WILLIAM BLAKE Essay, Research Paper

English 12

WILLIAM BLAKE: A Man BEFORE HIS Time

William Blake was a critic of his ain clip and was a prophesier of times to come ( Mooney William Blake? s Relevance to the Modern World 3 ) . Blake, who lived in the latter half of the 18th century and the early portion of the nineteenth, was a deeply rousing poet who was, in big portion, responsible for conveying about the Romantic motion in poesy ; was able to accomplish? singular consequences with the simplest means? ; and was one of several of the clip who restored? rich musicalness to the linguistic communication? ( Appelbaum English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology 5 ) . He was an complete poet, every bit good as a painter and engraver ( Mooney 3 ) .

Blake lived during a clip of intense societal alteration. The American Revolution, the Gallic Revolution, and the Industrial revolution all took topographic point during his life-time. These alterations gave Blake a opportunity to see the most dramatic phases in the transmutation of the Western World ( Europe ) from a slightly feudal, agricultural society to an industrial society where philosophers and political minds such as Locke, Franklin and Paine championed the rights of the person ( Mooney 5 ) . Some of these alterations had Blake? s blessing ; others did non.

One illustration of Blake? s disapproval of alterations that happened in his clip is shown in his verse form? London? :

I wander thro? each charter? 500 street,

Near where the charter? 500 Thames does flux,

And grade in every face I meet

Marks of failing, Markss of suffering.

In every call of every Man,

In every Baby? s call of fright,

In every voice, in every prohibition,

The mind-forg? 500 handcuffs I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper? s call

Every black? ning Church appalls ;

And the hapless Soldier? s suspiration

Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro? midnight streets I hear

How the vernal Harlot? s expletive

Blast the newborn Infant? s tear,

And blights with pestilences the Marriage hearse.

This verse form is from his work Songs of Experience. In? London? , which has been said to sum up many deductions of Songs of Experience, Blake describes the sufferings that the Industrial Revolution ( with its mechanistic, heartless, clocklike insensitiveness ) and the breakage of the common adult male? s ties to the land have brought upon him ( Mack The Norton Anthology: World Master Masterpieces, Expanded Edition, Volume 2 785 ) . For case, the storyteller in? London? describes Thames and the metropolis streets as? chartered? ( Blake foremost wrote? dirty? , so? rip offing? ; the word may be an dry allusion to? Rule Britannia? ) ( Frye William Blake 6 ) , or controlled by commercial involvements: he refers to? mind-forged handcuffs? ( Blake? s original version was the? German forged links? , which might reflect popular bitterness at the presence of Hessian and other German soldier of fortunes in the metropolis ) ( Frye William Blake 6 ) ; he relates the every adult male? s face contains? Marks of failing, Markss of suffering? ; and he discuses the? every call of every Man? and? every Baby? s call of fear. ? He connects matrimony and decease by mentioning to a? matrimony hearse? and describes it as? blighted with plague. ? He besides talks about? the hapless Soldier? s suspiration? and the? vernal Harlot? s expletive? and depict? melanizing Churches? and castles running blood ( ? London? ) ( Mooney 12 ) .

Blake? s vision additions depth every bit good as complexness. Simple? vocals? turn out to be intricate knots. Lines between artlessness and experience fuzz ( Albright A View on William Blake 1 ) . Blake tried to show his ain system of political, spiritual, and philosophical thoughts. ? I must Make a System, or be enslaved by another Man? s, ? he said. His poetic attempts to do his? system? are complex and hard ; they are far different from the simple, direct vocals that he foremost wrote and for which he is best known ( Harcourt Adventures in Poetry 399 ) . He wrote a complementary set of verse forms ; Songs of Innocence, which shows life as it seems to innocent kids, and Songs of Experience whi

ch tells a mature individual? s realisation of hurting and panic in the existence. In reading choices from both books, one can come to understand the significance of Blake? s two universes, artlessness and experience. They represent a fundamental, natural transiting in life. And it was these two provinces, these two sorts of visions, that Blake subsequently tried to unify in his attempts to do a? system? . Blake had an tremendous fear for life. He knew that people must turn, that they can non stay as kids, that they must take their topographic point in society. But the inhuman treatments of society outraged him. The outrage Blake expressed is directed toward those who believe that they are worthy of Eden and that their society is secure, although they are unmindful to the inhuman treatment they exert upon other animals. All life, all creative activity was cherished to Blake ; he wanted his readers

? To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the thenar of your manus

And Eternity in an hr. ?

And something like this vision, Blake believed, was possible for the kid ( Harcourt 400,404 ) .

Blake did nevertheless, O.K. of some of the steps that persons and societies took to derive and keep single freedom. ? He was broad in political relations, sensitive to the oppressive authorities steps of his twenty-four hours, [ and ] favourably inspired by the American Revolutionary War and the Gallic Revolution. ? ( Appelbaum 5 )

The similarities between our ain age and Blake? s are striking. Blake had the Industrial Revolution ; we are populating in the age of the Information Revolution, which is with the Internet, come ining a new stage which will enable information to be distributed on a graduated table ne’er before possible. Blake lived in a clip when greedy, upper-class capitalists exploited the on the job category for personal net income. Blake lived in an age when Deism, a religion that denied any possibility of direct experience with God, had captured the heads of the more intelligent people of the West ; we live in an age of uncertainty, seeking, rejection of traditional dogmatic faith, and scientific discipline with no mystical experience. Surely Blake? s vision of a personal mythology realizing an person, revealed faith can offer every bit much to our society as it did to Blake? s ( Mooney7 ) .

William Blake besides writes many verse forms about nature. Blake feels that nature can be an escapefrom the fakeness of the universe. But Blake uses God as nature.

God appears and God is light

To those hapless psyches who dwell in dark,

But does a human signifier show

To those who dwell in the kingdoms of twenty-four hours. ( Auguries Of Innocence )

Blake finds felicity and comfort in God. Reguardless of what 1s life may be like, God will convey

joy into it.

If he ‘d be a good male child, He ‘d hold God for a male parent, And ne’er want joy.

( The Chimney Sweeper: When My Mother Died I Was Very Young )

Blake writes in a to a great extent mechanical rime strategy. His manner and construction relate to his thoughts.

Blake uses clean poetry to fit his topic. In “ Proverbs of Hell ” , Blake uses clean poetry. He wants it to sound ugly so he uses zero rime metre.

Prudence is a rich, ugly old amah courted by Incapacity.

He who desires but acts non, strains plague.

The cut worm forgives the plough.

Blake saw many booby traps in the universe and of faith and idea. Many of his poems remark on the

ugliness of the universe and the beauty of the universe. Blake was really ocular. He tried to convey his poesy alive

by utilizing much symbolism.

In decision, Blake was decidedly born before his clip. His thoughts reflect the rebellious 1s of today and had he been acknowledged and studied during his life-time, we might hold been different. It merely takes one individual with an thought and the power to take people to make a manner of idea. People Don? T know the manner things are unless they experience them. Better said, ? The true method of cognition is experiment. ? ( Blake All Religions are One 23 ) .