Romantic poetry, comparative literature, William Blake, Li He
Abstract
William Blake, which is one of the most typical and iconic figure during the development of the Western Romantic poetry during the development of traditional literary culture, is usually regarded as the sally port of research by modern people towards their generations with the comparative formal perspective. Meanwhile, Li He is another great poet who is regarded as exemplary of his time and even beyond it. Although Li He’s mode of writing is very different from Blake’s, the particular genre of poetry represented by him coincides with many features of Western Romantic poetry. This study centers on a careful and precise comparison of the works of the two of them. Some of the classic works of these two poets are analyzed for three branch aspects: the choice of structure, the use of imagery, and the difference in the inner expression of meanings. As a result of both the valuable similarities and specific features that are influenced by different cultural background in their poetry works, this paper generalizes the much deeper and universal characteristics of romantic poetry across cultural backgrounds. Finally, conclusions are drawn through the comparative research that reveals the essential differences between the Western classic poetry in Romanticism and the Eastern classic poetry that is similar to the essential characteristics of Romanticism in three aspects - structure, images and thematic expressions.
