English Literature Romantic Poetry Summary Table A Level (Edexcel)
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Course
Unit 3 - Poetry
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
A summary of every Romantic poem on the edexcel specification. Details themes, language features and structural techniques in every poem. It is succinct and designed to be a practical revision resource for the exam. I am a former student on the edexcel specification and achieved an A* in English Li...
`Poem Summary Key Ideas Key Quotes
Holy Thursday (Songs of Poverty- These children live in “Red and blue and green”
Innocence) by Blake- Blake poverty and cruelty the entire contrasted with “grey beadles.”
explores the innocence of time, however on this one day Colours- nature and passion,
London orphans, against the they are dressed up and children are future of country.
backdrop of the harsh cleaned and showed to the Beadles- aged and devoid of life.
London city. Angelic nature world so that the average “Multitudes of flowers”- Children
of children used to highlight Londoner can think that they are innocent but beautiful. Despite
their exploitation. Holy are doing the right thing. “multitudes”- powerless.
Thursday- Ascension day, “Multitudes of lambs”- The “Radiance” associated with god-
annual service held by St other symbolic meaning of a The children emit a holy glow.
Paul’s Cathedral in London lamb is that it is a sacrificial “Multitudes of lambs” Lambs are
for the poor children for the animal. This connects back to typically seen as symbols of god,
London Charity schools. Est. the idea that the poor children purity and rebirth. “Harmonious
by wealthy benefactors to are sacrificed so that the thunderings”- Oxymoronic, unity
make children useful others can live a rich life. breads power against corruption in
citizens. AABB rhyme scheme- Rhyming society. “Innocent faces clean”-
couplets. Purity, romantic trope.
Holy Thursday (Songs of Ballad form-tells tale of “A rich and fruitful land” with
Experience) by Blake- This ordinary people. Fragmented “misery” and “usurous”-reminding
poem de-constructs the rhyme scheme which us that the wealth is plentiful but
surface level imagery of the contrasts with the other Holy not divided fairly. “The sun does
other Holy Thursday poem, Thursday. The first stanza is never shine/bleak and bare/eternal
revealing the horror of ABAB, but this breaks down in winter”- barren landscape,
poverty in London. Again, the second stanza-emphasises distorting Romantics pleasant
Blake uses the irony of a the exclamatory “It is a land of pastoral. Nothing can grow without
religious subject matter to poverty”. Rhyme scheme light- children can’t flourish. “Filled
highlight the opposite: a builds up again to abcb in the with thorns” Thorns were placed on
world devoid of morality final two stanzas- Jesus’ head to mock him, perhaps
and compassion. Uncomfortable close even Blake feels the rich are mocking the
though problems not solved. pain of the poor. . The “cold and
Interrogative mood By asking usurous hand” that feeds them is
rhetorical questions of the motivated more by self-interest
reader, Blake makes them feel than by love and pity. Moreover,
complicit in the mistreatment this “hand” metonymically
of the poor. represents not just the daily
guardians of the orphans, but the
city of London as a whole- London
doesn’t live up to help the poor.
The Sick Rose by Blake- According to medieval “the invisible worm” -phallic
Medieval tradition-rose tradition; it represents connotations, the fact that it cannot
represents chastity/virginity chastity/virginity and thus was be seen suggests that the owner is
and thus was associated associated with young girls. It someone concealing it. We might
with young girls. The signifies love, especially suggest that the worm arrives
penetration of the rose by romantic passion. It is also without the woman’s consent. “The
the hidden canker worm linked with mortality, a sign of howling storm” might symbolise an
can, therefore, be the transience of human love orgasm. “Crimson joy”- suggestive
understood as the covert and beauty, because it of blood and perhaps a woman’s
sex which destroys the blooms, smells sweetly and virginity. We might interpret the
virginity of an ‘innocent’ and then dies. It therefore links sex poem as being about intercourse,
thus corrupts her own and death. Prostitution though it is darkly suggestive of an
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