William Blake Essay, Research Paper

William Blake

( 1757-1827 )

William Blake wrote during the Romantic period which was a span between 1785 & # 8211 ; 1830. Other great authors during this clip were Mary Wollstonecraft, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and others. Some said that the Romantic period was the fairy tale manner of composing through symbolism and fable and besides an age for individuality. A important point by Romantic theoretician referred to the head, emotions, and imaginativeness of the poet ( Abrams, et al 5 ) . In comparing to Blake? s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience Northrop Fry? s differentiation between the imagined provinces of artlessness and experience is stated as therefore:

universe of artlessness: unfallen world/ unified self/ integrating with nature/ clip in harmoniousness with beat of human being.

universe of experience: fallen world/ fragmented divided self/ disaffection from nature/ clip as destructive, in resistance of human desire ( Feldman ) .

This can be seen in? The Lamb, ? and? The Chimney Sweeper ; ? from Songs of Innocence and in Songs of Experience? The Tyger, ? and? The Chimney Sweeper, ? .

Blake was small known as a poet during his life-time. His repute became established tardily in the nineteenth century. Blake? s first book of verse form was Poetic Sketches. This book of verse form showed his dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic tradition and his restless pursuit for new signifiers and techniques ( Abrams, et al 19 ) . Blake was said to compose symbolist poesy in which things such as a cloud, a flower, or a mountain was presented as an object imbued with significance beyond itself ( Abrams, et al 8 ) . Blake along with other poets explored airy provinces of consciousness that are common among kids but violate the standard classs of grownup opinion ( Abrams, et al 10 ) . This can be seen in Blake? s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In Songs of Innocence the talker is frequently a kid and in Songs of Experience the talker is frequently an grownup ( Mack, et al 184 ) . This could be due to the fact that kids thought to be of what guiltless grownups have already? experienced. ?

Blake experimented with partial rimes and fresh beat and employed bold figures of address that at times approximative symbols. One of the strongest characteristics in Blake? s doctrine was his belief in imaginativeness as an active force. He attacked rationalism, dictatorship, industrialisation, and organized faith as destructive of originative and religious energies ( Feldman ) . Blake said that the two group of poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience represent the universe as it is envisioned by what he calls, ? two contrary provinces of the human psyche, ? ( Abrams 19 ) . In the Songs of Experience, such as? London? and? The Tyger, ? Blake achieved his mature lyric techniques of metaphor and symbol which explode into a multiplicity of mentions ( Abrams, et al 19 ) . The Song of Artlessness is about full of brightness, cheer, and peace yet, the Songs of Experience is picturing a universe worn and full of suffering human existences ( Mack, et al 785 ) .

Blake? s works range from simpleness and lyrical manner as in the Songs of Innocence and Experience to more luxuriant manner such as in The Four Zoas. For some, Blake? s works can be hard at times. One ground is that the reader is reading Blake? s visions in Blake? s ain footings ( Dover ) . Blake said that, ? The Nature of my Work is Airy or Imaginative. ? What he intend by this is frequently misinterpreted ; on that note Blake said, ? that which can be made Explicit to the Idiots is non deserving my attention? ( Abrams ) .

Even the debut vocal to the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is a good illustration of non merely Blake? s positions of the function of Innocence and Experience in regeneration, but besides the complexness of the apparently simple vocals ( Magill, et al 208 ) . Some symbols in the verse forms are for case the lamb in the Song of Innocence. The lamb is a symbol of Christ and his purity and artlessness. The verse form, ? The Tyger, ? has a few symbols besides one of which is the lamb once more and the tyger itself. In the verse forms Blake says, ? did he who made the lamb brand thee? ( line 20 ) ?

This represents the pureness of the lamb and the animal in the tyger and Blake is inquiring how something so barbarous could be created by God. The verse form? The Lamb, ? and the verse form, ? The Tyger? depict the nature of perceptual experience in those provinces and the contradictions which abide in each province ( Magill, et al 209 ) . Other symbols in his poesy are in the? Introduction, ? the kid on the cloud possibly intending purity. Besides in? Earth? s Answer, ? when he refers to Earth leveling her caput up is really airy and inventive.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience illustrate two inventive kingdoms: the province of artlessness and the province of experience. They represent two different ways of visual perception, and this is seen is Northrop Fry? s differentiation between the two in paragraph one. In the vocal? The Lamb, ? the kid knows the lamb is guiltless and pure. The talker says, ? he is mild & A ; he is mild? ( line 15 ) , this represents the unfallen universe. Time in harmoniousness with beat of human being is represented in? The Chimney Sweeper, ? . The kid knows of decease but besides of life after decease and holding hope. The talker speaks of his female parent death, this is the decease portion, and so has a vision of an Angel taking chimney sweepers to heaven. The fallen universe is represented in Songs of Experience in the vocal? The Tyger? . The talker knows that everything is non perfect including the tyger although he and the lamb were created by the same individual, some sense of apprehension is established. Time as destructive in resistance of human desire is represented by? The Chimney Sweeper? . The talker in the verse form is older so in the 1 in Songs of Innocence. The talker knows of decease because both of his parents are already dead likely and he is merely seeking to do it in society by being a chimney sweeper.

Many critics have commented and explored Blake? s works. The poet Wordsworth commented that, ? there is no uncertainty that this hapless adult male was huffy, but there is something in his lunacy which involvements me more than the saneness of the Lord Byron and Walter Scott. ? Another poet John Ruskin likewise felt that Blake? s work was? morbid and wild? even if his head was? great and wise. ? Carl Jung referred to Blake as a airy poet who had achieved contact with the poetic well spring of the unconscious. Blake was said to see visions every bit early as age four. These visions included seeing trees filled with Angels, and God looking at him through the window. Many for this ground thought Blake mad.

Were the critics right, was Blake truly huffy, or was he merely a poet seeking to do a name for himself? His plants were slightly alone, and he did utilize a batch of new techniques. I found his work to be instead interesting and unusual. I thought he used great metaphors and comparings in his plant. His plants were full of symbols and symbolism. He did make a batch of fairy narrative authorship as the critics said took topographic point during the Romantic period. He used his head, emotions, and imaginativeness to portray his ideas and feelings in his work. Overall Blake? s plants were different, although the populace did non acknowledge them as good poesy during the period in which he wrote. Today Blake? s poesy, every bit good as his art, are greatly appreciated. Making research on the cyberspace I discovered this. There were many web sites dedicated to him and his plants.

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