Romantic poets - George Gordon Byron, William Blake

Romantic poets are traditionally divided in two groups: the 1^st generation, and the 2^nd. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake (the 1^st generation) are born before, leaved longer and became more famous then Byron, Shelley, Keats. The 1^st generation was more critical on many social convention, the 2^nd were often exiled from the moral, social, political establishment of their age. The 2^nd generation of Romantic poets is characterised by individualism and alienation from society. They all died very young and away from home. In these poets opinion, poetry was no longer considered an imitation of life, but it means the desire to change the world with his political and social order.

English romanticism saw the prevalence of feelings on the reason. Imagination acquired a main role in the process of poetica creation: it was almost a divine quality and it allowed the poet to percive and describe the external world. The poet's task was that of a spokesman who had to mediate between man and nature, to point out the evils of society, and to give voice to the ideals of beauty, truth, love and freedom.

George Gordon Byron firmily believed in individual liberty and hated any compulsion. His main character, Childe Harold, is an isolated man whose feelings are reflected in the wildest and exotic natural landscapes. Nature is not a source of consolation and joy nor has any message to convey.

The poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" deals with the travels of Harold, called "childe" because he is a young nobleman awaiting knighthood. He left England because of his boredom and disillusionment with life. Harold's travels provide Byron to introduce exotic setting, several description of nature, especially of the sea, images of sublime and eternity. Byron also describes nature's wild and cruel aspects because they suit the solitary and melancholy nature of his character. As this is a sort of autobiographical poem, nature reflects also the poet's mood and feelings.

William Blake stressed the importance of imagination over reason. The poet should be the guardian of the spirit and imagination. The collection of short lyrical verses "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of experience" are intended to be read together: in the first one the narrator is a shepherd who receives ispiration from a child; in the second appears a more pessimistic view of life. The contrast between them convey an ironical view of the situation presented.

Blake focused his attention on the consequences of the Industrial Revolution: the injustices caused by a materialistic attitude and the commercial exploitation of human beings. In his poems he sympathised with the victims of industrial society such as children and prostitutes, as well as with the victims of oppression by institution such as orphans and soldiers.

Blake's style is characterised by frequent use of repetition and use of symbols: the child and theLamb (Christ) represent the innocence. This is the why he was called "the visionary".

The lamb deals with childhood as the symbol of innocence, a state of happiness, freedom and imagination. Senses and perceptions do not show the knowledge, only imagination could shows more, beyond material reality. God, the child and the poet share this power of vision. The poet becomes a prophet who can see more deeply into reality.

Blake emphasizes the need to experience joy and freedom of thought, despict the conventions and restraints of reason. The possibility of achieving knowledge of what we are lies in the tension between opposite states of mind, not in their resolution by one gaining supremacy over the other. The "complementary opposites" also coexist in the Creator who can be at the same time the God of love and innocence (the lamb) and the God of energy and violence (the tyger).

He criticizes the Church because it did not do anything to actually help the poor, but it only persuaded them to pray.