Hello and welcome to another edition of progress of poetry, the last edition was comprised of
And the poems
Our next segment is about William bake and his poems Holy Thursday.
William Blake was born on 28. November 1757, he was an English poet, painter, printmaker and philosopher. He was a seen as extremist by some with a new perspective of the world not before seen. Although he had no formal education he was enlightened, having being raised with such materials as Shakespeare and the bible. The Englishman was largely ignored throughout his lifetime but is now regarded as one of the key vocal points of the romantic era with his new ideals of a free and independent country made prominent in throughout his poems.
One of his more well known collection of poems, is the Songs of Innocence, which he wrote. In these poems Blake wrote about the daily life such as jobs and special occasions. One the poems in this collection is "Holy Thursday". The poem refers to an annual. event where thousands of orphaned children march to St. Paul’s .Cathedral. This Ritual was held to demonstrate the children's reverence for God and their gratitude to their benefactors.
"Holy Thursday" is a 3 stanza quatrain, consisting of 2 rhyming couplets which follows the form of AABB. Throughout the poem Blake favours the innocence of the children even if he despised the system which enslaved the children. This is evident in most poems in the "Songs of Innocence". One major point is how the beadles also know as the ceremony officers sat the children “in companies” as if they were a group of slaves rather than orphaned children. He uses smilies to compare the poor orphans to lambs which is seen as an animal of innocence through out many religions but many b...
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... impression. of confusion throughout the poem.
The Songs of Experience version of Holy Thursday has a bluntly obvious point criticises the society he over in and was under much criticism in his time. The line "eternal winter" suggests that poverty is a part of. death in nature and that the true order of things is not to have children suffering in poverty and hunger. This is a metaphor for .the poor children that do not. get the sun of the summer and the rain. of spring. This implies that the young .are doomed to this state by forces out of their control.
This concludes this edition of the progress of poetry I hope you enjoyed it join us next time for another instalment of the progress of poetry
Bibliography http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/section2.rhtml http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/Holy_Thursday_Experience_by_William_Blake_analysis.php
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
Allison, Barrows, Blake, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry . 3rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 1983. 211.
69. Print. Strand, Mark, and Eavan Boland. The Making of a Poem: a Norton Anthology of Poetic
In Blake’s poem “The Lamb” from Songs of Innocence, Blake proves that in order to keep innocence alive, a child must not question. It is in a child’s nature to trust all that has been told. Therefore the lamb represents childhood as well as innocence. The lamb is personified as being a gentle creature without sin, and the poem itself is characterized by pleasant light imagery. This imagery is an indicator that innocence is a desired state of being. In the first stanza of the poem, the narrator asks questions regarding
Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
Mays, Kelly. "Poems for Further Study." Norton Introduction to Literature. Eleventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc., 2013. 771-772. Print.
1 Modern Poetry. Third Edition. Norton. I am a naysayer. 2003. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the Williams, William.
William Blake, born in 1757 and died in 1827, created the poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell. Blake grew up in a poor environment. He studied to become an engraver and a professional artist. His engraving took part in the Romanticism era. Romanticism is a movement that developed during the 18th and early 19th century as a reaction against the Restoration and Enlightenment periods focusing on logic and reason.
Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris, eds. Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry, Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California, 1998.
William Blake was an English romantic poet who lived from 1757 to 1827 through both the American and the French revolutions. Although he lived during the Romantic Age, and was clearly part of the movement, Blake was a modern thinker who had a rebellious political spirit. He was the first to turn poetry and art into sociopolitical weapons to be raised rebelliously against the establishment. His poetry exemplified many of the same topics being discussed today. Although he was known as both a madman and a mystic, (Elliott) his poetry is both relevant and radical. He employed a brilliant approach as he took in the uncomfortable political and moral topics of his day and from them he created unique artistic representations. His poetry recounts in symbolic allegory the negative effects of the French and American revolutions and his visual art portrays the violence and sadistic nature of slavery. Blake was arguably one of the most stubbornly anti-oppression and anti-establishment writers in the English canon.
To being with, the poem “The Lamb” by William Blake fits into the category Songs of Innocence by using simplistic views and easy language. This poem is written using very simple words and English along with a rhyming scheme. For example, “Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly and bright, Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice!” (Blake, The Lamb, page 784, lines 5-8) This poem is written for children since it uses a comforting tone and an almost soothing voice. From these examples it is for an educated reason that this poem shall be placed in Songs of Innocence. Due to the fact that this poem is made for the warm hearted, and for young children this poem shows the innocence of the lamb in its entirety. Th...
Ellmann, Richard and O'Clair, Robert, ed. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
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.
Critical Survey of Poetry. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Vol. 7.
based around these themes. Even the titles of the poems represent this, such as "The Little Girl Lost", "Infant Sorrow", "Little Black" Boy" and "Nurse's Song", compared to very few centred primarily around men. The snares of the snares. Blake uses his poems to express the view and plight of suppressed groups in society, such as children. Poems such as Holy Thursday are expressed through the eyes of a child.