Did Wordsworth or Coleridge Have Greater Influence on Modern Criticism?

A leader of the romantic era’s poetic revolution, Lord Byron transformed poetry by incorporating realistic perceptions into his works. The romantic era, known for it’s innovative belief in “[praising] imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and intuition over science,” assisted in helping Byron create pragmatic, dramatic tones in his poetry (“The Romantic Era”). One of the most flamboyant of the English Romantic poets, Byron captivated readers through his dynamic views of independence and politics. However, his perceptions of love and women, shown through narrative perspectives, rendered his writings as the “image and name [of] the embodiment of Romanticism” (“Lord Byron (George Gordon),” Poetry Foundation). Love and poetry, constantly

INTRODUCTION – (1 paragraph) STRUCTURE 1. Opening sentences which introduce the poem, its author and its form.Explain why the poem is of a particular form (either a ballad or lyric poem). 2. Thesis statement: A general statement about what the poem communicates about life and life experience. 3. Signpost: briefly outline the more specific reasons for how/why the poem conveys this life experience and / or message. (Introduce the main features which will be explored in more detail in the body of your essay).

As a new way to criticize the Romantic period, desperate times call for desperate measures and it did through the use of children’s point of view in Romantic poetry. A period of fifty years called Romantic period included the French Revolution, the American Revolution and wars of national independence in Europe. William Blake, one of well known Romantic poets, commented on his society by viewing it through the child’s eyes in the two sets of ‘Songs of innocence and of Experience’. It is said that ignorance is a blessing but not according to William Blake.

BibliographyAsbee, S. (2006) Approaching Poetry, Milton Keynes, The Open UniversityReid, N. (2006) Coleridge, Form and Symbol, Or the Ascertaining Vision, Aldershot, Ashgate PublishingWellek, R. (1963) The Concept of Romanticism in literary historyin Bygrave, S (2006) Romantic Writings London, The Open UniversityZuk, E. Coleridges Blank Verse [online], http://www.expansivepoetryonline.com/journal/cult072004.html (Accessed 28th April 2008)

Charlotte Dymond and John Lomas, are two poems which share several techniques. They also, however are different in many ways. This essay will explore their similarities and their differences and explain reasons why the two ballads are different or similar.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

Romanticism began in the time following the age of reason. Instead of philosophers focusing on logic and reason, they were less rational and more intuitive. Within this ideal, the perceived message was everything you needed to know was captured within you and nature. After this philosophy was brought into practice, many people began to branch off of this ideal. One of these branches was transcendentalism.

Firstly, Hemans provides an unsettling problemization of romantic era characteristics as she deploys the solipsistic narrator technique heavily associated with the epoch whilst preserving a kind of collective voice with the deceased poetess. Crucially, the first word of the poem, following the epitaph dedicated to Tighe, is the first person “I” (line 1) which invokes the contemplative voice that critics have come to expect from early 19th century romantic work. Despite this, the poem transgresses this expectation as the monosyllabic tranquility of ‘The light of song’ (16) is gradually replaced by the ‘deep’ (46) musings on Tighe which suggest an irreconcilability between the ‘mortal

(3) In addition to some other pieces of poetry, the Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge are known to have initiated the English Romantic Movement. Published originally in 1798, the initial plan for the book was for two sections, the first with two plays, but later it was rearranged with an anonymous print beginning with ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.

Poetry is comprised of many forms and within each form, poets have created; stanzas, rhythm, images, symbolism, meter and meanings. Readers must read each poem and begin inductive reasoning to understand what is written. In using this reasoning, only then can the poem be explained. There are many different types of forms and a ballad is one of these poetic forms. It is usually made up of a basic construction of quatrain stanzas. The lines contain rhyme, and generally tell a story that can be compared to a song. In analyzing, Peter and John by Elinor Wylie, We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks, Riverbanks Blues by Sterling A. Brown and The Cherry-tree Carol, author unknown, meanings are conveyed through their use of form, rhyme and the story

Gershoy, L. (1947). The French Revolution and Napoleon. In L. Gershoy, The French Revolution and Napoleon (p. 576). F. S. Crofts & Company.

As William Wordsworth once stated, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in

This emphasis to various emotions, almost blurring the intellectual aspect of the text, is another characteristic of Romantic literature, not only of England, but of continental Europe as well. The whole text, instead of just

your own is trying to become word and melody”. He also describes the young poets poems by

Unlike the Enlightenment era, the Romantic period had no order and turned away from given religions, like Christianity. Romantic expressivism is the creation of the poet’s, or expressivists, own meaning of truth and order, since they are turning away from all known religion. Similarly, they fill these holes by writing about non-religious ideas and making them religious instead. For example Early Wasserman in “Sources of the Self” says that “within itself the modern poem must both formulate its own cosmic [order] and shape the autonomous poetic reality that the cosmic [order] permits” (Wasserman and Taylor 31). Instead of having the uniformness he also explains that, “the Romantic poet has to articulate an original vision of the cosmos” (Wasserman and Taylor 31). This created the opportunities for Romantic expressivist, like William Wordsworth and John Keats, to start from a blank slate with everything that they turned away from, including religion. Wasserman’s emphasis on how the Romantic expressivist was placed with, not a burden, but a responsibility to create their own order and incorporate theoretical spirits or presence into their poems.