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Revision:Blake and Romanticism

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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > English > Blake and Romanticism


Romanticism

  • 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 medieval, supernatural, Gothic, etc.
    • Carpe diem (Latin for "seize the day"), and celebration.
    • Valuing the senses, and rebelling against the established society and political structures.
  • Blake can definitely 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"


Comments

These notes are aimed at A Level English Literature students at A2 level.

Originally written by Forgotmytea on TSR Forums.

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