William Blake as a Romantic Poet free essay sample

He believed that the Industrial Revolution in particular created a mechanical environment which stripped humankind of their imagination, happiness and spirit, a society led by money, greed and power that no longer recognised the beauty that surrounded them in the form of nature and what had been God given. The Laughing Song(Songs of Innocence) is a lyrical poem that reflects Blake’s simplistic view of the wonder of nature and the joy it offers. He personifies aspects of nature such as â€Å"When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy† (line 1) and demonstrates that the beauty that God has created â€Å"When the painted birds in the shade† (line 9) can be compared to the power of our imagination. The comparison between these Gods given gift of beauty, which he intrinsically links to humanity by personifying nature, suggests that human creativity in on par with the spiritual power of nature itself. Another suggestion of the link between the power of imagination and the power of nature is in line seven and eight. â€Å"When Mary, Susan and Emily With their sweet round mouths sing ‘Ha,Ha,He! Here he is possibly proposing that birdsong can be created by these girls, making them as special and no different to the creatures that sing around them. The intimation of intense joy that can be had in such an uncomplicated environment opens up the prospect of refuge and escape from the synthetic changes in civilisation. Romantic Poetry endorsed the need for imagination, feelings and emotions, with emotion as the key necessity to balance logical reason. This concept was interpreted by Romantic poets by using their direct voice as the poetic speaker rather than a persona, thus allowing the poet to convey his beliefs and concerns. Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience) is a powerful and effectual poem that critiques the treatment of children â€Å"In a rich and fruitful land† (line two. ) Blake constructs the second stanza with no rhyme and containing interrogative and exclamatory sentences, which certainly demonstrates his incredulous anger and seems to be questioning the reader as to why this is happening, â€Å"And so many children poor? It is a land of poverty! † (line seven and eight) This highlights the hypocrisy between the fact that England is a prosperous country yet our children are living in poverty. The division of adults and children is also seen in stanza three, where Blake uses the repetition of ‘their’ and not ‘us’ and cleverly uses the metaphor of weather imagery to bring attention to the lives that the children are leading; And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare, And their ways are filled with thorns, It is eternal winter there. The skilful placement of the Biblical references; the crown of thorns that caused pain and suffering for Jesus Christ places the children symbolically alongside Jesus, affirming the point that children are pure and of God’s creation. The other key link to God is that the children are in eternal darkness, not receiving light or love, specifically not receiving the light, warmth and love of Christ. Society is depriving these children of their God given right and therefore are committing a sin in the eyes of the Lord. â€Å"For the first time (children) were presented as individuals † This blatant reflection of Blake’s own social consciousness represents his rejection of oppression and injustice and directly challenges religious views of original sin and the notion that children were of no importance, which was a core element of Romantic Poetry. Infant Joy (Songs of Innocence) substantiates the innocence and dependency of a newborn child and the joy that they bring which is represented in the title of the poem and the repetition of the word joy. â€Å"Sweet joy befall thee! Pretty joy! Sweet joy, but two days old † (lines six-eight) There is no rhyming structure to it, creating the feeling of freedom and a carefree attitude towards the birth of a baby. The language used is simple and not at all sophisticated which may be due to the fact that it was rare to use such positive words to describe children. The poem emphasises the Romantic outlook of Rousseau that â€Å"there is no original sin in the human heart † Infant joy vindicates this concept and evokes the reader to recognise the beauty and virtuousness of childhood. Another illustration of the Romantic’s rejection of rationalisation and religious beliefs dating back to the medieval period is depicted in Blake’s The Garden of Love (Songs of Experience. ) Within this poem Blake subtly demonstrates how religion had overtaken and overshadowed the sensuous nuance that nature offers, A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green (lines three and four. ) The concept of organised religion and the separation that this seemed to cause for society; having to be close to God at a certain place or time rather than being part of nature that had been given to us by God, placing God all around us at all times to be appreciated and enjoyed was a particular matter of contention for the Romantic movement. Blake goes on to write in lines five to eight; And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door; So I turned to the Garden of Love That so many flowers bore The obvious suggestion here is that not only are the church doors closed, insinuating that God is ‘not available’ and the prominent ‘thou shalt not’ seems to be from a dictator rather than a loving God, arguably the dictatorship of organised religion. What Blake then does very astutely is to draw attention to the ‘garden of love’ perhaps the garden of Eden, originally created by God for man, being the place to feel God’s love and the true place to witness the natural phenomena that surrounds mankind. In the last line of the poem Blake writes â€Å"And binding with briars my joys and desires. which epitomises the Romantic idea of religious confinement. Rather than binding rules and regulations governed by powerful organisations such as politics and religion, the idea of reconciliation and development of self was central for Romantics. A Poison Tree (Songs of Experience) is beautiful portrayal of the effects of resentment which is expresse d in a simplistic and modest manner. It carries a message of reconciling differences and the benefit of this, compared to what the outcome may be when mankind is left festering with a negative unaddressed feeling. Blake again uses the intimation of the Garden of Eden as the setting for this oem. He also uses weather imagery to make his point which is a popular technique of Blake’s. â€Å"And I watered it in fears Night and morning with my tears, And I sunned it with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles † (lines five-eight) but more than this, he artfully displays the growth of a resentment; first the fear and sadness but followed by revengeful and deceitful feelings. This poem encapsulates the need for harmony and compromise within society, and the importance of the recognition of not just reconciliation but of mutual respect between all of mankind; adults and children from any class or background. The Romantic Movement played an essential role in shaping a more humane society that recognised the needs of others both emotionally and spiritually. This created a revolutionary energy that was not limited just to literature but spread across all of the arts; music, painting and architecture. Romanticism also had a significant effect geographically too, moving both westward and eastward. The message carried by the Romantic poets such as Blake was one of love, individuality, emotion and imagination and their words had a lasting effect on our culture and helped draw attention to acts of oppression and injustice. Bibliography http://academic. brooklyn. cuny. edu/english/melani/cs6/rom. html. Accessed 03/03/13 Jonathan amp; Jessica Wordsworth (ed) The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry. Penguin Books, 2005 Jean-Jacques Rousseau Emile. 1762 Rhian Williams The Poetry Toolkit. Continuum Publishing, 2011 [ 2 ]. http://academic. brooklyn. cuny. edu/english/melani/cs6/rom. html. Accessed 03/03/13 [ 3 ]. Jonathan Jessica Wordsworth (ed) The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry. Penguin Books, 2005 (VI. V. 360) [ 4 ]. Jonathan Jessica Wordsworth (ed) The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry. Penguin Books, 2005 (xiv. 371) [ 5 ]. http://academic. brooklyn. cuny. edu/english/melani/cs6/rom. html. Accessed 03/03/13 [ 6 ]. Jonathan Jessica Wordsworth (ed) The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry. Penguin Books, 2005 (iii. 359) [ 7 ]. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Emile. 1762 [ 8 ]. Jonathan Jessica Wordsworth (ed) The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry. Penguin Books, 2005 (v. 367) [ 9 ]. Jonathan Jessica Wordsworth (ed) The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry. Penguin Books, 2005 (vi. 367)