Barbauld's Prophecy and Blake's Imagination
             The Romantic Era was a time of widespread cultural, social, and political reform. Industrialization was taking the place of the agrarian lifestyle, which introduced problems such as higher poverty, a larger segregation of class, and overworking of both adults and children. The wars in America and France paved the way for political upheaval by introducing new ways of thinking and radicals who wanted change. With all of this turmoil and chaos many writers turned to escapism, which involved both imagination, and prophecy. Imagination and prophecy are merely two ways the writers of this time thought, hence, being deemed the Romantic Era. Anna Laetitia Barbauld's "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven" displayed a great deal of prophecy while William Blake's use of imagination and opposing opposites is clearly evident in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell."
             The element of prophecy was common in the poems and prose of the Romantic period. Prophecy didn't necessarily mean that the events were actually going to happen. When encountering the word "prophecy or prophetic" we tend to think about those visionaries as Moses and Nostradamus, but their use of prophecy was different. Writers such as Anna Barbauld wrote in accordance with what was going on at that time (American and French Revolutions). It wasn't as though she was saying that the demise of Britain was going to happen, but that it could if things didn't change. "...The apocalyptic vision of England in decay..."(Damrosch, 29), that is how Barbauld's "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven" is described. Although the majority of this piece is synonymous with the above quote, there are a few instances when Barbauld indicates that no matter what happens, England will flourish and will never be left in the shadows.
             Thine are the laws surrounding the states revere,
             Thine the full harvest of the mental year,
             Thine the bright stars in Glory's s...