Byron in supporting roles - and they loved it in NY's off Broadway venue -but it didn't quite catch on right there in Highgate where Keats, Shelley and Byron actually drank their pints. One of the reviewers thought I had made up one dinner scene with intense dialogue, when I actually spent a year researching that scene with the actual dialogue taken from diaries and letters of those present who had recorded that very dialogue said at that dinner, calling it "The Immortal Dinner." The critic thought I had made it up because she was not educated in Keats, Shelley and Byron. Oh well. I think it's not too late for British education to catch up with their past geniuses.
i'm sure you guys would be happy to note that many gcse english literature poetry courses now include shelly, byron and shakespeare as well as more modern english poets such as larkin and john cooper clarke
@Dorian Phoenix - Actually, Keats had to learn Latin and Greek by age 8 - part of his curriculum. He may not have been as fluent as Byron, but Byron was born to wealth and was pursued a higher ed. Keats pursued medicine. And if the heckling came from Byron (I've never read anywhere that Keats was heckled for his lack of knowledge of those languages), then the heckling is understandable as Byron actually loathed Keats and his "piss a bed poetry." Shelley was the only kindly link between them for he truly seems to have loved both. Byron had mother issues and overcompensated for his feeling unloved and his history of having been abused both by the cruelty of his mom and the sex abuse of his governess when he was still a young child. Add to that his club foot and one can easily see he had a lot to overcome, his wealth notwithstanding; he thereafter genuinely cared for only a select few - the others he heaped insults upon, one of which was John Keats and his lowly status in life - even though they never actually met. Hunt and Shelley were their only link..
honestly it's sad I was born and raised in London and Sussex England and knew NOTHING of it's history until now I am educating myself aged 25. In school in English Literature we were taught James Bond and Of Mice and Men by AMERICAN author John Steinbeck and Sylvia Plath another AMERICAN author, ridiculous. I don't understand why they don't just stick to classic literature of Keats, Shelley, Byron, Shakespeare etc. We were never taken to the homes, or graves or taught about our great literature radical, revolutionary history of our culture that has changed the way the world thinks, very strange.
I'm from Sussex too and only recently learned that Shelley was from Horsham - about 5 miles from me!
Who else is here because of ms Coe
Great documentary, although the actor they have playing Coleridge looks more like Wordsworth.
I thought Mr Savage (the actor) was quite groovy
I cried like a madman. thank you :)
I love and respect them all.
Should have touched on Byron's death. In a way, it epitomized Romanticism. Still excellent, though.
Where my Bishop Eustace boys at?
20:14 "most innocently..."
"Shelly's own intensity of feeling was most important thing, to him. He was relentless in the pursuit of self-gratification and self,-knowledge
Woahh
Wow, i didnt realize that when they found Shelleys body that they found a book of John Keats poems on him
Muse Russell23 ,, tbh i thought he was burned,,,,,
excellent
And now you can listen to readings from these great titans of the imagination over on my channel.
I read Lord Dunsany's books in my mid-teens. Quite a Romantic himself.
@@granthurlburt4062 indeed!
There are a couple of people I have always wished I could go back in time and 'rescue' from their fates. Van Gough is one, Keat's the other, both 'innocents' in many ways, both blessed with deep empathy, genius and tragedy in equal measure.
Spoiled by loud and distracting music.
i was looking for charles baudelaire in english..
Uncle Monty!
Nice poem That I like it very much
I just wish the treatment weren't quite so heavy-handed and glum with that funereal music in the background that communicates dread rather than liberation.
+Liz Medina it's goth romance..... get over it
Ahh, the 19th century... When having an incestuous relationship with your half-sister was less bad than allegedly having "homosexual relations"... :')
He was in danger of being publically lynched had he been found guilty of, or even accused of incest. Maybe you didnt mean to, but the way you put it makes it seem that incest wasnt considered that bad. "Homosexuality was considered even worse" would get your point across, I suggest. Cheeers
Is the presenter Ackroyd himself? He looks a little unhealthy I hope he is still ok. He shared in another documentary that he suffered a heart attack around that time.
Can someone sum up this video for me for an assignement?
they spelt separate wrong at 30.45
I noticed the same thing....great minds think alike.
There is a lot of biography information, but not much about their works.
That's because it's their lives more than their works that have been assimilated into the lifestyles of people today. Ask the man on the street if they've read Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the answer will probably be no. Ask them if they've heard of free love, atheism and celebrities and they'll say yes.
Kimbo Chezare The idea is that YOU read the books.
What's the soundtrack ?
Very good series. Why so much blood imagery, though? I'm a bit squeamish - maybe I need a 'trigger alert' ... !
or cyanide.
shut up old ass hag
I think one things we have to address more when we talk about literature, is how much of it is influenced by drugs.
Kublai Khan was the only poem he wrote influenced by opium. It is not considered one of his best.
I think it’s something that is frankly over stated. ‘Whoa man you must have been really high to come up with that’ is just the common opinion these days
Coleridge, 420 before it was cool. Visionary
Can't help but comment on the semi pro - christian narrative, particularly when describing Byron's escapades, as if the reason he endeavored in his activities was solely because he was godless.
Byron was a self absorbed libertine thinking only with his penis & not about the people he would hurt in the wake of his self-gratification for sex not relationship. I have no respect for self-absorbed egotistic men (or women) no matter how poetically they write about their debauchery. I agree with "testosterone onions" Byron & Shelley have ruined generations of men by romanticizing the image of man as a "rolling stone" taking his pleasure where ever he will, regardless of the lives they ruin.
Astute point but not all too relevant to my comment. Thank you for sharing though.
@@Takuto94 Well, maybe Byron too was somewhat unsound of mind.. (A bit borderline perhaps.) But, it seems that for Byron himself, the fact that he went against convention, against Christianity in those days, was the most important aspect of his poetic works. The fact that Byron himself was unpretentious about his own writing and rather stressed the experiences in life, could account for the interpretation of being godless. But admittedly, the "without a god to give meaning into his existence"-explanation seems a bit blunt to explain Byron's versatility. Then again, his political endeavours may not necessarily have attributed to the "eternity" theme...
@@patriciacombs6289: I do agree with you in the sense that I have troubles too with reuniting Byron and Shelley erotic adventures with the Blake's visions, Wordsworth's ecocriticism, or Keats's odes. Especially in our times, where women's rights and "MeToo" have remained (and have been reinvented) important issues in society. I can't help but feel sorry for Shelley's first wife: there's nothing heroic about leaving a vulnerable woman and you two children for a "purer emotion", only to have her drown herself later out of misery. In addition, the woman who wrote "fanmail" to Byron somewhat remind me of contemporary victims of sexual violence. In the sense that their admiration for an artist was abused and in the sense they were probably spat at by society around them.
It was very important. This was the first time since the Ancient Greeks and Romans that at least some civilized people weren't terrified of going to hell if they thought for themselves. The dethroning, to some extent, of Christianity, in the 18th and 19th C, was hugely important. Ironically, since the Romantics were in rebellion against science, it was Darwin and evolution that had a huge effect on throwing off the yoke of religion. Of course this started with the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries
could someone please tell me if percy's childen by harriet westbrook--Charles and ianthe-- survived to adulthood--they get lost in the shuffle and the bio.'s don't say anything about them....
You do not need a god to have an afterlife. There is no death. We are all one .
Hold on, I thought Keats copied Byron... I read in journals that he'd styled his own image on Byron's look. Even though it may be true that Byron didn't reciprocate the idealism in grief that Keats did - Keats definitely styled this idealism on Byron's act of sensation. Am I right? I swear I am.
Dr Jonathan Crane Keats poetry was nothing like that of Byron.Strange comments.
Byron called Keats' work 'piss a bed poetry' very harsh i've always thought.
I can't understand how and why Shelly's actions can be *praised* ?
Cheating on your spouse ! How the fuck is that romantic ?
They were the original middle class ‘you do you’ wankers 😂
You’d probably like T S Elliot and Ezra Pound more - they came later and rejected a lot of this romanticism
@@Goths-On-The-Beach thanks
spoilt by intrusive music
Presenter like a vampire mafia don with a dodgy moustache and 1 hell of a rrrrvoll of his rrrrrrvs
Lol
I am Italian mother tongue and thought that “Colidge” was the correct pronunciation !
Not a Word of Boy George, Steve Strange or Duran Duran!
Joke about New Romantics.
Lol
Shame Shelly and the likes didn't stick around long enough to explore transcendentalism. Writers they may have been, but philosophers they were not, Nietzsche himself decimated these authors.
"The Woyal Institution of Gweat Bwitain"...LOL. Sounds like a Monty Python skit.
We are not all romantics or individuals.Very few of us wear the mantle of Shelley Keats Byron and the others.Maybe only a handful.I am one of them.You are not.
56:37 Give me a break. So the chest cavity was gone and the heart fell out? Try to picture this if you will. They reached into the flames and scooped it out unaffected like the rest of the body? A bit to obvious an attempt Im afraid. Poetry and its main flaw. Not exactly distinct from bulls##t. But who knows? It could be true. One thing is for certain , the world likes it to be true. And in the end Legend trumps memoirs. Man is an idiot.
Great documentary, thanks. But "Keats had discovered the power of empathy. He chose arts over science" -that's a corny line.
hiiia
:)
Byron was the most pretentious poet. Keats was more real. Childe Harold is authentic and unpretentious yes, but after that--anything he wrote was on show.
ninxoon30 Yes but Byron's bitchy self-deprecation, in places, can be quite funny, if you're in the mood for it, though I admit it's a bit perverse: Self-satire can be a very uncomfortable mode to go into, even when it's as suave as his. He was also a sharp judge of the character of others, and an eloquent defender of Shelley, next to whom, he said, most men looked like beasts.
James Roach I agree Byron was a great judge of human character, and also an eloquent, loyal defender of his friends. Shelly included. But having read a lot about his bio, I am left with sour taste in my mouth in regards to his character. Had he lived today--he would have been openly Gay, and never pursue boxing as he did. But without question, he was a paradox. The way he treated Lady Carolyn Lamb is so revealing to the man he was, that you will be left with utter disgust. One of his best traits I like about him, and also dislike about him is his love for Gossip! As a history lover, I find his gossip amazingly valuable. But as a human being--it was a bit vulgar and ungentle man like.
+ninxoon30 Byron certainly full of conflict--he used it to create, thank goodness--whatever one thinks of him as a poet---I adore "She Walks in Beauty" its as good as anything Keats or Shelley wrote--intensely lyrical...
Bitch, have you ever read Don Juan; get the fuck outta here!
wait.. 'secular idolatry?' huh?
Yeah. Idolising people instead of gods.
ah i didn't understand what that meant
bookmark 20:44
Blake was not free from ..god...nor Keats..nor Coleridge...nor Novalis and Goethe...it does a great disservice to ..the romantics..to label it as an atheistic movement.....the same with ..the beats...kerouac’s beatific vision of the beat in beatitude...etc..yes yes...even holy Shelley..visionary angel of adonais and poetic holiness.......
....yes..that first flush of youthful vision..to blossom thru grace into holy holy holy..beatific. grace in adoration of ..Christ within..Jesus the imagination...always follow brother William..shake fruit from the tree...no door shall Be closed to thee....Frater Seraph Be..the Song of Cosmic Man
Metaphysicians all.
ALBERTO ANGELA IS BETTER....ITALY 4VER
Nasty stuff here. No thanks. My heart belongs to God.
The Atheist streak has indeed caused a lot of problems. Interesting to see how much these ideas are around today
Truth is often nastier than the lies we're used to. We must learn to accept truth and focus on ourselves, not a god that doesn't exist
Che documentario di merda
Perché ?
haha perhaps i’m emo
Over dramatized and terrible muzak does disservice to the poets.
Awful
What is?
@@Goths-On-The-Beach I don’t remember
What a corny documentary. It's a disservice to the subject
If you edit out all the god forsaken boring ass poetry in this episode, the remaining footage would be about five minutes long. Very frustrating.
Your complaining about ‘boring ass poetry’ in a documentary about romantic poetry.