"The Tyger" at the British Library

The Sick Rose and others

article on Blake's art

 

 

Here's where you write your thoughts on William Blake's biography (pages 150-152 in the Longman anthology) and on your choice of poem or section of a longer work (see pages 152-208).

 

I thought William Blake had a great career as a poet considering he had no formal education. I couldn't choose a poem so I looked at all of them. I like the way he uses imagery in all his poems. -Keely Chow

 

I liked the section of the poem, ****All Religions Are One**** Plate 7 was really cool!! It says that one cannot find out the unknown by traveling known lands and the same goes for knowledge! I think it was a cool way of elaborating the way knowledge grows! -Andi|

 

The fact that William Blake had no formal education yet still wrote amazing poems is a very envious skill to me. I read the poem Mary. It wasn't included in the pages we were supposed to read but it is listed at the end of William Blake'b biography. I loved this poem. It really gave me a sense of that time period and the way Blake thought Wollstonecraft felt about her life and how it felt to be a female writer of that time. -Erin

 

The time and devotion which William Blake invested into his works is astounding to me. With his works produced and bound solely by hand, Blake shows his great passion for presenting his works exactly has he envisioned they should be. I read "On Anothers Sorrow." I found this poem to exemplify the strong religious messages that I believe many writers of the time wished to portray. The poem seemed to allude inadequacies of man to deal with the sorrows of this world. It seemed to conclude that joy and comfort could be found in an unnamed individual which I can only assume is Jesus Christ. -kristopher

 

The poem that I found the most interesting was Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper." This poem seems at first depressing and morbid in many aspects. It speaks of death and being "locked up in coffins of black." But then the poem goes on about an Angel coming and freeing the people in the coffins, and the people running joyously in a place that represents Heaven. Blake's poem shows his deep religious views and is actually not depressing at all, instead it gives a positive aspect on the fact that their is something after we die. -Mary

 

I liked that William Blake wrote so well with no education. I liked "My Pretty Rose Tree." It's a small poem but it made me laugh a little bit. ---Toby

 

i read the divine image and dont know what i read but i would like to it was the poem that really caught my eye im goin to read it more to see if i understand it. if anyway else read it just let me know what you got from it.......tonya

 

Andrew Hardiman -- I found it interesting that Blake was one of those personalities who found little respect outside the "inner circles" in his lifetime. Only notable writers such as Coleridge, Lamb, and Wordsworth admired his word while he was alive. He was ignored by the public for his rebellious and unconventional writing and interest in him did not grow until around the Civil War era, a good 35 years after his death. I also thought it was interesting that his two most popular works, Songs of Innocence and of Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell were published in a total of 36 copies because of the unusual copper plates he had them published on. The poem "The Chimney Sweeper" on page 161 caught my attention because of the mention that the main character was sold into work by his parents. Trying to imagine such a deed is hard, and this very concept represents the large differences in today's culture and the one in which Blake wrote.

 

matt -- I thought that William Blake had a great career considering he didn't have a formal education. The poem "London" on page 179, made me feel that I was in London just walking down a street corner. Blake did a fabulous job of using imagery to portray his message he was trying to get across.

 

I've read a few of his poems, and one that stuck in the back of my mind was "There is No Natural Religion." I think that his point that all we can do is perceive and desire is what was cool. I think the only thing that separates us from just being organs and animals is our ability to inhibit our desires. I disagree with him on the point that we are limited to just objects of sense. I think that there are things unexplained that move us. Not just senses. How else do we find our aspirations?---Chase

 

 

I read all of the selections of William Blake's poems, and the one that stood out the most to me was "The GARDEN of LOVE". I like how the poem suggests that the narrator has been to the "Garden of Love" before, but now it is different and the sweet flowers (which I belive to represent sin and temptation) were all gone and replaced with graves. I think that the graves represent sinners and the narrator is having to give up his "joys and desires" to get into the Chapel and prevent from being in one of those in the graves.

I'm not sure if this interpretation is what William Blake had intended, but it's what I get when I read the poem... ~Julie

 

 

I read several of Blakes poems (The clod and the pebble, Nurses Song and sick rose) but none were as, er, disturbed we shall say, as Infant Sorrow, until i came home and read it. At first, (as I was at work reading this) it was about the death of an infant and the sorrow of the family, but after a cup of strong coffee (and a beer) i understand that the poem refers instead to an infant new born who constently cries, and cries, and cries... I figure he wrote this shortly after he had one of his kids, either in joy or sorrow or both. Chris H.

 

 

At first glance, reading the biography of William Blake gave the impression that he was a crazy man, seeing visions & people who had passed on years before. But as it later on explained that he was "an avid reader" & had learned three languages, it became clear that he wasn't crazy. He just had a very powerful imagination, which is apparent in his poems written. Some common themes recognized throughout the collection given in the book are a disconnect with nature, children lost & found, misery in people & situations, as well as an apparent disagreement with the way religion was "run" during his time. The poem I chose at random was "LONDON." Blake incorporated his "misery" theme into this poem, telling of "marks of weakness, marks of woe" in "every face I meet." He conveys feelings of defeat & hopelessness in the people of London, during or after Britain's conflict with France, which is sad because no one should ever feel hopeless. That is what I got from the poem. - Natalie Raymond

 

I enjoyed looking at the plates that William Blake created. It was a much more time consuming process, but it shows that he was dedicated to his idea that illustration was part of his writing. I read several of Blakes poems. I enjoyed On Another's Sorrow. I felt that it showed the influence that religion had on Blake. It conveys a conforting sense that sorrow and hardship is never endured by just one individual. Matthew M

 

It is incredible that the man was not widely liked during his life time. And even after his death, no one knew who he was. His work really must have been something special to become recognized and popular so long after. Maybe every one forgot how crazy he was and thought his style was that of an ingenious sane man instead of a crazed lunatic. All in all, it doesn’t seem like he had a whole lot going for him while he was on earth. His poems are pretty good. I read through most of them. A couple took a few times through to grasp but good overall. -Ian

 

William Blake seemed like a very interesting and smart man. To be able to teach yourself so many different things is a remarkable task. The poems that most seemed to stick out were the ones that had illustration with them, having a visual with what you are reading makes the reading that much more enjoyable. -J.Weaver

 

I read "On Anothers Sorrow" by Blake and found it interesting how he first started off by showing compassion that humans have for one another and then using the same concept for birds. The use of birds not only shows that all living creatures are capable of compassion but also makes the reader to start thinking skyward, or heavenly. The poem reinforces the fact that God is our father and shows the same compassion to all, just as a mother or father would show to their children. -Kristina

 

 

I read "Nurses Song." It was on of the few that I actually understood. William Blake seemed to be a very complicated man with a habit of making people mad, but his poems do not reflect that. To me, "Nurses Song" shows the love of a person towards a child. It basically says that that person just wants to see children playing and be happy.-Calen

 

I think this is better than blake's pannels...

 

 

could be that Shigeru Miyamoto is Blake reincarnated...?

Nah, this stuff is way too good to be his doings.lol.

 

Blake would have had a myspace...