The 19th Century and Romantic Poetry

The 19th Century and Romantic Poetry:
The arrival of Wordsworth and Coleridge in the last decades of the 18th century brought a new dawn to English poetry. But the dawn of Romanticism had been preceded by poets like William Cowper, Robert Burns, Crabbe and Blake. These poets though are not fully romantics but can be regarded as the poets of transition from Neo-classicism to Romanticism. The multicolored light of Romanticism peeps through the numerous cracks in the Neo-classical tradition during the last part of the century. The break away from the Neo-classical school with new changing ethos paved the way for Romanticism. These transitional poets are free from the School of Pope they have their own subject matter, verse pattern and in the manner of treatment. They were free to look into their soul, to say what they themselves felt and thought. The pre-occupation with the town decreased and interest in external nature and world increased .“In England, romanticism found full expression in the works of William Blake, who, particularly after 1789, invented a complex personal mythology and symbolism in which he dramatized the interaction of different psychic components and of religious socio-historical energies. In a language inspired by esoteric and mystical authors, Blake castigated rationalism and authority and called prophetically for a new humanity based on imagination, instinct and creativity”….etc.