THEMES AND IMAGERY IN SELECTED ROMANTIC POEMS

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

Nature is not the ultimate reality, but it has a valuable roleto play in the life of man. It is a real and not a deceptivestructure of forms and forces, it displays sublime orderand beauty in both action and being. (Wordsworth)

In a society where materialism rules, human beings are bound to explore every means in order to attain these material elements and in doing so, they devote their time and resources thereby having little or no time to appreciate nature. Thus, for man to appreciate nature again, the use of literature becomes very important as literature is seen as a weapon of change. During the Romantic era therefore, writers like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats,

William Blake, Perry .B. Shelly and other romanticists used their works to clamor for a change in the society. The society they lived in was full of chaos as a result of the emergence of science and technology which gave birth to the invention of machines of all kinds. These inventions 'ateup' the society as they were filled with the glamour of this new technological breakthrough.

Therefore there was little or no time for the indepth appreciation of the natural and the supernatural. Religion to the people at the time of these inventions, was a disturbance and so they wanted little or nothing to do with it. Therefore, the appreciation of the supernatural was like a burden rather than a necessity just as the use of natural elements became a waste of time to them. Even though

these natural elements help more in their lives than the machines that were used for the manufacturing of their products. These problems, and more were what the writers of this period viewed and were able to forsee that the future of Europe was not safe; therefore, in a bid to try and draw man back to nature, they decided to use their writings to preach the essence of nature and to negate the corrupt practices prevalent at that time. The Romantic era which lasted from

1780-1870, was preceded by the Neo-Classical Period. Bygrave (1996, pVII) describes Romanticism.

Order the full materials for this project from chapter one to References.