Guiding questions for English Romantic poetry

A general question, applicable to any poem(s):

1. If you’re already familiar with some of the basic characteristics of the Romantic movement (e.g.
from HUM 400), consider how any/all of these poems exemplify Romanticism. What values,
themes, critiques, images do they tend to share?
Blake:
1. Blake’s poems from Songs of Innocence and of Experience are often “paired” – e.g. both
Innocence and Experience include poems called “The Chimney Sweeper” (p. 1) and “Holy
Thursday” (p. 4), while “The Divine Image” and “The Human Abstract” (p. 2) are often
considered a pair, as are “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” (p. 3). These pairs comment on each other
or deal with related issues in some way. Try to read one of these pairs “together,” thinking about
how the Experience poem changes how we read the perspective, truth, or moral presented in
the Innocence poem.
2. Overall, how does Blake present the distinctive features of life in modern, industrialized Britain?
Consider, for example, how cities, work, the poor, sexual mores, and the Church are presented.
3. Based on the poems and excerpts in our selection, what do you think the “marriage of Heaven
and Hell” means for Blake? What makes the “Proverbs of Hell” hellish? What themes/patterns
do you see in them?
Wordsworth:
1. What effect/importance does nature have for Wordsworth? What significance does city life
seem to have for him?
2. One central theme in “Tintern Abbey” concerns youth, age, and time. What significance does
youth have for Wordsworth?
Byron and Shelley:
1. In our excerpts from Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: (a) How would you characterize the
overall mood or atmosphere of the poem? Why – what do you base your impressions on? (b)
How is nature characterized? What is the poet’s (or perhaps the human being’s) relationship
with nature?
2. In “Ozymandias,” how does Shelley depict the relationship between human beings and nature?
3. What is the overall mood, tone, or atmosphere of “Ode to the West Wind”? Why is there so
much nature imagery – what is it accomplishing? What does the poet want? Examine the last
two lines: What does it feel to you that the “prophecy” might be announcing?