THE CONCEPT OF CHILDHOOD AS IMPLIED IN THE POETRY OF BLAKE, WORDSWORTH an‎d COLERIDGE

The seventeenth and eighteenth century poets expressed an acute nostalgia for childhood which they saw as a period of joy, peace and security. As a result of their reliance on reason as a guiding power in man, they welcomed its acceleration in children and hailed its presence in adulthood. It was not until the last decades of the eighteenth century that childhood emerged as a major theme in English poetry.