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William Blake and religion
William blake's tyger
William blake's tyger
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Throughout the career and life of William Blake, he was known for many things, such as printmaking, painting, and poetry. While his artwork brought him quite a bit of notoriety, he was quite possibly best known for his poetry. Two of these poems, The Lamb and the Tyger, which have a heavy backing of religion, especially that of Christianity are from a published series of poems he called Songs of Innocence, and of Experience, which falls in exceptionally with the themes of both of these poems. While the Lamb falls more into the category of innocence, almost that of a child, the Tyger falls more into a darker category, like a more knowledgeable adult questioning about God. While these poems have a plethora to offer, the most standout parts of this story would have to be religion, the voice speaking, and the theme of the poems.
The easiest place to begin with these poems would most certainly have to be the religion aspect, as both these poems make direct references to Christianity, or at least to a higher power. The name of the poem the Lamb itself is a reference to Christianity, as Jesus was referred to as a lamb in the Bible. And after the narrator seems to ask whomever he is speaking to, which is somewhat implied to be Jesus, he continues on to say that the lamb is meek and mild, and became a little child, (Blake, The Lamb) which is a reference to the birth of Jesus in the Bible, as the Lamb, or God, was born and became a little child. The Tyger references religion, or at least a reference to a higher power in a somewhat more serious manner, asking what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry, (Blake, The Tyger) in other words referencing what God could create such a fearsome creature, and almost seems to...
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...rds, and completely avoids any song like quality, making mentions of hammers, chains, anvils and furnaces, giving the image of a blacksmith, working away in a hot room, lighted by a furnace, pounding of metal, almost giving the feeling of a dark pit, like that of Hell.
Taking these poems for all they’re worth, they could be taken as Blake’s evolution as a Christian, starting out like that of a young innocent child, and slowly evolving into that of a more learned Christian, almost evolving to a state of questioning some of Gods intentions, or maybe even reaching an Agnostic like state of belief. In any case, these poems certainly contain views of religion at very different angles, and different perceptions of what God really is. Both poems seem to be an attempt at trying to personify God and bring him down to a level that would be easier understood by Man.
These poems have many other interpretations that can be seen, and these authors are noted for their ability to produce such works with multiple meanings. Although there are many different readings, the religious aspect that was covered in these two works was apparent. They both wrote in a time of religious prosperity that was much like the revival occurring today. Each writer showed their ability to master the concepts of the Bible and put their own twist on the creation story to produce a train of thought relevant to the point they were creating.
Blake’s poetry focuses on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision is reflected 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 of animals and man.
The poem “The Tyger” by William Blake is a poem about two different personalities. The Lamb is the innocent mankind, whereas the Tyger is a much more wild, mysterious and ferocious animal capable of great good and terrifying evil. The author of this poem William Blake is a man who takes pride in knowing about his religion. He has written this poem in his collection of poems called Songs of experience. In this poem he talks about creation of evil. The poet uses a very powerful rhyming scheme along with a lot of Allusions referring to both Christian views of God, and Greek/roman God’s and Goddesses throughout the poem. The poem itself presents a sort of strange view on one central question that he repeats twice in the poem referring to the evil of the Tyger. “Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
William Blake is a literature genius. Most of his work speaks volume to the readers. Blake’s poem “The Mental Traveller” features a conflict between a male and female that all readers can relate to because of the lessons learned as you read. The poet William Blake isn’t just known for just writing. He was also a well-known painter and a printmaker. Blake is considered a seminal figure in the history of poetry. His poems are from the Romantic age (The end of the 18th Century). He was born in Soho, London, Great Britain. He was the third of seven children. Even though Blake was such an inspiration as a writer he only went to school just enough to read and write. According to Bloom’s critical views on William Blake; one of Blake’s inspirations was the Bible because he believed and belonged to the Moravian Church.
Blake had an uncanny ability to use his work to illustrate the unpleasant and often painful realities around him. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of revolt against the abuse of class and power that appears guided by a unique brand of spirituality. His spiritual beliefs reached outside the boundaries of religious elites loyal to the monarchy. “He was inspired by dissident religious ideas rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the English Civil War “(E. P. Thompson). Concern with war and the blighting effects of the industrial revolution were displayed in much of his work.
William Blake’s early interest and aptitude for drawing had set a blueprint for his next life in writing inspiring poems. He believed that his writings were of national importance and that they could be understood by a majority of men. His time of being raised in a household of seven children with only five surpassing infancy, most likely gave way to his powerful writings. Most of all his work features some type of wearisome protagonist, who is attempting to revolt against some greater being; it could be politically religious or the theme of love and marriage. It is unclear exactly were Blake stood in terms of his beliefs in God; however, William Blake made many references to God and a supernatural being within his works of writing poems.
During the British Romantic period, some writers used material from the Bible or imitated the Bible in style of writing or content. William Blake, a Romantic writer, engraver, and painter, believed that “the Bible was the greatest work of poetry ever written” (Barker 2004). The Bible influenced him throughout his life, specifically influencing both his writing and his art. There are many references to Biblical themes within his writing, and there are also many references to specific passages of Scripture (Barker 2004). The lines “O thou, with dewy locks, who looked down / Thro’ the clear windows of the morning. . .”
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.
William Blake’s 1793 poem “The Tyger” has many interpretations, but its main purpose is to question God as a creator. Its poetic techniques generate a vivid picture that encourages the reader to see the Tyger as a horrifying and terrible being. The speaker addresses the question of whether or not the same God who made the lamb, a gentle creature, could have also formed the Tyger and all its darkness. This issue is addressed through many poetic devices including rhyme, repetition, allusion, and symbolism, all of which show up throughout the poem and are combined to create a strong image of the Tyger and a less than thorough interpretation of its maker.
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.
In William Blake’s poem “The Lamb” the speaker begins with the ultimate question, “Little Lamb, who made thee?/ Dost though know who made thee?/” (Blake lines 1-2). The speaker then continues to elaborate on the question in a playful, innocent, singsong manner describing the kindness and thoughtfulness that the creator put in to producing this ever so gentle lamb. The tone of this poem is soft and lulling, the tender, calm rhyme scheme puts the reader in a soothing, dreamlike state. “The words and images presented - stream, mead, delight, softest, tender and rejoice - are positive and pastoral. One can picture a lamb frolicking in the green grass…” (Smith).
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, one of the infamous English romantic poets, is most known for his romantic views on conventional scenes and objects, which were presented in his works The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. The first collection was published in 1789, and addresses subjects such as suffering and death from the innocent and optimistic perspective of a child. The later collection addresses these same issues, but is told from the perspective of an experienced bard. The poems contained in The Songs of Innocence often have a counter part in the second collection that reflects a darker or more corrupted take on the same subject. For example, the purity presented in the creation of “The Lamb” is dramatically contrasted with its shameful counterpart “The Tyger”. 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, 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.
In “The Tyger,” William Blake questions the possibility of whether God not only loves us unconditionally but also can have wrath and bring down justice on the people of earth. In “The Lamb”, Blake shows the soft and Pre-K side of God- how loving and sweet he is, to send His small Lamb down for our sins so we may have eternal life, but in contrast this poem goes deeper- the Lamb is allowed to be slain by the same God who created it. A tiger is intimidating and deadly; it naturally kills not because it has a desire to but because it was created to do so, as it can be explained in line four when Blake describes it as “fearful
I’ve always use the title of a poem as an indicator of what to anticipate before reading it. But, in this case of William Blake’s poems, they are titled by two different animals. In Blake’s first poem, “The Lamb”, which is from his collection, Songs of innocence and the second poem “The Tyger” is from Songs of Experience they both reflect symbolisms. In “The Lamb”, and “The Tyger” Blake speaks with a powerful juxtaposition of nature. The innocent ‘lamb’ reminds me of a child and the powerful vicious ‘Tyger’ is the experiences of how a child can lose their innocence as they become adults. The poem's purpose is to be regarded in collation with each other. However, after completing both poems, they both seem to have more of a religious aspect.