A Study of William Blake & His Poetry

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A Study of William Blake & His Poetry

Post by roxybeast » March 21st, 2009, 2:47 am

A Study of William Blake & His Poetry
©2009 Beth Isbell


William Blake - while I had heard of Blake in passing, I had never actually looked at his work until I took one of those on-line "which writer are you" quizzes and got this suggestion. So curious, I decided to look him up and examine his writings to see if we actually did have common views of the world.

After examining Blake's history and some of his major works, I find it remarkable how many views we do hold in common. During his existence, Blake was largely considered to be mad. I know others hold this opinion of me, for the sex change, giving up a lucrative lawyer career to pursue music, writing & art, sometimes for my political, religious and societal views, and perhaps for other reasons.

Blake believed strongly in the value of imagination, even holding it up as the "body of God" or "human existence itself." In my view, there is nothing as important to the spirit and survival of freedom in the human existence as imagination - it is the bedrock of creative thought, the genesis of both rhyme and reason, and the foundation of art, literature, music, and essentially, all that is beautiful about mankind. It is the primary gift and teaching that I impart to and foster in my twin daughters Abby & Bella

Blake's first seminal work was "All Religions Are One" (c. 1788), which indicates that we hold similar views - I have long subscribed to the belief that there is one God, which is the same but viewed or manifested differently to all major religions - to-wit that Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Bhuddists, etc. are all worshiping the same Creator, the same God, although their descriptions & visions of her/him (God has no sexual form) may differ much in the way that men standing on different sides of the same mountain would view and describe the mountain in distinct and different and even contradictory ways.

Blake does not subscribe to the notion of a distinct body from the soul, and which must submit to the rule of soul, but rather sees body as an extension of soul derived from the 'discernment' of the senses. Thus, the emphasis orthodoxy places upon the denial of bodily urges is a dualistic error born of misapprehension of the relationship between body and soul." I understand his point. The body is the earthly experiential apparatus of the soul. It is not it's enemy. Thus, pleasures of the body are also those of the soul. It is our thought and conduct in pursuit of such pleasure which may be abhorrent or sinful in its nature, but not the pleasure itself or the pursuit of it. Blake believed that heaven would not deny us of these pleasures, but instead give us the freedom to experience them and understand this crucial distinction. Blake " believed that restraint in obedience to a moral code imposed from the outside was against the spirit of life." "Blake opposed the sophistry of theological thought that excuses pain, admits evil and apologises for injustice. He abhorred self-denial, which he associated with religious repression and particularly with sexual repression."

Blake ascribes to the holy trinity - believing that the Father, Jesus and the spirit are manifestations of the same one God - as do I. Blake believed that formal religion and religious institutions actually undermined these truths. Blake also "did not hold with the doctrine of God as Lord, an entity separate from and superior to mankind; this is shown clearly in his words about Jesus Christ: 'He is the only God ... and so am I, and so are you.'" One of my favorite Blake quotes is from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast". Again, I agree, God is in us and it is this energy of and made by the Creator/God, and is God, the same energy studied by scientists studying quarks and particles, that binds us together. Blake believed that "energy" is "eternal delight," "the only life," and "the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy."

Wikipedia continues, "This is very much in line with his belief in liberty and equality in society and between the sexes." Blake abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality. As do I. It is one of my central core beliefs, and while not the only reason, it is in no small part why I became a civil rights lawyer, and eventually a woman. Blake distrusted materialism and the corruptive nature of power, as do I. I have experienced and witnessed it first-hand as an attorney seeking truth and even as an impoverished member of society.

"Blake retained an active interest in social and political events for all his life, often cloaking social and political statements in mystical allegory." As do I. My songs, poetry and writings often use mystical allegory to present my views of the world, particularly those not yet widely accepted. Blake also had visions. I too have had visions, although his tend to be more mystical and shrouded in religious symbolism, while mine have tended to be more accurate prophecies of future events, as I described in an article I posted in my column at Studio 8. Although Blake's work included both America: a Prophecy and Europe: a Prophecy, which are regarded as his "greatest achievement in his personal form of mixed free verse."

"William Wordsworth remarked, 'There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott.' D.C.Williams (1899-1983) said that Blake was a romantic with a critical view on the world, he maintained that Blake's Songs of Innocence were made as a view of an ideal, somewhat Utopian view whereas [Blake] used the Songs of Experience in order to show the suffering and loss posed by the nature of society and the world of his time." "(Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul are two books of poetry by the English poet and painter, William Blake. Although Songs of Innocence was first published by itself in 1789, it is believed that Songs of Experience has always been published in conjunction with Innocence since its completion in 1794). Songs of Innocence mainly consists of poems describing the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating free love and a closer relationship with God, and most famously including Blake's poem The Lamb. Its poems have a generally light, upbeat and pastoral feel and are typically written from the perspective of children or written about them. Directly contrasting this, Songs of Experience instead deals with the loss of innocence after exposure to the material world and all of its mortal sin during adult life, including works such as The Tyger. Poems here are darker, concentrating on more political and serious themes. Throughout both books, many poems fall into pairs, so that a similar situation or theme can be seen in both Innocence and Experience. Many of the poems appearing in Songs of Innocence have a counterpart in Songs of Experience with opposing perspectives of the world. Blake believed that innocence and experience were 'the two contrary states of the human soul', and that true innocence was impossible without experience."

In addition to being an author and poet, Blake wrote a classic critique of Chaucer, is credited with creating and developing the technique of relief etching (which later became a central method of book publishing), and was also a master painter and illustrator. He provided the illustrations for John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Dante's "The Divine Comedy" (also known as Dante's Inferno).

{Note-the quotes appearing in the preceding section of this discussion are from the Wikipedia article on William Blake}

Some of my favorite Blake poems ...

The Divine Image
(from Songs of Innocence, plate 17)


To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every dime
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk, or jew;
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.


A Cradle Song
(From Songs of Innocence, plate 24-25)


Sweet dreams form a shade
O'er my lovely infant's head;
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams.

Sweet sleep with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown.
Sweet sleep, Angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child.

Sweet smiles in the night
Hover over my delight;
Sweet smiles, Mother's smiles,
All the livelong night beguiles.

Sweet moans. dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes.
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dovelike moans beguiles.

Sleep sleep, happy child,
All creation slept and smil'd;
Sleep sleep, happy sleep.
While o'er thee thy mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace.
Sweet babe, once like thee,
Thy maker lay and wept for me,

Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When he was an infant small.
Thou his image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee,

Smiles on thee, on me, on all;
Who becarne an infant small.
Infant smiles are his own smiles;
Heaven & earth to peace beguiles.


Holy Thursday
(from Songs of Experience, plate 5)


Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reducd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?

Is that trembling cry a song!
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor,
It is a land of poverty!

And their sun does never shine.
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fill'd with thorns
It is eternal winter there.

For where-e'er the sun does shine,
And where-e'er the rain does fall:
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.


The Fly
(from Songs of Experience, plate 12)


Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength & breath
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.


The Garden of Love
(from Songs of Experience, plate 16)


I went to the Garden of Love, of Love
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet Bowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.


The Human Abstract
(from Songs of Experience, plate 19)


Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we;

And mutual fear brings peace;
Till the selfish loves increase.
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears:
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Catterpiller and Fly,
Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea,
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain


A Poison Tree
(from Songs of Experience, plate 21)


I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.


The School Boy
(from Songs of Experience, plate 25)


I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the sky-lark sings with me.
O! what sweet company.

But to go to school in a summer morn.
O! it drives all joy away;
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day,
In sighing and dismay.

Ah! then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour.
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learnings bower,
Worn thro' with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy,
Sit in a cage and sing.
How can a child when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring

O! father & mother, if buds are nip'd,
And blossoms blown away,
And if the tender plants are strip'd
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and cares dismay,

How shall the summer arise in joy.
Or the summer fruits appear.
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear.


The Voice of the Ancient Bard
(from Songs of Experience, plate 26)


Youth of delight come hither:
And see the opening morn,
Image of truth new born.
Doubt is fled & clouds of reason
Dark disputes & artful teazing.
Folly is an endless maze,
Tangled roots perplex her ways,
How many have fallen there!
They stumble all night over bones of the dead;
And feel they know not what but care;
And wish to lead others when they should be led.


And these select passages from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell":

(plate 5):


"Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer of reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.

And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire."


PROVERBS OF HELL
(Plates 7-11 )


In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.

All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap.
Bring out number weight & measure in a year of dearth.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
A dead body, revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Folly is the cloke of knavery.
Shame is Prides cloke.

Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
The selfish smiling fool, & the sullen frowning fool, shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
What is now proved was once, only imagin'd.
The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit: watch the roots; the lion, the tyger, the horse, the elephant, watch the fruits.
The cistern contains; the fountain overflows.
One thought, fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.

The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
He who has suffer'd you to impose on him knows you.
As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Expect poison from the standing water.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!
The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.
The thankful reciever bears a plentiful harvest.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
The soul of sweet delight, can never be defil'd.
When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius, lift up thy head!
As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
Damn, braces: Bless relaxes.
The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
Prayers plow not! Praises reap not!
Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!

The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands & feet Proportion.
As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl, that every thing was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
Enough! or Too much!


As can be seen in his work in the remainder of "the Marriage of Heaven and Hell," and in "Illustrations of the Book of Job," "America: a Prophecy," and "Europe: a Prophecy," Blake has a particular love of creating mythical discussions between religious symbolic figures - such as discussions between angels and the devil - to either illustrate his point, to cast dispersion on societal views of his times, or to create an alternate reality to foster analytical discussion - all in an attempt to get at what he sees as a larger truth, such as his view that there is but one God for all mankind, the same God for all religions, that the body is but an extension of the soul, and that desire and pleasure are natural & their suppression are abhorrent to God and instead, the result of men trying to enhance their own power and control the masses. Although religion and its imagery dominate much of Blake's work, central to his work is his simple wonder and joy in the beauty of the creations of God, in both nature and human nature, and in the human form and mind, and his disdain for those who would twist or cloud such beauty and elegant design to enhance their own power or foster their own selfish purposes, and of teachings, religious or scientific, to that end.

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Lightning Rod
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Post by Lightning Rod » March 21st, 2009, 5:44 pm

other facts that you might appreciate about Blake:

He was Jim Morrison's favorite poet. They both shared the Dionysian outlook.

The only reason that we know about Blake is because he was also a printer, like Franklin. And he illustrated his work. He was largely unknown during his lifetime, but the books he had printed endured and were discovered.
"These words don't make me a poet, these Eyes make me a poet."

The Poet's Eye

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stilltrucking
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Post by stilltrucking » March 21st, 2009, 9:30 pm

"William Wordsworth remarked,

'There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott.'
I am interested in madness too.

And very interested in the balance of the irrational and rational in ancient Greece. Where Apollo spoke the language of Dionysus and Dionysus spoke the language of Apollo

RE:
The Birth of Tragedy From The Spirit of Music.
Interesting book.



thanks I enjoyed reading very much.

Such beautiful madness.

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roxybeast
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Post by roxybeast » March 27th, 2009, 12:33 am

You're welcome Still Trucking! I do like the Blake poems I collected here.

And L-Rod, I love that Morrison loved Blake - makes me feel right at home since I get compared to & share a kindred spirit with the Lizard King.

You do have to wonder if, like Blake, anyone in this computer age can be likewise discovered by future generations since there are now mega-trillions of documents saved in this infernal web. Such a shame if we overwhelm ourselves with so much crap that true genius is also lost.

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Dave The Dov
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Post by Dave The Dov » March 27th, 2009, 2:03 pm

Allen Ginsberg put some of Blake's poems to music.

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lily

Post by lily » April 6th, 2009, 3:11 am

There were many people living together in a one-block
complex. One of the wives complained to her husband,
"Look here! All of our neighbors' husbands call their wives
such sweet and romantic names.
(wow power leveling),
You never call me one like that."
So the husband said, "What do they call their wives?
I never heard anything!"
The wife said, "The one who lives on our right,
he calls his wife 'apple pie'. The one who lives next
to him calls his wife 'sweet cherry blossom'.
The one who lives to the left of us calls his wife 'rosemary'.
(It's a very fragrant kind of spice you put into your food.)
The one next to him, calls his wife 'my lovely pizza'.
The other one says, 'Oh my diamond, my glorious diamond'.
And you! You never call me anything so sweet
and romantic like that!"
(World of warcraft Power Leveling) ,
So the husband shook his head and said,
"I am sorry, but the one who lives on the right,
he is a baker. The one next to him is a gardener,
he plants Japanese cherries. The one who calls his
wife 'rosemary', grows herbs! And the other one calls his
wife 'diamond' because he is a jeweler. I cannot! I am
a shoe-repairer. I can't call you 'my broken shoe'. "
It was good that he wasn't a coffin-maker. Otherwise,
he called her, 'my solid coffin' to give her the
sweetest name that she desired

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Post by roxybeast » April 9th, 2009, 8:33 pm

Lily - you seem to be trying to market something ... but not very effectively.

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