How William Blake Uses Poetry as an Instrument for Social Comment
Living in a world without modern technology and media. William Blake (1757 - 1827) used his poetry as a powerful instrument for social comment. This is particularly evident in 'Laughing Song'; and 'London'; taken from The Portable Blake. The two poems present conflicting views of creation and mankind. In his innocent years, Blake saw the world as a 'joyous meadow, natural and free. However as he grew with experience his naive ideology was tainted with images of war and devastation. Blake's purpose in writing these poems is to position his readers to see the world as it lies before them, unmasked and raw. He is inviting society to take a stand against the degradation of our land and our people, a timeless invitation. To do so Blake exploits the traditional poetic conventions of persona, form, language, tone and atmosphere.
The persona of both 'Laughing Song and 'London'; is Blake himself. However he is writing in two opposing states of mind. 'Laughing Song'; comes from the Songs of Innocence, a collection of celebratory poems, offering a view of the world with the 'voice of joy' though perhaps through rose-coloured glasses. Blake is simply enjoying nature, and through this is therefore praising God. In 'London'; however, the glasses are removed and Blake's images of a once 'merry scene' are lost, replaced by 'charter'd streets'. Coming from the Songs of Experience, Blake is presenting his perceptions of a changed world, moulded and suppressed by human hands.
To structurally support meaning, Blake has exploited the form of both poems. 'Laughing Song'; consists of three, simple, four-lined stanzas. Perhaps representing succinct periods in Blake's childhood. Beneath the apparently simple form however, lies an intricate web of complex meanings. Although ordered, Blake's use of rhyming couplets and longer lines stress the delight in nature and the harmony between nature and man. In 'London';, all harmony is lost, and therefore so is the coupled rhyme pattern. Alternate lines rhyming in five quatrains replace it, emphasising the disjointed city, lacking in society love and unity.
Language, and in particular, imagery plays a vital role in Blake's poetry to convey meaning. Perhaps this is because Blake was also a talented artist and was therefore able to make images come alive on the page. In 'Laughing Song';, Blake uses light and joyous terms to describe the world around him. The 'green woods' provoke images of lush nature, spring and happy times.
Blake also uses sound to deliver the meaning to the poem. The poem starts off with "My mother groaned! my father wept." You can hear the sounds that the parents make when their child has entered this world. Instead of joyful sounds like cheer or cries of joy, Blake chooses words that give a meaning that it is not such a good thing that this baby was brought into this world. The mother may groan because of the pain of delivery, but she also groans because she knows about horrible things in this world that the child will have to go through. The father also weeps for the same reason, he knows that the child is no longer in the safety of the womb, but now is in the world to face many trials and tribulations.
angered him and inspired him to convey his ideas and feelings through the poem 'London'. In the poem, Blake travels through London and describes what he sees. And as a result, he sees a severely oppressed society that is caused by the authority, such as royalty, and the church. This is as Blake sees. that even the streets and the thames are 'chartered' and governed.
He so eloquently mentions the ‘mark in every face’ connoting the similarities of those individuals around him, followed by ‘marks of weakness...woe’ portraying the depressing situation the character is surrounded with (the people around him are deeply scarred by the despair). Blake purposely uses imagery to clearly justify the feelings of the civilians around him which mirrors his own dismay, again the cold harsh reality around him. Blake takes the reader on a sensuous journey that describes the dangers of what the plutocracy has created, how it seeps through the people around him. He constantly repeats the term ‘I hear’ to emphasise the repetitiveness that surrounds him and how he is tired of it all. Overall this poem explains the poison that has befallen on him and those around him. Furthermore, this poem portrays his sickness of the streets of London and the sickness of
The poem opens with an introduction of the speaker: “When my mother died I was very young, / And my father sold me while yet my tongue / Could scarcely cry ’weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” (ll. 1-3). The speaker’s pathetic circumstance is stressed here, and he quickly wins the sympathy of the reader; Blake makes this possible by quickly relating some but doubtfully all the previous sorrow that the speaker has endured. First, his mother died when he, and perhaps she, too, was quite young, a common occurrence in Industrial Age England, given the dismal shape of the inner city, which was host to such problems as over-crowding, poor hygienic practices and sub-par means of sanitation—all of which ultimately led to the deaths of thousands. Second, his father apparently sold him, or, more likely, forced him to work to supplement the family’s income. Child Labor laws had yet to be enacted in England in 1789, s...
Natoli, Joseph. "William Blake." Critical Survey Of Poetry, Second Revised Edition (2002): 1-12. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
William Blake is remembered by his poetry, engravements, printmaking, and paintings. He was born in Soho, London, Great Britain on November 28, 1757. William was the third of seven siblings, which two of them died from infancy. As a kid he didn’t attend school, instead he was homeschooled by his mother. His mother thought him to read and write. As a little boy he was always different. Most kids of his age were going to school, hanging out with friends, or just simply playing. While William was getting visions of unusual things. At the age of four he had a vision of god and when he was nine he had another vision of angles on trees.
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.
William Blake was probably more concerned than any other major Romantic author with the process of publication and its implications for the interpretation of his artistic creations. He paid a price for this degree of control over the process of printing, however: Blake lived in poverty and artistic obscurity throughout his entire life. Later, when his poems began to be distributed among a wider audience, they were frequently shorn of their original contexts. For William Blake, there has been a trade-off between the size of the audience he has reached and the degree of control he exerted over the publication process.
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 jealousy Satan wants humans to feel to lure them to Hell. The poems of experience reflect those feelings. This is illustrated by comparing and contrasting A Divine Image to a portion of The Divine Image.
William Blake was a modern thinker with a recalcitrant political spirit. He used poetry and art as sociopolitical weapons, which were raised boldly against the establishment. These sociopolitical weapons, which began with him, are still used today in all types of artistic and political activities. Although known as a madman and a mystic, (Elliott) his art and his poetry were guided by the visions of radical change. Even today, his work is both relevant and profound. The brilliant approach he took with difficult political and moral topics created unique artistic representations that are very much as relevant today as they were when Blake first adopted their use.
Blake’s “London” is focused primarily on piquing the reader's visual interpretation of the state of London. Speaking as if he is writing the poem while walking down the streets he describes, Blake gives deep-seated descriptions of the corruption of London, but names no cause for it. Conversely, Wordsworth’s “London” attempts to ascertain the reasons for London’s fall from glory. Wordsworth begins his poem by calling for John Milton, a romantic’s hero, and then tells of the Englishman's divergence from prior nobility into the amoral people they have become. The defining difference of the two poems is that Blake’s work shows the reader the impoverished state of London, and Wordsworth’s poem tells the reader the cause and philosophy behind
To conclude, I believe that Blake presents a more real viewpoint of London from his perspective of it, as it is more believable that Wordsworth’s view. Conversely, Wordsworth’s poem does use a greater number of poetic devices, making more enjoyable to read and pleases me, unlike Blake’s poem which has a greater effect on me, this is because Blake’s effect on the reader is a negative effect as when I read the poem, I believe London is a bad place from his description, unlike Wordsworth’s, which makes London seen ‘fair’ and very attractive to people.
?London? is a poem of serious social satire directed against social institutions. According to Blake author Michael Phillips ?it is a poem whose moral realism is so severe that it is raised to the intensity of apocalyptic vision.? Blake becomes more specific in his descriptions of the prevalent evil and moral decay of society as the poem progresses. Blake?s informative nature is clearly evident in ?London? as he ?points the finger? and exposes powerful institutions.
William Blake uses repetition, rhyming and imagery in his poem to help promote the idea that London, England is not the city that people dream that it is, the city itself can be a
"William Blake - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 07 July 2011. .