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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.
