BLAKE - WORDSWORTH - COLERIDGE

The tiger is a symbol of the evil which inevitably comes from worldly experience. The symbolism of  " the tiger", however, is not so easy to interpreter. Some critics have seen it as an image of the creative energy of human life. This energy aspires to a geometrical perfect form, symbolised by the symmetry of the tiger. But to blake this symmetry is "fearful" because it embodies the contradictory and yet complementary forces of good and evil which are impossible to separate. This is the way Blake saw the French Revolution: as the possibility of absolute freedom which could not be separated from the terror and violence it provoked. Like the "Tiger", freedom and revolution are at once glorious, because they are a kind of divine creative energy, and terrible, because they lead to death and horror. But unlike the Romantic writes who followed, particularly Coleridge and Wordsworth, Blake did not turn away from the idea of revolution towards nostalgia for an idyllic world of the past. He had no solutions to the revolution's contradictory forces of beauty and horror. He chose simply to confront these forces without trying to resolve them. Blake makes extensive use symbolism in his poems. Among other famous symbols are children, flowers and particular seasons to symbolise innocence while urban and industrial landscapes and machines represent oppression and rationalism. Blake is fundamentally dissatisfied with society, which, in his opinion, lacks the power of imagination and uncorrupted feeling. he thinks that the poet, however, possesses these power and can therefore be called a visionary. In a letter to Reverend Dr John Trussler, Blake talks about his idea of imagination, also referring to his paintings and engravings, and says " to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers. You certainly mistake when you say that the vision of fancy are not to be found in this world. To me, this world is all one continued vision of fancy or imagination".

Stylistic features

As far as style is concerned, Blake uses very simple syntax. Moreover, his choice of vocabulary reflects this simplicity, which is made ever more evident by the repetition of certain words and lines, as well as the regularity of stress patterns and rhyme schemes which give his poems a musical rhythm. However, the apparent simplicity of Blake's verse is deceptive and masks extremely complex argument and reflection.

WORDSWORTH

The preface to te lyrical ballads: Poetic manifesto.

The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads can be considered a manifesto for Wordsworth's work and explains well is idea of poetry and nature, the role of the poet and language he should use. Poetry, according to Wordsworth, must be concerned with the ordinary, everyday world and the influence of memory on the present, which is to say, the recollection of emotions and feelings. The best subjects are therefore "humble rustic life" and people in close contact with nature. The kind of language used by the poet must reflect this simplicity, it has to be similar to the simple "language of men".

Central themes.

One the central themes of Wordsworth's poetry is Nature. Nature to Wordsworth was the expression of the ideal in the real, the mirror of divine perfection and the ultimate reality, as it was to the other Romantics. Generally, his descriptions of natural landscape draw inspiration from everyday life and from his personal experience. "sonnet composed upon Westminster Brige", for instance, refers to a morning in September when Wordsworth crossed Westminster Bridge in London with his sister. I wandered lonely as a cloud" is also connected to the poet's personal experience, describing a time when he saw a field full of daffodils waving in the wind. In comparing himself to a cloud, Wordsworth removes himself from the ground, and thus from terrestrial vision, inducing a sense of lightness and spatial disorientation. Central to Wordsworth's vision of nature is the importance of its influence on the human mind and the mind of the poet in particular. Wordsworth's poetry describes the world of nature as it exists "outside" but is particularly interested in the "inside" effect that it has on him, i.e. the responses of his sense and of the "inward eye".

COLERIDGE

Focus on the text: the rime of the Ancient Mariner.

This long poem is divided into seven parts, each introduced by a short summary of the story so far. It was composed between 1797 and 1798 and was first published as the opening poem of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798. it tells the story of a mariner who commits the crime of killing and albatross and of his subsequent punishment. The story is told by the mariner himself who, at the beginning of the poem, finds himself at a wedding feast and begins recounting his sad story to one of the guests who "cannot chose but hear". We learn that the other members of the ship's crew were also punished for justifying the mariner's crime, but while he survives to tell the tale, they all die from thirst. However, the mariner's survival does not mark the end of his punishment, but is only its beginning. He must bear the burden of guilt for the rest of his days. And so he travels around, telling his story to the people he meets, hoping in this way to teach them to love and respect all nature's creatures. One of the most interesting aspects of the poem is fact that the mariner's motives for killing the albatross remain a mystery. His act in effect is pure and it radically separates him from the symbolic community, and from the logical chain of cause and effect.

Stylistic features

The poem his written in the form of a medieval ballad and is highly symbolic. The sea voyage might represent life itself and the story reflects the parable of mankind and original sin - he represented by the killing of the albatross. The poem creates a universe where realistic and supernatural events coexist. The landscape is portrayed in a mysterious, dream-like way and is populated not only by the albatross, a bird whose killing, according to mythology, is considered a sacrilege, but also by horrible sea-monsters which surround the ship after the bird's death. The presence of spirits and angels also contribute to create a strange, almost magical atmosphere. This is reinforced by the language used by Coleridge, which is characterised by a frequent use of sound effects, internal rhymes, similes, alliteration and personifications. Coleridge's language, unlike that of Wordsworth, is often archaic and takes inspiration from old ballads.