An essay of Appreciation of William Blake's "The Fly"

Andrea Burdman G. Hildebrand Introduction to Poetry April, 11, 2003 English poetry essay The Man-Fly Equation An essay of Appreciation of William Blake's "The Fly" William Blake's "The Fly" (36) contrasts the similarities between the lives of a man and a little fly when a chance encounter on a summer's day causes the narrator to reflect on their respective positions in the world of experience. Blake uses rhetorical questioning, repetition, rhyming, and other poetic devices to convey the unpredictability of life and authority of death, ultimately uniting the man and fly as one in the universal experience. The poem begins when the narrator, perhaps Blake's universal man, brushes a little fly away in a thoughtless moment. What follows is a reflection of his careless action which ultimately leads the narrator to ponder his own mortality. The narrator initially questions his place in the world, asking "Am not I a fly like thee?" Blake is suggesting that the man and the fly occupy the same position in the world. Each is significant in their own way, alive in a world of their own making which will cease to exist once they die. This richness of life shared with the untimeliness of death represent the universal human experience common to Blake's poem. Both man and fly share a joie de vive, different for both, until some unanticipated or accidental event brings it to an end.

  • Word count: 876
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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BLAKE COURSEWORK ESSAY William Blake was born in London on November 28th 1757. As a youngster he was a loner, and did

Sophie Bibb 27.1.06 BLAKE COURSEWORK ESSAY William Blake was born in London on November 28th 1757. As a youngster he was a loner, and did not tend to mix with other children. The Bible was an early and profound influence on Blake, and would remain a crucial source of inspiration throughout his life.He was an eccentric, and his personality and thoughts were reflected in his poetry, they were complex and were composed full of hidden depths and unfathromable layers. He was a strong religious person, and believed passionately in God, but he was not fond of the way religion was being dealt with in his time. Blake, like Wordsworth and Coleridge, was writing poetry during the Romantic Movement, a time at the beginning of the 19th century, when humanity and society as a whole were in crisis. Many people were caught up in scientific facts, rule following, patterns and working things out, and were lacking their sense of individualism and imagination. Therefore, at the beginning of the 19th century there was a desperate attempt to try and move away from the "suffocating" way of life that was taking over. Writers would exaggerate human emotions, in an attempt to rekindle an imaginative and emotinal response in the reader. Gothic and Horror novels were created durnig this period. The entire emphasis was now replaced with imagination being of great

  • Word count: 2689
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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An analysis of William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper.

William Blake - The Chimney Sweeper William Blake was a religious artist and poet who lived in the later 18th and early 19th century. His most popular pieces came from two collections, Songs of Innocence written in 1789 and Songs of Experience written in 1794. William Blake's art and poetry is critical of many aspects of organised religion and during his life he was an outsider among the people of his time. The two poems I am going to be comparing are The Chimney Sweeper poems from both the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. This is to see how a man's opinion can change with time, as the title is only on of the few things left in common between the two poems. The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence is divided into six stanzas, all with the matching rhyme pattern aabb. This is called rhyming couplets. The first stanza catches our attention instantly with the mention of the death of the chimney sweeper's mother. The stanza sticks to tone of the first line, by continuing to say how young the child was when his father sold him when he was so young that he couldn't even cry the traditional street cry of the chimney sweepers (sweep, sweep, sweep). The stanza finishes by describing the poor conditions that the child has to live in. The second stanza then goes on to describe another chimney sweeper called Tom Dacre, a child who is crying because his hair has just

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Compare and contrast the themes of loss of innocence, betrayal and motherhood as portrayed in the poems 'Cousin Kate' by Christina Rosetti and 'The Seduction' by Eileen McAuley

Compare and contrast the themes of loss of innocence, betrayal and motherhood as portrayed in the poems 'Cousin Kate' by Christina Rosetti and 'The Seduction' by Eileen McAuley The Seduction by Eileen McAuley is a poem in some ways similar to 'Cousin Kate.' It is set in the early to late 1980s in Liverpool. The urban setting is unpleasant ad the poem has many of the same themes as in Rosetti's poem, such as innocence and naivety. The mood and tone of the poem is dark and depressing. There is not a rigid rhyme scheme to this poem, although in most verses there is an alternate rhyme scheme. The poem begins with the line; "After the party, early Sunday morning," this gives us a time setting and information about what is happening in the poem. "He led her to the quiet bricks of Birkenhead docks" this sets a seedy atmosphere, and shows us that the male character has the active role, as he is the one doing the leading. The personification of the bricks is there to illustrate the absolute silence of the area they are in. "Far past the silver stream of traffic through the city," gives the impression that the traffic is attractive, or beautiful and this is something they are moving away from, she is being led away from civilization. "Far past the blind windows of the tower blocks," refers back to the silence, no one is aware of what they are doing, as they are sleeping. The

  • Word count: 2008
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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How does Blake use form, structure and language for effect in the Songs of Innocence?

How does Blake use form, structure and language for effect in the Songs of Innocence? Blake uses many devices in "Songs of Innocence" to have a profound effect on the reader. Perhaps the most obvious of these is the sybolism used in the poems is the symbol of children to represent the pure and uncorrupted in society. Blake portrays an image of innocence and vulnerablitlity in the poems by using several devices such as questions and answers and chil-like style to create a naive mood. 'Little lamb who made thee, Dost though know who made thee... Little Lamb i'll tell thee, Little Lamb, i'll tell thee'. The general form used is simple, using structures such as regular rhyme and rhythm to convey ideas about innocence and give a simple and innocent quality to the poems. The predictability and simpleness of the style is intentionally child-like to emphasise this message. The regular rhythm emphasises the hymn-like quality of the poems when combined with the spiritual matter in the poems, and make them seem joyful and youthful. The use of exclamatives, 'O!', 'Sound the Flute!' also give a child-like quality to the poems but can also make them seem quite remorseful. This is one of the main effects of the poems. The children are innocent but also unaware and disillusioned which gives a strong effect of the corruption that Blake expresses. The use of animals, especially when aspects

  • Word count: 1125
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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A comparison of Blake's poetry "The lamb." And "The tiger."

A comparison of Blake's poetry "The lamb." And "The tiger." As we see in the title these two poems are reference to animals, this similarity in itself also creates a contrast between the two poems; one animal is fierce and dreaded whilst the other it small, innocent and vulnerable. Both poems are formally structured, "The lamb." is written in rhyming couplets, but with only two separate verses, where as, "The tiger." is written in quatrains which each have at least a rhyming couplet, alliteration and repetition in each stanza. There is little enjambment used in "The lamb." this adds to the formality of the poem. Constantly throughout this poem, Blake uses questions to end a line; this shows Blake's curiosity into the making of this being and its god like beauty that it omits. Repetition is used constantly to emphasise elements of the lamb that make it seem more vulnerable and innocent, "Little lamb" line 1 & 9 Blake uses these poetical instruments to emphasise what he is writing and to try to gain the attention of the reader. Blake repeats many of his questions so that the reader's curiosity is built to a climax, "Little lamb, who made thee?" Line 1 "Dost thou know who made thee?" Line 2 In addition, here we see that Blake has pre-modified the noun, "lamb." by using the adjective, "little." Before it. "Little lamb." Line 1 This emphasises how innocuous Blake wants

  • Word count: 942
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Pure Ingenuity.

Camilo Martinez 9°B June 4-02 Pure Ingenuity In "The Flowers" and "Shaving" both authors at the beginning of both stories use symbols about joy and happiness, these symbols change during the stories. It's like a parabola beginning with joy, it gets to a maximum point that's the climax and then it declines to sadness, help and mercy. Symbols in the story are small details that give the reader an implicit idea of innocence, happiness or melancholy. This ideas makes the audience fell as if they were inside the story, a viewer of a movie that's rolling in your head. "The Flowers" is like a fairy tale, a nice place with a brightful sun that shines in the green grass, a wonderful blue sky that contrasts with a lifeful forest and with the lovely flowers that look incredible, everything is so unbelievable. All around is so pure and genuine it gives an idea of happiness, peace and innocence. But this description isn't made only with the environment. Myop, the character of the story, takes an important place in the formation of the wonderful day description, the author shows the joy of this girl "It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been as beautiful as these." Alice Walker then makes you know that your idea of a fairy tale is right and that her written girl felt inside of one of this type of stories. Myop was a

  • Word count: 931
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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An Analysis of a selection of poems by William Blake; a consideration of the contrasting states of innocence and experience.

An Analysis of a selection of poems by William Blake; a consideration of the contrasting states of Innocence and Experience. On November 28th, 1757, William Blake was born into an unprivileged family living in Soho, London. At a young age he became apprentice to an engraver and continued to work in this way for the remainder of his life. However, his greatest mission was as a poet and painter. Blake was driven be mystical vision, and in mind and on paper was a great visionary. His non-conformist attitudes towards life and his beliefs of the church and the society it upholds all contributed to a deep disliking o him by fellow writers. His poems and paintings can be seen to have more relevance today in a world where Innocence and Experience are so often found in the wrong place. He was ahead of his time. And in some respects is ahead of ours. In his poems, Blake used the opposing states of Innocence and Experience to make contrasts between how life should be and how life is. He wrote two anthologies of poems entitled " Songs of Innocence", written in 1789, and "Songs of Experience" four years later in 1793 that explored the details of these states. Blake was keen to put across that in Innocence and Experience there came two meanings, of mind and of Situation. As with "The Tyger", it was naturally a hunter and seen to represent evil, Blake saw it was born that way and knew

  • Word count: 750
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Discuss Yeats' changing attitude to 'Romantic Ireland'

Discuss Yeats' changing attitude to 'Romantic Ireland' Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave (September 1913) Discuss Yeats' changing attitude to 'Romantic Ireland' It is one of the dualities in Yeats' work that a poet renowned for the universal forlorn love lyric should be so inextricably bound to the particular identity, struggle and destiny of the Irish nation. However, on closer examination, Yeats' poetic style proves that seeming paradox is easily explained when the true nature of Yeats' idealism is taken into account. This essay shall argue the apparent political revolutionary commitment seen in the 1910's was something of an aberration, in a transitional period of his career. To locate this transition, it is necessary to start at the beginning and end of his life, and work inwards, tracing the changing portrayal of Ireland in his verse. The early Yeats was part of a strong Romantic tradition. Its liking for the emotional authenticity of folk-lore found a ready place in Yeats' work, as he exploited the rich Irish mythological tradition: his long narrative works all date from this first stage. The first collection uses the ballad form frequently, and the simplicity of poems like 'To An Isle in the Water' - "shy one, shy one/ shy one of my heart / she moves in the firelight" - recalls traditional Irish poetry. Perhaps archetypal of Yeats'

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Little Girl Lost

Little GIRL Lost William Blake uses an introductory stanza addressing the children of the future. Using the device of incredulity (disbelief), he describes the poem as an indignant protest that his own age, "a former time" was so unloving and unjust. In the next verse he refers to an "Age of Gold" in which love could be pure and innocent. This golden age is one of youth, lit by the natural and God made light of the sun, "the holy light", and is described as free from the darkness and cold of winter and experience. In the third stanza he begins to tell the story of a young and innocent couple "fill'd with softest care" who meet at dawn in a garden, as Adam and Eve met in the Garden of Eden at the dawn of time. They do not have to hide their love, as God has removed "the curtains of the night". The story progresses in the fourth stanza, describing how, without the oppression of parents and strangers their young, innocent attraction flourishes and blossoms in the fresh natural environment of the grass, in which the girl gains confidence. In the fifth stanza the couple agree to continue their tryst at night. The sixth verse describes how the girl went to her father feeling happy and joyful, "bright", but is greeted by his condemnation. His expression is described as "Like the holy book", a reference to the fierce and disapproving God who drove Adam and Eve from the

  • Word count: 364
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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