Romanticism
Chapter 4: William Blake
“The Tyger”, “The Sick Rose”, “The Fly”, “London”
2011 Fall Sehjae Chun Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, William Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. Considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of both the Romantic movement and "Pre-Romantic", for its large appearance in the 18th century.
1757 born in the Soho district of London
1772 apprenticed to engraver James Basire of Great Queen Street,
1779 became a student at the Royal Academy
1783 published Poetical Sketches
1788 began to experiment with relief etching,
1800 moved to a cottage at Felpham in Sussex
1804 returned to London and began to write and illustrate Jerusalem
1827 died in 12 August
3 William Blake
Major Works
• 1788 All Religions are One • 1789 Songs of Innocence • 1790–1793 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell • 1793-1795 Continental prophecies • 1793 Visions of the Daughters of Albion • 1794 Songs of Experience • 1795 The Book of Los • 1804–1820 Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion
4 William Blake
• A Poet of "Dialectical Contraries"
• A Poet of Illuminated Books
• A Poet of Mythology
• A Poet of Social Criticism
5 A Poet of "Dialectical Contraries" • Songs of Innocence and Experience • Contraries state of a human soul • juxtaposition of the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression • the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of innocence first and then experience
A Poet of Illuminated Books • each page was produced by deeply etching copper plates, possibly with the aid of corrosive acids, with both text and elaborate pictorial designs. • Blake's attempt to adjust the formal properties of the book to accord with his own aesthetic principles, to in effect use the very medium of publication as a form of political subversion 6 A Poet of Mythology • a rich invented mythology (mythopoeia), in which Blake worked to encode his revolutionary spiritual and political ideas into a prophecy for a new age. • America a Prophecy • The Book of Urizen • The Book of Los • The Book of Ahania • Visions of the Daughters of Albion
A Poet of Social Criticism • Against oppressive political, religious conservatism • "The Chimney Sweeper" "London"
7 “The Tyger”
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? “The Tyger”
•From Songs of Experience
• tiger vs lamb
• contrast between the perspectives of “experience” and “innocence”
• a question of creative responsibility and of will
• the sheer magnitude of God’s power
• the inscrutability of divine will
• aspiration and willfulness into the sheer might of the creative act
• tiger; symbolic center for an investigation into the presence of evil in the world
• smithy; a traditional image of artistic creation
• fire; creation, purification, and destruction. 10 “The Sick Rose”
O Rose, thou art sick: The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy; And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.
11 “The Sick Rose”
•From Songs of Experience
• the nature of experience
• Self-destructive impulse
• rose; a beautiful natural object, the conventional symbol of love.
• worm; death and decay.
• bed; both the natural flowerbed and the lovers’ bed
• crimson joy; sexual pleasure and shame
12 “The Fly”
Little fly, Thy summer’s play My thoughtless hand Has brushed away.
Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me?
For I dance And drink and sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life And strength and breath, And the want Of thought is death,
Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die. 13 “The Fly”
• a bittersweet irony of the peaceful scene
• innocence and experience appear as opposed, yet interrelated
• the man and fly fuse into a single blended entity combining both states
• from the microscopic to the macroscopic
• "thoughtless hand" of man is replaced by the "blind hand" of Death.
14 “London”
I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry Every black'ning Church appalls; And the hapless Soldier's sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new born Infant's tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
15 “London”
• From Songs of Experience
• London as a specific geographic urban space
• the suffocating atmosphere of the city
• “charter’d,”; mapping and legalism
• “mark,”; from a verb to a pair of nouns
• men, infants, chimney-sweeper, soldier, harlot; signs of human suffering abound
• a baby and a cursing, prostitute mother; the place of possible regeneration and rebirth tainted by the blight of venereal disease
• “Marriage hearse”; love and desire combine with death and destruction.
16 Further Questions
1. What are Blake’s own contribution to Romantic movement?
2. How do you assess Blake’s understanding of “innocence” and
“experience”?
3. Is “London” in the late 18th C really different from “London” in our time?
4. Describe Blake’s attractive characteristics to the present day readers.
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