Year 9’s literary journey into the Romantics saw them begin in an 18th century London workshop, to then wander through the mountains of England’s Lake District before setting sail on a voyage to the South Pole.
The poets they have met so far along the way are William Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
William Blake was the earliest of the English Romantics, and he is perhaps most famous for his Songs of Innocence and Experience, first published in 1794. A feature of Romanticism is the belief that children are closer to God than adults, and that they have much to teach their elders, through their purity, innocence and divine goodness. Blake railed against the dehumanising world of industrialising Britain, which saw children mistreated, abused and corrupted by unscrupulous masters and factory owners. His poems were written in a simple sing-song style, so they could be understood and remembered by children, whose very purity he was appealing to. What set Blake apart was his use of an intricate printing process that allowed him to illustrate – or “illuminate” – his work to make it visually appealing.
Year 9 studied three of his poems, “The Lamb”, “The Tyger” and “A Poison Tree”, analysing each for meaning, structure, meter and rhythm. Of course, they also illuminated each one in their own style, as Blake would surely not have approved of a words-only approach to his work. Artistic endeavours, and metrical analysis aside, the poems gave students the chance to discuss the importance of communication to avoid conflict with others, and to reflect on their own need to maintain a child’s sense of right, in a world that often seems to have corrupted it by adulthood.
Wordsworth and Coleridge were known for their love of nature, and of human passion. Initially inspired in part by the French Revolution, which the current Year 9s studied at the end of last term with Miss Bardella, they provide a Romantic perspective that is a complementary counterpoint to the more Enlightenment approach taken by Mr Stonemason in science lessons, in which he is currently discussing the scientific method and scientific detachment.
The students studied Wordsworth’s “My Heart Leaps Up”, and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, in which they thought about the value of nature, appreciation of the moment, reflection, and the idea that the “child is the father of the man”.
They are currently studying the long poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Wordsworth’s good friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is a tale with biblical, historical and personal significance that addresses ideas of mindless violence, love of nature, and repentance. The mariner has not travelled far at the time of writing, and the voyage continues into October…