William Blake 1757 1827 LIFE He was born

William Blake 1757 - 1827

LIFE • He was born into a family of humble origin in 1757 • He was trained as an engraver and practised this craft until he died • He was contemporary of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. • He supported the French Revolution and remained a radical throughout his life

• He had a strong sense of religion and was deeply aware of the great political and social issues of his age • The most important literary influence in his life was the Bible. • He claimed he had visions. • He died in 1827

Blake the artist • Blake studied the works of Raphael and Michelangelo. • From Michelangelo he learnt the technique of representing exaggerated muscular bodies William Blake, Portrait of Newton, 1795

• Blake studied the monuments in the old churches of London, particularly Westminster Abbey

• Blake created a combination of picture and poetic text, which he called “illuminated printing” and he also made many illustrations for other author’s works, for example Dante’s “Divine Comedy”

Examples of Blake’s engravings William Blake, The Whirlwind of Lovers, 1824 -1826 William Blake, The Ancient of Days, 1794

Complementary opposites • Blake believed in the reality of a spiritual world but he thought that Christianity was responsible for the fragmentation of consciousness and the dualism which characterised man’s life. • So he had a vision made up of complementary opposites. good evil male female reason imagination cruelty kindness

“Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate are necessary to Human Existence” “The Creator can be at the same time the God of love and innocence and the God of energy and violence” Blake stated : “without Contraries there is no Progression”

Blake’s Imagination • Blake did not believe in man’s rationality and considered imagination as the means through which Man can know the world. • Faith and intuition were the only source of true knowledge • The internal mind really builds the external world that man sees.

The poet as a prophet The poet becomes a sort of prophet who can see more deeply into reality and who also tries to warn man against the evils of society William Blake in an illustration by John Linnell.

Songs of Innocence (1789) • “Songs of Innocence” is written in the pastoral mode with simple imagery. It deals with childhood as the symbol of innocence. Cover engraving from the 1826 edition of Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

Songs of Experience (1794) • “Songs of Experience” is more complex and pessimistic. The poems pair those of “Songs of Innocence”.

• The world of innocence is full of joy and happiness, while the world of experience is full of cruelty and injustice. • The child is closer than the adult to the original state of harmony with nature.

The Lamb Theme Innocence and the Creation. Key-images The Lamb, the Child, Christ. Devices: • Repeated questions, directed to the Lamb. • Answers given in the second stanza. • Idyllic setting of “stream and mead”. • Image of God like both the “Good shepherd” and “The Lamb of God”.

The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789) Text analysis • Rhyme scheme • Repetitions • Assonances AABBCCDDAA Who made thee (ll 1, 2, 9, 10); clothing (ll 5, 6); little Lamb I’ll tell thee (ll 11, 12); child (ll 16, 17) name (ll 13, 18); God bless thee (ll 19, 20) /ee/ /ea/ (thee, feed, stream, mead: ll 3, 4); /ei / (gave, making, vales: ll 7, 8)

The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789) Text analysis • Alliterations /l/ (little lamb: l 1); /v/ (gave, voice, vales: ll 7, 8); /ð/( thou; thee: l 2); /m/ (meek, mild: l 15) • Archaisms thee > you (object); thou > you (subject); bid > ask; dost > do; thy > your • Syntactic structure : 1 st stanza > questions / 2 nd stanza > answers

The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789) Text analysis • Blake associates the lamb with a child and the figure of Christ • He establishes a link : He (the Creator) = a lamb I (the poet) = a child • The poet shares the divine power of creation and the innocence of a child

The Tyger Theme God’s power in creation. Key images The tiger as seen by Blake’s poetic imagination: “fearful symmetry”; “burning bright… fire of thine eyes Devices: • • Repeated (rhetorical) questions. Hammering rhythm (like casting a spell). • Creator presented as a blacksmith. Reference to myth Icarus and Prometheus

The Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794) Text analysis • Rhyme scheme AABBCCDDEE • Repetitions Tyger, Tyger (ll 1); What (ll 3, 5, 7, 8 …); dread (l 10; Did (ll 19, 20); • Assonances /ai/ (Tyger, bright, night: ll 1, 2) • Alliterations /b/ (burning, bright: l 1; /f/ (frame, fearful: ll 4); began, beat l 11); /d/(dare; deadly: l 16)

The Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794) Text analysis • Archaisms Tyger > Tiger; thy > your; thine > your; water’d > watered; thee > you (object) • Syntactic structure The poem is built around questions • Fire: energy, power and vitality of the animal • Fearful symmetry: the tiger is beautiful and frightening (> sublime)

The Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794) Text analysis • Forests of the night: metaphor for the chaos of the universe before Creation • Hammer, chain, fire, anvil, furnace: the Creator is seen like a blacksmith • Myths: Icarus ( l 7: on what wings dare he aspire); Prometheus (l 8: What the hand dare seize the fire); fallen Angels (ll 17, 18: when the stars threw down their spears and water’d heaven with their tears)

The. Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794) Test analysis • Blake wonders how the God who created the sweet and mild Lamb could also create the terrifying tiger • The poem does not provide an answer • The real theme of the poem is the Creation • Blake supports the idea that there is no progression without contrast