World Literature 2
Lecture Notes 4
Romanticism Defined
Romanticism was a movement of the 18th and 19th centuries that marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics from the neoclassicism and formality of the 17th century. It may be defined as “liberalism in literature”, meaning especially the freeing of the artist and writer from restraints and rules and suggesting that phase of individualism marked by the encouragement of revolutionary political ideas. Romanticism is the predominance of the imagination over reason and formal rules.
Among the aspects of the romantic movement in English literature, we will focus on the following:
predominance of the imagination over reason and formal rules
love of nature - the most important being that nature is the living garment of God
preference for the simplicity of natural scenery to modern industrialized life
interest in the past, especially the Medieval period
individualism, a reaction against whatever characterized Neo-Classicism
encouragement of revolutionary political ideas
interest in the common man and human rights
sympathy with animal life and children
interest in the idea of democracy
The Romantic movement in English poetry is said to have begun in 1798 with the publication of The Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. In this course we will examine the poetry of 5 major English romantic poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats.
William Blake’s Poetry
In 1789 William Blake published his Songs of Innocence. These were poetic songs, printed in colored letters accompanied by decorative pictures intermingling with the text and hand painted by Blake himself. The environment of the Songs of Innocence is one of harmony, and Nature is undisturbed in her feminine role of tending to the needs of children. The world of childhood is an imaginative existence that is sympathetic and reassuring.
The Songs of Innocence
- 4 Poems -
Poem 1: “Introduction to Songs of Innocence”
The “Introduction” to the Songs of Innocence is perhaps the single most perfect lyric ever written by Blake. It anticipates the poet’s intent to write songs that “Every child may joy to hear.” His very inspiration has come from a child situated upon a cloud who has at first requested, “Pipe a song about a Lamb,” then repeated, “Piper, sit thee down and write in a book that all may read.” The poet at the child’s wish has devoted himself to writing for “every child” in a book that all may read.
Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43667/introduction-to-the-songs-of-innocence (Links to an external site.)
Link to analysis of poem:
https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-introduction-songs-of-innocence (Links to an external site.)
Poem 2: “The Lamb”
An important poem in the group, “The Lamb” deals with the figure of Jesus and is typical of Blake’s enthusiastic acceptance of New Testament doctrine. The first verse begins with a question: “Little Lamb, who made thee?” The second verse refers to the divine answer: “Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee…He is called by thy name…He became a little child…I a child, and thou a lamb, We are called by his name.” The unstated answer is, of course, the infant Jesus, the child and lamb in all of us, also the spirit of innocence. The lamb is Blake’s symbol of innocence. Note the poem’s simplicity of language and its easy flow.
Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43670/the-lamb-56d222765a3e1 (Links to an external site.)
Link to analysis of poem:
https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-the-lamb (Links to an external site.)
Poem 3: “The Little Black Boy”
One of the most famous poems in the Songs of Innocence is “The Little Black Boy.” It is said to have been inspired by the antislavery movement of Blake’s time and certainly seems a timely work for consideration in the light of the Civil Rights Movement of the present day. The essence of the poem is, of course, that in the light of God’s love the souls of black or white bodies are not different, and man must also bear an equal love similar to that of God. The cloud is a metaphor for the confusion of racial prejudice. Blake is saying that each race has its functional weaknesses and strengths—especially the white, who cannot bear the intense heat of the tropical sun. But with the help of the black boy, the white boy shall be able to grow accustomed to his surroundings and the two shall stand together in the love of God, each alike, and love each other.
Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43671/the-little-black-boy (Links to an external site.)
Link to analysis of poem:
https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-the-little-black-boy (Links to an external site.)
Poem 4: “The Chimney Sweeper”
This poem is said to be a poem inspired by agitation in Blake’s time for legislation against the use of children as chimney sweeps (young boys were made to climb down chimneys to clean out the soot). The lines of protest found in the metaphor of little Tom’s dream, “that thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black” are symbolic of the enslaved, over-worked children. The correction for this injustice occurs in the next stanza: “And by came and angel who had a bright key and he open’d the coffins set them all free,” which presumes that legislation (the key) will be passed to prevent child labor. The word “weep” in the poem is the young child’s mispronunciation of the word “sweep” as he walks down the streets to advertise his services.
Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43654/the-chimney-sweeper-when-my-mother-died-i-was-very-young (Links to an external site.)
Link to analysis of poem: (Links to an external site.)
https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-the-chimney-sweeper-songs-of-innocence (Links to an external site.
Conclusion: The Songs of Innocence - Blake's Vision of Innocence
Blake’s vision of innocence is the original state of happiness and spontaneous joy of childhood in which the imagination is totally free. It is not a world for children only, however. It is a mystical condition which even adults can attain if they will seek the visionary way through their imagination. In order to achieve this goal, they must cast aside all deceits and follies of the hostile world governed by other than Divine law. Innocence is an environment protected and ordered by God. The qualities of God such as mercy, pity, love, and peace reside in man himself. If man does not believe in God, he cannot see God’s qualities in the human form of his fellow creatures; therefore, if man does not surrender himself to an unqualified belief in God, neither can he believe in man
The Songs of Experience
- 3 Poems
In these Blake poems, man is no longer an innocent child and cannot respond to the imagination. The world of experience is a dark world of corruption and loss of innocence. The voice of the poet is no longer that of a child charged with heavenly joy but that of a stern, impatient man.
Poem 1: “The Tyger”
This poem is the best-known of all Blake’s poems and is the antithesis (opposite) of “The Lamb” from the Songs of Innocence. Notice the harsh tones of the words in the poem, a tone of horror and fear. The origin of the anger and fearsomeness of the beast are implicit in the unanswered questions of the poet, “Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee?” Did God create as well as the lamb of innocence the tyger of experience? If so, why? Perhaps to frighten man back into his condition of innocence from which he as strayed. Is the tyger then a symbol of god’s anger? The poet does not give us an answer here. The tyger is for Blake a symbol of power and dread, of wrath and terror—it is the symbol of experience, the opposite of innocence.
Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/the-tyger (Links to an external site.)
Link to analysis of poem:
https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-the-tyger (Links to an external site.)
Poem 2: “The Sick Rose”
It is quite obvious that the rose is not just a rose and the worm is not just a worm. Note the worm comes in the night (evil) and destroys the life of the rose. Metaphorically, the rose represents innocence, perhaps the innocence of a beautiful virgin. On the other hand, the worm represents corruption. Corruption has thus destroyed innocence just as a rapist destroys a maiden’s virginity.
Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43682/the-sick-rose (Links to an external site.)
Link to analysis of poem:
https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-the-sick-rose (Links to an external site
Poem 3: “London”
Here Blake pictures the modern city as having gone materialistic and inhuman where man is alienated from his fellows and his own state of innocence. The key word in the poem is “charter’d” which means “bound.” The river Thames is bound by its shores, the streets are bound to the city, and both support the image of man himself being bound and held back from vision and release into imagination. The social evils which the poet beholds while wandering through the city are created by men and permitted to continue in existence. The sorrow of man is his weakness, and he suffers in his own sterility. The total picture is black. London is infected, from the disease of the prostitute passed to the newborn child, extending the plague to the marriage itself which bears the blight to the grave rather than toward fruition of life.
Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43673/london-56d222777e969 (Links to an external site.)
Link to analysis of poem:
https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-london (Links to an external site.)
Conclusion: The Songs of Experience - Blake's Purpose
The purpose of Blake’s Songs of Experience is to show that through loss of imagination man has lost the heaven of innocence and gained the hell of experience. Blake was attempting to exhort man to throw off his chains and regain his vision. The social evils and human misery which Blake observed aroused such indignation in the poet that he condemned man for allowing and encouraging them to exist. Blake felt that men were enslaved by social and religious institutions which deprived human beings of natural joy by promoting hypocrisy, cruelty, and despair. He felt that men should dwell in the innocence of their imagination rather than in the experience of others’ reason. Blake’s idealistic purpose was to show the contrary states of innocence and experience, and thus show man the way of vision and self-fulfillment in the freedom of his own spirit.