Religious Criticism on Romantic Period Poetry Religion in the Romantic period was significantly affected by the French Revolution, as were most parts of social and political life. Catholicism was on the rise and becoming the mainstream religion. However, many opposing perspectives and rebellious attacks were being made on the establishment of organized religion (Betros). Religious diversity is reflected throughout the written works of this period among numerous poets, and this increased criticism and feedback. Shelley, Blake and Coleridge are among many that questioned the traditional structure of religion during this era. Each of these experienced additional stress and hardships in their creative profession, as well as personal lives, due
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He was given every upper-class opportunity to succeed and even next in line to be the family beneficiary. He attended several colleges, ending at Oxford where he was expelled for the publication of The Necessity of Atheism. This pamphlet proclaimed his disbelief in the account of proof for the existence of God. On his own, due to losing his father’s respect following his self-proclaimed atheism, he falls prey to his own lust leading him down a path of “free love” (Percy). Shelley was fond of many women and did not allow monogamous ideas to hold him back. He endured numerous tragedies and many family deaths in his short however productive life. He persevered through much criticism for his way of life and his works. He was even sent to trial to battle for his rights to guardianship of his children with his first wife, following her suicide. Due of the topics included in his poem Queen 's Mob, namely his reference to his own secularism, the courts ruled against him (Percy). One of Shelley’s less critiqued works was Ode to the West Wind, where he speaks of the power of wind both good and bad. “Make me thy lyre….drive my dead thoughts over the universe” speaking how he might become the wind to spread his word (Shelley, …show more content…
Blake was quickly judged on his open accounts of these visions, landing him homeschooled at an early age to prevent further bullying (Natoli). These visions helped fuel his controversial writings. In The Lamb, Blake alludes to God as the one that "gave thee life" and is in charge of "making all the vales rejoice," thus confirming that he held a continued admiration for God (Blake, 1076). Blake wrote many poems mentioning God but openly expressed his disdain for organized religion. In The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Experience) writing “Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe! Where are thy father & mother? Say? They are both gone up to the church to pray” he says that while the boy is in need, they have left him to his sorrow as they are mandated by their religion to be at church (Blake, 1077). Further analysis translates that the boy “blames God, the church, and the King, for the misery, which he is forced to endure” (Daughery, 4-5). Blake would live in poverty the majority of his life regardless of his attempts at writing and engraving. He was even tried for sedition upon returning to London, due to an unhappy analyst of his
He was given every upper-class opportunity to succeed and even next in line to be the family beneficiary. He attended several colleges, ending at Oxford where he was expelled for the publication of The Necessity of Atheism. This pamphlet proclaimed his disbelief in the account of proof for the existence of God. On his own, due to losing his father’s respect following his self-proclaimed atheism, he falls prey to his own lust leading him down a path of “free love” (Percy). Shelley was fond of many women and did not allow monogamous ideas to hold him back. He endured numerous tragedies and many family deaths in his short however productive life. He persevered through much criticism for his way of life and his works. He was even sent to trial to battle for his rights to guardianship of his children with his first wife, following her suicide. Due of the topics included in his poem Queen 's Mob, namely his reference to his own secularism, the courts ruled against him (Percy). One of Shelley’s less critiqued works was Ode to the West Wind, where he speaks of the power of wind both good and bad. “Make me thy lyre….drive my dead thoughts over the universe” speaking how he might become the wind to spread his word (Shelley, …show more content…
Blake was quickly judged on his open accounts of these visions, landing him homeschooled at an early age to prevent further bullying (Natoli). These visions helped fuel his controversial writings. In The Lamb, Blake alludes to God as the one that "gave thee life" and is in charge of "making all the vales rejoice," thus confirming that he held a continued admiration for God (Blake, 1076). Blake wrote many poems mentioning God but openly expressed his disdain for organized religion. In The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Experience) writing “Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe! Where are thy father & mother? Say? They are both gone up to the church to pray” he says that while the boy is in need, they have left him to his sorrow as they are mandated by their religion to be at church (Blake, 1077). Further analysis translates that the boy “blames God, the church, and the King, for the misery, which he is forced to endure” (Daughery, 4-5). Blake would live in poverty the majority of his life regardless of his attempts at writing and engraving. He was even tried for sedition upon returning to London, due to an unhappy analyst of his