Poetic Revolutionaries: Blake and Wordsworth Mrs. Cumberland Objectives: 1. To become acquainted with the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth 2. To detail the differences between Neoclassicism and Romanticism 3. To understand the political context for the Romantic Movement 4. To reflect on effecting change

Probably every again human history has spawned several philosophical approaches to the questions of life. Despite the dominating influence of Neoclassicism, the 18 th century was no exception

As the works of poets such as Thomas Gray and Robert Burns demonstrate, Romantic tendencies cropped up amidst the more prevalent Neoclassical trends of the century

However, just as the hippies of the late 1960s deliberately set themselves against the Establishment, so did some thinkers and poets o the late-18 th and early 19 th centuries face off against Neoclassicism and against courtly, monarchical status quo that accompanied it

It is difficult to imagine the Romantic Movement outside the context set by the American and French Revolutions Just as explorations of the New World had inspired Rousseaus reflections on the noble savage, so exhortations of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness resonated with the young minds of the age

Poetry and art could scarcely be business as usual in the face of the democratizing force of these political revolutions. However disappointing the French Revolution turned out to be the idealistic English, it- along with the earlier revolution in America- provided an external and communal context for the Romantics poetic expression of individuality and freedom

Two prominent examples of poets inspired by the Revolutions are William Blake and William Wordsworth

From an early age, Blake opposed tyranny He avidly supported the goals of the French and American revolutions ( though he abhorred war) and wrote poems entitled The French revolution and America: A Prophecy

He also actively opposed slavery His class views were likewise revolutionary; shunning the values of the elite, he championed the common man ( of which he emphatically was one)

It was in his psychology, however, that he was most revolutionary; Blake exalted imagination, freedom, and individuality, and downplayed or denigrated reason and common sense

In fact, aside from his political support of the great revolutions of the late 18 th century, he represented these events as allegories for the transformation of individual lives

Blake was poor and outspoken He regularly suffered ridicule, was tried for sedition after a conflict with one of the Royal Dragoons, and had few adherents over the course of his career Thinkers he initially admired, such as Swedenborg, he often outgrew and renounced

Most of Blakes poetry is very difficult Questioning for eternal truth, he regarded surface obscurity as a shield for his mythical poetic visions Even his most-straightforward, most-reprinted works, The Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, are heavily symbolic

By contrast, Wordsworths poetry, though rich with imagery and not devoid of symbols, is straightforward in its championing of imagination and individuality Like Blake, Wordsworth supported the French Revolution ( he was only six in 1776), and he too found applications for the emotional life of the individual in the revolutions political aims

Wordsworth also overtly rejected the artistic values of Neoclassicism, but in contrast to Blake, he conveys his views in an expository way accessible to most readers Like Blake, Wordsworth experienced ridicule, but his Cambridge-educated, manor-born expression spared him Blakes harsher experience,