Question: Why is Blake called ‘the precursor of Romanticism’? Blake is called the precursor of Romanticism
Introduction
William Blake (1757-1827) is one of the first-generation romantic poets. He was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. His best-known works Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). His writing style deals with greatly Romanticism.
Romantic features
To discuss Blake as ‘the precursor of Romanticism’, we need to know the features of Romanticism. Love for nature, love for beauty, imagination, supernatural elements, etc are the main features of Romanticism.
Blake as a Romantic poet
William Blake is a Romantic poet without any doubt. In the poems of Blake, we get sundry features of romantic poetry like other genuine romantic poets. His poems are packed up by discussing the sea, birds, hills, trees, forest, and so on.
Blake as the precursor of Romanticism
We know that the Romantic Period has been started in 1798 with the hands of William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge. Romantics have written poems in simple language, with reference to nature, beauty, high imagination, sensuousness, etc. But William Blake has written his poems before 1798 with the trends of the Romantic period (1798-1832). We can cite Blake’s poems of Songs of Innocence and Of Experience to clear the idea. It seems that Romantics have gotten ready-made trends to compose their poems from Blake. If he would compose his poems from 1798 to 1832, he is called a genuine romantic poet. As he was born and composed poems early, he is called the precursor of Romanticism.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is cleared that we can address Blake as the precursor of Romanticism for his writing qualities without any hesitation.
