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The Poetic Imagination in William Blake's Early Poetry

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The Poetic Imagination in William Blake's Early Poetry The Poetic Imagination in William Blake's Early Poetry 2007 년 서강대학교 대학원 영어영문 학과 오 은 영 The Poetic Imagination in William Blake's Early Poetry 지도교수 박 상 기 이 논문을 영문학석사 학위논문으로 제출함 2008 년 7 월 서강대학교 대학원 영어영문 학과 오 은 영 논 문 인 준 서 오은영의 영문학석사 학위논문을 인준함 2008 년 7 월 주심 김 태 원 인 부심 박 상 기 인 부심 김 영 주 인 The Poetic Imagination in William Blake's Early Poetry Oh, Eunyoung A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Sogang University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts 2008 Acknowledgement First of all, I should like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor, Prof. Park, Sangkee. Although he was always very busy during this semester, he has spent his time advising and giving lots of valuable suggestions and comments for my thesis. I am also deeply grateful to Prof. Kim, Taewon and Prof. Kim, Youngjoo who willingly offered their valuable comments during my defense, which was greatly helpful in the revision of my thesis. And I also thank to my family, friends and colleagues for their sincere concern and heartfelt encouragement. July, 2008 Oh, Eunyoung Table of Contents 국문 초록…………………………………………………………..i Abstract……………………………………..……………………..iv Introduction……………….…...…………...……………………….1 Chapter I ..………………………………………………………….7 Imagination as a way to Utopia Chapter II ……………………………….………………………...30 Imagination as a Unification of the Contraries Conclusion…………………………….…………………………..46 Works Cited………………………………….……………………51 국문초록 블레이크는 사회적 혁명의 시기에 사회 개혁을 위한 노 력으로서 급진적인 혁명 세력으로서의 참여가 아니라 상상력 통해 새로운 가치 체계를 이루고 사회를 변화시킬 수 있다고 믿었던 낭만주의 시인이었다. 순수의 상징물들이 경험의 노래 에서 파괴되어 가는 사회적 현실을 그대로 반영하였으며 그러 한 현실을 극복하고 이상세계로 갈 수 있는 출구는 물리적 혁 명이 아니라 개인의 상상력에 있다고 믿었다. 그에게 있어서 상상력은 그가 추구하였던 이상세계로 갈 수 있는 통로일 뿐 아니라, 순수와 경험, 사랑과 미움, 선과 악 등의 대립의 갈등 을 넘어서 초월적인 자유를 누릴 수 있게 하는 것이었다. 블레이크는 하나의 작은 상징물들에도 무한한 의미를 불어넣음으로써 독자에게도 상상의 공간을 점차 넓혀나가도록 하였다. 그의 시에 등장하는 상징물들은 자연에서 쉽게 마주 칠 수 있는 흐르는 물, 양떼들, 조약돌, 꽃, 호랑이, 양 등의 아주 흔한 것들이지만, 블레이크의 독특한 시적 기법에 의해 서 그 의미들이 확장되어 나가면서 구체적인 진실들을 드러내 게 된다. 블레이크 시의 특징은 하나의 상징물이 한 편의 시 i 안에 고정 되어 있지 않고 다른 시에도 반복적으로 등장하면 서 다른 상징물들과의 관계를 통해서 새로운 의미들을 창조해 내는 것인데, 특히 순수와 경험의 대립된 영역을 넘나들면서 전혀 다른 본질의 상징물로 변화되고 그 의미들이 충돌할 때 역동적인 상상력을 불러일으키게 된다. 그 뿐만 아니라 시에 서의 상징물들이 다시 그의 판화에서도 새로운 양상으로 변화 해 가면서 혹은 시와 그림이 전혀 다른 양상을 띄면서 새로운 아이러니를 또다시 창조해낸다. 그의 시와 그림은 서로의 상 호 작용 속에서 그 의미들이 새롭게 확장되어가고 그 확장된 의미들 속에 블레이크의 세계관이 구체적 의미로 다가오게 된 다. 제 1 장에서는 혁명과 변화의 시기였지만 어두운 사회적 현실을 그대로 그려냄으로써 물리적 혁명에 대한 회의감과 밤, 어둠, 잠, 지하세계로 상징되는 감각과 인식이 마비된 세계를 극복할 수 있을 때 현실의 모순을 극복 할 수 있음을 보여준 다. 그것은 결국 부분적이고 일시적인 개혁을 통해서가 아닌 개인의 창조적 상상력을 통하여 이성과 대립되는 개념의 욕망 과 에너지를 가두는 마음의 감옥에서 스스로 벗어났을 때 가 능한 것이라는 것을 보여준다. 제 2 장에서는 순수와 경험의 세계를 넘나드는 상징물들을 ii 통하여 대립된 것들의 경계를 무너뜨림으로써 어떻게 대립의 긴장을 해소시키고 있는지를 보여준다. 전형적인 목가적인 풍 경을 뒤집으면서 선과 악의 경계가 사라지게 되고, 시에 등장 하는 사랑과 미움, 파괴성과 두려움의 갈등은 그의 그림에서 해소되고 무한한 상상의 세계에서 대립을 넘어선 초월적인 자 유를 느끼게 한다. iii Abstract William Blake is an English Romantic poet who believes that the world will be changed and the ideal world will be built when the new value system is created through the Imagination in the individual mind not through the radical Revolution. He reflects the social reality, portraying the symbols of Innocence destroyed by Experience and suggests that the ideal Utopia will be realized and the dark side of reality will be overcome through the personal Imagination and self- awakening rather than temporal physical reformation. For him, the Imagination is a gateway to Utopia and what gives a transcendental freedom by unifying the conflicts between the contraries such as Innocence & Experience, Love & Hatred and Good & Evil. Blake tries to expand the readers’ Imagination by inspiring infinite meanings to the smallest symbols such as running water, lambs, pebble, clay, flower and tiger which can be easily encountered in nature. Through Blake’s unique poetic technique, their meanings expand and reveal some concrete truth. The most significant feature in Blake’s poetic symbols is the symbols are not stationary in one poem but reappear in other poems repeatedly and create new meanings through iv the relation with other symbols. Especially, when the symbols move across the Innocence and Experience, they change their nature as completely different ones and arouse the dynamic Imagination. Moreover, when the symbols change their nature in the engravings and the images of the poems and their engravings show totally different aspects, the sensational irony is created. In this way, the poems and the engravings interact with each other expanding the meaning and finally reveal Blake’s world view through the irony. Chapter I will deal with the dark side of the reality of the age of Revolution and Blake’s skepticism toward the physical Revolution. In Blake’s poetry, such images of “night,” “darkness,” “sleeping” and “underground world” symbolize the word of Experience where the “five senses ” and cognitive power are closed and paralyzed. When the world of “Urizen, ” the opposite meaning of the Desire and Energy, and the “mind forge ’d manacle ” which imprison one ’s own self are broken down through the individual Imagination, the contradiction of the reality is overcome. Chapter II shows the way the tension of the contraries is dissolved through the symbols ’ bold shift across the contraries breaking down the barrier of the contraries. When the typical pastoral images are v overturned, the border of Good and Evil disappears. The conflicts of between Love and Hatred and Destructiveness and Fear are dissolved in the peaceful visual images of the Engravings. Through the infinite imagination Blake gives the transcendental freedom beyond the contraries. vi Introduction William Blake (1757-1827), a visionary English Romantic poet, painter and engraver, who lived in the turbulent period of French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, sublimed his dynamic imagination into his poetic system. Actually many romantic poets were advocators of the Revolution and especially Blake’s and Shelley’s poetic works are regarded as representative political forces of those times of Romanticism (Eagleton 20). Like Shelly, who portrays his radical anarchism affected by Godwin in Prometheus Unbound , Blake reflects his revolutionary outlook to build the Utopia through imagination which is inspired by the conflicts of the contraries. He regards what oppresses the desire and freedom as the “Urizen,” which frames the moral order and conventional social system. He embodied his ideal Utopia in his poetry by the struggle between the two contraries of Innocence and Experience and Reason and Energy, which is inspired by the creative imagination. Blake published the Songs of Innocence in 1789, after five years he wrote the Songs of Experience and bound up the two Songs and published as the Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794), subtitled with 1 “Sewing the Two Contrary states of the Human Soul,” which makes the basic axis in his essential ideas of contrary. In the two Songs, Blake’s world view is reflected in nature’s smallest symbols and the contradiction between the contraries satire both the Innocence and Experience and at the same time the contradiction itself gives dynamic inspiration to the readers. As Blake inspires infinite imagination to the symbols, the symbolic meanings are inconsistent and leave room for controversial and diverse interpretation, which is one of the most typical elements in Blake’s symbolic techniques. Therefore, although he is now considered as one of the most primary Romantic poets in English Literature and recognized as a genius whose poetic works are approached and reinterpreted again by many current critics in diverse aspects of such as feministic, religious and psychological criticism, he was ridiculed as a madman by his contemporaries. Even William Wordsworth said that “there was no doubt that this poor man was mad” (Bently 536). His poetic works was not appreciated properly by his contemporaries because of the ambiguity of his symbols and mystic ideas. Moreover, he was regarded as to be insane because he emphasized the Energy as an “Eternal Delight” in the period of “Reason.” However, he had a belief that his poetic works would open the 2 gateway to release the imprisoned Energy and Desire, by which he could build the “Golden Age,” as he wrote in Milton : “I will not cease from mental fight; Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,; Till we have built Jerusalem.” He devoted his poetic works to progressive change, liberating the body and soul through expanding the intuition and imagination rather than radical Revolution. In about 1788, Blake first employed the printing method and he himself started to engrave the plates for all his illuminated works. His visual art has a great artistic value as much as his poetry and has to be approached along with the poems. He employed the specific method by melting the surface and expressed his way of printing metaphorically: “by printing in / the infernal method by corrosive, which in Hell are / salutary and medicinal” in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell . As melting away the surface means to reveal the concealed from the appearance, he also tries to show in his engravings the hidden truth from the lines of poems.
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