William Blake Essay

AN ANALYSIS OF WILLIAM BLAKE’S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE AS A RESPONSE TO THE COLLAPSE OF VALUES TIMOTHY VINES∗ Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience are a much studied part of the English canon, and for good reason. Blake’s work depicts a quandary that continues to haunt humanity today: the struggle of high-order humanity against the ‘real’ rationality and morals of institutionalised society. This essay seeks to explore both Blake’s literary reaction to the Enlightenment and the

considered him one of the greatest artists from Britain for it. Today, William Blake is one of the most well known British artist. Critics have held him in high reverence for his creativity and eloquence,and for the mystical and abstract aura found in his art work. But during his time, Blake had little recognition. Even so, throughout his life, Blake thought his work to be of national importance and understood by a majority of men. William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in the city of London, where he

Ferociously Created (Favorite Poem Written by William Blake: The Tyger) Poetry often has a way of speaking to certain people. Maybe not everyone can connect to every poem, but more so a specific poem. Maybe they can relate something that happened to them in their life that is similar to that in the poetry. Many times that is the case, sometimes others just simply like poems as well. They hear the words that it is saying and get exactly what it is trying to say and it speaks to them. This is a great

When we discuss Romantic poetry, William Blake is one of the forerunners of that literary period. His two major poetical works include Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In both of these collections, there is a poem titled ‘The Chimney Sweeper’. In both of these poems, we observe the innocence of childhood suffering from subjugation to harsh manual work. In the concerned poems, two perspectives are given. First, the child is innocent and believes in whatever his parents have told about the

wise words of King James verse (1:5) of the bible portrays an underlying message that although we should follow in God’s path, we are not expected to follow blindly. Likewise, in the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake, it’s theme is a reflection of what this quote implies. Throughout this poem, Blake explores the possibility of questioning God while using the structure of the poem, as well as the irony of God’s character, and several sound devices in hopes of communicating a message, that to question

William Blake’s collection of poetry reflects greatly on the distressed life he had. The view that he had of the world, 18th century Europe in particular, affected many people throughout literatures history. He spoke of innocence but also of experience which gave the impression he was once deeply involved with each, although they are very different. Blake’s poem title ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ was used in two of his collections; ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of Experience’, but each of the poems

has ever existed may have had bad effects in one situation, but good effects for another situation. And every human, by extension, has aspects about them that can be viewed as both good and evil. In his poems, “The Tyger” and, “The Lamb”, author William Blake explores the ideas of duality, and how each thing must have an equal opposite. He uses both these poems to further ruminate on this dichotomy and brings up many questions in the context of religion. He seeks to point out that in the Christian belief

experience. I will lastly draw my knowledge of what has informed Blake’s poems. According to Blake (1967) Innocence and Experience can be perceived as contrary states of the human soul. As evidenced in William Blake’s poems, one cannot be at the same time innocent and experienced in the same area. Additionally, all human souls should go naturally through both states in one point or another of their lives. Blake usually associates Innocence with childhood and sinless people. However, he also criticizes

William Blake William Blake was born in 1757, the third son of a London hosier. Blake lived in or near to London, a city which dominates much of his work, whether as the nightmare 'London' of the Songs of Experience, or the London which Blake saw as the 'New Jerusalem', the kingdom of God on earth. As the son of a hosier, a generally lower middle class occupation in late eighteenth century London, he was brought up in a poor household, a preparation for the relative poverty in which he

so mothers and fathers had no choice but to sell their sons and daughters. Unfortunately, the career that children were forced into was chimney sweeping, which had a terrifyingly high mortality rate. The poem, “The Chimney Sweeper”, written by William Blake, tells the heartbreaking story of a child who is sold into chimney sweeping at a young age and leads a devastating life. After reading Blake’s poem about the sweepers, one may begin to wonder how it was possible for children to be treated so poorly