Some may argue that William Blake got his fondness of writing about Christianity in these two poems from experiences of his past. According to Contemporary Authors Online, Blake “had vague memories of having been visited by Jesus and Socrates” (Gale, Paragraph 2). The origin of his ideas for writing “The Lamb” can be traced back to this experience because all the things he writes about God. One peculiar characteristic of Blake´s poems is the creative situations that he manages to create in his works. The reason behind this is his work as an engraver. During his apprenticeship with an engraver, he was sent to work at Westminster Abbey where the Gothic appeal of the church, “influenced Blake's imagination and his artistic style” (Gale, Paragraph 3). “The Tyger” shows a different aspect of Blake´s writing and shows the opposite of what “The Lamb” represented. …show more content…
Andrew Green explains in his essay that for Blake´s poems to be successful he had to take advantage of his visions from a young age. He claims that “(t)he visionary world is an expression of the immortal and the eternal” (Green, Paragraph 4). This allowed Blake to look past the normal happenings in life and get inspiration from situations not everybody experienced, like the visions. Writing these types of poems gave Blake the ability to tell readers a story through his eyes. As Green explains it, Blake´s poems showed “an internal mechanism, a means by which the physical realities of existence are converted into personal spiritual development” (Green, Paragraph 16). As described previously, Blake´s works are a representation of what he saw and what he felt throughout his life. By using poetry, he was able to communicate to others a different version of several
Comparing two of the most famous archetypes in literature history, a lamb and a tiger, he questions his own God. Even though these poems have animal names they can be translated to many things in life. Blake’s poems have three main archetypes that can be perceived, they are the lamb, the tiger, and a possible mixture of both in society. The first archetype to be critiqued is the lamb, an innocent creature.
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, specifically the poem The Tiger, is a perfect illustration of these characteristics. The questions that are presented, reach at ideas way greater then himself. He asks: “Tiger Tiger, burning bright, in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye, dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” Blake is trying to cope with the idea of god. He articulates the awe and beauty of nature and how something divine is at the forefront of it.
In multiple works found in this collection, the speaker or the character often questions and suggests that humanity is ignorant to its very own objective. In the poem, The Lamb, the speaker includes the repetition of line "Does thou know who made thee," to portray its significance. The speaker hints that one does not know their purpose until one acknowledges their purpose, as provided by line "We are called by His name," to which one is told of the path they must follow. Blake concludes that God, a supreme being, has a plan for the whole, who may never concede their own
Mary, in Battersea (localhistories). Blake took on the responsibility of educating Catherine, therefore teaching her to read and write. In the future, Catherine helped Blake to print many of his illuminated works, and helped keep his spirits up during misfortune times (William-Blake). Blake published his first work, Poetical Sketches, in 1783. This book contained poems that protest against war and tyranny.
"William Blake." Salem Press, Grey House, 2015 The most famous piece of poetry that Blake wrote can be found in a fragmented and unfinished piece of writing containing a sophisticated interpretation of the teachings and character of Christ called The Everlasting Gospel. Blake began using “illuminated printing,” which is a special type of relief etching in which each page of a book is printed in black and white from an engraved plate consisting of text and drawings. The first book that Blake issued containing the first example of “illuminated printing” was called Songs of Innocence.
If they don’t like someone, they resort to killing the person because they “messed” with the wrong person. Blake is becoming that person because that is all that is around him. It is his means of making it in the world. People lived in constant fear of being killed day or night. No one should have to life in fear of their life being taken away at any moment.
Thanks to his family’s background, Blake was born into the Church of England and followed its teachings until his last breath. His work are a reflection of his beliefs. Britanica.com describes Blake as “a religious seeker but not a joiner”. Even though he was very spiritual, Blake detested institutionalized religion. He wasn’t one to follow a structured movement of faith set by others, instead he believed in having his own personal connections with the celestial beings.
Blake’s works are a very good place to understand a particular strain of thought in England which
William Blake's work was mainly influenced by the creator of the world sublimity. He uses the symbolism of the lamb. In the biblical sense, there are two ways to apprehend the word lamb. Lamb could be about Jesus Christ or people that do his will. Blake shows two diverse sides on songs of innocence and songs of experience.
In 1789 William Blake released a collection of poetry called ‘songs of innocence’. This book included iconic poems such as ‘Holy Thursday,’ ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Little Black Boy.” Five years later Blake paired these poems alongside another collection titled ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience.’ The first few prints were illustrated by Blake himself and came to prove very popular. The two collections individually stand for two different versions of consciousness “Innocence” and “Experience,” but combined these poems illuminate the contrast between both.
William Blake, the celebrated romantic poet, was not always celebrated for his work. In fact, it was not until over a century after his death that his creativity and pieces of literature were finally appreciated. It is believed that his work went underappreciated due to the fact that he was deemed as an extreme radical by his peers who presumed he was stuck reminiscing about the old values of rustic living prior to the Industrial Revolution. However, one critic concluded that his unpopularity may possibly be accredited to his complex vision of life that was too hard for his society to understand. William Blake saw life in opposites which were reflected in a majority of his work.
Although The Divine Image and The Garden of Love are about two different topics, William Blake used similar and different techniques to convey the meaning of his poem such as repetition, personification, story format, and rhyme scheme. First of all, One of the techniques
(222) This is predominately true about Blake because he is known to poet who did not have problems voicing his own opinion, especially when it came to important issues that affect the majority of people such as poverty and other issues that associated with it. The best way for him to get his message across would be throughout the representations in his poetry, which is obviously highlighted in Songs of Innocence and Experience, even if he comes across as through as he is making his mark rather than making remarks and can be seen as controversial about the human suffering that surrounds him, which is what Mandell also points out.
Not many years later Blake began to write poetry. His poems were protests against war, tyrants, and King George III’s treatment of the American colonies. He lived during a time of social and political change that influenced his writing. Through images of divinity, hope, and spirituality, William Blake illustrates his religious faith in a
Danielle Rose English 192 Prof. J Perl William Blake Like so many before and after him, Blake falls into the category of artists whose creative genius went unaddressed in their own lifetime. It was only after his death that the broad scope of his literary and artistic aptitude was acknowledged. But his scathing social critiques and insights into the nature of the human psyche are made no less relevant by their time spent in obscurity. Chronological analysis of a set of Blake poems, “The Lamb”, “The Tyger” and “Jerusalem” reveal the deeply relevant insights that Blake failed to impress upon the people of his own time.