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William Blake Allusion

Decent Essays

William Blake was a visionary English poet who lived from 1757-1827. He is now considered one of the most important figures of the Romantic Age. His works of poetry have become more important in the 21st century than anyone would’ve thought many years ago. Much of his poetry has obvious biblical references.

In the poems, The Lamb, The Poison Tree and The Tyger, Blake uses many techniques including symbolism, apostrophe, metaphors, rhetorical questions, repetition, allusions and alliteration.

At the outset of “The Lamb,” we see the use of alliteration. He begins the poem with “Little lamb” and repeats it throughout. He then introduces rhetorical questions, and the combination of these literary devices creates a childlike picture of …show more content…

Though there is no reference to a tree until the last line of the poem, Blake alludes to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge by using words such as garden, apple and tree in the poem. “And into my garden stole,” “Till it bore an apple bright,” “My foe outstretched beneath the tree” (Blake 1794/2007 p.807).

Blake uses repetition in his poem by repeating “I was angry with,” in the first stanza. “I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow” (Blake 1794/2007 p.807).

Written in Songs of Experience, The Tyger, by William Blake tells about the evil in the Bible. Not only does it include references to the Bible, it includes references to its sister poem, The Lamb.

William Blake uses personification to show stars in the sky throwing spears and their tears filling Heaven. “When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears” (Blake 1794/2007 p.1072).

Blake also uses imagery in the poem. He paints a picture of God hammering out the body of a ferocious tiger on an anvil. “What the hammer? What the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp” (Blake 1794/2007 p.

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