Sociological Criticism of William Blake’s Poetry
analytical Essay
1509 words
Sociological criticism analyzes the political, economic, and cultural aspects of literature. To examine literature from the perspective of Marxist social theory is a quintessential form of sociological criticism, as Marxism primarily deals with political and economic ideas of communism and social inequality. William Blake, a Romantic poet, frequently wrote on the topic of class oppression and his opposition to the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. Blake’s ideology and preference towards an equalitarian society quite closely mirror the theories of Karl Marx. Analyzing Blake’s poetry from a Marxist perspective paints a clearer picture of the motives behind Blake’s anger towards social inequality. Poems such as “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” from his poetry collections Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience illustrate Blake’s despair regarding the unjust and unequal society of 18th century England. In “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake expresses his anger at the late 18th and 19th century's use of child labor in urban England. In “London,” Blake illustrates the depressing class oppression prevalent in the streets of the city.
Often considered by scholars as the greatest pioneer of the Romantic movement in English literature, Blake's poetry consistently embraces the idea of rebellion against the abuse of class power. In his lifetime, Blake encountered both the American and French revolutions and the sense of liberation in both revolutions influenced him heavily. The negative effects of the Industrial Revolution, which further polarized the income distribution among the rich and the poor, further concerned Blake. The British Marxist historian E.P. Thompson classified Blake as having many similar beliefs as Karl M...
... middle of paper ...
...l>.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.
LaGuardia, Cheryl. "WILLIAM BLAKE: SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE." Library Journal 128.9 (2003): 140. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 13 July 2011.
"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. .
"William Blake : Biography." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. Web. 07 July 2011 .
"William Blake's London - 21st Century Socialism." 21st Century Socialism - 21st Century Socialism. Web. 07 July 2011.
_london_01594.html>.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how blake uses the color black to represent sin against innocence. he illustrates his opposition to atrocity within london at the time.
- Analyzes how blake describes the 18th century london as a place of despair. blake criticizes the negative consequences produced by the industrial revolution through vivid narrations of the city.
- Opines that william blake's london - 21st century socialism.
- Analyzes the political, economic, and cultural aspects of literature from the perspective of marxist social theory.
- Analyzes how blake uses imagery to visualize the hardship and cruelty of the time in the city of london.
- Explains that william blake's "the chimney sweeper" is available on ebsco.
Related
- analytical
- explanatory
- The Violation of William Blake's Songs of Innocenceanalytical essayThe Violation of Blake's Songs of Innocence Abstract: William Blake's Songs of Innocence contains a group of poetic works that the artist conceptualized as entering into a dialogue with each other and with the works in his companion work, Songs of Experience. He also saw each of the poems in Innocence as operating as part of an artistic whole creation that was encompassed by the poems and images on the plates he used to print these works. While Blake exercised a fanatical degree of control over his publications during his lifetime, after his death his poems became popular and were encountered without the contextual material that he intended to accompany them. William Blake was probably more concerned than any other major Romantic author with the process of publication and its implications for the interpretation of his artistic creations. He paid a price for this degree of control over the process of printing, however: Blake lived in poverty and artistic obscurity throughout his entire life.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how william blake's songs of innocence contains a group of poetic works that the artist conceptualized as entering into dialogue with each other and with the works in his companion work.
- Explains that william blake was more concerned with the process of publication and its implications for the interpretation of his artistic creations than any other major romantic author.
- Explains that blake designed illustrations to accompany his poems, engraved the poems onto copper plates, printed the plates onto paper, and colored the pages by hand, then bound the printed pages into volumes for sale.
- Explains that blake invented his own method of printing from copper plates. songs of innocence was the first of blake's major works, which he printed with this process.
- Explains that unlike wordsworth and coleridge, blake rarely revised a poem once it had been printed.
- Analyzes how northrop frye argues that blake intended for the engraved poems to constitute a sort of canon of poems which blake endorses as finished works.
- Explains how blake changed the order in which the plates were printed, even from one copy to another. the order of the poems became standardized by 1815, but varied widely before that.
- Explains that blake had no standard ordering of the poems in innocence as a whole, but several poems moved to experience in the combined edition.
- Explains that blake stopped producing copies of innocence and experience in 1827 and died shortly afterward. blake had no editorial control over his poems after his death.
- Explains that blake's poems were first printed in the united states in 1842. stauffer argues that references to blake made by various members of the american anti-slavery society indicate blake was beginning to enjoy a more widespread popularity than he had while alive
- Argues that blake was "virtually unknown" until the publication of alexander gilchrist's life of w. blake in 1863 and that his remarkable modernity and imaginative force were recognized in the twentieth century.
- Analyzes how the anthologizing of blake's poems has the effect of stripping them of their context as parts of a complete poetical work.
- Explains that blake's poems of innocence and experience were not simply presented as text on a page, in the manner of most volumes of poetry.
- Analyzes how behrendt argues that the graphic work in the plates is not "the weak and subservient sister art" in poem-illustration texts. the visual aspect of the work and the written aspect operate in very different ways on the reader of blake.
- Analyzes how the graphic aspect of the plates of "the little black boy" provides for an interpretation simply not possible without the images.
- Analyzes how blake's illuminated texts were misrepresented by those who reprinted them out of their original contexts after his death. this contextual removal does a grave disservice to an artist who saw his work as encompassing both poetry and printing.
- Cites behrendt, stephen c., blake in the nineties, and blake, william.
- Cites keynes' "the little black boy" in songs of innocence and of experience. shewing the two contrary states of the human soul.
- Describes the works of william blake in the blackwell companion to romanticism.
- Introduces geoffrey keynes' introduction to blake's songs of innocence and of experience and shewing the two contrary states of the human soul.
2435 wordsRead More - The Poetry of William Blakeanalytical essayThis essay will aim to show the relationship between Innocence and Experience in William Blake's Songs.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that love is entwined with other holy benevolent notions "mercy, pity, peace and love."
- Analyzes the relationship between innocence and experience in william blake's songs. both songs serve as a mirror blake held up to society.
- Analyzes how blake's influences, including the french revolution, helped shape his ideas. blake disliked dualism and championed the individual.
- Analyzes how blake's view of innocence is christ-like, even though he was not inspired by the dogma of the church.
- Analyzes how the poem alludes to dark craftsmanship that created the tiger, opposed to the loving craft of the lamb. the placid lamb and the dangerous tiger set a contrast between the innocence of youth and age.
- Compares blake's "the lamb" with "tyger," which is harder, more fearsome, and more innocent. blake has made it clear that the lamb and creator are one and the same.
- Analyzes how "the tyger" is an emblem for nature, red in tooth and claw, the embodiment of experience. blake is asking probing questions about nature.
- Analyzes how the speaker recoils at the dreadfulness and moral implications of the creation of such an animal. the innocent faith of a child is juxtaposed with the evil dominance of "the tyger."
- Analyzes how the theme of the child appears in both songs of innocence and songs of experience. the word "child" appears eighteen times, with different connotations.
- Analyzes how blake is trying to put forward ideas of innocence and experience in "the little girl lost."
- Analyzes how blake uses holy days and divine imagery in songs of innocence and experience.
- Analyzes how the "cold usurious hand" that feeds them is fuelled by avarice, not pity. the eternal winter and fruitless fields in which the children live symbolise the nations resources are wasted.
- Compares the childlike, fleeting nature of joy in innocence and the conflicting relationship between innocence and experience in songs of experience.
- Analyzes how blake used the themes of innocence and experience to portray the different sides of the human soul and human race.
1799 wordsRead More - Organized Religion Versus Sprituality in William Blake's Poetryanalytical essayWilliam Blake was a poet and artist who was born in London, England in 1757. He lived 69 years, and although his work went largely unnoticed during his lifetime, he is now considered a prominent English Romantic poet. Blake’s religious views, and his philosophy that “man is god”, ran against the religious thoughts at the time, and some might equate Blake’s views to those of the hippie movement of the 20th century.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that william blake was a poet and artist born in london, england in 1757. his religious views, and his philosophy that "man is god", ran against the religious thoughts at the time.
- Analyzes how blake's use of imagery and heavy symbolism expresses his resentment toward the church and hinders him from expressing his loves, joys, and desires.
- Analyzes how blake uses personification when they say that they were "driven out" or exiled from the garden of love.
- Analyzes how blake uses the chapel to represent the orthodox church of the 18th century to convey the idea of negativity.
- Analyzes how blake uses religious symbols to show how the structured religion of the orthodox church can destroy the love and joy within.
- Analyzes how blake changes the tone from happy to forlorn with the use of negative diction. the chapel represents institutionalized religion, something blake is opposed to.
- Analyzes how blake uses a set of rhyming couplets in the last two lines of the final stanza to round off the poem.
- Opines that blake's poem keeps the reader fascinated with not only the structure and literary analysis aspect, but also with the taboo message of the laws of morality organized religion puts on our society.
979 wordsRead More - William Blake's Poems: Songs Of Innocence And Experienceanalytical essayWilliam Blake composed two series of poems: Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence. The poems are intertwined as to compare the thoughts of children and adults on the same issues. The innocence of children is discussed on topics of religion, love, and justice. The opinions of adults are also experienced on these topics, but are given from a more experienced viewpoint. William Blake comparatively writes two series of poems to address the controversy of God, love, and justice from pure thinkers and from corrupt thinkers.
In this essay, the author
- Compares the thoughts of children and adults on the same issues. blake writes two series of poems to address the controversy of god, love, and justice from pure and corrupt thinkers.
- Analyzes how blake compared the thinking of children with those of england's working class.
- Analyzes how blake implied that adults would often only see the sorrow and pain that an individual expressed instead of seeing the love and happiness.
- Analyzes how "the chimney sweeper" and "songs of innocence" contrast the views of justice in children and adults.
- Analyzes how blake's poem shows the value of experience and wisdom that plays a tremendous role when conversing important topics.
605 wordsRead More - The Theme of Authority in William Blake's Poetryanalytical essayThe Theme of Authority in William Blake's Poetry The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how blake explores authority through religion, education, and god. his dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust.
- Analyzes how blake's garden of love is filled with graves and tombstones, which confirms his criticism of restrictive conventional morality. blake hated organised religion and the chapel is imposing and forbidding.
- Analyzes how blake emphasizes the speaker's isolation and the overtones of slavery in "the chimney sweeper" in songs of innocence.
- Analyzes how blake ends the poem by focusing on the contraries of heaven and ‘misery’ in a phrase similar to that in the ‘clod and the pebble’.
720 wordsRead More - Songs of Innoce by William Blakeanalytical essayThe distinguishing features of innocence and experience play a crucial role in William Blake’s written and illustrated work. Blake, born in 1757, paid special attention to the human life and its state of mind in his artistic endeavors (Blake Archive). Throughout all of his works, particularly in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, the reader consistently tries to decide which state of mind is preferable and how they differ. Unlike many authors, Blake provides illustrations for his work. In some cases, Blake’s illustrations serve the purpose of relaying ideas that are not readily apparent to the average reader in his written works. For a large amount of his work, the illustrations complicate the understanding of his written ideas of innocence and experience by the reader.
In this essay, the author
- Compares blake's words to "blights with plagues the marriage hearse" and "the ecchoing green".
- Analyzes how blake's illustration for "the ecchoing green" contrasts with the dynamic between the people of different ages.
- Analyzes blake's use of innocence and experience to create two different versions of a poem to fit each state of being.
- Compares the narrator's maturity with that of the innocence rendition of "the chimney sweeper."
- Analyzes how the chimney sweeper deceives those around him into believing that he is happy with his life. instead of encouraging him with a reward from god at death, the narrator believes that god has created his misery.
- Analyzes how blake's illustrations make a distinction between the tones of the two poems and especially make the feeling of solitude found in experience more prominent.
- Analyzes how blake creates a similar contrasting pair with "the lamb" from songs of innocence and “the tyger”. both poems have heavy religious connotations and reference to god’s creation of earth and its creatures.
- Analyzes how the distinguishing features of innocence and experience play a crucial role in william blake's written and illustrated work.
- Analyzes how blake depicts the end of the children's innocence in "the ecchoing green."
- Analyzes how blake essentially humanizes the lamb by giving it a voice and discussing its wool as clothing.
- Analyzes how blake utilizes his talents and ideas through his writings in ways that many authors do not. his illustrations enhance the experience and make the reader question whether they have actually interpreted the message intended.
- Summarizes sayers, janet, and nanette monin's article, "blake’s ‘london’: diabolical reading and poetic place in organizational theorising."
2749 wordsRead More - William Blake’s Poetryanalytical essayWilliam Blake’s Poetry William Blake was one of those 19th century figures who could have and should have been beatniks, along with Rimbaud, Verlaine, Manet, Cezanne and Whitman. He began his career as an engraver and artist, and was an apprentice to the highly original Romantic painter Henry Fuseli. In his own time he was valued as an artist, and created a set of watercolor illustrations for the Book of Job that were so wildly but subtly colored they would have looked perfectly at home in next month's issue of Wired. He lived in a filthy London studio where he succumbed to constant visions of angels and prophets who instructed him in his work.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that william blake was one of those 19th century figures who could have and should have been beatniks, along with rimbaud, verlaine, manet, cezanne and whitman.
- Describes how the artist lived in a filthy london studio where he succumbed to constant visions of angels and prophets who instructed him in his work.
- Analyzes how allen ginsberg's life was changed by an overpowering vision of blake in a lower east side apartment.
- Analyzes how blake disagrees with many aspects of the christian religion as an institutionalized system. though he attended religious ceremonies only three times in his life, blake claimed himself to be a devout christian.
- Analyzes how william blake considered himself to be a monistic gnostic, believing that what saved one's soul was not faith but knowledge. church ceremonies were dry, emotionless, and meaningless.
- Analyzes how blake cherished knowledge and argued that christ was the pinnacle of what a human should strive to be. blake coined "divine humanity", the potential for all humanity to come full circle and be humanly divine
- Explains blake's "monistic" belief that materialism and spirituality are one, and that life is a culmination of everything, good and bad, that one must plow through and make sense of.
- Analyzes how blake portrays the "loveless morality of the churches" in "the little vagabond." the young child is distraught with his church because it is not quenching his spiritual thirst.
- Opines that if at the church they would give us some ale, and a pleasant fire our souls to regale, we'd sing and pray all the live-long day.
- Analyzes how blake's lines express his religious stance. the church has kept a distance between its members and itself; the preacher is god and the members of the church are god.
- Analyzes how blake uses the poem to communicate his belief that the church was suffering from cold militant preaching rather than warm intoxicating love.
- Analyzes how blake's poem, "the garden of love", plays on the same feeling of distance and cold, and ties in one of his main critiques of the church, the repression of its members and his vigorous anti-clerical stance.
- Opines that the church's repressive authority is the source of a condemnation of all human acts.
- Analyzes how blake conveys his belief that the church focuses too much on death and eternal damn nation, tied to the repression of humanity.
- Describes the works of william blake, raine, kathleen, and e.d. hirsche.
1547 wordsRead More - In 1789, English poet William Blake first produced his famous poetry collection Songs of Innocence which “combines two distinct yet intimately related sequences of poems” (“Author’s Work” 1222). Throughout the years, Blake added more poems to his prominent Songs of Innocence until 1794, when he renamed it Songs of Innocence and Experience. The additional poems, called Songs of Experience, often have a direct counterpart in Blake’s original Songs of Innocence, producing pairs such as “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.” In Songs of Innocence and Experience, Blake uses musical devices, structure, and symbolism to develop the theme that experience brings both an awareness of potential evil and a tendency that allows it to become dominant over childhood
In this essay, the author
- Explains that blake's famous poetry collection, songs of innocence, combines two distinct yet intimately related sequences of poems, until 1794, when he renamed it songs and experience.
- Analyzes how blake uses musical devices in both "the lamb" and "tyger" to bring awareness of potential evil and how it dominates over innocence.
- Analyzes how blake structures and develops movement in songs of innocence and experience by asking and answering a question about the tyger's and the lamb’s creation and making the poems circle back to the beginning.
- Analyzes how blake uses symbolism in his songs of innocence and experience. blake portrays the lamb as a symbol of purity and innocence, while the tyger is symbolized as potentially evil and dominant.
- Analyzes how blake develops the theme that experience is an awareness of potential evil and a tendency that allows it to become dominant over childhood innocence.
734 wordsRead More - William Blake Essayexplanatory essayWilliam Blake is remembered by his poetry, engravements, printmaking, and paintings. He was born in Soho, London, Great Britain on November 28, 1757. William was the third of seven siblings, which two of them died from infancy. As a kid he didn’t attend school, instead he was homeschooled by his mother. His mother thought him to read and write. As a little boy he was always different. Most kids of his age were going to school, hanging out with friends, or just simply playing. While William was getting visions of unusual things. At the age of four he had a vision of god and when he was nine he had another vision of angles on trees.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that william blake is remembered by his poetry, engravements, printmaking, and paintings. he was born in soho, london, on november 28, 1757.
- Describes how williams's parents enrolled him at a paris drawing school at the age of ten, apprenticed to master engraver at fourteen, and was sent to westminster abbey to make drawings of monuments by james basire.
- Describes how gordon's anti-catholic preaching inspired gordon to write about his protestants to war and the domination of kings in his poetry. he continued his studies and went to the royal academy on october 8, 1779.
- Describes how william helped catherine boucher learn to read, write, and engrave. he fell in love with catherine in 1782 and they were happily married.
- Explains that william blake was an intelligent, talented, and crafty man. his work was largely unrecognized during his lifetime, but he didn't want to sacrifice his vision or advanced writing.
- Explains that william's paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of both the romantic movement and "pre-romantic movement." he is admired for his soulful originality and patronizing imagination.
- Opines that william blake is an important person because his poetry helped people express their feelings about war and how the kings dominated the people.
666 wordsRead More - Innocence in William Blake's The Divine Imageanalytical essayBlake, William. Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Intro. Geoffry Keynes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that line and shape are the most important elements of art, and that the use of shape is more prevalent than form.
- Explains that line and shape are the most important elements in the poem. the focal point is the flame-like object along the right edge of the print.
- Analyzes how blake uses line and space to create a vine that appears to coil through the picture.
- Analyzes how blake's word placement is straightforward and the importance of placement may be seen more in his placement of the words "mercy, pity, peace, and love."
- Analyzes blake's use of punctuation as a final demonstration of simplicity. he uses commas at the end of lines and periods in stanzas.
- Analyzes how rhyme is a result of word choice and word placement, and contrast is most pronounced in the change in form of repetition.
- Explains that blake was both a poet and an artist and he created many illuminated works which combined the two. elements are the fundamental building blocks used in either art or poetry.
- Analyzes how blake capitalizes the words "mercy, pity, peace, and love" and "god" to put humanity on the same level as god.
- Analyzes how blake's idea of innocence is developed through the movement in both his art and his poetry.
- Describes blake's songs of innocence and experience, easson, kay, essick, pearce, and northrop frye.
2202 wordsRead More