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Vision and Disenchantment

Blake's Songs and Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads

Heather Glen author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:7th Jul '83

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Vision and Disenchantment cover

A challenging and persuasive interpretation of poems too often seen as part of a coherent and accepted literary tradition.

Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Wordsworth's contributions to Lyrical Ballads were both published in the last decade of the eighteenth century. The similarities between the two collections have often been noticed. However, as Dr Glen argues, to assimilate both collections to a common 'Romanticism' is to obscure that which is most distinctive in each.Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Wordsworth's contributions to Lyrical Ballads were both published in the last decade of the eighteenth century. The similarities between the two collections have often been noticed. However, as Dr Glen argues, to assimilate both collections to a common 'Romanticism' is to obscure that which is most distinctive in each. Each was shaped by and responsive to very different social and cultural pressures in the England of its time and offers a very different vision of human possibility. Moreover each poet uses the language which is the intimate register and vehicle of his society's experience in a very different way. This is a challenging and persuasive interpretation of poems too often seen as part of a coherent and accepted literary tradition: poems which present a continuing challenge to all who would explore possibilities for creative social change. It will be of great interest to all serious readers of Romantic poetry.

ISBN: 9780521271981

Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 23mm

Weight: 520g

412 pages