Introduction
I quickly
became intrigued by William Blake when reading about his unique religious
views. I was fascinated by his accounts
of seeing visions. As a young boy, he
saw a God put his head to the window.
Furthermore, he also saw "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic
wings bespangling every bough like stars" (Livergood). He continued to experience visions throughout
his life, which undoubtedly inspired and influenced his writing.
Not only
was he a writer, but also an extraordinary artist. He would illustrate his works with beautiful
paintings and relief etchings. The
process of relief etching was a very meticulous one – consisting of
time-consuming steps and careful workmanship.
I think this added so much to his work; making it even more a part of
him. His wife would assist him in the
procedure of relief etching and painting in the colors. This personal touch to his work adds a
significant dynamic to his poems and writings.
Knowing
about the life of William Blake before reading his poems definitely helped set
the context for me. Having some
background information helped me to read his poems with an understanding of his
spiritual interests. I found his poems
to be very insightful and with spiritual meanings as I read them. They express his thoughts, beliefs, and hopes
in a beautiful, artistic way. He is able
to contrast opposing aspects of life and nature. He shows how they are connected and make the
world what it is. This is demonstrated
by his collection of poems entitled Songs
of Innocence and of Experience. The
poems are short and simple, yet packed with deep messages and wisdom. These poems were often read to children, but
the messages are intended for both young and old. The poems are still enjoyed by people of all
ages today.
Chronology
Data collected from BlakeArchive.org Chronology and HumanitiesWeb.org
Chronology
1757 Born in
London, 28 November, to James Blake and Catherine Wright Armitage Blake.
1767 Begins
attending Henry Par's drawing school.
1768 Begins
writing Poetical Sketches.
1771 Becomes an
apprentice of James Basire, the engraver to the Society of Antiquaries and the
Royal Society.
1779 Apprenticeship
with Basire ends and he enters the Royal Academy of Art's Schools of Design.
He becomes a journeyman copy
engraver.
1780 Blake may have
participated in the Gordon Riots in London (June).
He was arrested on suspicion of
spying during his sketching trip on the River Medway.
1782 50 copies of Poetical Sketches are printed.
Blake becomes a freelance engraver.
Blake marries Catherine Boucher on 18
August.
1783 Blake's
father dies in July.
1784 Blake
and James Parker open a print shop together at 27 Broad Street.
He
begins working on An Island in the Moon.
1787 Blake’s brother,
Robert, dies at 19. Robert shows William
a new method of engraving in a vision.
This is how Blake develops relief etching.
1788 First illuminated works, All Religions Are One, and There Is No Natural Religion, are
published.
1789 Songs of Innocence is published.
Begins
working on The Book of Thel.
Writes
Tiriel.
1790 Marriage of Heaven and Hell is published.
1791 The French Revolution is published.
Blake's
mother dies in September.
Blake
illustrates Original Stories from Real
Life by Wollstonecraft.
1793 America: A Prophecy, Visions of the
Daughters of Albion, and For
Children: The Gates of Paradise are published.
Blake
engraves Albion Rose.
1794 Songs of Experience, The First Book of Urizen, and Europe: A Prophecy are published.
1795 Book of Ahania, The Book of Los, and The Song of Los are published.
1796 Begins working on The Four Zoas.
1800 Moves
to Felpham in Sussex to work for William Hayley.
1803 Blake is
charged with treason after a dispute with a soldier. He is put on trial at Chichester and is
acquitted.
1804 Begins working on Milton: A Poem and Jerusalem.
1809 His
work is exhibited at the Royal Academy.
1810 He
begins to suffer bouts of depression until 1817.
1817 Hesiod is published.
1820 First
copy of Jerusalem is printed.
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise is
published.
1822 The Ghost of Abel and On Homer’s Poetry On Virgil are
published.
1826 Job is published.
1827 Blake
dies on 12 August of complications from gallstones.
Biographical
Impressions
The
life of William Blake was lived in ordinary circumstances. He was born in London in 1757 to James and
Catherine Blake. They had seven
children, but two of them passed away while infants. Although he grew up in an ordinary
neighborhood and settings, he lived a fascinating life (poets.org).
His
spirituality added a unique dynamic to his life. He was seen as an eccentric by those who knew
him. His spiritual beliefs, ideals, and
experiences were radical – causing many people to believe him to be either
insane or a genius. From his early
childhood, he saw visions and angels. He
had siblings who passed away as he grew up.
He felt their spirits’ presences throughout his life, especially the
spirit of his brother Robert. He was
visited by Robert’s spirit and was shown the illustration technique of “relief
etching” that he became known for (poetryfoundation.org).
He was very
in tune with his spiritual nature, which I strongly believe influenced his
writing and art. Alexander Gilchrist
wrote a biography on William Blake in 1863 and said that he “neither wrote nor
drew for the many, hardly for work'y-day men at all, rather for children and
angels; himself 'a divine child,' whose playthings were sun, moon, and stars,
the heavens and the earth" (poetryfoundation.org).
His parents
recognized that William was a different child.
They educated him at home and he was strongly influenced by the Holy
Bible (william-blake.org). They
supported his artistic interests and enrolled him in a drawing school at the
age of 10. He began writing poetry
during his time at school. He became an
apprentice to an engraver when he was 14, which provided many inspirational
experiences. Some of these included
sketching assignments of Gothic monuments and architecture, including
Westminster Abbey. These experiences
would prove to be an inspiration to Blake throughout his life and works
(poets.org).
Blake’s
contemplative, spiritual nature enabled and inspired his writing and art. Many of his works reflect his spirituality
and beliefs. His collection of poems
called Songs of Innocence and of
Experience convey deep meanings about life, nature, and that everything has
its opposite. He subtitled the work with
the statement “shewing the two contrary states of the human soul.” He illustrated the collection as well, adding
visual appeal and meaning to his written works.
The Songs of Innocence and the
Songs of Experience are to be read
together, as they mirror one another.
They contrast each other by their different perspectives – the innocence
poems being “happy songs” despite the injustice and suffering of the
world. The experience poems depict the
world through veteran eyes, addressing this suffering, injustice, and evil of
the world (Greenblatt, 81). This
collection, as well as his other works, are greatly influenced by his study of
the Holy Bible along with his spiritual disposition.
“He
produced his personal, spiritual work, and it was this part of Blake's work
that inspired his development of illuminated printing and prophetic books,
written ‘so that the spirits could see them.’ The poems in Blake's Prophetic
Books were exciting texts of a mystical nature, and very few people could
understand them” (skoletorget.no). His
poems and works communicate his spirituality and “his hope that man can
overcome all limitations by means of the spirit within himself”
(skoletorget.no).
Critical
Interpretations
Literary
critic and poet, Keith Sagar, wrote an essay on Blake’s collection of Songs of Innocence and of Experience. He begins his essay by bringing up the
point of dualism. He wrote that Blake,
like most great poets, was “an enemy to dualism.” Instead, he focused on the “contrary” and
sought to unite them holistically.
“Dualistic thinking is so built into
our ordinary language, and the language of philosophy and theology, that the
words hardly exist to enable us to think non-dualistically, holistically, that
is in terms of systems, patterns, relationships, correspondences. But poetry is
such a non-dualistic language, which is why poetry is invariably metaphorical,
and the poet is the connection-man and healer. The language and vision not just
of Blake but of poetry itself insists that the contraries are equally important
and inseparable. ‘Without contraries is no progression’, wrote Blake. He sought
to transform the energies generated by conflict into creative energies, moving
towards mutual acceptance, reconciliation, harmony, expressed in imagery of
music and marriage” (Sagar).
His essay
continues to demonstrate this mutual acceptance or harmony by sharing excerpts
from different poems from the collection.
He starts with Songs of Innocence,
acknowledging their joyful, childlike feel, yet the shadows of experience still
make their presence known. He explains
that Blake’s intention of Songs of
Innocence and of Experience is not to invite us “to choose between them,
that no such choice is possible or desirable, and that we are not simply going
to be offered here the truism that innocent joy is preferable to the sorrows of
experience” (Sagar). Through this
collection of poems, we are able to accept both the joys and sorrows in life as
they must always coexist.
In another
critical essay called Songs of Innocence,
Songs of Experience, the author also brings up the dualism, and the message
of the poems of finding balance and harmony between the good and bad. It uses many examples from the poems to show
the presence of both good and evil. The
author of the essay also identifies the symbolism that Blake uses in his
poems. He uses symbols of joy and
despair in Holy Thursday. I thought some of the examples were very
interesting, such as the symbolism of thorns symbolizing the suffering of
Christ. The author makes a great
statement saying, “though his powerful, vivid use of imagery, personal tone,
and sense of paradox, William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of
Experience, are able to work together in order to express a natural sense of
balance of the human spirit” (Songs of
Innocence, Songs of Experience).
The essay continues to show this
balance through the different poems, using “I Saw a Chapel,” “Holy Thursday,” “I
Heard an Angel,” and “Earth’s Answer.”
The poems express very different perspectives, yet still convey that
both aspects of innocence and experience are necessary. “Blake seems to be emphasizing in these two
poems that although innocence and experience are two very different perspectives,
and are often associated with what is good and what is evil, a person cannot
grow and develop without both, because both states of innocence and experience
contain elements of good and evil. Mankind simply cannot exist without both contrary
aspects of the human soul” Songs of
Innocence, Songs of Experience). This
idea really reminded me of Lehi’s teachings of “opposition in all things” (Book
of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:11). It is through
this balance that we learn, gain experience, and grow. This is what Blake was teaching through his
poems contained in Songs of Innocence and
of Experience. I love the closing
statement of the essay, which says:
“Perhaps Blake is saying that neither
innocence, nor experience is better, for both are necessary for the growth of
mankind. Maybe the question Blake is asking the reader to think about it not, ‘How
can I completely live in the world of experience,’ or ‘How can I completely
live in the world of innocence,’ rather, ‘How can I learn from both innocence
and experience to grow as a human being?’ Blake seems to emphasize that a person cannot
dwell on regrets, or be completely oblivious to change. Change is inevitable, and regrets are
necessary, and in order for a person to learn about the beauty and importance
of life, one must be able to appreciate the good, as well as learn from the
bad” (Songs of Innocence, Songs of
Experience). I feel like that is an
excellent summary of Blake’s beliefs and intent of writing the collection. We are meant to learn to live in harmony with
these contradictory presences in our lives.
Life would lose meaning without this opposition, and Blake expresses
this very well in his beautiful collection of art and poetry.
Lawrence J. Trudeau wrote an essay on
the collection, sharing a textual history of the work, as well as the major
themes of it. I learned that the most
common edition of Songs of Innocence and of
Experience took about 35 years to produce.
Like the other essays, this one focuses on “the opposition between the
innocent, joyous perspective of the child and the more experienced, less spontaneous,
perspective of the adult” (Trudeau). He
also mentions the contrasts included in the poems and how they reflect English
society of the time they were written.
It was a time when personal, political, and economical freedom was
desired, but at the same time, there was also much apprehension concerning such
freedom and the possible consequences. I
like how Trudeau brought up this aspect of the poems in relation to English
society. He uses “The Chimney Sweeper,”
“Holy Thursday,” and “London” as examples of this social mirror. These poems depict the unfavorable conditions
of children’s work, poverty, and social protest.
Trudeau also includes a “critical
reception” section of his essay, sharing the different opinions, meanings, and
controversies regarding the collection.
He brings up the controversy that exists about the organization of the
collection and the relation of poems with similar titles as well as those that
are different. Trudeau explains this as
follows:
“Many critics have studied the obvious
dialectical pairings of individual poems, such as the contrasting versions of ‘Nurse's
Song’ or ‘The Chimney-Sweeper’ in each section. Others see affinities between
poems that do not have similar titles, such as the cluster ‘Laughing Song,’ ‘The
Little Black Boy’ and ‘The Voice of the Ancient Bard.’ Attempts to establish a direct correspondence
across the board between the two sections have proven fruitless, however. Donald A. Dike maintains that ‘Blake was too
fine an artist to pair off in detail all the poems in the sequences; to get what
he was after, it was enough to do this with a few.’ K. E. Smith suggests that attempts to match up
the individual songs are complicated by the fact that Blake himself changed the
order of the poems several times, moving some from Innocence to Experience.
Smith suggests that Blake was ‘constantly highlighting different paths through
the innocent world,’ rather than pointing to one final, ideal arrangement of
the poems” (Trudeau).
I like the
different viewpoints that this author shared.
It helped me to see the works in not just a spiritual viewpoint, but in
historical context and the meaning of the works in relation to society.
Lastly,
another essay written by Kate, uses very specific examples of poems in relation
to the terms “innocence” and “experience.”
She writes “Innocence and Experience are in opposition to each other.
Innocence is the child, unspoiled by society. Experience is what becomes of the
child when it comes in contact with society” (Kate). The focus of her essay is the comparison and
contrast of the two poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.” She shares her thoughts on these poems and
the symbolism used in them. She relates
“The Lamb” to innocence and Christ. The
people and animals in the poem all live harmoniously together without any
sorrow, pain, fear, or night. “They
Tyger,” in contrast, has undertones of experience, with fear and
nighttime. The two poems are opposites
of each other, yet still tie well together to balance each other out, as what
one lacks, the other has.
Principal Critics
S.
Foster Damon was an American critic and poet who specialized in William
Blake. He graduated from Harvard and
became an English instructor. His works
include A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and
Symbols of William Blake and William
Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols.
Both of these works are invaluable guides on the ideas and symbolism
that Blake shares and uses. He led a
successful career at Brown University. The school’s website has a page about him and
states, “with his interest in alchemy and spiritualism, [he] was especially
qualified to expound ‘the esoteric side of Blake's genius,’ and placed Blake ‘in
his historical earthly setting with true biographical art.’ Damon was to become one of the world's leading
authorities on Blake, publishing several influential books during the course of
his career” (Mitchell).
Algernon
Charles Swinburne, an English critic and writer, wrote William Blake: A Critical Essay in 1868. It contains a comprehensive criticism of
Blake’s poems and prophetic books.
Before writing this book, he assisted Alexander Gilchrist, an author of
a biography on William Blake. “Swinburne
helped prepare Gilchrist’s biography of Blake for publication, but he grew to
dislike the finished book. His disgust culminated in the publication of his own
assessment of Blake’s life and work a few years later. Swinburne’s book is
useful for its commentary on Blake’s prophetic poems‚ works largely ignored by
Gilchrist‚ as well as for its characterization of Blake as a rebel”
(biblioboard.com). His contribution has
remained a valuable recourse for those studying William Blake and his works.
Alexander
Gilchrist wrote the classic biography, The
Life of William Blake. His interest
in Blake’s life began while he was still relatively young. “As
a student, Gilchrist had heard rumours of Blake as the eccentric erstwhile
occupant of Fountain Court, which he passed through every day on the way to his
legal chambers” (guardian.co.uk). He
later decided to begin his great work of a biography on Blake. He spent years compiling materials and
interviewing Blake’s living friends. He
died before the work was completed, so his wife, Anne Gilchrist, finished it
for him. It was published in 1863 and
continues to be “a standard reference work on the poet” (Wikipedia.org).
Creative Response
I created a
video of Blake's illustrations for Songs
of Innocence and of Experience.
Websites
The William Blake Archive
This website contains an archive of information regarding William Blake’s life, works, and news.
The Blake Society
This is a blog containing information about William Blake, and different projects and events the society is involved in.
Poetry Foundation
This website has extensive information with a biography, bibliography, analyses on various works, and references about William Blake. His poems are also available to read or listen to as podcasts.
William-Blake.org
This website has a biography, his complete works, and a beautiful slideshow of Blake’s artwork. It also shares links for related pages, museums, and exhibitions.
Friends of Blake
This website is for a group that is involved with various issues relating to William Blake. Their aim is to raise awareness of Blake’s work and the different historical sites associated with him.
Works Cited
Bibliooard.com. William
Blake: A Critical Essay, by Algernon Charles Swinburne.
This website contains information
about Algernon Charles Swinburne, biographer, expert and researcher on William
Blake. Also contains the Ancient of Days painting by William
Blake that I used.
BlakeArchive.org. Chronology.
June 14, 2012.
This website contains a detailed
chronology of William Blake’s life and works.
The Book of Mormon. 1987. Print.
This
book contains teachings about opposition I used to compare Blake’s beliefs
about opposition in Songs of Innocence
and of Experience.
Greenblatt, Stephen, et al. Norton Anthology of English Literature,
Eighth Editions, Volume D. W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. Print.
This book contains a brief biography
of William Blake.
Guardian.co.uk. Saving
Blake. May 28, 2004.
This website contains information
about Alexander Gilchrist’s extensive work and research on Blake’s biography.
HumanitiesWeb.org. Chronology.
January 13, 2012.
This website contains a detailed
chronology of William Blake’s life and works.
Kate. William Blake -
Songs Of Innocence And Experience – Essay. April 13, 2010.
This blog contains a student’s essay
about Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of
Experience.
Mitchell, Martha. Encyclopedia Brunoniana – S. Foster Damon. 1993.
This website contains information on
S. Foster Damon, an expert on William Blake.
Phillips, Thomas. William
Blake. 1807.
This website
contains the portrait I used of William Blake.
PoetryFoundation.org. William
Blake. 2011.
This website contains a biography of
William Blake, a bibliography, samples of his works, and additional resources
available about him.
Poets.org. William
Blake. 1997-2012.
This website contains a brief
biography of William Blake’s life.
Sagar, Keith. Innocence
and Experience. 2002.
This website contains an essay that
Sagar wrote about Songs of Innocence and
of Experience.
Skoletorget.no. The
Life and Works of William Blake. February 13, 2004.
This website contains a short
biography of William Blake and sections of information about his different
poems and artwork.
Trudeau, Lawrence J. Songs
of Innocence and of Experience. 2005.
This website contains information
about the context, history, and major themes of Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
Wikipedia.org. Alexander
Gilchrist. February 24, 2012.
This website contains information
about Alexander Gilchrist, a biographer and expert on William Blake.
Wikipedia.org. The Life
of William Blake. February 24,
2012.
This website contains information
about The Life of William Blake, the
biography written by Alexander Gilchrist.
Wikispaces.com. Songs
of Innocence, Songs of Experience. 2000-2006
This website contains an essay on
Blake’s work, Songs of Innocence and of
Experience.
William-Blake.org. Biography.
2002-2012.
This website contains a biography of
William Blake through different stages of his life.
