WILLIAM BLAKE

Themes: many of the poems in Songs of Innocence are about childhood and are written in such simple language that it seems they could have been written by a child. These poems depict a world of Good where virtue and purity triumph. The meek and gentle lamb is a symbol of this idyllic world of infancy.

Childhood comes to an end, however, and adulthood reveals a different world. In Songs of Experience Blake highlights how corruption, greed aund violence teke over the human soul and how individuals are exploited by a cruel world.

To show the dichotomy between Good and Evil in human life and within the human soul, Blake wrote pairs of poems thaat expressed opposing views on the same topic. In The Lamb' from the Songs of Innocence, the reader is presentend with an image of a gentle,benevolent, loving God. In 'The Tyger' from Songs of Experience, Godmis vindictive and terrifying.

Style: The pomes in the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience are lexically and syntactically very straightforward. They are similar to songs because the rhyme schemes and rhythm are very regular.

Blake relied heavily on symbolism in his poetry. Some of his symbols are immediately understandable: innocence is represented by children, flowers, lambs. The symbolism of some of his latewr poems is less easy to interpret and has been the subject of much heated debate.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

WORKS

Poetry Wordsworth's poetry is best understood from a reading of his 'Preface' to the Lyrical Ballads (1798) which is often considered to be a sort of manifesto for the Romantic movement.

In it, Wordsworth theories about poetry concluding that:

the language of poetry should be the simple language 'really used by man';

the subject of poetry should consist of 'incidents and situations from common life';

the poet's omagination can reveal the inner truth of ordinary things to which the mind is habitually blind;

poetry is not simply the unrestrained, spontaneous expression of emotions. It takes origin 'from emotion recollected in tranquillity'. The initial is recalled and reproduced in the poet's mid, and when it has been processed through thought the creative act of composing begins;

the poet is 'a man speaking to men'. He uses his special gift to show other men the essence of things.

These ideas are exemplified in 'I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud'. It is written in very simple language and is about the flowers that the poet saw when walking in the country. Some time after this walk actually took place the poet's imagination conjures up the image of the daffodils and transforms them into e work of poetic art.

Nature : Wordsworth's poetry emphasises the value of nature to man. He  found his greatest inspiration in nature, which he believed could elevate the human soul and exert a positive motal influence on human thoughts and feelings. He identified nature with God and was more pantheistic in his visionthan Christian. In 'The World Is Too Much With Us' he seems to yeam after a primitive, pre-Christian world where man is freed from the stress of everyday life.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Structure: It is written in the form of a ballad and uses many of  the conventions with ballads, including a strong storyline, short stanzas, repetition and stock phrases. The lexis and syntax are quite simple, but despite this Coleridge manages to create strikingly vivid imagescof the people, places and animals that inhabit the Mariner's world. The events of the poem take place in an eerie, ghostly atmosphere and the reader often feels he is moving from a real to an unreal world and back again.

Themes: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner can be interpreted in different ways. It can be seen as a spiritual/religious allegory in which man is punished for offending  God and nature by killing the albatross. In the end he is redeemed through prayer. This interpretation takes into account the plentiful use of symbols in the poem. The albatross, for example, from being an omen of guilt. Other critics have seen in the character of the Mariner a premonition on Coleridge's part of how his life would turn out in later years. Having searched all his life for knowledge and truth, Coleridge ended up a lonely old man who has lost family, friends, health and happiness.