Rock and Romanticism

James Rovira is chair and associate professor in the English department at Mississippi College.

• Introduction: Rock and Romanticismby James RoviraPart I: Blake, Shelley, and Rock“Tangled Up in Blake: the Triangular Relationship among Dylan, Blake, and the Beats” by Luke Walker“Romanticism in the Park: Mick Jagger Reading Shelley”by Jaaneke van der Leest“William Blake: The Romantic Alternative”by Douglas T. Root“Digging at the Roots: Martha Redbone’s The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake” by Nicole Lobdell“‘Tangle of Matter and Ghost’: U2, Leonard Cohen, and Blakean Romanticism”by Lisa CraftonPart II: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Rock“The Inner Revolution(s) of Wordsworth and the Beatles”by David Boocker“‘When the Light that’s Lost within Us Reaches the Sky’: Jackson Browne’s Romantic Vision” by Gary L. Tandy“‘Swimming Against the Stream’: Rush’s Romantic Critique of their Modern Age” by David S. Hogsette“Wordsworth’s ‘Michael,’ the Georgic, and Blackberry Smoke”by Ronald D. Morrison“Wordsworth on the Radio”by Rachel FederPart III: European Romanticisms and Popular Music“Themes of ‘Scapigliatura’ and cursed poets in the songs of Piero Ciampi (1934–1980)” by Lorenzo SorboFor more information, visit https://jamesrovira.com/rock-and-romanticism-blake-wordsworth-and-rock-from-dylan-to-u2/

It might seem odd to bring the Romanticism of the 19th century together with the rock music of the 20th and 21st centuries. However, with this book Rovira (Mississippi College) shows that there is a valid connection. In dealing with rock, the contributors (most of whom are, like the editor, English scholars) focus primarily on lyrics rather than the music itself. The contributors do not superimpose their concepts of Romanticism onto song lyrics; rather, they show that song lyricists from Bob Dylan and the Beatles to U2 have had demonstrable connections to Romantic poets such as Blake and Wordsworth and to the thinking of the Romantic era. In exploring such connections, the essayists delve into the sociocultural background of the earlier time and the present.Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.