Explain how Blake uses imagery, form and language in these poems to express his beliefs and what their content reveals about the time in which they were written.
Songs of Innocence and Experience appears to be very simplistic on first reading. Explain how Blake uses imagery, form and language in these poems to express his beliefs and what their content reveals about the time in which they were written. William Blake uses imagery, form and language to express his beliefs on religion and how life has changed since the industrial revolution. He lived in 18th century London and was influenced by his visions he experienced in his life and was often described as a romantic poet. He lived in relative poverty for most of his life and this affected his poetry which can be seen in his companion poem pairs of Songs of Innocence and Experience. William Blake had two sets of companion poems called the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience. In his Songs of Innocence poems which feature 'The Lamb', 'Holy Thursday' and 'The Chimney Sweeper' he uses imagery and language which differ to the Songs of Experience, which contain the poems 'The Tyger', 'Holy Thursday' and 'The Chimney Sweeper'. The poet also uses imagery to reinforce the effect of innocence created by the lamb, the child narrator and the tone. Pastoral and white imagery such as "Stream & o'er the mead" and "Bright" help define Blake's view on innocence. Pastoral imagery was often sued by romantics to represent the natural world and its complete purity. William Blake idealised
Summary of "The Blessed Damozel".
Summary of "The Blessed Damozel" Dante Gabriel Rossetti was only 18 when he wrote "The Blessed Damozel." Although Rossetti was still young, the images and themes in his poem have caught the attention of many critics throughout the years. "The Blessed Damozel" is a beautiful story of how two lovers are separated by the death of the Damozel and how she wishes to enter paradise, but only if she can do so in the company of her beloved. "The Blessed Damozel" is one of Rossetti's most famous poems and has been dissected and explicated many times by many different people. Even so, they all revolve around the same ideas and themes. The theme of Rossetti's poem is said to have been taken from Vita Nuova, separated lovers are to be rejoined in heaven, by Dante. Many people say his young vision of idealized love was very picturesque and that the heavens Rossetti so often painted and those which were in his poems were much like Dante. The heaven that Rossetti painted in "The Blessed Damozel" was warm with physical bodies and beautiful angels full of love. This kind of description of heaven was said to have been taken from Dante's ideas. Others said that Rossetti's heaven was described so in "The Blessed Damozel" because he was still young and immature about such matters. In other words, he had not yet seen the ugliness and despair that love can bring, which he experienced later in his
How does William Blake use his work to show his disapproval of the society of his time
How does William Blake use his work to show his disapproval of the society of his time? William Blake was one of the first romantic poets, writing during the French and American revolutions in 1780. Romantic poets believe that people should be free to follow their own desires, everyone has a right to pursue and fulfil their desires in order to be happy, that imagination is more important than science and logic, and that childhood is important and should be innocent. Blake was a visionary writer, he talked to God and angels came to him in his dreams and visions. He translates these experiences into his poems. He viewed God as an artist, active and full of passion and love, rather than a scientist. However, Blake disliked institutions such as the Church and formal religion, the government and the royal family. Blake believed that people should have open marriages and to enjoy sex, possibly with multiple partners, and was also against unions such as marriages. Society and the Church taught people to think that sex was sinful and wrong, whereas Blake believed sex and desire is a connection to God and spirituality. Blake was especially frustrated with the Church, he thought they were controlling people, especially the poor and working classes. These institutions would teach that although people may be poor and unhappy in this life, if they do not rebel they will be able to go to
'Romanticism was revolutionary.' In what ways is this statement true or untrue?
'Romanticism was revolutionary.' In what ways is this statement true or untrue? Before any analysis into the notion of Romanticism being revolutionary can be made, it seems necessary to examine the word revolutionary itself. The dictionary states that the adjective revolutionary means 'involving great changes' but the meanings of words can change over time, so surely we cannot be sure that the word revolutionary held the same implications in the 1800's as it does today. A revolution can be seen as a rebellion, or reaction to something. If we take revolutionary to mean a rebellion against existing beliefs and art forms then Romanticism could be viewed as being a reaction to the Age of Reason, enlightenment and neo-classicism. But it is also possible that revolutionary is a distinctly political term and in this case Romanticism could be seen politically revolutionary in that it forced questions to be answered about the monarchy, the government and organised religion amongst other issues. Blake and Wordsworth are two hugely important writers of the Romantic era. Their poems hold great significance, and although sometimes ambiguous, their views seem to encapsulate the anxieties and concerns that the people of this time must have been feeling. Blake and Wordsworth both lived in a time of turmoil and revolution. The effect of the War of American Independence, which ended in 1783,
How does William Blake use symbolism to comment on society in Songs of Experience?
How does William Blake use symbolism to comment on society in Songs of Experience? William Blake was a revolutionary philosopher and a poet who felt compelled to write about the injustice of the eighteenth century. Blake was a social critic of the Romantic Period, yet his criticism is still relevant to today's society. Blake encountered many hardships in his life, including an arrest for making slanderous statements about the king and country. All of the events that Blake endured in his life had a great influence on his writing. When Blake wrote the Songs of Innocence, his vision of his audience might have been a little blurred. The audience that Blake's writings were influenced by what were wealthy "soul murderers", who bought young children from their poor parents for the purpose of enslaving them. They forced young children to perform jobs that were inapt and dangerous for humans to implement. An audience, therefore, have to take into consideration the mental state of the speaker created by Blake. In William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" in Songs of Experience. The story is told by a little boy. In this particular poem, the speaker is "a little black thing among the snow". The little boy is black because he is covered in soot from the chimney that he is forced to clean, but how are readers to know this unless we are familiar with the term "Innocence"? Later in this
William Blake was one of the first romantic poets, writing during the French and American revolutions in 1780
William Blake was one of the first romantic poets, writing during the French and American revolutions in 1780. Romantic poets believe that people should be free to follow their own desires, everyone has a right to pursue and fulfil their desires in order to be happy, that imagination is more important than science and logic, and that childhood is important and should be innocent. Blake was a visionary writer, he talked to God and angels came to him in his dreams and visions. He translates these experiences into his poems. He viewed God as an artist, active and full of passion and love, rather than a scientist. However, Blake disliked institutions such as the Church and formal religion, the government and the royal family. Blake believed that people should have open marriages and to enjoy sex, possibly with multiple partners, and was also against unions such as marriages. Society and the Church taught people to think that sex was sinful and wrong, whereas Blake believed sex and desire is a connection to God and spirituality. Blake was especially frustrated with the Church, he thought they were controlling people, especially the poor and working classes. These institutions would teach that although people may be poor and unhappy in this life, if they do not rebel they will be able to go to Heaven and be rewarded. This was seen by Blake as a form of brain washing, 'London', a
Write about two pairs of poems from "Songs of Experience" and "Songs of Innocence" highlighting their differences and showing how these are made clear through Blake's poetic techniques
Write about two pairs of poems from "Songs of Experience" and "Songs of Innocence" highlighting their differences and showing how these are made clear through Blake's poetic techniques In order to complete this coursework I have chosen two contrasting pairs of poems to explain. Two poems will be taken from Blake's "Songs of Experience" while the other two from Blake's "Songs of Innocence." The poems that I have chosen have contrasts amongst themselves. The first poem I have decided to write about is the, "Tiger" and the "Lamb". "The Tiger" is a poem that has no obvious speaker. One can only guess whom the reader maybe, this is because the writer has written it in the third person. When reading the poem one can clearly tell that poem is written in rhyming couplets were the first two lines and the last two lines of each verse tend to rhyme. Tiger! Tiger burning bright In the forests of the night, This is the first line of the poem. The first line is a comparison to the skin and the eye of the tiger, which are known to be incredibly bright and be able to glow throughout the night. What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? The writer by saying, 'What immortal hand or eye' is trying to say that what great being, i.e. God, is able to create an animal of such fear and destruction. The writer has also used the word 'Symmetry' to symbolise the symmetrical
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'
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
Songs of Experience - Challenges to conventional thinking in the poetry of William Blake
Songs of Experience - Challenges to conventional thinking in the poetry of William Blake In this essay I will be discussing, firstly, and in the context of my vague understanding of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century society in Britain, the criticism of dominant middle-class thought that William Blake presents in Songs of Experience . I understand that perhaps less than thirty copies of this were ever printed in Blake's lifetime, so any challenge to contemporary conventional thinking was largely unheard, but this does not invalidate exploring the social conditions and attitudes that provoke the poems. I would then like to discuss some of Blake's grander challenges to conventional thought and, in particular, the received truths of orthodox religion as put forth in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell . Here we find not only a challenge to conventional thought, but also a challenge to sanity, and I found it to be the case that after reading and re-reading, just when the poem appears to come into focus and some understanding is reached, the very line which seemed sensible becomes insane, and meaning is lost. This by no means detracts from the worth of the poem, and could be said to be its very argument: that my doors are in need of cleansing. The latter half of the eighteenth-century saw increased antagonism between the upper classes, which believed the lower classes had