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Nail Kala
20 July 2017
world of Western European societies in the late 18th and early 19th century. Its beginning
is tied to the French Revolution and it introduced novel ideas to the industrial world,
shifting from the foundations of neo-classicism, which were comprised of reason and
order, towards a highly subjective approach in epistemology and poetry. This subjective
approach stood for imaginative power of human beings in comprehending the Nature,
which represented the source of reason and inspiration, and it fought against organised
society that was distracting the people from their natural being towards materialism.
Therefore, the Romantics placed great emphasis on imagination and natural environment,
as the means for human liberation from the shackles of oppressive order. The most
influential Romantics in Britain were William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel
Taylor Coleridge. Their poetic expression and revolutionary spirit formed the core of
British Romanticism and set groundwork for the late Romantics. However, even though
these authors belong to the same movement and they employ similar themes in their
poems, their poetic focus varies; Blake was more concerned with political authority and
more preoccupied with the relationship between man and the Nature. Amongst these
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three pillars of British Romanticism, William Blake was the first poet to initiate a shift in
poetic and philosophical thought of the time, introducing imagination and anarchy as the
William Blake is known as one of the first Romantic poets in Britain, and even
though he belonged to the era that preceded Romanticism, his emphasis on imagination
and individual feeling makes him an early Romantic (Frye, 65). His popularity is due to
the ability to speak to all classes of men (56), for in his poetry he praises imaginative
power and individual feelings, confronting them against brute force and authority;
Blakes poetry is concerned with the prophetic feelings of the poet rather than the
dominion of the powerful. The first concept in his philosophy is the imaginative power of
Endeavour to Restore what the Ancients calld the Golden Age (qtd. in Frye, 60). This
imaginative power allows men to perceive true reality, as it really is when it is seen by
human consciousness at its greatest height and intensity (60). Therefore, Blake perceives
the poet as the prophet; and the poet is to show us what kind of world is actually in front
of us, with all its glowing splendours and horrifying evils (60.) This view of the poet as
This imaginative power of the poet represents a criterion between right and wrong; Blake
used this subjective moral to condemn authority and unjust organised society. Despite
him being an artist, Blake was highly political and his sympathy towards the American
and French revolution enhanced his refutation of organised society (64). In his poem
London, emotionally wounded Blake sees the government and the church, the main
representatives of firm order and authority, as the sources of woe and despair:
He sees A mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe (First stanza, 3-
4), and the terrible state of the people is caused by the ruthless authority; his liberated
human feelings rage against the powerful, and protest against all institutional radicalism
(Frye, 64). In his poetry, Blake combines Romantic ideas of imagination with
simplicity (67), and this poetic freedom made him one of the most popular authors in
recent history. However, two other British poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, are also famous for their immensely profound poetic expression, which is
William Wordsworth was one of the most influential English poets of all time; his
poetry is highly sensational and appealing, as he arouses a sense of the unity of individual
and universal life, of man and nature (Williams, 110 - 111). This unity is established by
two elements that are paramount to Wordsworths poetic philosophy: imagination and
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simple poetic expression. His collaborative work with Samuel Taylor Coleridge proved
to be fruitful; however, his poetry differs from Coleridges in the manner he forms a
relationship with the Nature. Wordsworth disregards the use of imaginary and fancy
elements, but employs imagination in creating a spiritual bond with the universe (Willey,
88). This spiritual bond is dependent on the poets feelings about the natural elements that
he describes, and beliefs are made of poetry rather than poetry out of beliefs (86).
expresses a belief that Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with
us, our lifes Star, / Hath had elsewhere its setting (1-3), it is because he sees intimations
of a past glory in the Nature: The sunshine is a glorious birth; / But yet I know, wereer I
go, / That there hath past away a glory from the earth (Second stanza, 7-9). This bond
that he creates with the Nature is purely imaginative; Wordsworth is concerned with the
reality, and disregards the uses of myths and fables, which would produce a lower level
of truth (91). Willey comments on the distinction between fancy and imagination and
objects (88). Furthermore, Wordsworth was also famous for his use of simple poetic
expression, which was his primary artistic intention, as he states in Observations Prefixed
to Lyrical Ballads:
incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them,
men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of
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an unusual aspect.
This simplicity of poetry, however, does not make his poems less powerful, for
Wordsworth, with his imaginative genius, transforms rudimentary feelings of his fellow
human beings into spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; such refined emotions
as sympathy and love he expresses in She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways, where he
praises a common, yet lovely girl, who passed away from the memory of men:
This use of simple poetic expression brings the poet closer to the common men, and
expression, imagination and simple diction, makes him the pillar of British Romanticism.
Romanticism. Another poet, a close friend and associate with Wordsworth, also helped in
Taylor Coleridge.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to those who know him well, exists in three modes, as
Philosopher, Poet, Friend(Harper, 144). The Friend, even though he may have been
great in the role, is not the Coleridge that is widely known across the literary world; his
main strength lies in his transcendental poetry and usage of supernatural symbols. That
undeniable fact (Simons, 148). However, despite being hugely overwhelmed with Kants
ideas of natures sublimity, Coleridge rejected Kants view that in the relation between
mind and nature, the mind is superior; Coleridge emphasised the interdependent
connection between the observer and the thing that is observed in order to achieve
transcendental effects (Simons, 150). From this symbiosis of man and nature Coleridge
derives his poetic truths and thus confirms Wordsworths stance that beliefs are made of
poetry. This is apparent in his poem To Nature, where Coleridge admires natural
For Coleridge, the mind itself is not sufficient to trace lessons of love and earnest piety;
different, as he relied on the use of supernatural elements, and Coleridge himself testified
Wordsworth, on the other hand, wasto give charm of novelty to things of everyday
employment of supernatural motifs in his poetry is best observed in one of his most
To have seen those dead men rise. (Part V, Tenth stanza, 1-4)
poetry, for it relates natural environment to moral struggles of a fallen mariner (Simons,
173). However, the reason that Coleridge uses the supernatural goes deeper than to
induce a sense of awe and fear, for it should alter our common method of perception and
create a suspension of disbelief that would disrupt the readers reality; only in this
fantastic state is a man capable of reassessing moral values and attitudes (201). Therefore,
when Coleridge writes of a bodily Death, living dead men, and hovering angels, he does
so in order to deepen our understanding of sin and repentance, and to force the readers to
escape from common reasoning, which is a destroying force for the faculty of mind. The
appealing to the very core of our senses, and which earned him the right to be recognised
British Romanticism owes a huge gratitude to three pillars of the early Romantic
thought: William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Their
similar contemplations on man and reality and different poetic expressions made them
one of the most influential poets in the history of English literature, and helped their
fellow human beings to reassess the way by which they comprehend this worldly stage.
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Works cited
Frye, Northrop. Blake After Two Centuries. English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays
in Criticism. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. Print.
Willie, Basil. On Wordsworth and the Locke Tradition. English Romantic Poets:
<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174805>.
<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/essay/237834>.
Wordsworth, William. "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways." Poetry Foundation. Poetry
Simons, Karen Elaine. "To Rescue This Enlightened Age: The Supernatural
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge To Nature." Genius. Web. 4 Apr. 2015.
<http://genius.com/Samuel-taylor-coleridge-to-nature-annotated>.
wordsworth>.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834)." Poetry
<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173253>.