William Blake was not well-known during the rest of the 19th century after his death in 1827. His writing was not very popular during his time; it became acceptable over the last 180 years. Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets in the English literature. It would seem that further investigation is needed in recognition of the most original representative.
The purpose of the present research is William Blake’s ideas, themes relate to the Modern World. Most of his works were based on opposites. William Blake’s presentation of innocence and experience throughout the most powerful poems collected in “Songs of Innocence “(1789) and “Songs of Experience” (1794), avoids directly subscribing to innocence, or even experience, but explores the complex instabilities between these two contrary states, as well as the blurring between reality and illusion or good and evil.
In support of this purpose, the following aims are critically set:
- To analyse the William Blake’s criticism of his own time, society.
- To study ideas, themes in the poem books “The Songs of Innocence” and “The Songs of Experience”
- To compare the statements from the poems with the situation in the real life
The methods. The theoretical analysis of the problem is based on different literary sources, their analysis, comparisons and critical evaluation. When it comes to the disposition looks as follows: after the following part on theoretical analysis comes to descriptive part, in which the comparative of the statements from the William Blake’s poems “The Songs of Innocence” and “The Songs of Experience” is being described. These two interconnected books of poetry were intended to show the two contrary states of human soul. In this term of Paper analysis are made of poems: “The Lamb” and “The Tiger”, “The Blossom” and “The Sick Rose”. Also follows the comparative of the statements from the poems with the situation in the real life. It is also important to compare the statements from the literature with the situation in the real life.
The structure. This Term paper consists of two main parts:
- In the first part William Blake is discussed as a social critic of his time and how his poetry reflects to society of our own time as well.
- In the second part is analysed one of the most important characteristic of William Blake’s work paired poems. Innocence and experience were the main focus when using opposites. Many of such powerful poems are collected in “Songs of Innocence “(1789) and “Songs of Experience” (1794).
Material. Written sources that are going to be used in this study are previous studies on Preromanticism and William Blake’s works. Works of Mooney P., Morris E., Milošas Č., Wilkinson B., are the main sources for the specific issues. The poems of William Blake “Songs of Innocence “ and “Songs of Experience” are important for the second theme of this Term Paper.
1.WILLIAM BLAKE- A FORERUNNER OF ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
- William Blake-a social critic of his own time
The early 19th century was marked by great changes. Three major events disturbed the harmony and peace of the century following the Industrial Revolution, the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. In the 1780s and 1790s, Blake’s main employer was Joseph Johnson. Blake’s sympathy for the French Revolution found him a place in the circle (the English group held weekly private meetings) that gathered around in the little room over Johnson’s Bookshop. At Johnson’s dinner parties W.Blake kept company with Tom Paine and was known for wearing the red cap of the French revolutionaries.
All these events appealed to William Blake’s radicalism. Therefore he strongly believed in the emancipation and freedom of the human spirit. He attacked the tyranny of kings, priests, politicians and tried to heal the injured society in his poetry. Moreover he critiqued the established values and institutions of his time and believed in the power of positive goodness. His support for the American Revolution (1776-1787) and the French Revolution (1789-1794) shows his great confidence in humanity.
1.2 William Blake’s ideas and the Modern World
Blake’s poetry can be applied to all manner of ideologies, religions or philosophical notions. All of them like quoting W.Blake as a sort of authority for their views. Being a proponent of revolutions, including those in America and France he argued that the people should be allowed to reason for themselves, especially on religion and history. According to William Blake all people should have rights and be respected. Blake was satisfied by viewing the world as he thought it should be viewed and showing the truths he saw through poetry, illustrations, and engravings.
In the Land of Ulro , Czeslaw Milosz insists that Blake was a person who had to rely on his own image of himself, outside of any society( Milošas, Č. 1996). William Blake is seen as an individual of genius, awkward to deal with, sometimes nervous, often contradictory, but incorruptible. Blake himself believed there were eternal "states" of desire, even of selfhood, through which a man passes, keeping his soul intact. W.Blake did not care for accurate representation and he was the first artist after the Renaissance who thus consciously revolted against the accepted standards of tradition. He was a Christian who hated the churches; a revolutionary who disgusted the materialism of the radicals. In consequence, he was against his society: its prisons, churches, money, morals, and fashionable opinions. However, he did not think that the faults of society stemmed from the faulty organization of society. To him the only restrictions over man are always in his own mind. He was fighting the acceptance of reality in the light of science.
William Blake was a powerful writer of his time, and his poetry continues on into our modern world. His ideas and views of life continue to be relevant. Therefore, Blake's poetry is accessible to everyone, his style is by no means complex, and 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' is something that just about anyone can enjoy and at least get a feel for what the writer is trying to do.
- “SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE”-THE MOST POPULAR W.BLAKE’S POETRY BOOK
- The social significance of Blake’s work
William Blake is a poet who celebrates the world’s beauty, the world of children and the struggle for a just society. 18th century is seen as a period of corruption, venality and lies. The society of his time was oppressed by the oligarchy. Being a rebel and believing in freedom and individuality William Blake formed the basic of his revolutionary poetry. Blake’s poetry is extremely interesting and valuable. In his writings he has opened worlds of marvels and great beauty for all readers.
Therefore, as a social commentator, William Blake is able to describe social grievances and pitiful wrongs of humankind. Blake felt that the only way to cure the misunderstanding in the society and to get past the materialism is to gain a complete trust in imagination, instincts, and energies. If these solutions are combined, the only way to become free from the corruption of our society is to embrace the most important of inner feelings, to let the imagination run free, and to see that the arts are the one and only religion that is really needed. In addition, Patrick Mooney also asks us “does Blake provide a solution in the ills of this world? Is this solution as relevant to modern times as it was to his own?”(Patrick Mooney,1997). Indeed we can see that William Blake’s opinions on social change resonate with modern times and modern reader. Blake's poetry had many aspects of pre-romanticism as the attention to the lower class and the interesting in denouncing social problems.
- Paired poems-one of the most important characteristic
Publishing two poems on the same ideas, but from different perspectives is another interesting element in Blake’s poetry. That shows his notion of contrast and opposition. “Songs of Innocence and Experience” express two opposite states of the human soul. At the same time, Blake's poems are meant to show a connection between nature and human states of mind and spirit, including both the pure and the corrupt sides of those states.
In addition, as mentioned above, each book compare and contrasts the perspective of life in the imagination and in the real life. Blake believed that imagination helps to solve the absurdity of the real life. According to W.Blake, the imagination is free to stroll and run wild and not be dulled by the world of the senses. He believed children were free from spiritual self-consciousness. However the human world is marked by innocence and experience. Therefore we can say that innocence denotes joy, peace, safety while experience points to all kinds of evil, pain, corruption, oppression.
The “The Blossom” and “The Sick Rose”, “The Tiger” and “The Lamb” are related as parts of “Songs of Innocence and Experience”. These poems deal with things inside of nature such as people and senses. In poem “The Blossom”, I think the main message is that to be free to experience life is the greatest treasure of all. On the other hand, it is a pity that too many people try to hold their lives in their hands instead of just marvelling in its beauty. “The Sick Rose” tells about the human body and its response to the world. This poem reflects the behaviour and feeling of a human being by comparing love to a worm, which destroys people lives. It shows how something evil and dark can come and take away what is the dearest. It also tells that people don’t care about each other and they have lost the meaning of love.
“ Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy?”(Blake, 1998).
The "dark secret love" suggests a corrupted or corrupting love, for it can be said that the worm does indeed "love" the rose so much that it devours it.
W.Blake raises a question of life and death in the “The Lamb” and “The Tiger”. “The Tiger” can be seen as a poem about the battle between good and evil: the tiger, according to this theory, represents, perhaps, the devil or something evil. On the other hand, there is some of kind creator being whose existence is key to the poem. The poem is actually about the creation of tiger. In “The Lamb” W.Blake writes from the perspective of a little child who is questioning the origins of life, particularly the life of a little lamb. But how God can create such a fearful creature (the Lamb) and what right does he have? W.Blake questions if the creation of such a fearless creature (the Tiger) is on purpose, because it puts others in a better place when killing them. The implication is that “the tiger” is put on this world to bring people to a better place. The tiger and the lamb are themselves seen as extremes of the natural world of both the wild and gentle sides of humanity. The tiger is the symbol of power and danger, while the lamb is the symbol of nature. When author asks, “Did he who made the lamb make thee?”(Blake, 1998) he is truly asking the question of his readers, but I think in his own mind he is already sure that it is the same Creator who gave us innocence and experience. Indeed, since God is not Supreme Being and supreme creator of mankind, as the church teaches, but rather is in each of us; it is because of us, and our own creative impulses that the tiger, fearful as he is, exists at all. It does say that as creators we have a terrible power at hand, though.
Blake's simple use of poetic devices makes his work more enjoyable to read, it deals with conflicts that everyone faces from the easily understandable view of a child and the situation complexities of an adult.
'Songs of Innocence and Experience' is unique in so far as there are a lot of poems with duplicate titles, but both poems will be from a completely different viewpoint, a different time in life.
CONSLUSION
- In these days and age we are used to the idea of the eccentric artist who doesn’t follow the rules. Modern audiences see William Blake as a pioneering wild man of art. His back-to-nature philosophy is all the more relevant in nowadays debates about issues of political oppressions, environment, and corruption.
- William Blake saw poetry as the avenue to social reform. He was against material despotisms. William Blake's poetry contains far-reaching critiques and commentaries of a variety of social issues of his time, particularly regarding human nature, public education, the British monarchy, and the Church of England.
- The most important part of Blake's poetical work is formed by the songs of innocence and the songs of experience published in his dual poetry books "The Songs of Innocence" and "The Songs of Experience". As the titles suggest, each book is intended to be read together so that the paired poems comment on each other. For instance, W.Blake bases a pairing of “The Blossom” with “The Sick Rose”, “The Lamb” with “The Tiger”.
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W.Blake’s poems deal with things inside of nature such as people and senses. In many of his poetic works he questions the existence of a creator. For instance, in "The Tiger" he asks who would be bold enough to make a creature so powerful and dangerous, incredibly beautiful. He saw corruption in the society of his time; felt that the problems stemmed from society's way of life being founded on mistaken ideals. Having such view of the corruption of society W.Blake offers his opinion and remedies.
REFERENCES
- Blake, W. 1998. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Edited with introduction and commentaries by Andrew Lincoln, David Bindman. Princeton University Press
- Bradley, W. A. WILLIAM BLAKE, POET, PAINTER, PROPHET; Significance of the Revival of Interest in the Personality and Work of the Artist-Seer-Emancipation from reality Through the Spirit and Power of Imagination-Two New Books, available from: http://query.nytimes.com; Internet
- History of English Literature available from: www.nkjo-przemysl.pl/ehome/www/www6/rom.html; Internet
- Profumo, M. 2006. The Cultural Significance of William Blake, available from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/; Internet
- Morris, E. 2003. The Cambridge companion to William Blake. Cambridge University Press, available from http://assets.cambridge.org; Internet
- Mooney P. 1997. William Blake’s Relevance to the Modern World, available from: http://mythosandlogos.com/Blake.html; Internet
- Milošas, Č. 1996. Ulro žemė. Baltos lankos.
- Willkinson, B.2007. Social Criticism and Concern in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, available from: http://deconstructivewasteland.blogspot.co; Internet
