Common People in the Poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth in the Romantic Period

Abstract

Inclusion of the common people through introducing simple language that represents the ordinary life style of the marginalized, ignored as well as deprived section of the society in the late 18th century and early 19th century English literature was one of the revolutionary ideas of the period. Taking such principles forward poets in the Romantic period such as William Blake and William Wordsworth portrayed lives of common people in the canvas of their poetry, which became realistic and represented an authentic picture of contemporary society. Therefore, this dissertation with a view to examining the treatment of common people by these two poets, will at first discuss “Romanticism”, while throwing some light on the history and background of the Romantic Age. The influence of both the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution is visible in the poetry of Romantic era. Ordinary people who were never considered to be a part of literature succeeded in attracting the attention of writers in literature after those two historically important revolutions. Realizing the strength of the common people, poets attempted to focus them through literature and thus a new era of poetry known as the Romantic era was established. The poetry of this era besides reflecting the lives of elites focused on the real life of the down-trodden. Moreover, some of the distinctive characteristics of the Romantic poetry that made it different from that of Neo-Classical poetry will also be discussed in brief. Finally, this dissertation will discuss the language through which William Blake and William Wordsworth depicted realistic lives of common people in their poetry.