One of the main ways in which to portray children during the Romantic period was to see them as victims of the …show more content…
church. Due to terrible living and working conditions that came about because of the industrial revolution during this era. Children managed on a diet so deficient in protein that they could not grow (Burton, 165). Over fifty per cent of children died before they reached the age of five years, Death was as common and as true as poverty (Burton, 166). In spite of this the church sat by and watched the population suffer instead of helping the poor the church was teaching the populace that in order to go to heaven everyone must suffer in this world first, this included children. Blakes sentiments are reflected in his poem The Chimney Sweeper taken from his collection Songs of Experience, in which the narrative voice states:They think they have done me no injury:And are gone to praise God & his priest & kingWho make up a heaven of our misery(The Chimney Sweeper, 14-16).
The ethics of the church also come under fire by Blake in his poem Holy Thursday also from Songs of Experience.
Is this a holy thing to see,In a rich and fruitful land,Babes reducd to misery,Fed with cold and usurious hand?(Holy Thursday, 1-4).
The historical context of Holy Thursday was the annual event held in St. Pauls Cathedral, in London. Blake portrayed the public appearance of charity-schooled children in St. Paul 's Cathedral on Ascension Day. In this experienced version, however, he assesses critically rather than praises the charity of the institutions responsible for the unfortunate and ill-fated children. The speaker entertains questions about the children as victims of cruelty and injustice, of which was done at the hand of the church.
Wordsworth presents another opposing view on children, he shows them to be stupid and mendacious (Holt McGavran, 57).
This point of view completely go against the typical belief that children and innocent and spiritual (Holt McGavran, 57). Wordsworth allows the child in We are Severn to be interpreted by their interrogator the childs true opinions are not shown but can be viewed through the adults experienced eyes. Thus not giving the reader a true interpretation of the child in question. In Wordsworths poem, We are Seven written in 1978. He writes about an encounter with a simple (We are seven, 1) maid (We are seven, 13) who talks about her brothers and sisters. Despite the narrators protests the little girl insists on counting little Jane (We are seven, 49) and my brother John (We are seven, 56) who both went away (We are seven, 54). Wordsworth uses the same idea as Blake in which we must suffer in this world in order to go to heaven. However, he does not question it as much as Blake but just seems to accept it as the truth, where as Blake asks why God would wish for his Children to suffer when he supposedly loves us unconditionally and gave us his son in order to redeem our
sins.
Blake offers another opposing view on children, one that was once again controversial at the time. This was the idea of the opinionated child that seemed to be more experienced than the church and its own parents as it knew how to deal and sort out the societys problems. The first example of this is in The Little Vagabond. In which the childs narrative voice questions why they go to church as its cold there unlike the alehouse that is warm.
Dear Mother, Dear Mother, the church is cold.
But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm(The Little Vagabond, 1-2).
The little vagabond then goes on to say if children were in the Alehouse and not at church then they would not have bandy children nor fasting nor birch (The Little Vagabond, 12). The child is arguing that he church does not fulfil human needs, the Vagabond knows what the problem is and is dealing with it. This is also the case in The School Boy. However, instead of the church coming under fire it is the schooling system. Blake believed in self-teaching. This is a classic Romantic idea that children should be free and independent and learn from nature. After allHow can the bird that is born for joy,Sit in a cage and sing(The School Boy, 16-17).
In this poem, Blake presents school as a form of restraint. And it is this restraint which is used by adults to govern over and dictate to children their beliefs and opinions. However, in Blakes poem this backfires on the adults as the child becomes smart and is able to criticise his parents and the teachers.
A feminist view on education for children from the Romantic Era was presented by Mary Wollenstonecraft. She presents rather a different idea to that of William Blakes. As her view does not believe in self teaching but a more strict and equal education for both males and females from all classes which is free of charge. In her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Wollenstonecraft makes her views very clear by stating: day schools for particular ages should be established by Government in which boys and girls might be educated together (Duncan Wu, Romanticism, An Anthology, 284). This is forward thinking during this age, not only does Wollenstonecraft wish for boys and girls to be educated together but she also wants it to be free. However, she does additionally state that the schoolroom ought to be surrounded by a large piece of ground in which the children might be usefully exercised (Duncan Wu, Romanticism, An Anthology, 284). This does at least show that she believes in some of the other Romantic writers beliefs that children should be outside playing and learning for themselves.
Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge appears to be about his very own son, rather than children in general. Hartley Coleridge born 19th September 1796 was one and a half years old when this poem was written. In the poem Coleridge looks at the relationship between children and nature, thou, my babe! Shall wander like a breeze... (Frost at Midnight, 58) the divergence between this free country location and the city I was reared / In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim; (Frost At Midnight, 55-56) and the correlation between adulthood and childhood as they are connected in adult recollection. Wordsworth was Coleridges friend and colleague, but had a very different childhood to Coleridge. Wordsworth was raised in the rural countryside and saw his childhood as a time when his connection with nature to be at its greatest; he revisited his recollections of childhood in order to soothe his feelings and trigger his imagination. Coleridge, on the other hand, was raised in urban London. Coleridge had rather a different view to Wordsworth rather than seeing the connection between childhood and nature as an expected thing, Coleridge seems to observe it as a delicate, prized and extraordinary bond, one of which he himself was deprived of as a child. In this poem, we see how the sorrow of this separation from nature has strengthened Coleridge 's wish that his child, Hartley, should enjoy an idyllic Wordsworthian upbringing by lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags / Of Ancient Mountain, and beneath the clouds... (Frost at Midnight, 60-61).
Most of the major writers believed that children should be free of constraint and be liberated to do as they please as it was seen to be self teaching. Blake offers the most interesting view on children as he sees them to be constrained by the church and by their own parents. He presents them to be smarter than the adults in his poetry and they know what is best for themselves. Meanwhile Wordsworth portrays them to be stupid and mendacious (Holt McGavran, 57). He shows the young child to be incapable of understanding the concept of death and the adult interrogator in the poem will not allow the child to continue with her beliefs that she has seven brothers and sisters despite two of them being dead. Even though Wordsworth does present this negative view on children the overall observations by the Romantic poets is that children should be free to teach themselves away from constraint and to be at one with nature.
BibliographyBlake, William. (1967). Songs Of Innocence and of Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Burton, Elizabeth. (1972). The Early Victorians at Home 1837-1861. Harlow: Longman.
Holt McGravran, James. (1991). Romanticism and Childrens Literature in Nineteenth-Century England. London: University of Gorgia.
Roe, Nicholas. (2005). An Oxford Guide to Romanticism. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Wu, Duncan. (2006). Romanticism An Anthology, Third Edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.