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¶ … Romantic ideal in the poetry of William Blake, William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman shares the attitude that the most worthy part of human existence lies in simplicity and deep emotion rather than rational thought. Romanticism is based upon a movement away from the rationality of Enlightenment and the wealth-driven society inspired by Industrialism. This ideal is reflected in the work of the poets mentioned above. To demonstrate this, "The Chimney Sweeper," "Ode: Imitations of Immortality" and "I Sing the Body Electric" from each respective poet are considered.
William Blake
Blake's poetry emphasizes the evils of existing power systems within society, and how these are used to oppress the poor and powerless. This is shown in his poem "The Chimney Sweeper." The little chimney sweeper is representative of the poor and oppressed suffering under the current systems of power. The parents and the church...
The child emphasizes that neither of these entities are aware of the suffering of the chimney sweeper and others like him.
Another interesting element in the poem is the happiness and songs belonging to the chimney sweeper. His unhappiness and misery are products of forces outside of the chimney sweeper, whereas his joy comes from within himself. The misery forced upon him by the clergy, social forces and even God is contrasted by the joy that he finds within himself. This however does not change either the injustice or the misery and physical circumstances imposed by society. It is this dichotomy between rich, supposedly pious people and the poor that is criticized by Blake. He also criticizes the reasoning of those who intellectualize their effort to help the poor, whereas the true fate of the poor is overshadowed. This focus on the evils of social structures and…
Sources
Blake, William. "The Chimney Sweeper."
Whitman, Walt. "I Sing the Body Electric."
Wordsworth, William. "Ode: Imitations of Immortality."
William Wordsworth: A Wordsmith for All Time Harold Bloom in his book Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds says "Wordsworth remains, in the twenty-first century, what he has been these last two hundred years: the inventor of a poetry that has been called, at intervals, Romantic, post Romantic, Modern, and Postmodern, yet essentially is one phenomenon: the replacement of subject matter by the poet's subjectivity" (377). It is
William Wordsworth as the quintessential Romantic poet - a man in love with the idea of a simple life lived close to nature - that we are apt to overlook the fact that his relationship with nature is in fact a somewhat ambivalent one, or at least a complex one. While Wordsworth will always be known for the clarity and undiluted Romanticism of "Tintern Abbey," to assume that his
British and German Romanticism: Revolutionary art, counterrevolutionary politics The Romantic Movement has become part of our cultural consciousness to such a degree that its assumptions regarding the centrality of the individual, its elegiac idealization of the pastoral, and its belief in human spirituality that could not be understood with pure rationality have become associated with the essence of art itself. While the birth of the Romantic movement is associated with the French
" (Hendricks) Truth and culture are therefore seen to be created and destroyed by others for their own ends. In conclusion, the three literary works discussed above are in many respects very different but also indicate certain continuities of intention and discourse between romanticism, modernism and postmodernism. What links them all is the search for reality and truth that exists beneath the facade of everyday life and reality. As we progress
Romantic Lit Romantic notions in Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that occurred during the second half of the 18th century. During this time, a shift from previously established Enlightenment ideals to more natural, emotional, and personal themes was seen. Opposing forces within Romantic literature were Nature and the Self; Nature was seen as the source of goodness and it was through society and civilization that
WILLIAM BLAKE'S MILTON-TRANSFORMATION The great Romantic poet, William Blake, is known for his revolutionary ideas and his fiery attacks on everything he opposed. His work is usually not very complex in nature but since it is connected with the infinite and discusses some imaginary elements, one needs to read his poems more than once to make sense of them. This is exactly what is required when reading Blake's Milton, a poem