Comparison between William Blake and Seamus Heaney

Comparison between William Blake and Seamus Heaney

In this essay I will compare two internationally recognised poets,

William Blake and Seamus Heaney. I will discuss their similarities and

differences not in only just their writing, but also their everyday

lives.

William Blake was born in 1757 in London, where he lived practically

all his life apart from three years at the beginning of the 19th

century, where he lived in Felpham, near Bognor Regis in Sussex. He

had no early education, but became student, studying art, at the Royal

academy school in the early 1770s. He was, after this, apprenticed by

a famous engraver, James Basire. Blake achieved some success with his

engravings, but his true talent was held within his poetry, for which

he is more famously known for today, along with his artistic work,

particularly his large visionary water-colours illustrating the book

of Job, and his 102 illustrations of Dante and his colour-printed

drawings of biblical subjects. William grew up and lived in a

religious background, which was heavily opposed to anything

religiously forced, such as church, for example if one did not go to

church they were not deemed to be religious at all, but Blake thought

that religion was a path to freedom and peace. There is plenty of

evidence showing that Blake thought this, although we shall read into

more detail later on.

Seamus Heaney is still alive today. Born on the 13th of April 1939,

Seamus was the eldest of nine children, one of whom died in a road

accident. Seamus lived all of his young life on a farm, although he

did not wish to be a farmer himself. He went to primary school in

Anahorish. Here on he won scholarship to St Colomb's College in

Londonderry. From here he ...

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a forced method of religion and therefore he saw it as a time wasting

and pointless experience. Blake also references to the French and

American revolutions in the following line with

"And the hapless soldier's sigh

Runs in blood down palace walls"

Perhaps showing that soldiers and innocent people were killed and the

people in power did nothing at all about it.

Overall, I can conclude that William Blake and Seamus Heaney are both

different and similar. Both poets have some sort of sadness or

depression in their poems, yet they are expressed in different ways.

Two noticeable differences are that Heaney's poems are generally much

longer than Blake's, and rhyme far less. Heaney's poetry is more story

telling like than Blake's, with Blake using much more rhyming way of

making poetry, and he also describes his thoughts much more than

Heaney does.