The Romantic poets

The Romantic poets

The lonely poet

Much of today’s view of what a poem should like is down to the influence of a loose affiliation of poets who were composing in the final quarter of the eighteenth century and the first of the nineteenth. The (charicatured) image of a spiritual wanderer profoundly affected by daffodils and nightingales marked a distinct change from the witty epigrams and clever arguments of the Augustan and Metaphysical poets.

Simple words

Using simple daily vocabulary the Romantic poets drew their reader’s attention to vivid natural images and fleeting emotional states, to the experiences of ordinary lives which spoke to them of awesome Nature.

Blake (pictured), Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron and Keats were the most famous of the movement. Their odes and lyrics are in many people’s top ten favourite poems today.

Radicals and revolutionaries

However, the Romantic poets weren’t just inspired by the natural world. Blake and Wordsworth started out as revolutionaries who supported the common people’s bid for freedom in France. Byron later fought for the Greeks in their war of independence. Shelley was a political radical who eschewed conventional social structures like marriage. He lived with the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the first notable feminist. Their poems reflect their ideals.

A window on their world

The Romantics were not ‘apart’ from their society, but fully engaged with it. Which is why it helps to get a window on their world to make better sense of what inspired them. As usual, Crossref-it.info can guide you to what you need to know in a helpful and accessible way. Whether you are reading Wordsworth, Keats or their associates, Context links: The Romantic poets will show you where relevant information is, whilst the complete guide on Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience fills out the picture of that London based poet.

Next week another complete guide to an English poet will arrive on your screens. Watch this space!

Songs of Innocence and Experience - new text guide!

Sorry for a delay in the usual missives. It has been ‘heads down’ time as we get as much ready as possible, to help you do as well as possible, in the forthcoming unmentionables (duh.. exams!).

Poetry help

If you are trying to get to grips with how to identify different styles of poetry – a skill you need for any unseen lit. paper – try checking out the expanding range of articles at www.crossref-it.info > Aspects of literature > Recognising poetic form. In around 300 words each they provide a helpful introduction to some of the standard styles poets have worked within, or adapted to suit their needs.

Songs of Innocence and Experience

Many students will be answering on Blake this summer. Deceptively simple in tone and diction, they actually encompass a range of quite complex themes and ideas. Blake was idiosyncratic in his take on contemporary society, what made humans tick and his understanding of God and faith.

Conventional allusions

It’s not always easy getting to grips with the way poets have drawn on texts like the Bible to convey meaning to their readers. However, over the centuries, and in the face of conventional church teaching, a standard interpretation has arisen. This means that if a writer refers to a shepherd for example, you can be confident that s/he is expecting readers to think of:

• Caring leadership
• Practical concern
• Wise guidance
• Sacrificial love
• The call for sheep to follow

All of the above, linked to the person of Jesus, whom the Bible portrays as a ‘good shepherd’.

An unconventional understanding

Grappling with allusions like these gets trickier when the poet doesn’t use such images conventionally. This is often the case with Blake:

• The Shepherd represents a leader who is alongside, but does not rule his flock
• His care does not repress or direct the sheep but enables them to live fully as sheep
• He is full of praise for them rather than demanding obedience from them
• In fact Blake saw any idea of religious authority as the opposite to his understanding of God, even though it was a consistent theme in the Bible.

The new Crossref-it.info text guide on Songs of Innocence and Experience unpacks each poem without assuming that students know all the background that Blake was referring to. It helps readers see where Blake was in line with his society and where he developed his own unique vision.

If you are starting to revise there are lots of handy questions to focus your notes on, as well as sample essay questions and a worked example.

Meanwhile, best of luck as you get down to the serious stuff!