William Blake, an artist and poet, wrote to on the dark and bright side of society. Growing up, Blake at the age of four thought he had seen God. With this said, his parents wanted to nurture his gift. His father, a very poor man, sent him to an art school. Believe it or not, William Blake was a rebel. After studying at the Royal Academy, Blake dropped out and opened his own printing shop. At the age of thirty-two, Blake published multiple poems in two series of texts, Song of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Thus, the difference between these two series of texts was that Song of Experience explored more of the dark side of society; however, Songs of Innocence explored more of the innocent side of human society. Both of these texts were a critique of human society. In the texts The Lamb, The Tyger, The Chimney Sweeper, and Infant Sorrow critique society with innocence and experience, child labor, and finally the rebels of society.
First off, between the texts The Lamb and The Tyger they both critique society with innocence and experience. This meaning of innocence (being lambs) and experience (being tygers) represent God’s creations in society. There are two types of people in this world, lambs and tygers. They are a representation of balance between societies as a whole, almost like the Chinese yin-yang symbol. With this said, Blake states in the text The Lamb, “Little Lamb who made thee / Dost thou know who made thee…” (Prentice Hall Literature [page 748 lines 1-2]). These lines representing the questioning of who made the lamb (a symbol of Jesus Christ); in the following text Blake states in the text The Tyger, “Did he smile his work to see? / Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (Prentice Hall Literature [page 749 lines 19-2...
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... and tygers. Child labor has definitely taken its toll on children back in the Romantic period. And finally, it is thought that once a newborn is born there is the definite chance of it resenting its parents or dearly loving them. All three great poems, William Blake has written to both sides of the topic. Whether it is between The Lamb or The Tyger, there is no indefinite choose. A Romantic poet himself has dominated poetry in Blake’s day in age. With that said, Blake has not only rebelled against his own parents view, but he dropped out of one of the best colleges he could have ever been to pursue his writing career in poetry. The Lamb, The Tyger, The Chimney Sweeper, and finally Infant Sorrow all critique society, in an innocent or experienced way, child labor, and finally the rebellion in early childhood years.
Works Cited
Prentice Hall Literature Volume Two
The fact that they feel they can sit about the knee of their mother, in this stereotypical image of a happy family doesn’t suggest that the children in this poem are oppressed... ... middle of paper ... ... y has a negative view of the childish desire for play which clearly has an effect on the children. The fact that they the are whispering shows that they are afraid of the nurse, and that they cannot express their true thoughts and desires freely, which is why they whisper, and therefore shows that Blake feels that children are oppressed. I feel that the two poems from innocence which are ‘The Echoing Green,’ and ‘The Nurses Song,’ display Blake’s ideological view of country life which I referred to in my introduction, and show his desire for childhood to be enjoyed.
From childhood he was unlike those around him. He went to school to study art and found his love of poetry. From his early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions. He spoke of seeing God and the Angels. He married his with Catherine Boucher in 1782. His brother, Robert died, but this is where Blake got a lot of inspiration for his work. In 1789 Blake wrote and illustrated the popular Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in 1794. His poetry was extremely non-conformist and focused on imagination, rather than reason. Both works have many common parallels and themes. His poetry also deals with the common aspect of a romanticism work; it has moments of sin, suffering and salvation. In Songs of Innocence, The Chimney Sweeper, it is a heartbreaking poem about the young children that were forced into doing labor as chimneysweepers. Mostly because they were the only ones small enough to fit in the spaces and they were sold into that work. It was damaging and cruel how they treated these children and Blake writes about it in such a powerful way. In the first stanza alone the reader learns about the difficult life and the suffering this child has had to overcome, “When my mother died when I was young, my father sold me while yet my tongue…so, your Chimney’s I sweep and in soot I sleep.” (Songs of Innocence) This poor child is portrayed so innocently and gentle, yet leads this suffering unfortunate life. People treated
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.
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’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.
Children are always portrayed in books as angelic beings that are the closest to being perfect since they are innocent and pure. Many would suggest that this is not true, that children can be just as finable as adults. They cry when they do not get their way and throw tantrums that are quite obscene. However, the idea of this angelic child did not come into play until the 18th century. The poets William Blake and William Wordsworth are the two poets that coined this idea of the child. In the poems of these two authors, children are portrayed as innocent and pure beings and are closer to God than adults. Although these two poets have very different views of what children are like such as their interactions with adults, their perspective on
The lamb is a symbol of innocence, ignorance, purity, and self justification. In William Blake’s poem The Lamb, children are biblically innocent and the speaker contrast himself to the higher divinity. In this interpretation of children the speaker may possibly be trying to use ignorance as an excuse for sin in his life. The lamb’s natural gifts are clearly envied by the speaker, the gifts being food, shelter, and happiness. William Blake may have used this scene of fertile valleys to allow the reader to also feel the envy towards the lamb’s peaceful existence. “The lamb by no fault of its own is prosecuted by speaker, later to be found incoherent with his own tortures and suffrages”(Paananem 40).
The first piece of evidence by Blake that identifies the pressure of society placed upon the children is Blake’s particular use of rhyme scheme. Starting with the last two lines of the first stanza of the poem, Blake immediately jumps in to depict his disparaging opinion of society by enforcing the lack of parental protection present for these chimney-sweeping children. The rhyming lines, “I was very young/ … yet my tongue” (3-4) introduce the idea that this individual (the speaker of the poem) was so young and innocent that he could not only say the word “sweep,” but more importantly, that he also could not stand up for himself even against his own father, and oppose the job that he was forcefully sold in to. This particular example demonstrates how vulnerable these children were to society and how they could be easily abused and oppressed. While the first stanza may seem to directly coincide ...
In “The Lamb,” the speaker asks the lamb about how it was made, the clothing of its wool and its “tender voice.” The speaker then answers its own question and bestows the blessing of the lamb. The Lamb can symbolize a child, innocence, meek, or vulnerability. Also, it can be perceived as Jesus. “The lamb is also a metaphor for the child speaker, who belongs to Christ's ‘flock.’ In Christianity, Jesus is compared both to a lamb going to the sacrifice and to a shepherd who protects his flock of lambs and sheep” (Shmoop). At the beginning of this poem, it starts out with the question of “Little Lamb, who made thee… I a child and thou a lamb” (Line 1, 17). It refers to the saying in the Bible, “…in the beginning when god created the heavens and the earth. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind” (Mazur). The narrator only calls himself a child because we are all “children of god” as many say. In line 18, “We are called by his name,” reinforces the idea that the lamb...
Overall, it is apparent that Blake is extremely critical of the exploitation of children during his time period. Blake’s Songs of Innocence provides more implicit social commentary which forces the reader to think deeply about child exploitation. Songs of Experience presents a direct social commentary due to the mature nature of the child speaker. Although both texts provide similar social commentary, Songs of Experience expresses social commentary more directly due to the outspoken and mature nature of the child. Songs of Experience was likely written as a follow-up to Songs of Innocence at a later date in order to solidify the implicit ideas presented in Songs of Innocence.
There are often two sides to everything: chocolate and vanilla, water and fire, woman and man, innocence and experience. The presence of two opposing items allows for harmony and balance in the world. Without water, fire cannot be put out and without woman there can be no man. William Blake’s poetry collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience draws parallels between poems of “innocence” and poems of “experience”. His poem The Lamb is mirrored by his poem The Tyger.
The repeated use of the word “dare” to replace the “could” of the first stanza introduces a dimension of aspiration and willfulness into the sheer might of the creative act. The Tyger is full of words that seem more advanced than the elementary vocabulary in The Lamb and that carry unpleasant connotations such as “distant deeps” or “dreadful terror”. “These words not only enforce the idea that not all of creation is good but also add a sense of fear to this side of it by voicing the speakers own fear of it and stirring up negative emotions within the audience. Blake creates this alarm to bring home his personal doubt about some of God’s creation.
In Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake differentiates between being experienced and being innocent. In the poem "Spring," the speaker focuses on the coming of spring and the excitement surrounding it which is emphasized by the trochaic meter of the poem. Everyone, including the animals and children, is joyful and getting ready for the new season, a season of rebirth and a new arrival of nature’s gifts.
In the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth, this difference between children and adults and their respective states of mind is articulated and developed. As a person ages, they move undeniably from childhood to adulthood, and their mentality moves with them. On the backs of Blake and Wordsworth, the reader is taken along this journey.
by different names and as a separate category, highlighting their. differences. The. Children to Blake are extremely important, especially in the context of poetry, indeed in "The Introduction to Songs of Innocence. He says that the poems are "for children to hear" and concentrates on a child's view of life. It is not possible to say that Blake's poetry excludes women and children as so many of his poems are.