Blake's Voice of Freedom
Essay Question: “Blake’s voice is the voice of freedom.” Do you
agree with this claim? Support your answer by reference to both
Innocence and Experience.
I strongly believe that ‘Blake’s voice is the voice of freedom’. As
you read the poems in Songs of Innocence & Experience you get a strong
sense of latitude. His poems really show the reader who William Blake
was as a person. He expresses his dislike for authority, the monarchy
and the church, but in a subtle way. He gives two versions of each
poem, so that we can see it from a different point of view which, in
my opinion, is a really clever thing to do. It shows how we, as
humans, progress through our life from an innocent state of childhood
into a more experienced adulthood. Normally, both versions of Blake’s
poems subtly attack some form of organization. In his work, Blake
develops a sort of philosophy and, central to this, is his belief in
freedom. The Proverbs of Heaven and Hell really emphasise Blake’s
outlook on life. These proverbs are often thought of as a more drastic
version of the Ten Commandments, in the Bible. In these proverbs,
Blake tries to show people the best way to live. One example of the
proverbs is;
“Sooner murder an infant in its cradle
Than nurse unacted desires.”
I don’t believe that in writing this proverb, Blake actually though
murder was right, especially not murdering a baby. I think that he was
just trying to express how much he believed in freedom, and free
speech. He is basically saying that you should do what you want, when
you want, or you will later regret not doing it.
One of Blake’s most important poems, in my eyes, is ‘The Chimney
Sweeper’. Both versions give us a real insight into Victorian London.
It has a lot of historical background because, in those days, there
really were young boys who were sold into a world where they had to
fend for themselves, and clean dark chimneys for little or no money.
To imagine that happening in London today is a truly horrifying
thought. To think that families were so poor that they had no choice
but to sell their sons is awful. Many of these boys died at a very
young age and none of them had a bright future ahead of them. In ‘The
Chimney Sweeper’, (in ‘Songs of Innocence’), we read about a small boy
who has been forced into life as a sweep. Blake wrote;
“And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry “’weep! ’weep! ’weep! ’weep!”
The poem is gentle and nostalgic. It seeks not only to recreate the scene for the reader, but
Blake's View on Oppression of Children by Adults Blake was a poet who wrote in the Romantic period. He had idealistic views about life, and believed that the traditional country way of life was the best way to live. He despised the industry that was establishing itself in England because it was the opposite of the ideal country lifestyle that Blake idealised. The idea that Blake believed that children were oppressed is an interesting one, because, there are a number of poems which suggest different ideas about this topic.
In the essay I hope to explain why I picked each poem and to suggest
In my opinion, the theme of this poem would be hope, hope that life will become a greater place to be in. That the problems that people go through on a daily basis will disappear and everyone will get along and live the perfect life.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
Through the course of this poem the speaker discovers many things. Some discoveries made are physical while others are mental and emotional. On a physical level the speaker discovers a book, a new author and the power
This poem “ Read from the Bottom up” has every element to be consider a great poem, it inspires to think different the diction of words seem weird but yet it accomplished it point to go beyond a normal point of view and see things further then are. The purpose was accomplished the central theme is challenging to understand, but that was the whole of the poem to challenge traditional thinking and think beyond ourselves.
The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.
The poem is a combination of beauty and poignancy. It is a discovery in a trajectory path of rise and fall of human values and modernity. She is a sole traveler, a traveler apart in a literary romp afresh, tracing the thinning line of time and action.
The poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
Another way that Trethewey brings this poem together is through the use of
Links from the poem below are best read in order from the beginning of the poem to the end
The links from the poem below are best read in order from the beginning of the poem to the end.
A class activity that had me learn more about this theme was writing the poem about humans.
The construction of the poem is in regular four-line stanzas, of which the first two stanzas provide the exposition, setting the scene; the next three stanzas encompass the major action; and the final two stanzas present the poet's reflection on the meaning of her experience.