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Blake as a visionary with reference to songs of innocence and experience
William Blake's portrayal of children in songs of innocence and experience
The Poetical Works of William Blake
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In all of British literature, the Romantic Period is the only one that is named after a literary form, the romance. (Greenblatt 4) It was during this time that William Blake published his Songs of Innocence and Experience collection that is known for its many romantic ideas of innocence and naiveté in childhood and later the ultimate corruption resulting from inevitable wisdom and experience of adulthood. Blake is noted for his criticisms of the church, the government, and the nobility. The poems in this particular volume contain thoughts on youth, insights as one matures and the unfairness of society. (Greenblatt 118) Many of the poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience are matched counterparts of one another and show two contrary states of the human soul. Two such examples are “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.”
“The Lamb” reads like a basic poem and is only two, ten-lined stanzas. The stanzas are arranged with rhyming couplets and begin and end with the same lines being repeated. Blake using the same lines to both open and close the stanzas gives readers the feel of singing a song. This also adds to the overall theme of innocence and childlike wonder. It starts with the speaker, a child, asking, “Little Lamb, who made thee?” Who can be credited with the idea of a lamb, its “clothing” of wool (which in turn creates clothing), and its “tender voice” that is nothing more than a gentle sound? In the second stanza, the child/speaker asks if the lamb was made by one who “calls himself a Lamb,” a reference to Jesus. In other words, was the lamb created by Jesus who also brings to mind innocence just like a child and a lamb? The second stanza also makes a reference to Jesus, the Lamb, becoming a child and experiencing the same hur...
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...bout the nature of God. It seems as though Blake just could not fully wrap his head around the idea of living in a world where both beauty and horror such as the lamb and the tiger could both exist?
Ultimately, two polar opposite animals, a fierce tiger and a gentle lamb are created, and it is almost unbelievable that both were made by the same God – a God who must envision the ferocity and predator nature of the tiger and at the same time the quiet and tame being of the lamb. The fact that they are polar opposites gives readers a basis for realizing that humans also were made by the same God, and all are as unique and different as the lamb and tiger. Why God would bring something so overpowering as a tiger into a world full of innocents like lambs is the most basic mystery of life. There are things in the universe that are unexplainable, but we must accept them
Keynes, Sir Geoffrey. Introduction to William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Ed. Geoffrey Keynes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967.
... his words that he committed a great evil; we live in peace with our fellows to honor our great goddess of the earth without whose blessings our crops will not grow. You have committed a great evil (Achebe 30). Okonkwo displays another fit of anger during the feast of the new yam, when he almost killed his second wife with a gun because she cut a few leaves off the banana tree to wrap some food. Without patience to discern her explanation; she was beaten mercilessly and almost got killed. Okonkwo lacked a sense of affection towards his family, which can be linked to his fear of weakness. He repudiates any show of emotion or patience in order not to appear weak. His household lived in a perpetual fear, he never gave them the opportunity to get close to him without been scared of him, and this really had a great effect with the relationship he had with his household.
In Blake’s poem “The Lamb” from Songs of Innocence, Blake proves that in order to keep innocence alive, a child must not question. It is in a child’s nature to trust all that has been told. Therefore the lamb represents childhood as well as innocence. The lamb is personified as being a gentle creature without sin, and the poem itself is characterized by pleasant light imagery. This imagery is an indicator that innocence is a desired state of being. In the first stanza of the poem, the narrator asks questions regarding
Wolfson, Susan and Peter Manning (eds.). The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. Volume 2A. New York: Longman, 1999.
Blake, Wordsworth, and Keats all represent the Romantic style of literature with their unorthodox themes of nature, art, and life; and how those three points can be tied together and used for creative purposes among humankind. Art and life are counterparts; one is lacking without the other. The Romantic period was about passion; finding inspiration and beauty in things people see every day. Wordsworth found childhood memories in a familiar landscape, Blake found himself captivated by the mysteries of how the majestic tiger was created, and Keats’ urn triggered him to put his inquiries of it into poetry. Each man expressed his individual view within their works; and like many of their Romantic contemporaries, their ideas ran against the flow of their time’s societal beliefs.
Blake makes sheep seem to have a joyful emotion and wants to share it with others. The sheep has a tender voice, which means it is not intimidating. Natoli, who is the author of the novel William Blake, says that, “The lamb is made by Christ and is an obvious symbol of the mild and gentle aspects of Creation, which are easy to associate with a God of love. However, what about the more fearsome, destructive aspects of Creation, symbolized by the tiger?... ...
His spiritual beliefs reached outside the boundaries of religious elites loyal to the monarchy. “He was inspired by dissident religious ideas rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the English Civil War” (E. P. Thompson). Concern with war and the blighting effects of the industrial revolution were displayed in much of his work. One of Blake’s most famous works is The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. In this collection, Blake illuminates the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and follow them into adulthood.... ...
In William Blake’s poem “The Lamb” the speaker begins with the ultimate question, “Little Lamb, who made thee?/ Dost though know who made thee?/” (Blake lines 1-2). The speaker then continues to elaborate on the question in a playful, innocent, singsong manner describing the kindness and thoughtfulness that the creator put in to producing this ever so gentle lamb. The tone of this poem is soft and lulling, the tender, calm rhyme scheme puts the reader in a soothing, dreamlike state. “The words and images presented - stream, mead, delight, softest, tender and rejoice - are positive and pastoral. One can picture a lamb frolicking in the green grass…” (Smith).
giving the tiger an even more awe-inspiring quality. The stanza finishes with "Did he who made the lamb make thee?" Which gives the idea of disbelief at the prospect of a creator making a harmless pleasant creature such as the lamb and a dangerous mighty and awful creature like the tiger. b) Explore the ways Blake uses imagery and repetition in this poem. The most obvious repetition in this poem is the "Tiger"!
The imagery of nature and humanity intermingling presents Blake's opinion on the inborn, innate harmony between nature and man. The persona of the poem goes on to express the `gentle streams beneath our feet' where `innocence and virtue meet'. This is where innocence dwells: synchronization with nature, not synchronization with industry where `babes are reduced to misery, fed with a cold usurous hand' as in the experienced version of `Holy Thursday'. The concept of the need for the individual's faithfulness to the laws of nature and what is natural is further reiterated in `the marriage of heaven and hell' in plate 10 where Blake states `where man is not, nature is barren'. The most elevated form of nature is human nature and when man resists and consciously negates nature, `nature' becomes `barren'. Blake goes on to say `sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires'. This harks back to `the Songs of Innocence' `A Cradle Song' where the `infants smiles are his own smiles'. The infant is free to act out its desires as it pleases. It is unbound, untainted. Blake's concern is for the pallid and repressed, subjugated future that awaits the children who must `nurse unacted desires' and emotions in this new world of industrialisation. Despairingly, this is restated again in `the mind-forg'd manacles' of `London'. The imagery of the lambs of the `Songs of Innocence' `Introduction' is developed in `the Chimney Sweeper' into the image of `Little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, that curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd'.
He transferred his fears into the context of Umuofia and the traits that society valued, but what was really the driving force in his decisions “was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (17). The values of Umuofia resembled the polar opposite of what Unoka was and Okonkwo twisted his motivations around in his mind and presented them to himself and the community as derived from Umuofia’s traditions. From this delusion, Okonkwo established his ultimate goal of becoming a revered member of the village, possessing many titles, and achieving anything necessary displaying his prominence in the
Wolfson, S. & Manning, P. 2003. The Longman Anthology of English Literature Vol 2: The Romantics and their Contemporaries. London: Longman.
Within Blake's work The Lamb starts off by asking a little lamb who had made thee. Asking how gave you life, and how had fed you. By asking these questions to the lamb the boy questions how a lamb came into existence in this realm. "Then the boy tells the lamb that he is called by thys name since he calls himself a lamb"(Foundation). Then after that the boy realizes that the lamb was created by God. As this is read a sense of a childlike innocence that the creator is a source of gentleness, selflessness, and love. This idea is expressed by the symbol of a lamb, for being the most gentle creation.
In the poem, Lamb's divine nature is not initially revealed, but is gradually revealed. exposed by the time the reader has completed the second stanza. William Blake's main focus of "The Lamb" is to convey the basics. assertions made by Christianity. The child is rhetorical.
LaGuardia, Cheryl. "WILLIAM BLAKE: SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE." Library Journal 128.9 (2003): 140. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 13 July 2011.