Introduction to Songs of Innocence by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The very first poem of the illustrative poetic collection Songs of Innocence by William Blake is titled ‘Introduction.’ In this poem, the poet explains the purpose and inspiration behind the poetry that he wrote for the book. Songs of Innocence is the first part of the later enlarged poetic collection Songs of Innocence and Experience; the two contrary states of the human soul. The whole theme of the poetic collection is that though a human being is innocent and pure during his infancy and childhood, he is prone to corruption and falls into the corrupt ways of the world as he grows old. Songs of Innocence is written in a pastoral setup. In the introductory poem, the narrator is described as a piper. He is happily piping when he sees a child on a cloud. The child asks him to pipe a song about a lamb, and when he does sing, the child weeps on hearing it. Again, the child asks the piper to sing and he sings the same song. The boy begins laughing with joy. The boy then demands that the narrator write his songs down so that "every child may joy to hear" them. Such fluent, creative joy, the poem suggests, is part of what innocence is all about. But darker notes in the poem remind readers that childlike innocence must also confront a world of pain and suffering.

Contrasting the figure of the Piper of Songs of Innocence, the introductory figure of Songs of Experience is the Bard.

Structure of Introduction to Songs of Innocence:

The poem is written in the form of a lyric. It is a 20-line poem set in five quatrains (four lines each). Some of these quatrains are written in heroic stanza form. The poem is written in trochaic tetrameter. There is no fixed rhyming scheme. Stanzas 1 and 4 follow the “ABAB” pattern, while stanzas 2, 3, and 5 use an “ABCB” pattern. This nursery rhyme shape suits a poem of childlike glee and creative inspiration.

It is the frontispiece of Songs of Innocence and works as the preface of the collection, giving a brief idea of the whole collection. In Hear Thy Voice (Introduction to Songs of Experience) the speaker describes his conversation with the Bard. Introduction to Songs of Innocence is structured as a dialogue between the narrator and the boy of vision which is described by the narrator to his audience. The poet has used Imagery, Symbolism, Allusion, Repetition, and Metaphor in the poem.

Summary of Introduction to Songs of Innocence:

Stanza 1 and 2 Lines 1-8

“Piping down the valleys wild

Piping songs of pleasant glee

On a cloud I saw a child.

And he laughing said to me.

Pipe a song about a Lamb;

So I piped with merry chear,

Piper pipe that song again—

So I piped, he wept to hear.”

The poet envisions himself as a shepherd who happily pipes the songs of happiness “down the valleys wild.” While doing so, he sees a vision of a boy sitting on a cloud. The poet feels that the child is admiring the song he is piping. The boy requests the shepherd to pipe another song about a Lamb. Blake used Allusion here. The ‘Lamb’ also refers to God, alluding to the innocence and the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the cross. The ‘valleys wild’ symbolizes the poem's rural, rustic, pastoral setting. The piper was happy finding an audience so he piped the song cheerfully. The boy asked him to pipe the song again and the piper obliged. But this time, the boy was sad as he thought about the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

“Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe

Sing thy songs of happy chear,

So I sung the same again

While he wept with joy to hear ”

The narrator gets enchanted by the boy of vision. The boy requests again to sing the song about the Lamb. He asks the piper to “Drop his pipe” and sing his “songs of happy chear.” The shepherd realizes the divine nature of the boy from vision and he immediately obeys the request made by the boy. When the piper sings the song of Lamb, the child weeps again but this time, it is the cry of joy. The boy is too happy by the beauty of the song.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

“Piper sit thee down and write

In a book that all may read— 

So he vanish'd from my sight. 

And I pluck'd a hollow reed.”

In the stanzas 1-4, the narrator explains the inspiration and purpose of his writing the songs and poems that he wrote for the collection. He describes his conversation with the boy of vision that he saw sitting on a cloud. This conversation ends in the fourth stanza. The boy, after hearing the cheerful song of the piper, suggests him that he should “sit down and write” the songs he has created. The child suggests that he write them down “In a book that all may read”. The purpose is to spread the innocence and peity of these songs to a greater audience. The piper obliges again. The piper picks a hollow reed to use it as a pen.

Stanza 5 Lines 17-20
“And I made a rural pen,

And I stain'd the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear”

The piper picked up a ‘hollow reed’ and used it as a ‘rural’ or not sophisticated pen. He used the clear water as stained ink. Here the poet used allusion again. Using the reed for a pen and stained water for the ink alludes to the act of creation to nature. The easily acquired tools provided by the natural world serve to emphasize the spontaneity of the works in Songs of Innocence. The narrator explains his purpose is to let every child have the joy of hearing these songs of innocence.

The poet also employed Parallelism in the poem. The shepherd's progression from piping, to singing, and finally to writing parallels the poet's own progression from inspiration, the music, to the initial composition of the poem, the lyrics, and finally the creative act of putting the words in poetic form.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Hear thy Voice by William Blake | Introduction to the Songs of Experience

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Hear thy Voice’ is the first poem of the illustrated poetic collection Songs of Experience by William Blake which was published in 1794. Blake combined his two collections Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in the same year and republished them. Hear Thy Voice is the first poem or frontispiece of Songs of Experience and it is also known as Introduction to the Songs of Experience. The very first poem offers the contrast between the two separate collections. While Blake wrote Songs of Innocence at an early age and most of those poems are written more simply to resonate with younger audiences, the poems of Songs of Experience are more captivating with rich and intricate symbolism, imagery, and metaphoric mysticism.

Blake wrote Songs of Innocence while opposing the idea of Original Sin and suggested that childhood is a protected state of innocence but it is not immune to the corrupt ways of the fallen world and its institutions. Thus, he stressed the importance of children's literature and juvenile education. His idea of innate innocence and goodness in human beings became the centerstone of Romanticism.

The Illustrative figure of Hear Thy Voice shows the same shepherd and winged child from the “Innocence” frontispiece. But the shepherd has captured the winged child and wrestled him firmly upon his head, pinning his arms to the earth, restricting his flying. The poem suggests that contemporary ideas and reason have restricted the creativity and imagination of people and they must raise their voice. Hear Thy Voice is an invocation to all of humankind to cast off their degenerate condition of suffering and blindness and to begin to self-govern the material universe (“fallen fallen light renew”) instead of remaining its prisoner.

Structure of Hear Thy Voice:

Blake used the Iambic tetrameter for this poem consisted of 20 lines set in four stanzas of five lines each. The poem has a consistent rhyme scheme of ABAAB in each stanza. Blake used Personification, Anthropomorphism, Symbolism, Imagery, Alliteration, and Repetition in this poem along with some illustrious Metaphors. The poem is structured as a dialogue between the Bard and the speaker. The Bard is a symbol of inspiration and creativity, while the speaker represents an individual who is struggling to find their voice. The dialogue between the two is meant to inspire the speaker and help them find their creative voice.

Summary of Hear Thy Voice:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-5

“HEAR the voice of the Bard,
Who present, past, and future, sees;
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word
That walk'd among the ancient trees;”

The speaker suggests that one should hear the wise words of the Bard who has seen the present, past, and future, he is omniscient. The Bard heard the almighty and his ‘Holy Word’ that were meant to govern and bully all of mankind. Blake accuses the almighty of being an oppressive tyrant father figure. In line 5, Blake used Allusion to the Garden of Eden (“the ancient trees”) where Adam and Eve were punished for eating a fruit from the ancient tree. Blake used Capitalization with the beginning word (HEAR) to emphasize the importance of what the Bard has to say. The Bard appears to be some mystical person with cosmical awareness, who sees the present, past, and future.

Stanza 2 Lines 6-10

“Calling the lapsed soul,
And weeping in the evening dew;
That might control
The starry pole,
And fallen, fallen light renew!”

The poet explores the fallen state of humanity in this poem and calls him a ‘lapsed soul’. The sad humanity has been evicted from the state of innocence and hence has lost the connection with the divine. Thus, humanity weeps in the evening dew. The imagery suggests a compassionate feeling towards the human who just lost his innocence and fell for the corrupt world. Blake continues his Allusion to the Garden of Eden which is comparable to the state of innocence (childhood). He describes the expulsion from Eden and the individual’s loss of innocence upon becoming aware of mortality. The souls have fallen into sin and away from heaven.

The fallen man has a strong desire to ‘control the starry pole’, or to regain a sense of order, reason, and spiritual guidance that he lost in the fall. As he falls, he finds darkness all around and thus makes an earnest plea to ‘renew’ the light. The light is innocence, and the man requests for the restoration of the lost state of innocence, emphasizing the impact of individual awareness on the forfeiture of carefree childhood innocence.

Blake used metaphors (Starry Pole) for reason and spiritual guidance. ‘Weeping in the evening dew’ is a fine example of imagery. ‘Fallen, fallen light renew’ is an example of alliteration.

Stanza 3 Lines 11-15

“'O Earth, O Earth, return!
Arise from out the dewy grass!
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumbrous mass.”

The Bard notices that the man is not able to stand again and thus he addresses the Earth. Blake used Anthropomorphism, casting Earth as a representation of the Divine Feminine. He tries to awaken the earth and ‘arise from out the dewy grass.’ The Bard offers an imagery of Divine earth sleeping in the dewy grass as if in hibernation which suggests the subjugation of the feminine by the patriarchial religious and societal setup. The Bard calls the feminine to arise and revolt. He says that the night is passing while the morning is arising from the ‘slumbrous mass’ which symbolizes a spiritual and feminine renaissance.

Stanza 4 Lines 16-20

“'Turn away no more;
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watery shore,
Is given thee till the break of day.'”

The Bard again addresses Humanity and exhorts that humans must face the truth and must not turn away from it. “Turn away no more,” serves as a fervent plea, urging a cessation of avoidance or denial. The subsequent question, “Why wilt thou turn away,” adds a contemplative dimension, compelling humans to think why should they turn away or should they?

‘The starry floor’ and ‘watery shore’ suggest the limitless extent of a creative mind that the man can use if he breaks off the shackles. The Bard further warns that this opportunity is temporal or time-bound, this freedom that humans can enjoy is of a fleeting nature and thus humans must grab it. Instead of blaming themselves for being sinful, humans must attain pleasure through their creative capacities. The creator argues that the fall of humanity is a result of sin but the Bard counters, saying it is due to the creator’s restricted visions of inspiration and spirit and his lack of permission and allowance in a law-governed society.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

A Cradle Song by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. A Cradle Song is a poem by William Blake from his Illustrated collection Songs of Innocence published in 1789. It is a 32-line poem that can be sung as a lullaby that a mother normally sings while rocking her infant to sleep.

The poem offers two contrasting feelings and thoughts in a balance. On one hand, the narrator is at peace with her child, trying to make him sleep. All the ‘little sorrows’ and worries ‘sit and weep’ during the night as everything is calm and peaceful. However, as the dawn breaks, the peace is "stolen" from the child, and "cunning wiles" creep into the child's heart. Blake offered a contrast of day and night in his book Songs of Innocence and continued developing his theory of contraries and their importance that he postulated in his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The mother is aware of her inability to alter or stop her child from growing up in this world and losing all of his/her innocence. She is aware of the sinful world her baby will grow up and eventually die in and that is why she cries while her sweet baby sleeps in the cradle. Blake uses the word ‘sweet’ ten times in the poem, suggesting the angelic innocence of the baby that will be lost when the child grows up.

Structure of A Cradle Song:

It is a 32-line poem set in 8 stanzas or quatrains (4 lines each). The poem follows a simple rhythm scheme of AABB in each quatrain. Blake employed the couplet structure in A Cradle Song in which each pair of lines rhyme. This couplet form offers a Cadence (the natural rhythm of a piece of text, created through a writer’s selective arrangement of words, rhymes, and meter) to the poem. Blake used Alliteration, Anaphora, Allusion, Assonance, Consonance, Enjambment, Imagery, Symbolism, Metaphor, and Simile in the poem.

Summary of A Cradle Song:

Stanza 1 and 2 (Lines 1-8)

“Sweet dreams, form a shade

O'er my lovely infant's head!

Sweet dreams of pleasant streams

By happy, silent, moony beams!

Sweet Sleep, with soft down

Weave thy brows an infant crown!

Sweet Sleep, angel mild,

Hover o'er my happy child!”

The speaker is a mother who is singing a lullaby to encourage her infant to sleep. She tells the baby that it will be wonderful if he sleeps as nothing but sweet dreams and smiles hovering over him in his sleep. The mother says she can trace an angelic figure over her child who is sleeping happily, as if the angel is there to protect the child.

Both the stanzas begin with the word sweet which is repeated again in the third line of each stanza. In the first quatrain, the narrator emphasizes sleep and how it brings sweetness. In the second stanza, the mother enjoys the sight of happiness on the face of her sleeping infant. The brows of sleep over the child’s face appear like a crown to her and she could sense the presence of an angelic or divine figure, protecting the child, hovering over the infant.

Blake used Anaphora in the first two stanzas, repeating the phrases ‘Sweet dreams’ and ‘Sweet sleep’ at the beginning of the first and third line of both stanzas. Consonance is used in the opening line (Sweet dreams, form a shade) with repetition of the sound / d / in quick succession.

In the third line, the repetition of the vowel sound / e / (Sweet dreams of pleasant streams) and in the 8^th line, the vowel sound of / o / (Hover over my happy child) have been repeated making use of Asonance. Enjambment has been used in both of the quatrains. Blake used metaphor and personification suggesting the sleep has brows that hover over her infant. These quatrains offer imagery and symbolism of motherly love towards her child.

Stanza 2 and 3 Lines (9-16)

“Sweet smiles, in the night
Hover over my delight!
Sweet smiles, mother's smiles,
All the livelong night beguiles.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes!
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dovelike moans beguiles.”
The narrator observes that sweet periods of sleep at night bring a sweet smile to the face of her infant and that delights her as she smiles. The peaceful night and the calmness of her sleeping child beguiles her and she wishes the night remain lifelong, her child may always remain peaceful and innocent like he is appearing right now when he is sleeping in the peaceful night. She is all protective and wishes that her child should be completely innocent with the experience of ‘woe,’ he should not face any suffering. Her child is moaning like a dove in his sleep and that enchants her, as if the child is an angel, may be the Christ himself. 
Blake began introducing Allusion to Christ in the fourth quatrain. Anaphora has been continued with ‘Sweet smiles’ repeated in the first and third line of 3rd stanza and ‘Sweet moans’ in the first and third line of 4th stanza. The first four stanzas each begin with the word “sweet” which is repeated in the third line, but moves from “Sweet dreams” to “Sweet sleep” to “Sweet smiles” to “Sweet moans.” This suggests a progression from the world of innocence to experience. In the fourth stanza, Blake used Simile  suggesting the sighs of the infant are like doves, or moans are beguiling like doves.

Stanza 5 and 6 (Lines 17-24)

“Sleep, sleep, happy child!
All creation slept and smiled.
Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,
While o'er thee thy mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace;
Sweet babe, once like thee
Thy Maker lay, and wept for me:”
As the child sighs and moans, the mother gets worried that he may get awake. Thus she begins to sing for her child to sleep. She says all creation of God has slept, you should also sleep. She says that though you have your own suffering to bear in future, you have to face all of them as it is already destined by the Almighty God for you. However, the mother comforts herself by believing that her baby is fresh from God. He can still see him. Just as she smiles on her baby, Jesus Christ also smiles at him. This way, she forgets the reason for her weeping. The mother can trace the image of Christ mirrored in her child’s face. She says that once Jesus was also a child and she could see the ‘holy image’ on her infant’s face. The stanza alludes the mother to be Virgin Marry and her infant Christ. However, despite her infant’s angelic face, she weeps because she is very well aware of the fact that her child is fated to grow up, suffer the pains and pangs of his part, and then will die. Though she can do her best to protect her child, and calm herself, the hard reality is that he will have to face what God has destined for him.
She further says that even the Christ was also born like her infant, he wept for all of us, but he also saved all of us. Christ also faced the sufferings of crucifixion and execution, but he bore all these sufferings for the welfare of the human race.
Stanza 7 and 8 (Lines 25-32)
“Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When He was an infant small.
Thou His image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee!

Smiles on thee, on me, on all,
Who became an infant small;
Infant smiles are His own smiles;
Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.”
In these lines, the poet moves away from the child while exclaiming the greatness of Christ. In the beginning, the mother was singing her child to sleep. She was enchanted by her infant’s angelic face. Now she compares her child’s sleep, smiles, and suffering of her child with Jesus Christ. She says that just as the child weeps, Jesus Christ also “Wept for me, for thee, for all, When he was an infant small.” He too had a heavenly face like the child. She mentions how earth and heaven are in complete harmony and at peace, thanks to the sufferings of Jesus, who bore it all for us.
The theme of the poem changes from motherly care to the human perspective of God and how ‘woe and joy’ the two contraries, are essential parts of life, none can be avoided. 
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

To Summer by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. To Summer is the second lyric poem of William Blake’s collection Poetical Sketches which was published in 1783. In his Season Songs, William Blake gave a hint of the major characters of his personal mythology. In the first poem, he invokes Spring which turns out to be an embodiment of Tharmas, one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. Tharmas or Spring is the peaceful embodiment of sensation and youthfulness. Next comes Summer, which can be equated to Blake’s mythological creature Orc—the embodiment of passion and energy, and the opposition to Urizen, who is represented in winter. Spring is the season that spreads the seed of innocence and the summer is the period when that seed is used and offspring are to be produced. Summer is the immediate state following Spring where marriage is consummated with fertilization.

To Summer is again an invocation in which Blake personified and celebrated the summer season.

Structure of To Summer:

The poem is composed of nineteen lines set in three stanzas. The first and the last stanzas are sestets containing 6 lines each while the second stanza is a heptet with seven lines. There is no particular rhyming scheme in any of the stanzas, however, Blake used half-rhymes in many of the lines. In this poem, Blake expresses his deep appreciation for the natural world and its transformative power on the human spirit. Through vivid imagery, sensory language, and musical rhythm, he invites the reader to join him in a joyful celebration of life and creativity.

Blake used Personification, Imagery, Enjambment, Caesura, Apostrophe, Anaphora, Metaphor, and Alliteration (use of the same consonant sound multiple times) in this poem.

Summary of To Summer:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-6

“O thou who passest thro' our valleys in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,
Oft pitched'st here thy goldent tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.”

Blake begins with the personification of Summer and describes how Summer has arrived, and pitched his “golden tent. “ He “slept“ underneath the oak trees while “we, “humanity, enjoyed his presence. He depicts summer with ‘ruddy limbs and flourishing hair’ like a strong man. One may notice the use of Apostrophe as though Summer is present, it cannot respond to the invocation. The poet is addressing something incapable of responding. Blake imagines Summer as a god-like figure who visits England each year and brings pleasure to the worlds of the young men, women, and artists of the nation. The fire of the sun is a metaphor for passion, the speaker recognizing the “fierce stead” of “the heat [and] flames” and the “joy” the natural world experiences in its glow.

Blake's use of the word "thou" instead of "you" suggests a sense of intimacy and familiarity with the season. It suggests that it is not the first time but summer arrived in the land in the past also. In the opening two lines, Blake used Enjambment while in line 5, he used Alliteration, repeating the sound of ‘b’ (beneath, and beheld).

Stanza 2 Lines 7-13

“Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard
Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car
Rode o'er the deep of heaven; beside our springs
Sit down, and in our mossy valleys, on
Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy
Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:
Our valleys love the Summer in his pride.”

The second stanza is a heptet in which the poet describes the importance of summer for the people of his nation and how they feel rejuvenated and joyous at the arrival of summer. The poet describes how good it was when summer arrived in the past “upon his fervid car, “ and brought joy for the people. Enjambment has been used in lines 8 and 9. In addition, Blake used Caesura in the 9th line, breaking it in the middle ( “Rode o’er the deep of heaven; besides our springs.”) Blake used sensory language and alliteration to make the poem lively. He repeats words starting with ‘r’ and ‘s’ which offers an idea of the sound of a rushing stream. Blake describes summer making love or consummating the marriage with the valleys of his land. The valleys have dropped off their clothing and are in a naked/natural state (‘Silk draperies off’) and they ‘love the Summer in his pride’.

Stanza 3 Lines 14-19

“Our bards are fam'd who strike the silver wire:
Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:
Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:
We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy,
Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,
Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.”

This stanza is again a sestet. The poet continues to describe how summer strengthens and brings joy to the people. Everything appears more beautiful in this ‘naked/natural ’ state (“silk draperies off”) and nothing is “lacking” in the “dance” and “sultry heat” of this euphoric season.

Blake begins with Anaphora, repeating the word ‘Our’ at the beginning of lines 14, 15, and 16. The whole of England is celebrating the marriage of summer with the English valleys. The bards, singers, and writers of poetry are striking their silver wire, playing their instruments. The youths are bold in their warmth and joy.

Blake also expresses his nationalistic fervor when he compares the English youth with ‘the southern swains.’ He says that the English young men are bolder, and the English maidens are ‘fairer in the sprightly dance’ to celebrate the summer. This suggests that English people are more passionate and alive than those living in southern parts as they are more used to the weather of summer.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

To Spring by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. William Blake’s first published work was Poetical Sketches. It was a collection of 19 lyric poems grouped under the title "Miscellaneous Poems" written between 1769 and 1777 when Blake was 12 to 20 years old. In addition to the Miscellaneous Poems, the Illustrated book also contains a dramatic fragment (King Edward the Third), a prologue to another play in blank verse ('Prologue, Intended for a dramatic piece of King Edward the Fourth'), a prose poem prologue ('Prologue to King John'), a ballad ('A War Song to Englishmen') and three prose poems ('The Couch of Death', 'Contemplation', and 'Samson'). Poetical Sketches was published in 1783.

The first four poems of the collection are also known as the Season Songs and they are titled as To Spring, To Summer, To Autumn, and To Winter. These Season Songs are invocations to the four seasons that Blake developed in mythological figures in his later works.

These season songs can be interpreted as a reference to nature and arts but they also highlight sexual desire and fulfillment and to the different stages of human life and civilization.

The poem To Spring shows myriads of moods. One may find it hopeful and celebrating. However, as the poet describes the inevitable arrival and passage of the season, one may feel the deep existential depression hidden in the poem.

Structure of To Spring:

The poem contains 16 lines set in four quatrains or stanzas. There is no fixed rhyming scheme in this poem by Blake but that offers a natural flow to the poem, The poem is an invocation or plea to the Spring season. Offering a natural flow while not restricting the poem to a rhyme scheme, the poet expresses a sense of genuine emotions. Blake has used Enjambment (cutting of a line before its natural end), Caesura (a pause in the middle of a line of a poem), Personification (intentional use of human-specific actions and language to describe something non-human), Apostrophe (addressing someone absent), Metaphor, Imagery, and Repetition in this poem.

Summary of To Spring:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-4

“O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!”

The poet begins with Personification as he addresses the spring season. He describes the spring season as a youthful divine woman with a long lock of hair. Her locks are covered with the due drops. The poet also alludes to England as ‘Wester Isle.’ He describes the Spring as a young beautiful woman while the poet’s land is her desperate lover. The lover is accompanied by a full ‘choir,’ a metaphor for the landscape of England with hills and valleys.

The poet calls upon the season to visit his land. He fervently appeals to the season to pour soft kisses on the bosom of love-sick land and awaken her to a new life and Joy. The poet wants a boon for his native land. He urged the season to bless his land. In line 2, Blake used Enjambment,

Stanza 2 Lines 5-8

“The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn’d
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!”

The poet continues to describe the Spring while using personification to describe the hills and valleys as coming alive and sharing in the season’s excitement. The hills of England speak to each other. They convey the message of the coming spring. And the valleys of the land go on listening to what the hills Say. The people of the land are eagerly waiting for the spring to lay out her exhibition of flowers, birds, and blossoms. The poet reminds the reader that he is waiting for the spring season and urges the spring to visit his land and sanctify its soil with the touch of her holy feet. In the 7^th line, Blake used Caesura. The ‘Bright Pavillion’ is a metaphor to represent the sky or heaven.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

“Come o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.”

The spring has yet not arrived while the poet is invoking her. He continues to talk to the spring which is not present (apostrophe). The poet appeals to the spring to come over the eastern hills of England. The winds will become fragrant by kissing her scented garments. The winds will carry the fragrance of flowers of the spring season. Sweet and soothing things are the breezes of the spring in the morning and evening. They are laden with fragrance which the people are keen to taste and enjoy. The people are pining and languishing because they are in love with the spring. They are crying for her. So she must come.

The speaker pleads with the spring to taste her morning and evening breath. Spring season is the season of flowers that bloom either in the morning or evening. The “morn and evening breath” can be seen as the cool, fresh air of Spring mornings and evenings. It is different from the harshness of winter or the heat of summer.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

“O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish’d head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.”

The poet further adds personification and vivid imagery in the final stanza of the poem. The poet urges the spring to adorn and decorate his native land with her own beautiful fingers. The season should plant soft and sweet kisses on the breast of England. She should decorate England's weak and pale head with her golden crown. The simple traces of hair of the native land were tied up in prayer to the season.

The poet personifies his land as a maiden awaiting jewels on her fingers. By giving them to her, one is beautifying her hands and transforming her fingers in the same way that Spring transforms the land. The ‘soft kisses’ represent the light rains or the warmth of the sun that Spring bestows upon the earth. The ‘golden crown’ represents the light sunlight which is not as harsh as that of summer and is different from the dark evenings of winter. The poet begins lines 14 and 15 with the word ‘Thy’ making use of Repetition.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

London by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

London by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. London is one of the most famous Illustrated Poems by William Blake that was included in his poetry collection Songs of Experience, published in 1794. His two most famous collections, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) have poems that are counterparts of each other. However, London is a unique poem expressing the disappointment of William Blake in the socio-political situation of London during that period. London is a political poem. Previously, Samuel Johnson wrote a long poem with the same title London in 1738. In that poem, Samual Johnson also described the various problems of London, including an emphasis on crime, corruption, and the squalor of the poor.

Blake’s poem is rather short with just 16 lines arranged in four quatrains. Yet, the poem illuminates the problems of London stressing the themes of the effects of Industrialization, Moral Corruption, Poverty, Exploitation of masses, and Universal suffering.

Blake analyzes the troubles faced by the common citizens of London streets. Surrounded by dejected Londoners, he saw evidence that the British government had too much power and little interest in helping those they were supposed to serve. He didn’t mince his words and vehemently blamed the government. Blake offers a damningly hellish image of the streets of London in this poem.

Structure of London:

London is a four-stanza poem that is separated into sets of four lines, known as quatrains following the rhyme scheme of ABAB throughout the poem. In the first stanza, the poet expresses the general sights of London streets while in the following three stanzas, he expresses the various sounds audible in these streets. In the third stanza, Blake used Acrostics making the first letter of the first word of each line into the word ‘HEAR.’ The poem is written from the first-person perspective of an anonymous speaker, who could be assumed to be Blake, walking through the streets of London. Blake used an iambic tetrameter for this poem. Blake has used Imagery, Metaphor, Caesura, Enjambment, Repetition, and Capitalization of words in the poem.

Context of London:

London was published during the “reign of terror”. The French Revolution became an inspiration for many radicals as it was a symbol of how the disenfranchised and oppressed could seize power from the privileged. It resulted in the end of the French monarchy, which is what Blake was hoping for in England, which ended when Louis XVI was executed in 1793. However, it was followed by a "reign of terror", with thousands executed via guillotine. England witnessed the surge of the Industrial Revolution and became an Industrial power. This resulted in a mass movement to cities from the countryside. However, this urbanization led to most of London being covered in smog from factories and industrialization. The government gave the wealthy exclusive rights to land and resources that had been previously owned in common, which meant the wealthy started owning monopolies of land. Blake emphasized those who have been hurt most by the capitalist structures that cause inequality within society, focusing on their misery.

Summary of London:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-4

“I wandered thro each chartered street,

Near where the charted Thames does flow,

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe”

The speaker begins while declaring that he is wandering around the streets of London, observing the situation of the people. He uses the word ‘Chartered’ which means that the streets and the landscape are controlled rigidly by the government that has offered exclusive rights to the rich capitalists over the land and resources (River Thames) that had been previously owned in common, which meant the wealthy started owning monopolies of land and resources. He mentions that he is not wandering around in a free, open area, rather it is a controlled mapped-out area. As he observes other common people on the streets, he observes marks of weariness in them all. He describes their faces as having “weakness” and “woe”.

The first stanza suggests that the tone of the poem is gloom, sadness, and melancholy.

Stanza 2 Lines 5-8

“In every cry of every man,

In every infant’s cry of fear,

In every choice, in every ban,

The mind-forged manacles I hear”

The speaker continues expressing the gloomy situation of poor people on the streets as he watches them pass him by. The speaker reveals that from the cry of the newborn infant to the cry of the full-grown man, he hears the “mind forg’d manacles”. Manacles are shackles or chains used to imprison someone. These manacles are not physical but ‘mind-forged’, that is, the people are imprisoned by the prevailing ideas and thoughts. People are not free, they are restricted, and banned from making free choices. The terms ‘ban’, ‘chartered’, and ‘manacles’ suggest that the authority and the society have metaphorically imprisoned the people.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

“How the chimney-sweeper's cry

Every blackening church appals;

And the hapless soldier's sigh

Runs in blood down palace walls.”

The first letter of the first word of the first line is ‘H’, that of the second line is ‘E’, that of the third line is ‘A’, and of the fourth line is ‘R’ which makes HEAR in vertical and that is the purpose of the speaker. He wishes the reader to hear the gloomy sighs and cries of poor people. The speaker shows his deep concern about poor people and humanity in general. He says that when society strips people of their freedom and shackles them in rigid exploitative ideas. He first mentions the Chimney sweeper, the poorest of the society. He was always dirty and inflicted by pollution that made him sick. The poor people of the lowest class were forced into this kind of work to provide for their families.

The speaker then criticizes the church, terming it ’blackening’ but even the corrupt church ‘appalls’ at Chimney-sweeper. Generally, Chimney-sweepers were used to be kids. They were small enough to fit down the chimneys. These children were often orphaned children. The church had the responsibility for their care and grooming, but they were forced to work in such difficult situations. This is why the speaker connects the gloomy ‘chimney-sweepers’ with the ‘blackening church,’ suggesting the corruption therein. He criticizes the society and the church for the conditions of the poor.

Next, he mentions the ‘hapless soldier’ turning his criticism on the government and suggesting that the soldiers are the poor victims of a corrupt government. He mentions the long-running blood bath of war that flows down the palace walls. The palace signifies the space of royalty and higher echelons of the society. The speaker blames the higher society and administration for spilling the blood of the soldiers to keep their comfort of living in a palace.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

"But most through midnight streets I hear

How the youthful harlot's curse

Blasts the new-born infant's tear,

And blights with plagues the marriage hearse"

In the last stanza, the speaker mentions the moral degradation of the society at large. He mentions that he hears the “youthful Harlot’s curse…”. A young woman turning to prostitution itself suggests the level of poverty and corruption in society. The young harlot is cursing someone, a newborn innocent infant as she is crying. In place of lifting the baby in their arms and caring for her, the youthful harlot curses her, as she must be engaged with her customers. It is not clear if the young harlot is the mother of the infant but she could be. This reveals the hardened heart of the harlot, which represents the hardened heart of society at large. While the innocent shed tears, the perverted attack them.

The speaker criticizes the young harlot complaining how she deranged marriage by having sold her body before ever entering into the marriage union. The speaker, however, doesn’t hold any good idea about marriages as he mentions them as a death trap and uses the term ‘marriage hearse.’

The poet criticizes every aspect of society that suggests corruption and moral degradation. He criticizes the ills of society, church, government, high-class people, prostitution, and marriage. The infant shedding tears represents the innocent poor people of the society who are the real victims. There are not many innocents and their innocence too is not going to remain for long as their innocence is ‘blasted’ by the shouting curses of the corrupt.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is one of the Prophetic works by William Blake in which he imitated the Biblical prophecy while expressing his own mythical elements and intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary ideas. Blake experimented with relief etching for this book. It is an illuminated prose poem, the text, decoration, and drawings of which were etched by Blake on copper plates. His wife Catherine helped in coloring and printing the etched plates on paper. The short book in verse was published in 1789. The book is divided into ten sections that can be considered as chapters:

1) "The Argument" 2)“The Voice of the Devil" 3)"A Memorable Fancy" (1)

4) “Proverbs of Hell" 5)"A Memorable Fancy" (2) 6)"A Memorable Fancy" (3)

7) "A Memorable Fancy" (4) 8) "A Memorable Fancy" (5) 9) "A Song of Liberty"

10) "Chorus"

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is an Illuminated Prose Poem with many illustrations and proverbs written in Free Verse style with no patterned rhythm.

The main idea of the book is to blur the lines of difference between heaven and hell, good and evil, and presenting them as contraries necessary for each other. On Plate 1, Blake etched the Book Cover which depicts the earth with heaven above it and hell below the earth. Two naked figures embrace in flame while human spirits are depicted moving upwards in the sky.

William Blake used Symbolism to present his ideas in this book. The flames of hell, traditionally used to symbolize evil and eternal suffering, seem to give rise to trees and living human beings. At the same time, angels, who typically symbolize the divine and are god's messengers or helpers for humanity, are depicted as closed-minded, insolent, and inactive. Blake also used Animal symbolism throughout the book. One of the most notable is in the Proverbs of Hell where he mentioned The "tigers of wrath" and the "horses of instruction." The raw energy of the tiger is opposed to the relentless forward-plodding of the horse. The proverbs state that the tiger is the wiser of the two. Blake used metaphor to compare angels with horses of instruction and devils as tygers of wrath, suggesting that Evil is creative energy while good is passive reason and obedience.

Summary of The Marriage Heaven and Hell:

The book begins with ‘The Argument’ etched in Plates 2-3. It constitutes a poem whose first line is "Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air". A character named Rintrah is not happy. He's raging out, while a "just man" keeps walking along the "Vale of Death." Rintrah stands for righteous wrath and presages revolution. The poems assert the theme of the book. The poet expresses the necessity of contraries in existence, particularly in the case of reason and energy. The righteous (the Angels) declare that reason is good and is associated with Heaven and the soul, and energy is evil and is associated with Hell and the body.

The poet states that “Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate” are the cause of progression and are necessary for human existence. The poet then redefines good and evil suggesting, “Good” is “the passive that obeys reason,” and “Evil” is only “the active springing from Energy”.

The Voice of the Devil: Plates 4-6

The second chapter is written in prose. In The Voice of the Devil, Blake suggests that all religions and all the conventional angels have committed an error by dividing body and soul and associating evil with bodily energy and good with reason and the soul. The poet corrects this historical wrong and declares that the life-promoting energies that emerge through natural and imaginative desire are the true sources of joy. Body and soul are not two separate entities, and desire should not be restrained by reason. Blake also mentioned John Milton and Paradise Lost in this chapter declaring “Milton was a true poet” who was "of the Devil's party without knowing it." Blake does so because, in Paradise Lost, Satan is portrayed as more energetic and appealing than God and the other angels. Chapter 2 ends halfway down the 6^th plate.

A Memorable Fancy (1): Plate 6-7

This chapter can be seen as a ground for the upcoming chapter Proverbs of Hell. In this, the poet depicts one of his fancies. He was “walking among the fires of Hell,” when he collected some “Proverbs of Hell” to demonstrate Hell’s wisdom to the earthly people. As he returns back, he sees a Devil etching some words on a rock which says –

“How do you know but ev’ry bird that cuts the airy way,

is an immense world of delight closed by your senses five?”

Proverbs of Hell Plate 7-11

It is the most popular part of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The chapter contains 70 proverbs that the poet claims he collected during his visit to Hell. Obviously, these are aphorisms of William Blake. Many of these aphorisms extol the life of energy and natural instinct over reason. In addition, Blake also added a paragraph about the nature of poetry and religion. It is again an imitation of the Bible which is supposedly the the best-known collection of proverbs.

Some of the interesting Proverbs of Hell are –

* “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."

* “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise."

* “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.”

* “Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unattended desires."

* “The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”

* “The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”

After these 70 proverbs, Blake added a paragraph offering his ideas about organized religion. He says that ancient religion (Paganism) began as a kind of poetry, in which each object in the natural world was turned into a “natural deity” based on what their “enlarged and numerous senses” could perceive. Over time, people began to abstract these deities from the real objects in the world that they were intended to describe. So began priesthood and organized religion, leading people to forget that “All deities reside in the human breast” and giving churches and their administrators power over others. Gradually, people forgot that all those gods actually live in the human imagination.

A Memorable Fancy (2) Plates 12-14

In this fancy, the poet converses with Biblical Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. The poet questions how the prophets know that God is speaking the truth. The prophets' answer, “a firm persuasion that a thing is so” makes it true. They also suggest that “Poetic Genius” is the most important way of accessing the truth. The speaker then prophesizes that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years” and that will change this ‘corrupt and finite’ world into ‘infinite and holy’. The poet again stresses that the prophets must correct the inadvertent mistakes they committed like separating body and soul. He exhorts people to widen their thoughts and says –

* “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite."

A Memorable Fancy (3) Plate 15-17

The poet fancies visiting a printing house in Hell that has 66 chambers.

Each chamber contains different creatures: dragons, vipers, eagles, lions, and eventually men. These represent the progressive improvement of humankind’s ability to perceive the world. This chapter is illustrated with a picture of five sad-looking men huddled together on the floor. The text begins as

* “Giants who formed this world into its sensual existence.”

The poet then divides people into two categories, one is ‘Prolific’ or creators, or producers, and the other is ‘Devourers’ or consumers. He states that these two kinds are enemies by nature but religion tries to bring them together. If you have read Ayn Rand’s novella ‘Anthem,’ or her novel ‘The Fountainhead’ or her magnum opus ‘Atlas Shrugged’, you may find a similarity between Blake’s ideas and Rand’s Objectivism.

A Memorable Fancy (4) Plates 17-22

An angel appears and warns the poet that they are doomed to a “hot burning dungeon.” The poet requests the angel to show him his fate. The angel takes him to a stable, to a church, to a tomb, to a mill, and finally into an Abyss. Leviathan, a monstrous sea creature appears right then and the angel is scared away. As soon as the angel goes away, the Abyss vanishes too and the poet finds himself standing at the bank of a calm river. He listens to a man singing a song on the bank,

* “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind.”

The poet realizes that the Abyss was just a creation of the angel. He seeks and catches him and accuses him of threatening him. He then shows the angel his fate by taking him to a site where monkey-like creatures are fighting among themselves and devouring each other. The poet runs away from the scene with a skull in his hands. He then checks the skull and finds a book of Aristotle. He embraces it while dismissing the Angel as a useless philosopher. The poet then criticizes Emanuel Swedenborg and claims that his writings only rely on unoriginal discussions with the angels while he never tried to talk with the devils. He claims that the writings of Dante and Shakespeare are better.

A Memorable Fancy (5) Plates 22-24

The poet imagines an argument between an angel and a devil. The devil claims –

* “The worship of God is Honouring his gifts in other men."

The angel opposes him and says that Christ alone should be worshiped, but the devil points out that Christ himself broke all of the Ten Commandments in one way or another. Struggling to answer, the angel agrees. It is then revealed that the angel chose to be a devil himself and became a friend of the poet. The angel and the poet now read the Bible of Hell together.

A Song of Liberty: Plates 25-27

It is a short poem in which the poet extols his triumphant declaration of the superiority of devils over angels. He turns it into a political discourse and links the devils with the French and American Revolutions, stating that –

* “Empire is no more and now the Lion and Wolf shall cease."

Chorus: Plate 27;

After the song of liberty, the chorus adjoins while targeting the religious authorities and blaming them for being the institutions of oppression.

The book ends with the declaration –

* “For every thing that lives is Holy."

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!