Innocence in William Blake's The Divine Image Essay

This work embodies the period style because it contains avant-garde geometric shapes to define the forms, colors, and interpretations that were important to the Post-Impressionists. First off, the harshness of the lines goes hand in hand with the shapes that exist in the work. The shapes tend to be simplified shapes, which demonstrates that Cezanne wanted things to appear as if they could be broken down. Cezanne utilizes an array of geometric

As a forerunner to the free-love movement, late eighteenth century poet, engraver, and artist, William Blake (1757-1827), has clear sexual overtones in many of his poems, and he layers his work with sexual double entendres and symbolism. Within the discussion of sexuality in his work Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake seems to take a complicated view of women. His speakers use constructs of contraries, specifically innocence/ experience and male/female. Of the latter sex, he experiments with the passive (dependent, docile, virtuous) and active (independent, evil, a threat to the masculine) female subjects. Blake’s use of personification specifically of nature and botany suggest the use of nature to discuss human society. In Songs

The Songs of Innocence poems first appeared in Blake’s 1784 novel, An Island in the Moon. In 1788, Blake began to compile in earnest, the collection of Songs of Innocence. And by 1789, this original volume of plates was complete. These poems are the products of the human mind in a state of innocence, imagination, and joy; natural euphoric feelings uninhibited or tainted by the outside world. Following the completion of the Songs of Innocence plates, Blake wrote The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and it is through this dilemma of good and evil and the suffering that he witnesses on the streets of London, that he begins composing Songs of Experience. This second volume serves as a response to Songs of

Consider the painting The Railroad Bride, Argenteuil by Claude Monet. This artwork looks simple, but uses geometry and one point linear perspective. Monet uses a sense of opposition is created by the alternating rhythm of light to dark established by the bridge pillars and the color orange and blue in both water and smoke from the train above. The light and dark areas given the picture asymmetrical balance between the dark and light areas. Monet uses one point linear perspective to create the bride. He uses proportions in the relationship between the parts of the object and the whole object by using geometry. Monet uses grid like geometry. The wooden structure support under the bridge is the same overall structure of grid and diagonals. Other lines are the apparent in the two diagonals as well as opposing directional lines of the train and the boat. The smoke shows direction of the wind and that the boat is moving that way as well. The visual weight/balance of the sail boat is smaller than the bridge. I believe the focal point is the new bridge for the train and new travels was is focal point in the picture.

The use of line in this piece is also very interesting. The artist employs a high horizontal line to create a plunging effect giving the piece more depth. Another use of lines in the image is to create focal points to attract the viewer. Lines are also used to separate the different sections of the painting. Overall this painting uses lines in dynamic ways that vastly enhance the viewers’ pleasure and admiration of the piece.

As defined in the textbook “The Literature Collection”, when using imagery to describe scenes “the image asks to be seen with the mind’s eye.” Short poems can say a lot with imagery while only writing very little to describe. Chana Bloch uses imagery to deliver her main idea that passion no longer ignites the the match of love and what was once enjoyable, became “damp sulphur”. Stevie Smith paints her image about how one is really alone in this world and how the onlookers may know who one really is, but all eventually die alone. Imagery is not only there to paint the scene is meant to reveal the main idea from the author, and one must ask themselves how each single piece of the whole picture brings out the theme. The textbook explains that when thinking of a poems imagery, making a list of the key images would help determine what is important, how each symbol ties together, and what the message could mean. Reading a short poem takes time to understand, though viewing the images painted in the text makes the reading

One very significant element is the contrast in color, at the center, toward the right there are bright, warm colors such as, oranges, pinks, and yellows. Around that, there are cooler colors for example, blacks, blues, and purples. There is also a line that divides the artwork in half, separating the sky from water and land below. Some wavy lines appear on the water, land and clouds also some straight and wavy

East Ninth Street is a prime example of these elements because as she uses oil paint a lot of the strokes leave globs of paint to show the swift texture of her movement. She paints in a way that draws the eye in a path through the piece either from top to bottom or left to right or a more fluid meandering pathway. Because her intent is to paint emotions, colors are the most vital part of her art work. Colors are often known as symbols of certain emotions and each color in her work has a specific meaning based off of this

As far as space, the painting actually seems a lit cluttered, there is very little negative space but not enough to be distracting. The sky to the left and right of the main structure breaks up the positive space just enough to prevent claustrophobia. Also, the area in front of the structure seems foreshortened; it’s hard to see all those people fitting into that tiny space. The small space is perhaps necessary to focus the eye on the tiny baby Jesus. If the crowd were spread out and the scene with Joseph, Mary and Jesus were to recede, the baby would probably be too small to attract the eye.

William Blake focused on biblical images in the majority of his poetry and prose. Much of his well-known work comes from the two compilations Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The poems in these compilations reflect Blake's metamorphosis in thought as he grew from innocent to experienced. An example of this metamorphosis is the two poems The Divine Image and A Divine Image. The former preceded the latter by one year.

Blake uses traditional symbols of angels and devils, animal imagery, and especially images of fire and flame to: 1) set up a dual world, a confrontation of opposites or "contraries" which illustrate how the rules of Reason and Religion repress and pervert the basic creative energy of humanity, 2) argues for apocalyptic transformation of the self "through the radical regeneration of each person's own power to imagine" (Johnson/Grant, xxiv), and 3) reconstructs Man in a new image, a fully realized Man who is both rational and imaginative, partaking of his divinity through creativity. The form of the poem consists of "The Argument," expositions on his concepts of the "contraries" and of "expanded perception" which are both interspersed with "Memorable Fancies" that explicate and enlarge on his expositions, and concludes with "A Song of Liberty," a prophecy of a future heaven on earth.

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are collections of poems that utilize the imagery, instruction, and lives of children to make a larger social commentary. The use of child-centered themes in the two books allowed Blake to make a crucial commentary on his political and moral surroundings with deceptively simplistic and readable poetry. Utilizing these themes Blake criticized the church, attacking the hypocritical clergy and pointing out the ironies and cruelties found within the doctrines of organized religion. He wrote about the horrific working conditions of children as a means to magnify the inequality between the poor working class and

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. He was not recognized during his lifetime and now is considered as a seminal figure and criticised over the twentieth and even this century. Blake’s strong philosophical and religious beliefs in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. Although he was from London he spent his entire life in Felpham.

Some of William Blake’s poetry is categorized into collections called Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Blake explores almost opposite opinions about creation in his poems “The Lamb” and “The Tiger.” While the overarching concept is the same in both, he uses different subjects to portray different sides of creation; however, in the Innocence and Experience versions of “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake uses some of the same words, rhyme schemes, and characters to talk about a single subject in opposite tones.