10 Years After

School House Rock
Here are the previously promised answers to the discussion questions I selected on the last British Literature II test:

A2. Family and friends seemed to have been influential and important to John Keats. It is through his letters to his brothers that negative capability appears to be reasoned out and first expressed. John Keats stayed in contact with one brother, George, when he moved to America. In fact, John Keats sent his brother funds when he goes brokoe. His friendship and tutleage under his early schoolmaster's son depicts how Keats engaged in deep friendships. Several key poems of Keats come out of this relationship. Most famous would be "On First Reading Chapman's Homer" after staying up all night together reading Chapman's translation of Homer. Another example of rich friendship is the one between Keats and Leigh Hunt. Hunt, a mediocre poet of comfortable means, realizes the genius which Keats possessed. Hunt introduced Keats to the literary elites of the time - Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Charles Lamb, etc. Hunt also undertook to guide Keats into developing the genius he had. Joseph Severn was an old friend of Keats who took care of him in the last few years of his life, after Keats realized he was dying.

B2. Shelley's hatred of Tyranny is depicted in several poems that we read. "Ozymandias" uses the depiction of ruined statues of Ramses II to illustrate that all tyrants fall, regardless of their power. "England in 1819" uses images of corpulant leeches which are eventually so cloated from the blood of their victims that they fall off without anyone needing to strike them. Shelley also calls George III blind, mad and dying. "A Song: 'Men of England' " called for the weoking lower clas to caste off the upper class. These poems were written after the Manchester Massacre, also known as Peterloo. Sheeley did more than write poetry. As a youth he viisted Ireland to rouse the people to fight for Catholic Emmancipation. He married his first wife to save her from the tyrrany of her father. later in life, while in Italy, he became involved in the Greek fight for independence.

C2. Byron's feat of swimming the Hellespont in imitation of Hero and Leander was amazing. Today this is on par with Olympic swimming. However, for his time it was even more outstanding. For in his time few people, including most sailors, knew how to swim. Byron also showed his physical stature by becoming a soldier. Unlike Coleridge's failed attempt at becoming a dragoon, Byron took to the physical test. Desiring to see Greece become free from the Turks, Byron helped train and supply soldiers.