Research+Paper

Research Paper

Emma Tufts Mrs. Boyle Honors Literature and Composition II May 21st, 2013 Poetry Embellished by Art

 An author’s personal history and literary movement of the era can directly influence the author’s poetry. In this essay William Blake will be discussed. Along with background information on the poet’s life, the literary movement of romanticism will be exploited in a better effort to understand the works of art that accompanied his poetry. The life of William Blake was solely devoted to expressing his poems through his artwork.  William Blake was born on November 28th, 1757 in London, England. His parents, Catherine and James Blake, had seven children. Two of William’s siblings did not survive infancy. Leaving Blake with a family of five children growing up. At a young age of just four, Blake had visions of seeing God. He would always explain to his parents what he was seeing. The apparitions were not a single occurrence. They stayed present through out his childhood and stayed with him. When he grew older and was slightly more mature he said to have seen a tree full of angels in one of his visions. This seems to be a root of which Blake’s thirst to express his work through art. Seeing such vivid and clear visions of such a divine being or presence may have been what lit the flame to start his quest in expressing art.  Blake learned to read and write at home, but he had no formal schooling. He went to a drawing school because that was the only way Blake would be introduced to art. His parent’s didn’t have enough money to send him off to receive a formal education. In 1779 Blake left and enrolled at the Royal Academy before making a living as an engraver, painter, and a poet. Blake engraved and published his own pieces. Some of the pieces are The Tyger, America, and Songs of Innocence. Blake’s works were small and so were his engravings, but they were beautifully done with such care and intricacy.  He married Catherine Boucher on August 18th, 1782. They never had any children. Blake’s wife couldn’t even sign her name, but Blake used his knowledge and taught her how to read and write. Later on she became a successful draftswoman. Blake died August 12th, 1827 in London, United Kingdom. Throughout his life he was seen to be insane or a lunatic by some solely because of his creations. For example, at one of Blake’s exhibitions Robert Southey and Wordsworth called him insane, but they only called him insane because they simply didn’t understand him, which is a certainly an unfair judgment of a man. After death Blake finally got some of the recognition that he deserved. He is now known as a great artist and poet. Now his work is valued greatly, one of his illustrations was auctioned off for about 12-17 million dollars.  Along with romanticism he had a great appreciation of nature. He was a different Romantic writer though, he thought in a different way than most of his time. This may be one of the reasons he was unrecognized as a great during his life. He never simply described nature as how it really seems. He always took his description a step further. Blake painted a picture in peoples heads. Unlike a vague weary description he often described a scene as how he imagined it to look. He described it almost the way he wished it appeared to him.  Blake has very strong religious views; he is a mystical Christian. Mystical Christians want to become Christ, and Christians just know about Christ. Blake believed in God but not in the church. Blake’s view of God was more of his imagination, rather than based on facts. Again this may be due to the visions he had of God at an early age, causing God to be depicted in a way he wants contrary to popular belief. Which also is similar to his views and outlooks of nature. He believed that the church was political and God was not, therefore believing in the church differs from believing in God. His beliefs were mostly Christian, but at the same time they were slightly different. Blake, in a sense, basically created his own version of Christianity. Blake drives his readers to use their imagination, like he does. For example, in the poems “The Lamb”and “The Tyger”, the only way you will fully understand them is if you use your imagination. He believes when people use their imagination, they are closer to god. He feels that by using your imagination you can easily grasp an abstract idea, like God. To some it is a lot easier to understand something if you are able to put your own spin on things.  William Blake’s poems all originate from an event that has taken place in his life. After Blake’s younger brother passed away in 1787, he believed that his brother’s spirit still came back to visit him. Blake says that his brother is the reason why he has such “illuminated writing”. Blake thought that his brother taught him the printing method during one of his dreams; he went on and used it in his piece Songs of Innocence (1789).  In the poem Songs of Innocence (1789) he argues that it is not possible to live a life completely innocent. Blake also created a piece of art to go along with his poem, to give the reader more of an understanding using a visual outlook. You may perceive the poem as good vs. evil, but that’s not the case. In this poem he is talking about experience and innocence as two complementary necessities. For example females and males need each other to survive or else we wouldn’t be here today. Innocence is harmless, but delicate, and experience can be frightening but also strenuous. So therefore Blake’s idea of not being able to live a life with innocence alone is proven correct.  On the front page of his book Songs of Innocence and of Experience he illustrated it the same way one would interpret his poem. He used Adam and Eve to represent experience, and he used a bird to represent innocence. Blake believed that the idea of Adam and Eve was incorrect. He thought that the story of Adam and Eve had given people an altered view of seeing God, the world and ones self. He used a bird to represent innocence because in Christianity a bird represents hope and freedom. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Blake wrote two contrasting poems, The Lamb and The Tyger. These poems are from his work Songs of Innocence. They have that same idea of innocence vs. experience. His poem The Lamb was somewhat of a connection between humanity and the world. In this writing the lamb’s created was Jesus Christ, which is portrayed to express innocence. Articulating that Jesus is the lamb’s creator, in some sense it indicates that we are all a lamb, created by god. The poem The Tyger is distinctly the opposite of The Lamb. The Lamb’s rhyme scheme presented the image of a happy, gentle lamb. Rather than The Tiger’s rhyme scheme was not as harmonized.The tone is considerably different in this poem; he is almost demanding an answer. How dare god create something such as a tiger? Throughout the poem there are many questions being asked, but not many answers are being produced. The creations of the lamb and the tiger are anticipated to be different. The creation of the tiger was described to be from hell, and the creation of the lamb seemed to have come from heaven. In the two illustrations of The Lamb and The Tyger it almost appears that Blake is trying to make his viewers envision the thought of God creating both good and evil. The engraving of The Lamb was almost creepy with all of the detailed branches and the faint colors. Even the lambs that are supposed to look elegant were not very appealing. Looking at the image of The Tyger, it is bright and charming. The tiger that is supposed to be alarming and intimidating has a smile on its face. Blake is trying to help his reader comprehend what he is expressing in his poem, in a picture. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> As you can see through the literary movements of William Blake's era including romanticism and the poet’s personal history, Blake is certainly considered a great poet. Along with great works of literature artwork was accompanied to better explain. Overall it is safe to say that William Blake had a dream and he put his mind to it and fulfilled his aspirations.