Essay about William Blake’s Poetry

In “The Garden of Love”, the conflict between organized religion and individual thought is the constant idea throughout the poem. Blake's colorful use of imagery and heavy symbolism express his resentment toward the church. He makes it obvious how he feels, that it is restrictive in nature and hinders him from expressing his

“The Chimney Sweeper” (128): This version of the Chimney Sweeper is very upfront and saddening. The version that is presented in the songs of innocence is much more of a calm town and is not as straightforward, while this version is very short and to the point. In this version its very deep as the narrator basically just calls out the parents/church for doing these horrible things to the children. I really love all three stanzas of this poem because they all have a really deep meaning and Blake transitions through them very well. Reading this poem over and over I don’t know what to make of it other than it is an absolute horrible situation. I think it can be tied in to

The Songs of Innocence poems first appeared in Blake’s 1784 novel, An Island in the Moon. In 1788, Blake began to compile in earnest, the collection of Songs of Innocence. And by 1789, this original volume of plates was complete. These poems are the products of the human mind in a state of innocence, imagination, and joy; natural euphoric feelings uninhibited or tainted by the outside world. Following the completion of the Songs of Innocence plates, Blake wrote The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and it is through this dilemma of good and evil and the suffering that he witnesses on the streets of London, that he begins composing Songs of Experience. This second volume serves as a response to Songs of

In "London", William Blake brings to light a city overrun by poverty and hardship. Blake discards the common, glorifying view of London and replaces it with his idea of truth. London is nothing more but a city strapped by harsh economic times where Royalty and other venues of power have allowed morality and goodness to deteriorate so that suffering and poverty are all that exist. It is with the use of three distinct metaphors; "mind-forg'd manacles", "blackning Church", and "Marriage hearse", that Blake conveys the idea of a city that suffers from physical and psychological imprisonment, social oppression, and an unraveling moral society.

London by William Blake is a poem characterised by its dark and overbearing tone. It is a glimpse at a period of England's history (particularly London) during war and poverty, experienced by the narrator as he walks through the streets. Using personification it draws a great human aspect to its representation of thoughts and beliefs of the narrator.

During his early years in the profession he was often panned as being vulgar and pornographic. But then as more abstract movements took hold of the industry he quickly gained fame and popularity in places as far and as varied as Russia, America, Britain, France and even some of northern Africa. In his early years he would use more classical styles but as he grew as a person he would reach into styles such as fauvism and abstract. His mediums would grow to encompass painting, sculpting and paper crafts. Throughout his life he was varied but his lasting impression is definite, the abstract art world was forever changed because of him.

Both Gerald Manley Hopkins and William Blake explore the conflicts between one’s opinions and the faith which they devoutly believe. The poems The Garden of Love and Hopkins’ Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord each show the persona doubting the philosophical qualms of life surrounding Catholicism and whether spending “life upon thy cause,” is meaningful. As a child, Blake read the Bible to enhance his reading skills, however developed views correlating to the Swedenborgian church which holds the Catholic church’s views without the institutionalised feeling which Blake despised of in Catholicism. The Garden of Love intertwines his beliefs into the poetry, as depicted with the strong imagery between the vibrant childhood memory of the surroundings in comparison to the older man’s views. However,

Blake begins the poem by stating that it is not possible to love another as much as yourself, and that thought is the highest of all human functions. This sets the stage for Blake's attack on religion's ideas of hierarchy and condemnation of rational thought. The next stanza describes the boy asking God, indicated by the capitalized "Father," how he could love him or another human more than a little bird picking up crumbs. The boy states that he loves God in and as much as a little bird. This echoes the naturalist ideas supported in the aforementioned poems. Blake seems to be saying that the proper way to worship and commune with God is by loving all natural beings, human and non-human. The priest, a symbol of organized religion that Blake so sharply critiques, overhears what the boy is saying and is infuriated by the idea that a person could worship God through nature, without ritual, politics, or human involvement, and that the boy dares use his mind to question what he has been taught. The priest makes the boy a martyr, preaching from his high pedestal of pomposity, and burns the boy, despite the cries of his family. The boy's curiosity and natural thinking have been squelched, and his imagination bound in iron chains. Blake closes the poem by asking if such

William Blake, writer and artist born in 1757 was a simple unadventurous man. You may know some of his poetic pieces but his official education was in art. 10 years old Blake attended the Royal Academy of Arts School just after entering drawing school. William Blake went on to doing numerous great things like creating his own books, creating paintings, and engravings, getting married to his wife Catherine Boucher, and more. I took interest in Blake as an author because of the way he believes in his imagination and how we see the world. Imagination is about feeling and emotion, he seen the world differently, as if our humanity is bigger than our body, or how we see the world.

Being accused of heresy and his ideas said to be dangerous deviations from the church he had to defend himself from opposition. (C/S 436) He once proclaimed “the bible teaches us how to get to heaven, not know how heaven goes” in his defense. (C/S, 438)

William Blake’s poem “London” takes a complex look at life in London, England during the late seventeen hundreds into the early eighteen hundreds as he lived and experienced it. Blake’s use of ambiguous and double meaning words makes this poem both complex and interesting. Through the following explication I will unravel these complexities to show how this is an interesting poem.

Blake's poems of innocence and experience are a reflection of Heaven and Hell. The innocence in Blake's earlier poems represents the people who will get into Heaven. They do not feel the emotions of anger and

William Blake’s poetry is considered through the Romantics era and they access through the sublime. The Romantics poetry through the sublime is beyond comprehension and spiritual fullness. A major common theme is a nature (agnostic religion). In William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” he describes the tiger as a creature that was created by a higher power some time before. In Blake’s poem he questions, “What immortal hand or eye/ Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” (Blake 22-23). He describes the tiger as a form of symmetry that can be seen as evil, yet have intriguing features such as those that make the tiger a beautiful creation. Blake also questions if that the higher being who created the tiger also created all else around the world such as a human being. Blake shifts his first stanzas from the tiger to the creator. Not only is he questioning who created the tiger, but he is also describing the beauty and evil of the world. The beauty that the Romantics believe in is nature and one evil seen through the world is materialism that distract humans from the beauty of nature 's gifts. He believes that people lose touch with spirituality when haven’t given to nature. Blake also illustrated his own works through

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.

Blake uses rhetorical questions asked by the narrator while Shelley has Victor expect immediate answers to his questions. Blake has the narrator utilize rhetorical questions to prove that the godlike figure does not require concrete answers, but prefers to live in awe and wonderment. On the contrary, Victor’s desire for knowledge and need for answers exemplifies that of a god, eventually leading him and his creation to lead a miserable life due to Victor attempting to assume a godlike position, and therefore, defying Romanticism. Throughout his poem, the narrator asks thirteen questions. The topic of the questions do not center around the narrator himself, but about the Tyger and the creator. With “Did he smile his work to see?” (Blake l. 19) and “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (Blake l. 20), the speaker shows genuine curiosity and respect for the creator. Similarly, the speaker also inquires about the Tyger by stating “What the hand, dare seize the fire?” (Blake l. 8), “Could twist the sinews of thy heart?” (Blake l. 6), and “What dread hand? & what dread feet?” (Blake l. 12). Consistent with this curiosity, questioning also appears in the last line at the beginning and ending stanza. Having the similar questions “Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (Blake l. 4) and “Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” (Blake l. 24) introduce and conclude the poem, the narrator is portrayed as invested in others than himself. Thus, the narrator is portrayed as a godlike figure due to