INDIVIDUAL POET SNAPSHOTS

Question 1

William Blake

Answer 1

Visionary, mystical, anti-authoritarian.

Opposed oppression: church, monarchy, factory system.

Songs of Innocence and Experience explores duality of human condition.

Question 2

William Wordsworth

Answer 2

Nature as a moral force and spiritual presence.

Focus on everyday life, ordinary people, and childhood memory.

Believed poetry should be written in the “language of the common man.”

Question 3

Lord Byron

Answer 3

Charismatic, rebellious figure; the archetypal “Byronic hero” (dark, brooding, flawed).

Critiqued hypocrisy in society; championed individual freedom.

Blended personal and political themes with romantic excess.

Question 4

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Answer 4

Radical thinker: atheist, vegetarian, revolutionary.

Believed poetry could change the world.

Used nature to symbolise change, freedom, and power.