[Forgotmytea]

Romanticism - well, 'tis not really a point I know much about, but I'll try:

• The Romantic period was from about 1780 - 1830
• Other Romantic poets include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats.
• The main characteristics of Romanticism are:
  
  

  • Idealism

  • Celebration

  • Nature-worship

  • Fascination with mediaeval, supernatural, gothic, etc.

  • Carpe diem (Latin for "seize the day&quot, and celebration.

  • Valuing the senses, and rebelling against the established society and political structures.

• Blake can definetly be seen as adhering to many of these ideas in many of his poems.
• For example, in The Tyger, he rebels against established political ideas (if we read The Tyger as a revolutionary poem).
• Similarly, he saw nature-worship as innocence, and the idea of nature being innocent is prominent in Innocence.
• For example, in Laughing Song, "When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy"
• Another characteristic of Romanticism is a desire for maximum freedom, which Blake was very keen on - he often describes people in Experience as trapped, "mind-forged manacles" "binding with briers my joys and desires", whereas in Innocence they are as free as a bird, "like birds in their nest" (TEG)

I hope this helps in some way! If anyone else has any additional ideas to contribute, that'd be good - Blake and Romanticism is not one of my strongest topics.... :o

-Saruman