The influence of pre-romantic poets on romanticism and their legacy

Gray's elegy and its influence

The elegy Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is Gray’s most famous work and represents one of the most important pre-romantic poems. Gray is fundamentally a classicist but it's also romantic in some points, for example for the introduction of the graveyard poetry. It’s famous for two main reasons: it directly influenced the so called graveyard poetry, that will develop after, characterized by an interest for death, macabre, darkness, the end of life and it’s important because it influenced too Foscolo’s I Sepolcri. Another important pre - romantic poet is Robert Burns, a Scottish poet who managed to anticipate the fashion for popular poetry, a poetry which focuses more of countryside life, the interest for people’s everyday life, but not town’s people’s one; and with the simplicity and harmony anticipates one of the most important romantic themes.

Blake's contribution to romanticism

Another precursor of Romanticism is, as we says before, Blake: there are lots of elements in his poetry which will be typical for the romantic poetry: for example the centrality of child and childhood (it’s the most important part of life, because you’re still young, innocent, free and not corrupted by society and everyone should try to preserve this condition). Also Blake’s language was very simple, just like something wrote for a child. It was in this literary experience that the child first appears as the subject of poetry, that will be very important for Wordsworth to and in the others major artist in the future (for example Pascoli).