The Tyger

"Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake (1863)

One of Blake’s most iconic poems, “Auguries of Innocence” grapples with contrasting ideas like innocence and experience within the context of the natural world. The poem explores the limited perspective of the human experience in contrast with the massive scale of nature, which never seems to lose its innocence or wildness despite growing and aging. The poem critiques society and upholds nature as an idealized romantic escape from the corruption of humanity.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth (1807)

This quintessential English Romantic poem explores the relationship between the individual and the natural world. The poem describes the speaker’s joyful and peaceful reflection on the daffodils and proposes using the natural world to escape from daily, civilized troubles. Like many Romantic poems, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” adheres to a strict form and rhyme scheme to tame or temper the natural and wild themes of Romanticism.

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats (1819)

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” is one of the “Great Odes of 1919,” which also includes a few other famous Odes by Keats like “Ode to a Nightingale.” Famously unsatisfied by existing forms of poetry, Keats invented the ode as a poetic form. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” describes and explores the images depicted on the urn itself, specifically two scenes: one in which a lover chases his beloved, and another concerning a village sacrifice. The poem was not well-received by critics at the time, but by the mid-19th-century, attitudes towards the poem began to change. Today, it is considered one of the greatest odes in the English canon.