Yomira Gomez
Mr. Fields
British Literature
21 March 2015
William Butler Yeats and William Blake
A study of William Butler Yeats would not be complete without the mentioning of William Blake. The Two poets are incredibly tied together even though they come from two very different time periods. Yeats had a great admiration and respect for the understanding of Blake’s work. Yeats studies about William Blake have been proven to have greatly influenced his poetic work.
William Butler Yeats was the great poet in Ireland history and the greatest poet to write in English in the twentieth century. Yeats imagine a perfect world, that would be made up of his believes from occults, spiritual journeys and spiritual transformation. Yeats ideal world was
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Even though he was no recognized during his lifetime blake is now known as “one of the most renowned peots in the history of ennglish literature” (yeats). Blake is a poetic writter during the Romatic era, he is bestknown as a romanticism writter for his colaboration in the French and american revolution and with all forms of anti-establishment radicialism. He would uses his poems to clearly state issues and eventsgoing on during his time for example the revolution in america and france inspired him to write peoms like The French Revolution, America: A Prphecy, Europe a Prophecy and The ook of Urizen. His work was seen as an “apocalyptic turnng point in the history of humanind, decaying order of opression and presaging the redemption of humanity” (Wolson). Blakes claimes all his visions came to him when he saw his released spirit ascend heavenwards, clapping itss hand for joy” (Wolfson). Accourding to blakes story mistic angels came to him to show him his famous method of “illuminated printing” (Wolfson). Likre yeats, blake believed in the correspondence between the physical and the spiritual world. Unlike Yeats who uses the Divine to express his viewsas his main theme blake uses the ppower of repression. Blake was a member of the lower class, uneducated but surprisinly intellegent and self taught. He was beieve to be in the borderline of madness by other pots, blake expirences the full aspect of …show more content…
Yeats’ Sailing to Byzantium can be compared to William Blake’s A New Jerusalem from “Milton”. Blake wanted a place that established balance, understanding, and wisdom. Blake also wanted an idea of where people were going in life instead of of were they would be headed afterwards. Blake and Yeats both had ideas for what they want their lives and their own world to be like. Some of their ideas seem to be similar, while others were completely different. In Sailing to Byzantium, Yeats wrote "And therefore I have sailed the seas and come/ to the holy city of Byzantium" (Unterecker). In this lines shows how Yeats was on what one would call a spiritual journey to find the place that he beliefs he truly belongs to, a place that would last forever. Yeats also emphasis that he wants stability and a away out from the real world. Like him Blake also wanted to find a place that would help in the rebuild of a new society.
In A New Jerusalem from "Milton", Blake wrote, "Til we have built Jerusalem, In England's green and pleasant Land" refer to the reconstruction of his better society. Jerusalem of course is refer to the Holy Land, here Blake feels that he would closer to Jesus
Mason, Michael. Notes to William Blake: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. Michael Mason. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Maclagan, ERD & Russel, AGB, eds. The Prophetic Books of William Blake. Jerusalem. London: A. H. Bullen, 1904.
William Blake is a literature genius. Most of his work speaks volume to the readers. Blake’s poem “The Mental Traveller” features a conflict between a male and female that all readers can relate to because of the lessons learned as you read. The poet William Blake isn’t just known for just writing. He was also a well-known painter and a printmaker. Blake is considered a seminal figure in the history of poetry. His poems are from the Romantic age (The end of the 18th Century). He was born in Soho, London, Great Britain. He was the third of seven children. Even though Blake was such an inspiration as a writer he only went to school just enough to read and write. According to Bloom’s critical views on William Blake; one of Blake’s inspirations was the Bible because he believed and belonged to the Moravian Church.
Blake’s poetry focuses on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision is reflected 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 of animals and man.
A study of William Butler Yeats is not complete without a study of William Blake, just as a study of Blake is greatly aided by a study of Yeats. The two poets are inexorably tied together. Yeats, aided by his study of Blake, was able to find a clearer poetic voice. Yeats had a respect for and an understanding of Blake's work that was in Yeats' time without parallel. Yeats first read Blake at the age of 15 or 16 when his father gave him Blake to read. Yeats writes in his essay "William Blake and the Imagination" that "...when one reads Blake, it is as though the spray of an inexhaustible fountain of beauty was blown into our faces (Yeats, Essays xxx)." Yeats believed Blake to be a genius and he never wavered in his opinion. It is his respect for Blake that caused him to study and emulate Blake. He tried to tie Blake closer to himself by stressing Blake's rumored Irish ancestry. He strove to understand Blake more clearly than anyone had before him, and he succeeded. As with other pursuits Yeats held nothing back. He immersed himself fully in Blake's writings. As with many of his mental pursuits he deepened his understanding of the subject by writing about it.
... transcend the material world and reach what Blake views as the actual world of the spirit. The hidden interpretation within the piece is a telling commentary on Blake’s non-conventional religious awareness.
Frye, Northrop. "Blake After Two Centuries". "English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York London Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1960. P 67.
He led strong beliefs that were occasionally mentioned in his work. One was that everyone is equal and is mentioned in 'All Religions Are One': "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)" He based most of his works in the style of Romanticism - Blake wrote from the heart, he let his thoughts and beliefs take over. Some of Blake?s poems include ?
angered him and inspired him to convey his ideas and feelings through the poem 'London'. In the poem, Blake travels through London and describes what he sees. And as a result, he sees a severely oppressed society that is caused by the authority, such as royalty, and the church. This is as Blake sees. that even the streets and the thames are 'chartered' and governed.
During the British Romantic period, some writers used material from the Bible or imitated the Bible in style of writing or content. William Blake, a Romantic writer, engraver, and painter, believed that “the Bible was the greatest work of poetry ever written” (Barker 2004). The Bible influenced him throughout his life, specifically influencing both his writing and his art. There are many references to Biblical themes within his writing, and there are also many references to specific passages of Scripture (Barker 2004). The lines “O thou, with dewy locks, who looked down / Thro’ the clear windows of the morning. . .”
It condemns authoritative institutions including the military, royalty, new industries, and the Church. Blake's tone creates a feeling of informative bitterness, and is both angry and despondent at the suffering and increasing corruption of London's society. Blake's sophisticated use of notation like capitalization, his specific change in meter, and the point of view all clearly develop London.
Conversely, Blake had very different and traditional views on religion. He strongly believed in the power of God, unlike Wordsworth’s belief in Pantheism. He believed that only God had the power to commit acts of power, and that the city of London was actually a negative, horrible place full of corruption due to people with power. He depicts this message by the using personification by stating:
William Butler Yeats: Modernism William Butler Yeats is an Irish poet from the nineteenth century. William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865. He was educated in both Dublin and London, and he wrote his first verse in 1877 (nobelprize.org). He wrote many poems during his lifetime, and is thought to be the most influential poet of his era. He was very influential in the Modernism era.
The life of William Butler Yeats began when he was born into an honestly odd family dynamic. He was born in 1865 in Dublin to a once influential family (Yeats 2: 206). His parents were both of bygone influential status. They were never a rich family, but did their best to get by. John Butler Yeats, William’s father, was trained as a lawyer, but had always wished to be an artist and therefore put all of his ambition into being a painter (Yeats 2: 206). The family struggled because of financial hardship, as mentioned before, but William Butler Yeats saw his father’s ambition to fulfill his dreams as inspiration. Many of William Butler Yeats poems reflect a tangible need for culture to take the time to realize their dreams instead of staying with the status quo. This quality was also impressed upon him by his Irish mother who was deeply involved in the mysticism of faeries and astrology (Yeats 2: 206). Between his father’s freethinking artistic ways, and his mothers strong Irish background William Butler Yeats early childhood experiences influenced his writing greatly. Man...
"William Blake - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 07 July 2011. .