The Importance Of Childhood Innocence In British Romanticism

In this essay I hope to uncover the many instances that William Wordsworth inconspicuously places his mother into The Prelude and to explore the multimodal occurrence of paternal loss throughout the text. Although both of Wordsworth's parents perished while he was young in years, it seems that his mother, Ann Wordsworth, was the greatest influencer of his poetic artistry. The loss of Ann Wordsworth can be said to be a defining point in the young William Wordsworth's life, and have had more of an impact on him than the loss of his father. If any of Wordsworth's poetic artistry came from the influence of the loss of his parents, it was most likely from the anger he felt towards his mother's desertion of him and his siblings, rather than the guilt that he associated with his father's death.

Romanticism can be described as the free expression of an artist. Putting feeling and emotion into poetry or art. Its creators wanted to make natural feelings significant. But some people saw it differently; it was seen as downgrading the power and importance of reason. Before romanticism, ideals were largely based upon intellect and reason. According to William Woodsworth, poetry should begin as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," which the poet then "recollects in tranquility". It was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. It was at its peak between 1800 and 1850. In English literature, the key figures of the Romantic movement are considered to be the group of poets including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the much older William Blake. The Romantic Period took place during major social change in society. Poets and artists of the era used their work as a revolt against forces like the Industrial Revolution and the political and social standards of the Age of Enlightenment. They wanted to spread a message of peace. Romanticists are spiritual and have a strong connection with nature; they do not attach themselves to the human world. The emergence of Romanticism in Nineteenth Century British Literature provides a clear path for the future of literature.

This period in time had influenced many, or even all of the arts. Painters used bolder and more brilliant colors in their works. Also, they had preferred dynamic motion to gracefully balanced poses. Poetry was also changed during the Romantic Period. Emotional subjectivity was a basic quality in every type of art during this time. Many artists had become “romantics” and had become drawn to the realm of fantasy: the unconscious, the irrational, and the world of dreams. Romantics were fascinated with the Middle Ages, the time of chivalry and romance. What neoclassicists had thought of to be the “dark ages”, the romantics had cherished.

Wordsworth, like other Romantic Poets, with his overwhelming mind observed life with greater suction and fundamentality; his partaking in the working of life was keen and so minute that when he did finally caught up with the philosophy of life his poems became more and more sublime and transcendental in feelings. In his Preface to the “Lyrical Ballads” republished in 1800 described a Poet and his working which in a way popularized self-expression connecting an object of little importance to the infinite vision of the Creator. His grew as a poet gradually with

In concord to this, the Norton Anthology of English Literature characterises this poem as an inauguration of “[Wordsworth's] “myth of nature”: his presentation of the “growth” of his mind to maturity, a process unfolding through the interaction between the inner world of the mind and the shaping force of external nature” (Willliam Wordsworth 1770-1850, 271).” It is no wonder John Keats describes Wordsworth's poetry as “excessively self-centred” (“Egotistical Sublime”), thereby strengthening the argument of Wordsworth's focus on the individual.

Throughout time adult’s views of children have shifted drastically. From the start of time children have been seen as everything from masterful sinners to the purest of all. In more modern times they are worshiped and seen first as pure and innocent. The ever changing ideology revolving around them is shown in a timeline as the literature changed and modified with every growing year. From puritan, to Romantic, and Victorian children constantly remain the center focus of good and bad.

According to Alan Richardson, childhood gained a central position through Romantic Literature, due to its artistic and reinvigorating movement during the eighteenth century. The supreme faculty of mind is reason by stressing strong emotions and imagination, which is the key reason to the shaping of creative power. Childhood acquired a sense of spirituality attached to its phenomenon; it became increasingly valued by adults, since children represented hope and progress within society. Childhood therefore became the supreme symbol of celebrating the cult of nature, the purity of the mind

The era of Romanticism began as a rebellious response to the Enlightenment era. Three different authors— Wilhelm Wackenroder, August Schlegel, and Percy Shelley— allude to the Romantic significance of poetry and conceptualize poetry as “the language of the people.” In their documents presented in Breckman’s European Romanticism: a Brief History with Documents, they explore poetry and the impact it has on the people and Romanticism and persuade their readers to connect with nature and art.

In Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads, he writes, “I have wished to keep my reader in the company of flesh and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him” (297). With this assertion, Wordsworth highlights his desire that readers of his poetry respond with sentiment when presented with genuine, unembellished characters. His attempts to prove this claim can be seen in the poems Michael and The Ruined Cottage. Observing how the two poems handle certain rhetorical devices—a frame of narration, personification of nature, meditation on ordinary objects, and Biblical allusion—reveals their intended purpose as promotions of empathy. Discerning the similarities and differences between Michael and The Ruined Cottage allows the moral lessons within Wordsworth’s poetic experimentation to be uncovered.

When we discuss Romantic poetry, William Blake is one of the forerunners of that literary period. His two major poetical works include Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In both of these collections, there is a poem titled ‘The Chimney Sweeper’. In both of these poems, we observe the innocence of childhood suffering from subjugation to harsh manual work. In the concerned poems, two perspectives are given. First, the child is innocent and believes in whatever his parents have told about the magnificence in the eyes of God of those who work. In this manner, Blake portrays the way the innocence of little children was exploited by their parents for a meager amount of money. Second, Blake questions and shows skepticism towards the implied hypocrisy of his parents as they sold him to sweep chimneys and goes themselves to church and pray to God. In this poem, Blake shows that the child has become aware of the ruthless behavior of his parents, who sold him for money alone.

Important questions arise when understanding childhood. Do children have a certain degree of innocence that is lost in adults? According to most British Romantic Poets, the answer is yes. The Romantic Period can be described as a time when a variety of advancements were made involving, amongst other things, art, literature, and philosophies on a range of subjects, including childhood. Romanticism swept across Europe and America, starting around 1750. Pursuing emotion and individuality instead of logic and reason, Romanticism started as a way to escape the rigid, conventional thoughts of the previous era. By the time the Romantic Period ended in the late 1800s, many new ideas had been established. As stated in “Perceptions of Childhood”:

William Wordsworth’s poetry was renowned for its connection to nature. As we learnt in class, his father became very ill when he traveled into nature and the

The period in time between 1785 and 1835 in Europe has come to be known in literature as the Romantic Period. The Romantic Period was shaped by the ‘eruption of a new social order’ and the ‘rights of man’ rather than the control from the wealthy and privileged. ‘There were arguments for and against the rights of women, debates over the abolition of Britain’s slave trade and of slavery in it colonies, movements for social and political remedies for the poor; and a newly emergent class consciousness among discontented workers in Britain’s fields, mines, factories, and mills’ (Wolfson 8). During this time, many poems, sonnets and novels emerged as a way for writers to express their feelings.

(“lonely rooms, and mid the din / Of towns and cities, I have owed to them / In hours of weariness, sensations sweet”). Once again repetition is used to firmly imprint the idea in our mind of how essential this memory has been to his happiness during testing times, “How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee / … / How often has my spirit turned to thee”. The simplicity in which he aims to convey this idea relates back to his poetic purpose of recovering “the naked and native dignity of man” (Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1801), doing this required using “a selection of language really used by men” (Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1801). The use of repetition emphasises the point he is trying to convey, the audience is made focus on just how beneficial state of mind can be when we are in unpleasant circumstances. The first person narrative style places us in the shoes of Wordsworth, and we ponder the role positive thought has played in our own lives. With the poet himself, memories of nature sustained and restored him when weighed down by the burdens of the world, and we are compelled to question where he would be without

Ground-breaking, momentous, and a time of great struggle, the Industrial Revolution was famous for its innovations and infamous for the sobering reality it inflicted upon the standard family. Mid-18th century Britain brought poverty to everyday urban workers. With it, came an increase in child labor like never seen before. In order for a normal family to survive in the urban lifestyle, all members of a family had to work. This included children as young as four years to work as chimney sweepers, miners, and most popularized in 18th century Britain, factory workers. By the year 1800, children under the age of 14 in Britain’s factories accounted for 50% of the labor force (“Industrial Revolution, Child Labor”). Though the number continued to grow, all did not go unaccounted for. Romanticism, an effort opposite the movement, gave recognition to the emotional conflicts overlooked. Romanticism shed light on the daily struggles of the everyday man, woman, and the most neglected up until that period of time, the child. Throughout history, others have written about childhood, but Romantic poets began to question what it meant to be a child. The question, though not answered directly, later became revealed in their works where it exposed their belief systems. The role of the child in British Romantic Poetry represents the early life of Romantic poets, and the qualities they possessed in childhood.