Romantics and the Symbolists Term Paper

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William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, & Percy Shelley

For William Blake, religion is but a medium used by self-interested groups and individuals who want to gain power and influence over society. His criticism of religion, particularly inappropriate use of religion by people, is expressed in the poem "Jerusalem." In this poem, Blake expresses his skepticism about religion's purpose for the society, particularly his countrymen: "And did those feet in ancient time / Walk upon England's mountain green?... And was Jerusalem builded here / Among these dark Satanic mills?" Disillusioned by the constant conflicts and disorder in society caused and premeditated by religious leaders, Blake questions whether religion has become constructive, or destructive, in English society.

William Wordsworth offers in his poems veneration for Nature, as expressed in his Romanticist style of writing poetry. An example of Wordsworth's poem that evokes and expresses his affinity with nature is evident in "The World is too much with us." In this poem, Wordsworth criticizes human society for abusing Nature's resources, and replacing it with nothing but abuse and neglect. However, he provides ample warning to his readers, where Nature will exact its 'revenge' on humanity: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers... A sordid boon!... Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea / Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, like Wordsworth, is a Romanticist.

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Apart from evoking his love for Nature as the topic of his poems, he also centers his poems on the theme of the imagination. When speaking of the "imagination," Coleridge talks about the senses that humans use to experience Nature, and use these 'natural experiences' to create from one's imagination works of literature that can be felt and sensed by the senses of the reader/audience as well. This theme of the imagination is illustrated in "Frost at Midnight," wherein Coleridge animates and personifies elements of Nature, where a "secret ministry" is formed at midnight, Nature waking up just as human society is sleeping. Coleridge uses imagination in making these natural elements as lively as possible, as evoked in the following lines in the poem: "... its motion in the hush of nature / Gives it dim sympathies with me who live, / Making it a companionable form..."

Percy Shelley, in his essay entitled, "The Necessity of Atheism," discusses how "[t]ruth has always been found to promote the best interests of mankind." In stating this, Shelley meant to illustrate how human actions and behavior, such as the concept of 'goodness' or good acts and deeds, is determined not by faith or any ideology, but by an individual's inherent subsistence to reason --….....

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