Have a beautiful photo of Blake!!
William Blake
Context- Self-taught, often read Biblical texts and books from John Milton, his 'Paradise Lost'
- Married Catherine Boucher but couldn't make children (infertility?!)
- Revolutionary romantic poet, a rebel of his time (yet he would fit in well with nowadays society)
- Had visions about God, Angels and other supernatural stuff
- Believed that it was insufficient to rely on he eye to see the world (Plato links?!)
- Believed that God was within us all
- Sought to express truth as he saw it and to promote social and political change
- 1794, published Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul
Historical Context
- Gordon Riots, 1780; saught to lift some of the restrictions and penalties imposed upon Roman Catholics
- French Revolution, 1789
- Church during his time were restrictive and seen as unorthodox
- The suppression of desire led to corruption
Concerns
Blake's concerns were seen as unwarranted controls on the freedom of individuals
Blake's concerns were seen as unwarranted controls on the freedom of individuals
- Children (treatment of the future generation)
- Restrictive rules/ laws by Church and Government
- Affects Education, Restricts 'free love'
- Disregard for life (lack of care for health and well-being)
- Discrimination based on skin colour
Influences
- Rousseau believed that society imposed restraints on individuals, forcing them to comply with social expectations and to buy their individuality
- Humans are naturally good
- Civilisation (property and power) corrupted human beings
- Once separated from nature, humans cease to be happy or virtuous
- "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains"
- Swedenborg argued for a unified version of Jesus Christ
- William Godwin said that the evil in the world derived from property which promoted exploitation and inequality
- The abolition of property, law, government, institutions and marriage would lead to human and social perfection
- Jeremy Bentham argued that less law meant more liberty and if the state left people alone they would automatically promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number
Ideas
Language, Form and Structure
- Blake saw 'heaven' as a rationalist, materialist place where there is a lack of faith, lack of true humility and is simply repression
- Saw 'hell' as a place of imagination, energy, engagement, freedom and true spirituality
- Even depicts Satan as a heroic revolutionary figure
Language, Form and Structure
- Child-like, simple song form
- Dictated by emotion and not by pre-existing conventions as Romantics were all about the 'organic form'
- Simple language
- To make accessible to all; the poor, the ill-educated, the rich etc.
Themes/ Summary/ Key Ideas?!
I'm just going to generalise the poems and identify themes and ideas within some poems (ones that I find most relevant and the easiest to discuss in relations to a general political and social protest question...
P.S. There are 47 poems in total in Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
P.S. There are 47 poems in total in Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
Songs of Innocence
Idealised view of nature and childhood, states of purity and innocence
Some poems hint at the perils of experience
Some poems hint at the perils of experience
- The Echoing Green
- Innocence, childhood and happiness
- Inevitably moves into the world of experience
- The Little Black Boy
- Race/ Discrimination
- Good vs. Bad (White vs. Black)
- The Chimney Sweeper
- Satire to express anger of treatment of children by masters, government and parents
- Cruel exploiting of children because they value materialistic things like money!
- The Little Boy Lost
- Critical of fathers who don't look out for their children and guide them/ support them
- The Little Boy Found
- God is there for his child
- Blake suggests that a true father would respond to his child and stay close to him in the dangerous world of experience
- Holy Thursday
- The service may look appealing but the truth is, the children are forced to comply to rules, restricted their freedom and are beaten if they fail to comply
- Infant Joy
- Infant born, loved and wanted by loving and wise parents
- The Blossom
- Wanting of free sexual love and relations
- A Cradle Song
- Lullaby sung by loving and wise mother, wishes world of experience away from child as she recognises that the infant will soon leave the state of innocence
- A Dream
- Themes of Lost and Found, Empathy and Guardianship
- Boy's mother searches for her son, concern and care
- Nurses Song
- Nurse's role as protector for the children, allows them more freedom and time to play with nature - symbolic of prolonging innocence
- Coming darkness/ night seen to be the world of experience creeping up on the children
Songs of Experience
Evils and corruptions of the fallen, rationalist and materialist world prevails in Experience
Some poems resonate with a sense of the absence of innocence, a sense of loss
Some poems resonate with a sense of the absence of innocence, a sense of loss
- The Chimney Sweeper
- Good and Evil, White vs Black
- The suffering of children inevitable during industrial revolution in Britain
- A Little Girl Lost
- Critical of social viewpoint on sex, sex outside of marriage, free love etc.
- The Little Girl Lost
- Human race unite with nature and God (Lion), Lyca is a place of innocence (when stripped naked like when Adam and Eve are naked in the Garden of Eden)
- The Little Girl Found
- Parents suffering, worried for Lyca, search for her and led by Lion to the cave
- Parents from world of experience followed child back into world of innocence
- Holy Thursday
- Country of wealth ignores real needs of children (their suffering etc.)
- The charity provided is given without genuine love or care
- Infant Sorrow
- Infant being born into a dangerous world and have an inevitable fate
- Parents are jealous of the infant for they desire to have innocence again
- London
- In the city, there are marks of woe and suffering as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution (high poverty, increasing population, increase in exploitation and oppressive institutions that care little for people's health and well-being)
- People are chained up by manacles (mentally, in that they can't be free thinking individuals and free to do things as they desire)
- The School Boy
- Restrictive education and Blake says this isn't true learning as their thought process and their creativity are caged and imprisoned like birds
- Ought to learn from nature, by playing and happiness
- The Little Vagabond
- Solace should be found in the Church but instead is found in the ale-house
- Critical of the Church and their restrictive and oppressive ways!
- Church is also meant to be loving and caring but they do little to nothing of the suffering of children and of the people
- Nurses Song
- Nurse wants to lead them into world of experience as soon as possible
- Adult jealousy of innocence
Because this exam is open book, I won't bother putting quotes. The general concepts are mentioned here and just think about the 'contraries' between Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience and how Blake intended to make a political and social protest statement!!!
i am angry, distraught and disappointed to say the least. Under such global economic strain i wouldve expected a better resource for my kids. Please fuck off and die, you inconsiderate arse hairs
ReplyDeleteTo be fair mate like no one even knows ye so wind ye neck in and sort yerself out rapid
DeleteGreat summary to clarify the key themes and areas of context ready for my exam tomorrow! Thank you! (also, ignore what "I am angry" says - not a clue what planet they're on)
ReplyDeleteblake is qween
ReplyDelete