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Romanticism in literature essay
London poem analysis william blake
London poem analysis william blake
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Many authors in the Romantics time period enjoyed using imagination. Their ideas were new and different compared to older ones while being written for basically everyone to understand. These poets and writers also usually had a deeper meaning within their simple poems and this was to make people think about what was being said. Although they are not the first to do something like this the romantic poets are most known for this idea of seeing the double meaning so to speak. Each poem when it’s meaning is revealed usually has a deep and important meaning. Some writers reveal their most inner thoughts within their poetry. For example in The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake his idea that there are two different types of people in this world yet we need both for balance. His next poem The Chimney Sweeper has many hidden meaning within his poem about his views on society. Then he goes on in his poem titled Infant Sorrow to reveal his thoughts on non-conformists. William Blake makes a different criticism of society in his four poems The Lamb, The Tyger, The Chimney Sweeper and Infant Sorrow.
To begin, William Blake uses his poems The Lamb and The Tyger to point out flaws of society, but also to show the importance of balance. In these two poems basically William Blake says that there are two types of people a lamb which is nice and timid: and a tiger which is mean and awful. He shows that the lamb is nice and innocent on page 748 lines 14-17, “For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child: I a child & and thou a lamb.” He says that the lamb is meek and mild which represents those people in this world that don’t mean any harm to others and try to make everyone happy. In The Tyger he says, “Burn the...
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...r conformist or non-conformist from the moment we are born. Yet some may argue that we can change the older we get we can go from being a conformist to a rebel of society or vice versa.
In conclusion, William Blake did indeed see many things wrong with the society of his time. The first was that there are lambs and tigers: why would anyone want an evil tiger in the world, yet what would we do without that evil tiger to create balance. Another was that many people don’t see what they are doing to negatively influence young children. The final was that idea of a rebel without a cause and a simple person who follows all the rules of society. Overall, some of these problems William Blake pointed out with society still exist today.
Works Cited
The Lamb by William Blake
The Tyger by William Blake
The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake
Infant Sorrow by William Blake
The theme of the suffering innocent person, dying and being diseased, throws a dark light onto the London seen through the eyes of William Blake. He shows us his experiences, fears and hopes with passionate images and metaphors creating a sensibility against oppression hypocrisy. His words come alive and ask for changes in society, government and church. But they remind us also that the continued renewal of society begins with new ideas, imagination and new works in every area of human experience.
Blake was angered by what he saw in his homeland as other countries started fighting for their independence and equality whilst his country stayed dormant, even though he felt that there was a serious need for serious action. Even though Blake wasn't a typical romantic writer, he too possessed the same. beliefs of fighting for what one believes in, and the urge to be. liberated from the oppression of society. So, by being a writer of the romantic period, watching a controlled and restricted society not showing an intent to break free and fight against the monarchy.
William Blake, was 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. The Romanticism is a movement that developed during the 18th and early 19th century as a reaction against the Restoration and Enlightenment periods focuses on logic and reason. Blake’s poetry would focus on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision consists in his creations. Blake was against the Church of England because he thought the doctrines were being misused as a form of social control, it meant the people were taught to be passively obedient and accept oppression, poverty, and inequality. In Blake’s poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell, he shows that good requires evil in order to exist through imagery animals and man.
Compare and contrast the poems The Tyger and The Donkey and discuss which poet gives us the clearest depiction of humanity. William Blake is a wealthy, upper-class writer who separates himself from the rest of the wealthy community. Blake has a hate for the techniques used by many of the wealthy, company owners who gain and capitalise through cheap and expendable labour, supplied by the ever-growing poverty in the country. Blake makes a point to try and reveal this industrial savagery through his work. "The Tyger" is presented as a metaphorical approach to the struggle between the rich and the poor; good and evil.
...both poems include a deep, indirect portrayal of Rousseau’s noble savage myth. Also, both poems include a variety of romantic ideals. Because of Blake’s support of Rousseau’s noble savage, his poetry is somewhat anti-Enlightenment, a characteristic of Romanticism. Another Romantic ideal was the beauty of the natural world, which opposed the Enlightened thinkers of the Industrial Revolution. Finally Blake’s usage of a child, who is speaking to animals that are unable to respond, demonstrates the Romantic belief in the “importance of feelings and imagination over reason” (Romanticism 699).
Why did William Blake decide to illustrate his own poems? In 1789, he published Songs of Innocence, and in 1794, he published its partner Songs of Experience. While it is not unusual for authors to publish their poems, Blake’s sets are different because he not only wrote the poems but illustrated and printed them himself. Blake could have done this because he could. He had experience and skills as a printer, but because he created the illustrations himself, it is possible to use them to find a deeper meaning for each poem (Lynch). This could have possibly been his intention. Using this, one can find more meanings for his pieces even when the illustrations do not necessarily compare with their poem.
In conclusion these two poems by William Blake are both deep and have hidden meanings, they both use imagery, repetition, alliteration and ryming couplets as well as biblical references to create a vivid pictures in the readers head. But these poems do differ in many ways such as the structure, theme and way it is written. The Tyger appeals to me most as it has more hidden meanings than the Lamb and the Lamb is boring and as if written by a child (for effect). In this essay I have analysed, contrasted and compared the two poems The Tyger and The Lamb to the best of my ability detailing the poetic devices used and the underlying meanings.
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.
William Blake was born and raised in London from 1757 to 1827. Throughout his early years, Blake experienced many strange and unusual visions, claiming to have seen “angels and ghostly monks” (Moore). For those reasons, William Blake decided to write about mystical beings and Gods. Two examples of the poet expressing his point of view are seen in “The Tyger” and “The Lamb.” Both poems demonstrate how the world is and to sharpen one’s perception. People perceive the world in their own outlook, often times judging things before they even know the deeper meaning of its inner personification. Blake’s wondrous questions actually make an acceptable point because he questions whether God created the tiger with the same intentions as he did with the lamb.
William Blake's Songs of Innocence, “The Shepherd,” “The Echoing Green,” The Little Black Boy,” “The Blossom,” and “Laughing Song.”
In his work, Songs of Innocence and Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, William Blake uses the aforementioned contrasting states of being to illustrate his unique view of the world around him. Through this work, Blake lays bare his soulful views of religion and ethics, daring the reader to continue on in their narcissistic attitudes and self-serving politics. While Blake's work had countless themes, some of the most prevalent were religious reform, social change, and morality. Philosophically, one would think that William Blake was a Deist; however Blake rejected the Deist view of life. He was a devout Christian, yet he also wanted nothing to do with the church or their teachings. These views give Blake a refreshingly sincere quality with regards to his art and writings. Blake frequently alluded to Biblical teachings in his work and, more often than not, used corresponding story lines to rail against the Church's views and accepted practices. One may say however, that Blake's universal appeal lies within his social commentary. Similar to a fable, Blake weaves a poetically mystical journey for the reader, usually culminating in a moral lesson. One such poem, "A Poison Tree," clearly illustrates some of William Blake's moral beliefs. With his use of imagery, as well as an instinctive knowledge of human nature, William Blake shows just how one goes from the light to the darkness (from innocence to experience) by the repression of emotions.
William Blake's "London" is a representative of English society as a whole, and the human condition in general that outlines the socio-economic problems of the time and the major communal evils.
In this essay, I will argue that William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” alludes to his belief in a darker side of creation and the implications of the Industrial Revolution. In this essay, my argument is based on Blake’s use of rhetorical questions, word choice, and the poem’s context; specifically in the fourth and fifth stanzas. In the beginning of the poem the tiger appears as a striking and wondrous creature, however, as the poem progresses, the tiger takes on a symbolic meaning, and comes to be a physical manifestation of the spiritual and moral problem the poem explores: creation, divine and manmade. Frighteningly beautiful and destructive, Blake’s tiger becomes the main symbol for his questions into the presence of evil in the world. For example, the reference to the lamb in the final stanza, “Did he who made the lamb make thee?” reminds the reader that a tiger and a lamb have been created by the same God, and raises questions about the implications of this....
During the mid 1800’s was a remarkable era called the Romanticism. Some political and social milestones of this era included The American Revolution, The French Revolution, and The Industrial Revolution. During these events, the “theme” more or less was a type of laissez faire which means, “let the people do as they please.” WIlliam Blake was a famous poet in this time period, as well as Samuel Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and George Gordon. Novels and poems were written in this time to express the ways Romanticism was shown and how melancholy was trending.
Colin Wilson once said, "The Average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain." A conformist is a person who conforms to accepted behavior or established practices. That means someone who follows others, whether it is about decision making or their attitude. In today 's society I would say that most of the people are conformist, this includes both teenagers and adults. Being a conformist in my opinion can be bad and good for various reasons. If the attitude of the specific person has changed for the better, such as a snobby boy/girl becoming more respectful, that it definitely a positive change. Other people can change their attitude for