Romanticism
(1790s – 1850s)
William Blake
John Keats
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
William Wordsworth
Historical Context
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Industrial Revolution – increasing urbanisation as
the population moved from the country to the city to
work in factories and other industries.
French Revolution (1789) – political change seemed
a possibility in England with the overthrow of the
French Monarchy.
Enlightenment – the period in the late 17th and early
18th Centuries in which reason, rationality, and the
scientific method was primary.
Romanticism as a Response
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Romanticism was a response to these catalytic events.
By understanding the Romantic world view, you are
able to gain insight into their poetry.
“Politically it [Romanticism] was inspired by the
revolutions in America and France…Emotionally it
expressed an extreme assertion of the self and the value
of the infinite and transcendental. Socially it
championed progressive causes…The stylistic keynote
of Romanticism is intensity, and its watchword is
‘Imagination’”.
(from The Oxford Companion to English Literature ed. Margaret Drabble, 1985)
Form of the Responses
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Music
 Ludwig Van Beethoven,
Felix Mendhelssohn,
Fran Schubert.
Art
 John Constable, William
Turner, Eugene
Delacroix.
Literature
 Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein, the poetry
of William Blake, John
Keats, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, William
Wordsmorth, Percy
Bysse Shelley, Lord
Byron.
Primary Concerns
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
VISIONARY EXPERIENCES: They strongly valued
a personal viewpoint that was often imagnitavie and
visionary.
EMOTIONS: Intense emotional experiences were
very important, such love, death and melancholy.
INNOCENCE: They admired the sense of innocence
found in children.
NATURE: At a time when nature was threatened by
the Industrial Revolution, it acquired great value.
SOCIAL COMMENTARY: They critiqued and
challenged the dominant social values.
William Blake
Poet, Artist, Visionary
Who was William Blake?
“William Blake (1757-1827) was an
English poet, painter and engraver
(printmaker). Largely unrecognised
during his life-time, Blake is now
considered a seminal figure in the
history of both poetry and visuals
arts of the Romantic Age….Although
he only once journeyed farther then
a day’s walk outside London during
his lifetime, he produced a diverse
and symbolically rich corpus, which
embraced ‘imagination’ as the ‘the
body of God’ or ‘Human existence
itself’.”
(<www.wikipedia.org> accessed on 02/06/09)
Songs of Innocence and Experience
ACTIVITY
(5 minute brainstorm activity)
1. What images or symbols represent innocence
to you? Why?
2. How is experience different? Why?
Songs of Innocence and Experience
“Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence
Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two & two in red & blue and green,
Grey headed beadles walked before with wands as white as snow;
Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow.
Oh what a multitude they seemd, those flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own.
The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs:
Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands.
Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among.
Beneath them sit the agéd men wise guardians of the poor.
Then cherish pity; lest you drive an angel from your door.
“London” from Songs of Experience
I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear:
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
CLOSE READING ACTIVITY
1.
2.
Annotate your
copy of each
poem by William
Blake using the 10
Step Analysis
Grid to guide you.
Compare and
contrast Blake’s
presentation of
innocence versus
experience in
these two poems.
Checklist
Have you considered these as you
read Blake’s poetry?
•  Subject Matter
•  Key Ideas (purpose)
•  Tone (emotion/ mood)
•  Techniques
•  Structure
•  Sensory Appeal
•  Language
•  Imagery
•  Rhythm (movement)
•
 Sounds
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HINT 1: Think of the grid like a
mental checklist.
HINT 2: Focus on which
techniques are the most predominant
in the poem?
References
Page, Geoff. 80 Great Poems: From Chaucer to
Now. UNSW Press, 2006.
Stevens, David. Romanticism. (Cambridge
Contexts in Literature). CUP, 2004.
Putner, David. Songs of Innocence and
Experience – William Blake. (York Notes
Advanced), CUP, 2003.