1: The Romantic Period
- Page ID
- 138832
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- 1.5: William Blake
- While comparatively unknown in his lifetime, William Blake shared Romantic ideals of independence, subjectivity, and imagination. He expressed these ideals in both his life and art. He synthesized text and image through his published poetry, in what he described as illuminated manuscripts. Much of his work functioned through synthesis, of good and evil, innocence and experience, thought and feeling, desire and restraint, imagination and reality.
- 1.8: William Wordsworth
- Unlike Blake, William Wordsworth was born into the upper middle to upper class. When he was orphaned in 1778, he was cared for by his aunt and uncle. In his poetry, Wordsworth tries to understand the human mind, especially during intense moments or states of excitement. All humans, regardless of class, experience emotions; and Wordsworth believed that in states of excitement, humans reach a level of dignity, power, and authenticity that is poetic.
- 1.9: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Although brought up in a fairly conventional Anglican family—Coleridge’s father was vicar of his parish and master of a grammar school—and expected to enter the clergy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge explored radical religious and social thought from his days at University of Cambridge onward. His poems express radical views on the mutuality of humans and nature, of divinity, of imagination, and of poetry itself. His major works include The Eolian Harp, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Kubla Khan.
- 1.16: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Mary Shelley was born to important writers and philosophers, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Claire received a formal education; however, Mary educated herself, mainly through reading her father’s many books. She early showed literary aspirations, publishing a poem entitled “Mounseer Nongtongpaw” when she was only ten. Her writing advances and advocates for women’s roles not only in the family but also in society, challenging the patriarchy and misogyny current in her time.
Thumbnail: This painting is part of the "Black Paintings" series and depicts the Greek Myth of Cronus. (Public Domain; Francisco de Goya via Wikipedia)