Blake And Wordsworth: The Importance Of Childhood

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Blake and Wordsworth: The Importance of Childhood

Childhood has been said to be the thing we spend the rest of our lives getting over. To a Romantic, this statement could not be further from the truth. Romantics see childhood as a time of innocence, an exquisite time of beauty and growth, a time where one can see the world through untainted eyes. William Blake and William Wordsworth, writers of Romantic literature, each tackled the feat of explaining the importance of this time in ones life. Not only writing on the great splendor of childhood, but the need to leave this uninformed stage in life.
Blake spends a great deal of time with his idea of innocence. He has an entire theory about innocence, its importance, and necessity to a full life. According to Blake, life begins in a world of innocence, a world without shadow bathed in the light of purity and saturated with love. This is a world where all is connected: humanity, nature, the divine. There is no separation between the self and anything, and the world is there simply for the pleasure of ones self. Blake says there are two types of innocence, Radical Innocence which is complete ignorance of the world and the evils it may hold, and Rationalized Innocence which is where one may realize the world is not perfect and are aware of the world, but rationalizes it away to stay in the joy of innocence. Blake argues that we cannot stay in the world of innocence, no matter how tempting it may seem, if we want to lead a complete life. After the world of innocence comes the world of experience, which can be as intimidating as it sounds. The world of experience is the absolute opposite of the world of innocence, but Blake argues we must endure it to fully appreciate the world of innocence and realize there must be a balance between the blindness of innocence and the curse of seeing all experience; Blake calls this orgniz’d innocence. It is the balance of the wisdom of th...