...London. He placed one poem in the Songs of Innocence and the other in the Songs of Experience. Innocence and Experience were printed in two phases. In 1789, Blake published of The Songs of Innocence and in 1794, he decided to link them together. Blake, therefore, confirmed his interest in duality at the very beginning in the 1794 edition. When he acquired the fate of chimney sweeps as the topic for a poem in both Innocence and Experience, he gave us at least two ways of seeing and understanding the same social predicament. By comparing Blake’s two ‘Chimney Sweeper’ poems, we can get some logic of his state of mind around innocence and experience as ‘contrary states’. The sweep in Innocence doesn’t recognize the life in which he finds himself. “And my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry ‘Weep! ‘Weep!’ ‘Weep!” This is one of the many poetic strategies that Blake uses. The repetitive word ‘weep’ is used to show that the child’s language is not sufficient to make sense of his sorrowfulness. He does not know that he has been taught a fabricated language, which makes him believe that sorrow must be a fact of everyday life. Blake proposes that as there is a slight difference in the way the words sound to our ears, so there is little difference in what the words mean to the child. The tiny child who narrates the Song from Innocence, makes innocence a much more frightening state than experience. The chimney sweeper of Experience knows his position is one of ‘misery’ and...
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...William Blake “the Tyger” "The Tyger In this counterpart poem to “The Lamb” in Songs of Innocence Blake offers another view of God through His creation. Whereas the lamb implied God's tenderness and mercy, the tiger suggests His ferocity and power. In the poem ‘The Tyger” by William Blake written in 1794 William Blake utilizes quatrains in a fairytale like structure to highlight the triumphant human awareness in this hymn of purity. Blake lived a very religious life “The Blakes were dissenters and believed to have belonged to the Moravian Church.” I believe this influenced blakes life because the tiger in the poem “The Tyger” symbolizes how soft and cute it is, then tells it that God made it and how wonderful that is. This also influenced blake to question religion, politics, poetry itself, history, science, and philosophy. Even today “The Tyger” is read today “elementary students read it because it rhymes and it talks about tiger and high school students read it because of the difficulty”. The poem is very helpful and inspirational for both students and adults. “The tyger” was published with a series of poems called the “songs of experience” in 1794. Blake wrote these poems during the radical period which was a time of passion and imagination. The passion and imagination were the things that influenced blake to write. William blake uses alliteration in the poem “ Tyger Tyger burning bright” he uses it with the t’s and the b’s. The poem consists of six...
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...From Innocence to Experience Transformations occur all throughout life, from developing pimples as an adolescent, to a midlife crisis that changes everything. In John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, there is a transformation in all key elements of the book, from the rivers, to the tree, to the characters. Three specific young men experience change not just because of the transitions through adolescence. These changes also come about because of war, an injury, and guilt. All of these transformations are specifically seen in Leper, Phineas, and Gene. A minor but vital character, Elwin Lepellier, a young man still trying to mature, gets thrown into war and is devoured by its viciousness. Elwin Lepellier or Leper is introduced as a dreamy, eccentric, loner at Devon. He would much prefer exploring the world solo than being involved in a group. He may be a loner because he breaks down under pressure easily, which often times embarrasses him. When provoked by Finny to jump from the tree, he freezes. When the ball was pitched to him during blitzball, he refuses it. Leper would much rather stick to classic things like skiing (rather than walking) and enjoying nature such as the rivers and beaver dams. Though, after watching a video on the ski troops, Leper surprises everyone when he enlists for the army. Leper thinks the ski troops will be a great branch to join because he would be doing something he loved and supporting the war. Being the first boy from Devon to leave...
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...The Chimney Sweeper William Blake William Blake is one of the most famous poets in Romanticism era. This period witnessed the Science and Technology Innovation, leading to European Revolution in Europe. William Blake observed deeply and thoroughly changes in human life and he narrated these changes in his poems which typically painted a gloomy, miserable life of the children in the 19th century. However, embedded in this dark color are always the innocence and the optimism of the children hoping for a brighter future. One of his works is The Chimney Sweeper from “Songs of Innocence” which although described the life experience in the 19th century but it is still valid to the present time when millions of children in the third countries are exploited in toxic, life-threatened jobs paid under minimum standard wages. The Chimney Sweeper tells a story of a boy who first introduces some of his background and then tells about his friend named Tom with his dream of working as a chimney sweeper, darkening from head to toe, sleeping in the dark coffin, meeting the angel, wakening and continuing doing his tasks innocently. The main character was sold by his father when he was too young when he even knew how to speak. “Could scarcely cry “ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!”. I couldn’t imagine why on earth exists such a parent who could behave such cruelly. Just because his mother died young and his father was too poor. The Revolution led to thousand of factories established and provided surplus opportunities...
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...English 102-B12 LUO Spring 2014 Joseph P Garland Jr L23810423 MLA A literary analysis of “The Chimney Sweeper.” Social Injustice was rampant among chimney sweeps in 18th and 19th Century England... In the poem “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” This paper will evaluate and show the story and writing style dealing with social injustice. 1. Introduction a. The Chimney Sweeper 2. The Location and Era a. 18th and 19th Century England 3. Point of View a. Tom Dacre 4. Writing Style A. Lack of Rhyme 5. Conclusion William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” provides a view of extreme social injustice among children being used as chimney sweeps in 18th and 19th Century England. William Blake also in 1794 wrote “The Chimney Sweeper” in “Songs of Experience.” For this essay, the analysis will be of “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” written in 1789. This poem shows social injustice from the character’s eyes dealing with oppression, exploitations and death. The life that William Blake creates in “The Chimney Sweeper” is one of social and economic injustice, the use of child labor which leads to a society of that time being un-sympathetic to the needs of its children. Blake draws attention from the first stanza of the poem to a child that has already experienced the death of his mother and being sold into indentured servitude by the father before the child could even process the death and what...
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...At first glance, William Blake’s selection of poetry in Songs of Innocence and Experience seems to be vastly different than the satirical masterpiece that is Voltaire’s Candide. However, despite being very different works of literature, both of the pieces were created in the same time period, and in the same political and international climate (Blake and Lincoln). Both of the literary works are concerned with similar themes, and with the changing political and social climate in western Europe during the mid- to late-eighteenth century. The theme of innocence and the pain of acquiring knowledge is a common thread throughout both of the pieces, and reflect a an era of growing socio-political awareness that emphasized fact and reason over blind faith and mindless servitude. During the Middle Ages, Western Europe went through a religious transformation that led to a type of society that emphasized leading a virtuous life in the way the Bible instructs. One of the fundamental tenets of Christianity is the idea of original sin: that is, the original sin that Eve committed when she ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and convinced Adam to do the same, leading to their exile from the Garden of Eden. Knowledge was long considered dangerous by the Catholic Church, and the type and amount of information that the average person could attain was very limited. However, that all began to change during the Renaissance, which was a re-awakening of arts and sciences in Western Europe; the Renaissance...
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...Violence, Sorrow, Vice and Exploitation, Beauty, Fecundity and sinless, these are words that portray the innate duality that exists in William’s Blake Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence books towards Good and Evil, the former embodied by nature and the latest represented by the city. Blake's characters are happiest when they are surrounded by natural beauty and following their natural instincts; they are most oppressed when they are trapped in social or religious institutions or are subject to the horrors of urban living. Blake sees in the natural world an idyllic universe that can influence human beings in a positive manner. In the poem The Shepherd this near-perfect state of the world is clearly shown, the shepherd has a jubilant life surrounded by nature, “How sweet is the Shepherd‘s sweet lot!” (Line 1) Blake understands the shepherd as having a worthy life as he regards the simplicity of his life, the freedom he experiences while being able to roam around nature and the honest hard work that he does. Spring, celebrates the beauty and fecundity of nature and the blending of nature and man, this unification represents happiness hence it represents Good. “Sound the flute! Now it’s mute.”(Line 1 to 2) The sound of the flute represents harmony between the person making the music and the environment around him, when the person stops playing, the birds start singing, that is nature’s reply, harmony between the two. when Blake writes “Little Boy, Full of joy; Little Girl...
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...had one and only one destination: death. The symbolism in Blake’s poetry accurately reflects the cruel conditions of child labor and the environment of hostility in which these children lived and breathed every day, what the church meant in society in the 18th century, and the family dynamics. Clearly marking its importance by publishing multiple items on the subject, William Blake composed two poems about children working in the chimney sweeps both titled “The Chimney Sweeper”. The transition of emotions from the first “The Chimney Sweeper” to the second demonstrates an evolution from purity to exposure (Mayhew 1), which correlates directly to the title of the book in which these poems were published, “ Songs of Innocence and Experience.” Blake’s poetry appears to be detailed to a point where one begins to feel the emotions these people did, if only we could imagine. The vivid images he paints strike as surprising upon learning his background. William Blake had a limited education as did most children in the 18th century. He was schooled...
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...As an online William Blake fan, I receive at least one request per month from students asked to interpret William Blake's wonderful lyric, "The Tyger." The contrast with "The Lamb" is obvious. ("Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?" The answer is God, who became incarnate as Jesus the Lamb.) "The Tyger" asks, "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" And the answer is, "Yes, God made the Tyger too." To understand "The Tyger" fully, you need to know Blake's symbols. One of the central themes in his major works is that of the Creator as a blacksmith. This is both God the Creator (personified in Blake's myth as Los) and Blake himself (again with Los as his alter-ego.) Blake identified God's creative process with the work of an artist. And it is art that brings creation to its fulfillment -- by showing the world as it is, by sharpening perception, by giving form to ideas. Blake's story of creation differs from the Genesis account. The familiar world was created only after a cosmic catastrophe. When the life of the spirit was reduced to a sea of atoms, the Creator set a limit below which it could not deteriorate farther, and began creating the world of nature. The longer books that Blake wrote describe Los's creation of animals and people within the world of nature. One particularly powerful passage in "Milton" describes Los's family weaving the bodies of each unborn child. In believing that creation followed a cosmic catastrophe and a fall of spiritual...
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...The Lamb” by William Blake Poetry Thesis and Outline I. Introduction – a. Thesis: Blake’s “The Lamb” is a Christian based poem that encompasses several components of Christ’s powerful character. b. Transition 2. Theme – Powerful characteristics of the Lamb a. Jesus the little Lamb, creator of the world (line 1) b. Jesus the little Lamb, provider of the world (line 3) c. Jesus the little Lamb, protector (line 4) stream and o’er the mead parallels to valleys d. Jesus the little Lamb, light of the world (6) e. Jesus the little Lamb, meek and mild (line 15) f. Jesus the little Lamb, child (16) savior of the world g. Jesus the little Lamb, sustainer of the world (line 3) h. Jesus the little Lamb takes away sin (line 14) “For he calls himself a Lamb.” i. Jesus the little Lamb, gentle (line 15 & 16) 3. Title- Christian based title encompassing several components of Christ’s powerful character. a. The Lamb title is important to the context of the poem and sets the tone. b. The Lamb – meaning is Jesus. Originally, published as an art work with a young boy feeding the lambs surrounded by branches and intertwined trees beside a small stream. Context of title supports the Lamb’s powerful characteristics of provider, gentle, light of the world and sustainer as the picture portrays all things working in harmony and unity. c. The Lamb – context is Jesus and spiritual providing insight to the character of God through the descriptions of the Lamb. 4. Setting...
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...William Blake wrote two poems with different versions of the Chimney Sweeper. They both describe the lives of two children who clean chimneys and live a harsh life. Blake uses poetic devices such as imagery, tone, symbolism and allusions throughout the poems. In both versions of the poems images of death are demonstrated using the color black. In the version of 1789, Blake says, “were all lock’d up in coffins of black.”, a in the version of 1794, Blake says, “little black thing among the snow”. This demonstrates the soot of the children walking in the snow, maybe going from home to home cleaning chimneys. Moreover, in the 1789 version he illustrates the chimneys ass black like coffins maybe because they are both claustrophobic and very dark. Since the chimneys are very small and pitch dark due to the soot. In addition, in the 1794 version, the kid says “ they clothed me in the clothes of death,”, this tells us that chimney sweepers live with fear throughout their job. This also says that chimney sweepers can die sooner than the average person who is not exposed to the soot. Soot is a black powdery substance containing amorphous carbon made from the burning of organic material. Being inside a small space with this substance may become overtime, mortal.it may cause respiratory problems, since they are inhaling a lot of this powder which may lead to getting lung cancer and in a matter of years dying. Moreover, the kid by saying “they” he refers to his parents who back in the...
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...Alvin Brown Mr. Wylie English 102 02/26/14 Innocence to Experience Growing up is not an easy process. We all may face problems or difficulties, and things almost never go our way. In the short story ‘’A&P’’ by John Updike, the hormone driven teenager Sammy who becomes mesmerized my three girls who walks in wearing ‘’nothing but bathing suits’’ (131). As a result, his imagination begins to run wild. He allows the provocatively dressed young girls to affect his judgment and he makes a decision that he will soon regret. He will eventually find out that with age comes experience, but it will then be too late. The major literary devices Updike uses in the short story are characterization and symbolism. It was a normal, hot, summer day in a small town while at work ‘’A&P Super Market’’ in she walks. ‘’She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs’’ (131). He has already analyzed her entire body in just moments of her entering the store. Sammy then goes beyond measures to gain the attention from the young lady, Queenie. He follows the girls with his eyes from the register all the way around the store. ‘’The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle—the girls were walking against the usual traffic’’ (132). He feels as if the people of his small town are accustomed to doing...
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...discussed ethical questions are about life, innocence and experience. The purpose of this discussion is to demonstrate that experience can improve human life where disappointment is the essential passage from innocence to experience. Admittedly it is going to far to assert that experience also can't improve the life, for instance if a little boy affront to be subjected to the war, he could be psychologically shock for all his life. In this sense experience can destroy the future boy life. The disappointment has for result the experience which is something indelible in our memory. In the following pages we will first look at the relationship between innocence and experience at the beginning of life before seeing that all the illusions of childhood are destroyed by a gain of experience in the beginning of adulthood. To qualify experience through human life, we have firstly to define it. The notion of experience is, of course, quite difficult to determine. But , according to some people, it is the experience of our own being. In this sense, it exists a need of experience, demonstrated by Shopenhawer ( French philosopher), which is a constituent of our humanity. Indeed, experience is a fact of acquiring a moral knowledge, a process which starts at your birth. Now we will try to describe children' innocence trough his environment, his world and the gap which separated his perception to reality. Childhood is a period of experience and innocence. A young person will not evaluate what happen...
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...contrariety of systems with regard to human soul and the other objects of creation. This characteristic has been reflected in his “Songs of Innocence and of Experience”. The contrariety of human soul is the striking point of the songs. The study of the poems in the two groups shows the two contrary states of human soul. In the ‘Song of Innocence’ Blake depicts the happiness and innocence of a child, to the child the world is a world of simplicity, innocence, purity, happiness and security. In this stage of life love radiates the human soul and it mitigates human sufferings. But the ‘Songs of experience’ are totally apart from the childlike vision of the ‘Songs of Innocence’. The world in the ‘Songs of experience’ is a world of cruelty, tyranny, repression, evil, guilt and suffering. Here instead of joy and innocence, there is misery and oppression. In the ‘Song of Innocence’ life, is delighting and free. Although fear is not necessarily totally absent from this world, but when danger threatens parent figure is at hand to console and to comfort but the protective guardian that we find in the ‘Songs of Experience’. Now we can look at the songs how the poet treats, with his excellent use of symbols, the stages and how the first turns to the second. At the very introductory poem of the innocence, we are informed the nature of innocence. The setting of the poem is natural, pastoral and joyful, and it is about the children under the guidance of God, as ‘a child’ and ‘lamb’ represent...
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...Loss of Innocence Ones loss of innocence can be over time or lost by an abrupt choice. In the two books Fahrenheit 451 and Catcher in the Rye both characters lose their innocence over time by the choices they make. Guy Montag the main character in F451 loses his innocence over time by collecting books without even knowing which is against the system he lives in. Holden Caulfield also loses his innocence over time by growing up into an adult and tries to save children’s innocence throughout the book. Even though ones loss of innocence can be made by an abrupt choice, ones loss of innocence in these two books is a gradual experience. The concept of innocence is one that is applied to childhood. Children, for example, are innocent because they have not been tainted by the idea that the world is not as it seems to be. But, as children grow up and mature fully into adults, the loss of this pure quality of innocence begins to be noticed in a person’s life. As this awareness comes forth, it shows that life is not always easy, it is complicated and there will be tough moral decisions that have to be made. Holden Caulfield the main character of Catcher in the Rye wants to preserve innocence so he dedicates his life to protecting childhood innocence. In Chapter two Mr. Spencer tells Holden, “Life is game that one plays according to the rules”. Holden does not believe that life is a game he believes that life is dictated by adults. These adults are phony and cruel and he does not...
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