Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Social criticism on blake's poetry
Intoduction on William Blake
The Influence of William Blake
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Social criticism on blake's poetry
Blake was a man active of mind and body, changing occupations without a minute of repose in between. ‘Apocalyptic’ is a word that can be used in describing William Blake’s works, whether it be a poem, artwork, or story. Although, incredibly relevant in his own time, I believe that his work resonates even more strongly in today’s society.
The following stanza comes from one of Blake’s most well renowned poems “Auguries of Innocence” one of the most prolific verses’ in history;
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a Wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour
Blake’s capability to produce confrontational poetry is outstanding, in the above verse alone the paradox’s used are exceptional. “Hold infinity in the palm of your hand”, in a literal sense this is completely incomprehensible, and almost ungraspable in human understanding, as the proposed statement is highly illogical and requires higher order thinking and a sense of spiritual understanding. Throughout Blake’s poetry he presents his many philosophies through wildly imaginative and sometimes unfathomable verses and rhymes. The poetry of Blake is so brilliantly pieced together through succession of couplets, you cannot stop yourself from reading, even if you don’t quite grasp what he’s trying to convey. That’s the beauty of Blake’s poetry; it presents us with so many interesting ideas and concepts which one has perhaps never considered before.
Blake’s poetry is very much a representation of how he saw society; his strong opinions of the actions, behaviours and way of life of those around him. ‘Auguries of Innocence” deftly reflects his disgust, confusion and frustration with the restrictive and selfish society that he liv...
... middle of paper ...
... beings, it is probably more relevant now than it ever was, as we live in a day and age full of anger, paranoia and frustrations, these strains are ever more so amplified by the constant presence of the media within our lives, which constantly has all our emotions and fears on overdrive, as conveyed in Blake’s poem.
William Blake was one of, if not the most revolutionary poet of his time. The language Blake uses is explicit and deftly executed and still somehow, delicately pieced together. His work was political, religious and philosophical. He expressed his frustration with society through his poetry, he conveyed his deep words of wisdom through stanza’s and verses, and even wove in his beliefs of religion and the Heavens.
The adroit nature of this ingenious and admirable man is astounding, and should be appreciated and shared by people from all walks of life.
William Blake’s writing style was a product of the Romantic Era in which people were more concerned with emotions than reason. This era embodied society’s desire to
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.
Natoli, Joseph. "William Blake." Critical Survey Of Poetry, Second Revised Edition (2002): 1-12. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
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.
The imagery of nature and humanity intermingling presents Blake's opinion on the inborn, innate harmony between nature and man. The persona of the poem goes on to express the `gentle streams beneath our feet' where `innocence and virtue meet'. This is where innocence dwells: synchronization with nature, not synchronization with industry where `babes are reduced to misery, fed with a cold usurous hand' as in the experienced version of `Holy Thursday'. The concept of the need for the individual's faithfulness to the laws of nature and what is natural is further reiterated in `the marriage of heaven and hell' in plate 10 where Blake states `where man is not, nature is barren'. The most elevated form of nature is human nature and when man resists and consciously negates nature, `nature' becomes `barren'. Blake goes on to say `sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires'. This harks back to `the Songs of Innocence' `A Cradle Song' where the `infants smiles are his own smiles'. The infant is free to act out its desires as it pleases. It is unbound, untainted. Blake's concern is for the pallid and repressed, subjugated future that awaits the children who must `nurse unacted desires' and emotions in this new world of industrialisation. Despairingly, this is restated again in `the mind-forg'd manacles' of `London'. The imagery of the lambs of the `Songs of Innocence' `Introduction' is developed in `the Chimney Sweeper' into the image of `Little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, that curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd'.
Abstract: William Blake's Songs of Innocence contains a group of poetic works that the artist conceptualized as entering into a dialogue with each other and with the works in his companion work, Songs of Experience. He also saw each of the poems in Innocence as operating as part of an artistic whole creation that was encompassed by the poems and images on the plates he used to print these works. While Blake exercised a fanatical degree of control over his publications during his lifetime, after his death his poems became popular and were encountered without the contextual material that he intended to accompany them.
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. One of Blake’s most famous works is The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. In this collection, Blake illuminates the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and follow them into adulthood.... ...
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.
This invokes reassurance in the reader. William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” also asks the ultimate question “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?/” (Blake lines 3-4). The tone of this poem is more of a horrific nature.
Johnson, Mary Lynn and John E. Grant, eds. Blake's Poetry and Designs. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1979.
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.
Davis, Michael. William Blake: A new kind of man. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.
withholding the anger from the “foe”. Blake uses the simplicity of the poem to surprise his
Thus the poem is a splendid pen picture of joys of child hood and their eventual fading away into eternity. Blake has further laid stress on the potent entity called ‘change’. The poet has through useful symbol of oak tree, old people, evening etc has discussed the mechanics, which act as a fulcrum in moving the paddles of life. The poet has showed superb mastery as he changes the mood of the poem along with the progression of the poem. The poem is in fact a very fine presentation of the philosophy of life resting on the hinges of the magnificent time.
LaGuardia, Cheryl. "WILLIAM BLAKE: SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE." Library Journal 128.9 (2003): 140. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 13 July 2011.