I need the script for a speech as per the assignment outline using the poems in the era and poems document. Two pdf provide a little more information. No references are needed as it is a speech.
Era Selected: Victorian Poems Selected: The Man He Killed By Thomas Hardy Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have set us down to wet Right many a nipperkin! But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place. I shot him dead because— Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was; That's clear enough; although He thought he'd 'list, perhaps, Off-hand like--just as I-- Was out of work--had sold his traps— No other reason why. Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You'd treat, if met where any bar is, Or help to half a crown. Dover Beach By Matthew Arnold The sea is calm tonight, The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Agean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Victorian Era poetry Victorian Era poetry 1837- 1900 The Victorian Era occurred in England between 1837 and 1900. It was named after Queen Victoria who ruled the Untied Kingdom from 1837 until her death in 1901.The Victorian Era was a period full of changes. Queen Victoria’s reign is considered one of the most prosperous in her time. People in the late 1800s in England (the Victorians) were ruled by Queen Victoria and were influenced by the effects of the Industrial Revolution: � factory towns � mass-produced items � child labour � wealthy industrialists � British Empire � steamships and railways � overstuffed sitting rooms � bric-a-brac, ornaments. � Women wore dresses featuring bustles and high bodices. Common beliefs Belief in: � pious respectability and prudery � scientific enquiry � mass production � God � nature � the sober and practical aspects of life � worldwide commercial leadership � love � that mass production was bad/ugly � mechanisation � hard work � that child labour was acceptable � that working conditions for children and others were unacceptable. The beliefs of many Victorian poets resulted from abandoning the romantic vision of the previous era to concentrate on the sober and practical aspects of life. They believed in: � romantic themes in relation to nature and the medieval era � romantic love � pious respectability and prudery (which few could live up to) � worldwide commercial leadership by Britain. Belief in romance and religion was partly eroded by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and led to troubled romanticism. (Matthew Arnold was a key poet in this style.) Along with the dominance of the scientific world view comes anxiety over the loss of the older, religious outlook. From the time of Lyell onward, many British citizens find it hard to maintain their Christian beliefs. Putting a positive construction upon Darwinian "evolution" sometimes provides them with an alternative vision of progress, but Herbert Spencer's ruthless evolutionary laissez-faire doctrine also interposes itself, especially in America. (http://www.ajdrake.com/e212_sum_04/materials/guides/rom_romvic_character.htm) The beliefs of the Victorian poets fluctuated between: � realism and romanticism � hope and despair � faith and doubt. As a result of these beliefs, some Victorian poets deal with the problems of their era by presenting parables or myths. For example, in narrative poems which reach dramatic climaxes such as Lord Alfred Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott which, it is claimed, deals with the way ordinary needs (work, family responsibilities, and so on) destroy the artist. (Source 31) Websites for research http://mural.uv.es/frando/narra2realismcharac.html http://www.ourwardfamily.com/1800's_britain.htm Victorian poets Early Victorian Era poets Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892) Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson) Tennyson was interested in science and troubled by the developing conflict between scientific thought and religion. His poems were often romantic in spirit. Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. Matthew Arnold has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold) Arnold was a poet, an educator, a classical scholar and one of the most brilliant literary critics of the Victorian era. He was critical of the materialism of nineteenth-century civilisation. Robert Browning (1812–1889) Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning) Browning possessed un-Victorian optimism. Twentieth-century readers often find him a strangely modern poet. His ruggedness and force of verse appeal to the modern reader. Elizabeth Browning (1806–1861) Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning) Elizabeth Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese are her most famous work. They are more personal and intimate than most sonnets. Late Victorian Era poets Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets. His experimental explorations in prosody (especially sprung rhythm) and his use of imagery established him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins) Hopkins had a great and lasting influence on modern poetry. He is seen as an innovator in both forms and style. His poems are mostly religious and crowded with images. Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism* movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic period of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy) Hardy is seen as the ‘first of the moderns’ by many. His verse is terse and rugged. His poems conform to an exact and rigid stanza and rhyme scheme. *Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. It was depicted as a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(literature))