Page 84 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

Unit 11: The Age of Johnson-The Decline of Neoclassicism (Devotional Verse, Popularity of Periodical Essays)

solitude and quietude because they afford opportunity for contemplative life. Collins in his poetry Notes
advocates return to nature and simple and unsophisticated life, which became the fundamental
creeds of the Romantic Revival.
James Macpherson (1736-1796) became the most famous poet during his time by the publication of
Ossianic poems, called the Works of Ossian, which were translations of Gaelic folk literature,
though the originals were never produced, and so he was considered by some critics as a forger. In
spite of this Macpherson exerted a considerable influence on contemporary poets like Blake and
Burns by his poetry which was impregnated with moonlight melancholy and ghostly romantic
suggestions.
William Blake (1757-1827). In the poetry of Blake we find a complete break from classical poetry.
In some of his works as Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience which contain the famous
poems—Little Lamb who made thee? and Tiger, Tiger burning bright, we are impressed by their
lyrical quality. In other poems such as The Book of Thel, Marriage of Heaven and Hell, it is the
prophetic voice of Blake which appeals to the reader. In the words of Swinburne, Blake was the
only poet of “supreme and simple poetic genius” of the eighteenth century, “the one man of that
age fit, on all accounts, to rank with the old great masters”. Some of his lyrics are, no doubt, the
most perfect and the most original songs in the English language.
Robert Burns (1759-96), who is the greatest song writer in the English language, had great love for
nature, and a firm belief in human dignity and quality, both of which are characteristic of
romanticism. He has summed up his poetic creed in the following stanza:
Give me a spark of Nature’s fire,
That is all the learning I desire;

Then, though I trudge through dub and mire
At plough or cart,
My Muse, though homely in attire,
May touch the heart
The fresh, inspired songs of Burns as The Cotter’s Saturday Night, To a Mouse, To a Mountain
Daisy, Man was Made to Mourne went straight to the heart, and they seemed to be the songs of the
birds in spring time after the cold and formal poetry for about a century. Most of his songs have the
Elizabethan touch about them.
William Cowper (1731-1800), who lived a tortured life and was driven to the verge of madness,
had a genial and kind soul. His poetry, much of which is of autobiographical interest, describes the
homely scenes and pleasures and pains of simple humanity—the two important characteristics of
romanticism. His longest poem, The Task, written in blank verse, comes as a relief after reading
the rhymed essays and the artificial couplets of the Age of Johnson. It is replete with description of
homely scenes, of woods and brooks of ploughmen and shepherds. Cowper’s most laborious
work is the translation of Homer in blank verse, but he is better known for his small, lovely lyrics
like On the Receipt of My Mother’s Picture, beginning with the famous line, Oh, that those lips had
language’, and Alexander Selkirk, beginning with the oft-quoted line, ‘I am monarch of all I
survey’.
George Crabbe (1754-1832) stood midway between the Augustans and the Romantics. In form he
was classical, but in the temper of his mind he was romantic. Most of his poems are written in the
heroic couplet, but they depict an attitude to nature which is Wordsworthian. To him nature is a
“presence, a motion and a spirit,” and he realizes the intimate union of nature with man. His well-
known poem. The Village, is without a rival as a picture of the working men of his age. He shows
that the lives of the common villager and labourers are full of romantic interest. His later poems,
The Parish Register, The Borough, Tales in Verse, and Tales of the Hall are all written in the same
strain.

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