William Blake (1757-1827)

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William Blake

-highly original and important poet in English literature, -a revolutionary and visionary artist.

-was also an individualist to the point of being isolated from society,

-personal and spiritual freedom for everyone.

William Blake (1757-1827)

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William Blake was born in London in 1757,

Already at the age of nine, he told his parents that he had seen visions, mostly of angels, and he continued to see such visions for the rest of his life.

Blake's artistic ability became evident already as a child, and at the age of ten he was sent to drawing school.

At the age of 14, he began his seven-year apprenticeship as a copy engraver, after which he began to make his living by working for London book and print publishers.

illustrated books, gave drawing lessons,

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later he devoted himself entirely to painting and engraving.

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William Blake grew up in a world that was undergoing dramatic changes.

The second half of the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of industrialisation in Britain (later known as the Industrial Revolution), something that made the plight of the poor and uneducated even more miserable and hopeless.

Adults and children alike were forced to work long hours in factories, mills, and coalmines, working under dangerous and inhumane conditions for a low wage.

Outside of Britain, other important events unfolded during Blake's early life, most importantly the American War of Independence in 1775 and the outbreak of the French Revolution fourteen years later in 1789.

These events appealed to Blake's political radicalism, for he strongly believed in the emancipation and freedom of the human spirit. Blake wrote poems about both these historical events.

WORLD of BLAKE

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Politically speaking, Blake was a radical, with an instinctive opposition to tyranny and a

distrust of authority wherever he found it

He attacked established values and institutions of his time, including the

conventional views on slavery, social issues,

religion and art.

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.Along with the Romantic poets, Blake sought out a

spiritual truth, a truth that could only be achieved by the use of feelings and the imagination.

He believed that man originated from a spiritual realm, and was born as a free spirit, but that as a result of the deeply negative influence from the earth itself, man became

trapped in the confines of his physical body and the five senses, which limited his capacity for perception. The only way to be freed from this confinement was by what he

called "Imagination", the capacity to apprehend realities beyond the prison of the physical world.

When considering the totality of Blake's work, it has been suggested that he worked on two levels; a commercial, or worldly level, and a spiritual level.

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he worked as a commercial engraver, and also produced his personal, spiritual work, and it was this part of Blake's work that

inspired his development of illuminated printing and prophetic books, written "so that the spirits could see them".

The poems in Blake's Prophetic Books were exciting texts of a mystical nature, and very few people could understand them.

Today they are considered to be masterpieces, expressing Blake's belief in a spiritual world and his hope that man can overcome all limitations by means of the spirit within himself.

Blake was a great religious thinker who used both art and words to express mental and spiritual truths that had been forgotten by an increasingly materialistic society.

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Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression.

the collection as a whole explores the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world.

Many of the poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of innocence first and then experience.

Blake does not identify himself wholly with either view; most of the poems are dramatic—that is, in the voice of a speaker other than the poet himself.

Blake stands outside innocence and experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the fallacies of both. In particular, he pits himself against despotic authority, restrictive morality, sexual repression, and institutionalized religion.

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The Songs of Innocence dramatize the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and

trace their transformation as the child grows into adulthood.

Some of the poems are written from the

perspective of children, while others are about children as seen from an adult perspective.

Many of the poems draw attention to the positive aspects of natural human understanding prior to the corruption and distortion of experience.

Others take a more critical stance toward innocent purity.

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The style of the Songs of Innocence and Experience is simple and direct, but the language and the

rhythms are painstakingly crafted, and the ideas they explore are often deceptively complex.

Many of the poems are narrative in style; others make their arguments through symbolism or by means of abstract concepts.

Some of Blake’s favorite rhetorical techniques are personification and the reworking of Biblical

symbolism and language.

Blake frequently employs the familiar meters of

ballads, nursery rhymes, and hymns, applying them to his own.

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THE LAMB THE LAMB

Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee

Gave thee life & bid thee feed.

By the stream & o’er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice!

Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee, Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!

He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb:

He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child:

I a child & thou a lamb, We are called by his name.

Little Lamb God bless thee.

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“The Nurse’s Song”

And laughing is heard on the hill, My heart is at rest within my breast

And every thing else is still

Then come home my children, the sun is gone down And the dews of night arise

Come come leave off play, and let us away Till the morning appears in the skies

No no let us play, for it is yet day And we cannot go to sleep

Besides in the sky, the little birds fly And the hills are all cover’d with sheep Well well go & play till the light fades away

And then go home to bed

The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d And all the hills ecchoed

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The theme of the poem is the children’s innocent and simple joy.

Their happiness persists unabashed and uninhibited, and without shame the children plead for permission to continue in it.

The sounds and games of the children harmonize with a busy world of sheep and birds. They think of

themselves as part of nature, and cannot bear the

thought of abandoning their play while birds and sheep still frolic in the sky and on the hills, for the children

share the innocence and unselfconscious spontaneity of these natural creatures.

They also approach the world with a cheerful optimism, focusing not on the impending nightfall but on the last drops of daylight that surely can be eked out of the evening.

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The Chimney Sweeper

When my mother died I was very young, When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue, And my father sold me while yet my tongue, Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep, Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep, So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his headhead

That curled like a lambs back was shav'd, so I That curled like a lambs back was shav'd, so I said.

said.

Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare,

bare,

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hairhair

And so he was quiet. & that very night.

As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, &

That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, &

JackJack

Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black, Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black, And by came an Angel who had a bright key And by came an Angel who had a bright key And he open'd the coffins & set them all free.

And he open'd the coffins & set them all free.

Then down a green plain leaping laughing they Then down a green plain leaping laughing they runrun

And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind.

They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.

And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark And got with our bags & our brushes to work.

And got with our bags & our brushes to work.

Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy &

warmwarm

So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

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"The Chimney Sweeper"

William Blake wrote "The Chimney Sweeper" of "Songs of Innocence" in 1789.

In the next to last line of the first stanza, the cry "'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"

is the child's attempt at saying "Sweep! Sweep!," which was the chimney sweeper's street cry.

This poem shows that the children have a very positive outlook on life. They make the best of their lives and do not fear death.

This is quite the opposite in it's companion poem in "Songs of Experience"

which was written in 1794. In this poem, the child blames his parents for putting him in the position he was in. He is miserable in his situation and he also

blames "God & his Priest & King".

This point of view is different from that of its companion poem because the chimney sweeper has been influenced by society and has an "experienced"

point of view.

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The Chimney Sweeper

(Songs of Experience)

A little black thing among the snow:

Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe!

Where are thy father & mother! say!

They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the heath, And smiled among the winters snow:

They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy, & dance & sing, They think they have done me no injury:

And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King Who make up a heaven of our misery.

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