Kubla Khan & ‘Dejection’: An Ode’

KUBLA KHAN  

Written in 1797. 'Kubla Khant_was first published, at the request of Lord Byron, in 18 16. The book contained an 'introduction' which throws light on the circumstances that prompted the poet to write the poem: 'In the summer of the year 1797, the Author, then in ill-health, had retired to a lonely farmhouse between Porlock and Lintan, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire. In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that he . was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in 'Purchase' Pilgrimage: 'Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were enclosed with a wall: The author continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during which time he had the most vivid confidence, that he could not have composed less than from two to three hundred lines: if that indeed can be i called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort. On awakening he appeared as~ himself to have a distinct i recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly I wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, j ' and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general pvport of the i vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines or images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas, without the after restoration of the latter!'  

Structure 

there are three parts in the poem. In the 36- line first part the poet describes the pleasure palace of Kubla Khan, an emperor in ancient China & demon lover. It has three stanzas of 10,20 and 6 lines respectively. 

The second and the third parts are in one stanza, the second covering 5 lines and the third part the remaining 13 lines, In the second part the poet is referring to an Abyssinian singing girl whom he had seen in a 'vision'. It is about art that transcends life. The third and final part creates the picture of an inspired poet who can bring about a revolution in the world, a yogi who can change the meaning of life.

Interpretation

The word 'decree' is important. It includes desire, order, determination, 'Xanadu', the name, suggests remoteness, as if there is something exotic, mysterious, desire - evoking, thought -provoking in life. Alph flows through Xanadu, and Alph is a 'sacred' river. Its flow through the garden is the quest for the ultimate reality, 'the desire of the moth for the star' in art. It goes through mysterious caverns, and finally falls into a sunless sea. The 'sunless sea' is 'death' where life finally ends. A particular area with a perimeter of ten miles is fenced in with walls and towers and within that boundary there are gardens and small winding rivers, The trees in the gardens bear fragrant flowers. The forests are as old as the hills on which they have grown. It refers to the beauty and agelessness of art, its universal validity and charm.

 DEJECTION: AN ODE

 What is an Ode? 

an ode is quite comprehensive: 'A lyric poem, usually of some length. The main features are an elaborate stanza-structure!' a marked formality and stateliness in tone and style (which make it ceremonious), and lofty sentiments and thoughts. In short, an ode is rather a grand poem; a full-dress poem. 

we can distinguish two basic kinds; the public and the private. The public is used for ceremonial occasions, like funerals, birthdays, state events; the private often celebrates rather intense, personal and subjective occasions; it is inclined to be Romantic Poets meditative, reflective. Tennyson's Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington is an example of the former; Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale', an example of the latter.' 

 Introduction to 'Dejection : an Ode' 

'Dejection: an Ode' was written in 1802. The 139-line poem is divided into eight uneven parts. It has a single theme-- dejection, need for love to overcome it and prayer to nature for a stormy shake up -- and it is elaborated in great length. In the lines quoted by Coleridge, the speaker says that he has seen the old Moon holding the new Moon in her arms and he is frightened. He fears that a deadly storm might follow. Such strange forebodings take place in nature. The relevance of these lines is that Coleridge wants such a storm to come in his life to arouse him from the spiritual slumber he is now in. The slumber is painful to the poet because it deprives him of his enjoyment of life and nature, and makes him unable to write poetry.

Coleridge, however, meant that it could be addressed to anybody with a happy disposition and contended mind. The poem is actually about the poet himself; it is a kind of confession. One confesses to one who is just the opposite type: a sinner to a holy priest, a guilty person to one who is pure of heart, and a sad man to one who is full of joy. Originally the poem had 340 lines. Later Coleridge cut it short to 139 lines and divided it into eight parts. The drastic revision was made by Coleridge the critic who expunged the 'too personal' details.

The entire poem is an expression of great anguish, intense feeling about a troubled mind. So it is an apprehension of loss, more than real loss. The poet wants that a storm should come to unsettle into his dull, lethargic state, and make him more dynamic, even if it would mean devastation. 

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LIFE OF S.T. COLRIDGE

Unit-30 Coleridge

https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/22195/1/Unit-30.pdf

 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772- 1834). Born in 1772, Coleridge was at Jesus College from 179 1 to 1794. In 1797, he married Sarah Fricker. Age of Romantic Revival. His friendship with Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy with whom he had long walks made him the kind of poet that he was. The three influenced one another's thought and sensibility. Another reason for his sudden decadence is his lack of self-confidence, which can partially be attributed to his addiction to narcotics. I 1 i This caused deep frustration in him. He worked by fits and succeeded in flashes, and failed to finish long and ambitious works undertaken by him. 

 German metaphysics fascinated Coleridge, and turned the poet into a philosopher. This caused no enrichment to his poetry, but the combination of poetic sensibility with philosophical subtlety made him an almost perfect critic. His years of full poetic inspiration were few, two at the most (1 797-98), and hence the quantity of his best work is in inverse proportion to its quality.

Broadly speaking, there are four periods in Coleridge's poetic career. 

1. The earliest period extends from 1794 to 1796 and it includes works like the Song of the Pixies, Lines on an Autumnal Evening and Lewti (1794) and Religious Musings (1795 -96). 

2. Then came the second atld blossoming period (1796 -97) when he wrote Ode to the Departing Year: The Lime Tree Bower:Frost at Midnight, Fears in Solitude, etc, Full blossoming came 

3. in the next phase when he was at the height of his poetic genius. Great poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christable-and Kubla Khan were written during this period. 

4. And the fourth and last period came with a decline in inspiration and achievement. Two poems of great merit, of course, were written in this period too: Dejection: an Ode -and Love.

COLERIDGE AS A CRITIC

His Biographia Literaria is a great work. Today Coleridge is better remembered as a critic than as a poet. His Biographia Literaria is a great work in which one gets for the first time solid theories of criticism. The starting point of Coleridge is, of course, Wordsworth's preface to the Lyrical Ballads. Then he proceeds to examine Wordsworth's poems

Despite his romantic sensibility, in his criticism Coleridge is very objective. He does not disregard 'facts' and tries his best to be unprejudiced. Even T.S. Eliot's criticism draws heavily from Coleridge's viewpoint and stand. Owing to this objectivity, . Coleridge can reach the essential depth of any kind of art and discover the harmonizing and sustaining force therein. 

There was a feeling and sense of Freedom. ' In Wordsworth it was the freedom of going into Nature and breathing to fill her pure and purifying air. In Coleridge it was the freedom of entering the strange and mysterious zone of the supernatural. Byron and Shelley craved for a new social order based on intellectual freedom, scientific reasoning, and an unprejudiced political system. Keats sang. 'Ever let the fancy pleasure never be at home.' 

Coleridge went to France to actively participate in the revolution, but, seeing the bloody and blind turn it took, withdrew from it, though the cardinal ideas that had caused the revolution silently and in~perceptibly crept into the English mind and brought about a change in life, thought and attitude of the English people.

Kubla Khan, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel. Broad and basic qualities in Coleridge's poetry are the following:

 a. Artistic treatment of the supernatural 

b. Medievalism 

c. Herman nature and external nature: relationship in reciprocity 

d. Creation of a dream-world authenticated by psychoanalysis 

e. Imaginative flights 

f. Lyricism  

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The Prelude by William Wordsworth

UNIT 29 THE PRELUDE BK. 1

William Wordsworth, the greatest poet of the nineteenth century Romantic Revival,

wrote The Prelude, a long autobiographical poem in fourteen Books, in 1800, when

He was thirty and at the pinnacle of his poetic talent. This long poem of 7883 lines in blank verse is an epic of a very special type : its 'story' is in the account of the growth of a 'spirit', the development of an awareness, the evolution of a sensitive mind.

NINETEENTH CENTURY ROMANTIC REVIVAL

What is Romanticism?

 RFB History of evolution of the word and its meanings along with the changing definitions.

Nineteenth Century Romantic Revival

The first half of the nineteenth century is known as the age of the Romantic Revival because the Elizabethan Age was popularly known as a romantic period. This romanticism was in contradistinction to what was called 'classical', and the status of The classical was given to the ancient works that had stood the test of time. So, romanticism meant novelty and its degree directly depended on its departure, well established and acknowledged norms or principles of writing.

Poets like Wordsworth felt that the world was going the wrong way which would lead to unhappiness and it was their moral duty to warn it and to show it the path of truth and bliss.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH : HIS LIFE AND LIFE-VIEW

William Wordsworth was born on April 7,1770, at Cockermouth, William lost his mother in

1778 and his father in 1783.

Wordsworth's first published poem, Sonnet, On Seeing Miss Helen Maria Willians Weep at State of Distress appeared in The European Magazine in March, 1787. An Evening Walk was written the year the French Revolution started with the storming of Bastille (1 789). In 1 790 Wordsworth had a walking tour of France. He came back to England in early 1791 and returned to France late in the year to see revolutionary fervour in Paris. He had a love affair with Annette Vallon, and their daughter Caroline was born in December 1792. He composed Descriptive Sketches in 1793 and returned to England to seek a livelihood. Godwin's Political Justice was published the same year. In 1795 Wordsworth and Coleridge came lose to each other which finally resulted in the joint authorship of the Lyrical Ballads (1798). This very year Wordsworth wrote some autobiographical verse which was the foundation of The Prelude.

Works - 1804 Ode to Duty was composed and Ode on Intimations of Immortality, was completed, The Excursion in 1814, The Recluse, Biographia Literaria, The Prelude, Immortality Ode.

In 1843 Wordsworth became Poet Laureate. He died in April, 1850, and The Prelude Which he wrote and rewrote almost throughout his life was published after his death.

Wordsworth had the ambition of writing a 'great' poem -very long, very rich, containing all his thoughts, and the history of the maturing of his poetic sensibility, an epic simultaneously personal, national, and universal. But he could never write this poem. Attempts remained unfinished. The Prelude was designed to be the Prelude to that poem. Throughout his life he kept on revising The Prektde but could not publish it. When it was published posthumously, the critics did not hesitate to call it a 'great' poem.

As per him If one goes to nature with an open heart, nature gives one everything, especially strength to face and overcome all sorrows and sufferings of life. Since he knew the 'panacea' and found 'illness' all around him, and saw people ignoring what could cure them, he was sad. The tragic awareness of the suffering of man made him more inclined towards mankind, and so his love for nature and love for humanity became parts of the same awareness or philosophical truth he adhered to.

THE PRELUDE (GENERAL)

Wordsworth kept on working on The Prelude, his longest poem, throughout his life- writing and rewriting it, often copying it, changing, rearranging and revising it, but never published it during his lifetime. Though it is a complete poem, a complete statement, he always cherished the thought that it was only a 'prelude' to a much longer poem. The Recluse, which he could never finish. The Prelude is much longer than the unfinished poem whose prelude it was intended to be. This caused embarrassment in the poet and it is perhaps one of the reasons that he could never publish The Prelude.

The poem has a complicated textual history. The poet worked on it at intervals for more than forty years. The first drafts were written in 1798 and the last full scale revision was made in 1839. In 1799 a short version of the poem was published in two parts. In 1805 Wordsworth wrote the whole of it but did not give the poem a name. It was just 'a poem to Coleridge': Wordsworth wanted to hear a few words of appreciation from his friend so that he could go happily with the composition of The Recluse.

The 1850 Prelude is the outcome of three large - scale reworking of the poem, and

many minor revisions. The poem was finally printed just ten weeks after Wordsworth's death. In stylistic quality and tone the 1850 poem is very different from the 1805 one. Continuous revision improved it quite a lot.

The Prelude is about the poet himself; and so it is autobiographical. It is about the nature and function of the human mind; so it is psychological; it gives certain definite moral conclusion; so it is didactic; it is about the infinite power and harmony of nature; so it is spiritual; it is an attempt to define the role and potentiality of imagination, and so it is intellectual.

The poem is an autobiography. As a chronological narrative, the poem is an account of the growth of the poet's mind upto the point at which he conceived The Recluse in 1798. Through reviscons from 1798 to 1805, the poem took a shape and character which was different from what it was when the poem was conceived. Naturally so, because Wordsworth who began The Prelude was not the Wordsworth who finished it.

THE PRELUDE, BK. I

The Idea

The Prelude is a long poem and very difficult to categorize. Its huge body has an epic form, lofty style, and tone of moral seriousness, but for want of a story, a sequential development of narrative, it cannot be called an epic proper, It is an autobiographical poem but only those episodes in the poet's life have been narrated which have something to do with his contact with nature and which cast a deep influence on him in as much as they shaped his mind and fostered its growth, and gave him the joy of imaginative perception of the eternal and the universal.

The Prelude Book I opens with a reference to the divine ecstasy that he had in the lap

of nature. Then he goes on to refer to a few encounters with nature in his childhood, bringing them out of the store of his memory. They are not chronologically arranged, but they all lead to the central point: that nature shaped his personality and nurtured his moral being.

The Prelude is organised not chronologically but thematically. M.H. Abrams succinctly writes about the thematic structure of the poem in his Natural Supernaturalism: "The Prelude ..... is ordered in three stages - 

The poem opens with a note of joy. The wind suggests calm and peace and is

matched by a 'corresponding mild creative breeze' within which becomes a storm and,

breaking the frost, invokes the spring. The thenlc is announced in the very

beginning: the discovery of nature's beauty and the discovery of man's true self.

This poem of great length, divided into fourteen books, each book containing about six or seven hundred lines.

Diction, Metre, Imagery - RFB

Important Lines and their interpretation + Difficult words and its meanings RFB pg 12 to 17

sojourner - a person who resides temporarily in a place 38 vexing its own creation : much greater in force and power than the mild breeze which led to it. vex- make (someone) feel annoyed, frustrated, or worried, especially with trivial matters. 41 vernal - of, in, or appropriate to spring. 46 Matins and vespers : religious incantations of prayer sung in the morning and in the evening respectively. 72 Vale : The 'vale' in Grasmere; Dove cottage, into which the Wordsworths moved, on December 20,1799, and where they stayed until 1808, was then divided from the lake only by fields. Vale - a valley (used in place names or as a poetic term) 97 . . . . . . .... defrauded : The Aeolian harp, or wind harp - a fashionable toy in the late I eighteenth century - became for the Romantics a symbol of poetic creation. It consisted of a set of strings stretched across a rectangular sounding box from which the wind evoked varying tones and harmonies. 104 Sabbath - day of rest and worship 1a : the seventh day of the week observed from Friday evening to Saturday evening as a day of rest and worship by Jews and some Christians. b : Sunday observed among Christians as a day of rest and worship. 2 : a time of rest. 105 servile - having or showing an excessive willingness to serve or please others. .of or characteristic of a slave or slaves. 1 12 self-congratulation : used without the modem pejorative implication, to mean'rejoicing'!. 129 grapple - engage in a close fight or struggle without weapons; wrestle. 131 impedement - a hindrance or obstruction in doing something. 14 1 . . ..brooding : the human mind initiates the creative process by brooding, as theHoly Spirit in Milton's Christian epic had brooded over Chaos. 155 images : landscapes as they present themselves to the eye or are retained within the mind. 158 manners: general way of life: morals; habits. 169 . . . . . . . . . unsung : Milton's decision not to write a romance about knights in battles and tournaments is recorded in Paradise Lost IX, 25-41, a passage that seems frequently to have been in Wordsworth's mind as he attempted to defrne his own position as a poet. 179 blazonry - art of describing or painting heraldic devices or armorial bearings. 181 votive- offered or consecrated in fulfilment of a vow. 185 faithful loves : it echoes the opening stanza of The Faerie Queene, 'Fieree warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song.' 187 -Mithridates - a medicine believed to be a universal antidote to or preservative against poison and disease. 187-1 90 How . . . . . .Empire: Mithridates the Great, King of Pontus, was defeated.by Pompey in 66 B.C. and died two years later; din, in one tradition, was a barbarian. who led his tribe north fiom the sea of Asov to Sweden in the hope that one day their descendants might carry out his revenge upon the Romans. 202 . . . .. Of natural heroes : The Roman general Sertorius, contemporary and ally of Mithridates, gained control of most of Spain, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to master Rome from the provinces; he was assassinated in 72 B.C. According to legend, his followers emigrated to the Canary Islands after his death, and there founded a race that flourished until the arrival of the Spanish at the end of the fifteenth century. 212 Withering the Oppressor : 'Dominique de Gourges, a French gentleman who went in 1568 to Florida to avenge the massacre of the French by the Spaniards there' (Prelude note, 1850). 2 13 Dalecarlia's mines : Gustavus Vasa of Sweden raised support among peasants in the mining district of Dalecarlia, and freed his country from Danish rule in 1521-23. 217 Wallace : William Wallace, hero of Scottish nationalism, was captured and executed by Edward I in 1305. Wordsworth's interest had been stirred during his tour of Scotland with Dorothy in August-September, 1803. 224 variegated - exhibiting different colours, especially as irregular patches or streaks. marked by variety. 237.. . . . . . ... And clearer insight: Another reference to The Recluse; Home at Grasmere, which was to be the first Book of the main philosophical section of the poem, does precisely cherish the daily life of the Wordsworths, holding it up as a type for general future happiness. Later tradition represented Orpheus as a philosopher rather than a musician. 237-42 Wordsworth, in the mood he describes here, is not decisive enough to be either vicious or virtuous; he cannot distinguish between vague but feeble longings to write The Recluse, and an overwhelming impulse to do so, between timorousness and prudence, between mere delay and circumspection. 246 blank reserve : total inaction. 260 interdict : prohibition 268 false steward : refers to the parable of the false steward, Matthew 25. 269-74 This question had of course been the opening of the two-part Prelude, expressing already in October-November 1798 the poet's discontent at failure to make progress with The Recluse, The river is the Derwent, which flows along the far side of the garden wall of the house where Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth. 275 holms : Islands. 284 a shattered monument : Cockermouth Castle. 295 Skiddaw : nine miles east of Cockermouth, it is the fourth highest peak in the Lake District. 305 transplanted : the experiences that follow take place after Wordsworth has been 'transplanted' to Hawkshead Grammer School, thirtyfive miles from Cockermouth, in May 1779. 320 toil : snare of labour 327 the cultured Vale: the part of the valley that was under cultivation 330 end : result 373 pinnace: small boat 379 instinct : imbued 408 vulgar : ordinary : commonplace. 450 reflex: shadow; reflection. 460 diurnal: daily 461 train : sequence ; 471 characters: marks 495 courser : swift horse 524 plebeian - (in ancient Rome) a commoner. 527 - potentate - king 535 .. .. By royal visages : In Wordsworth's extension here of the card game in 1799, the influence of Cowper is less apparent, and that of Pope (The Rape of the Lock) becomes more obvious 543 Bothnic Main: The northern Baltic. 546 sedulous - of a person or action) showing dedication and diligence. 547 ..... And made me love them : in his childhood days it was not his conscious enjoyment of nature, but nature coming forward to him and impressing upon his tender mind her benign and permanent stamp which in later years made the poet love her. 554 intellectual charm : spiritual bliss 555 first-born affinities : affinities with which a child is born. 549-58: Here is affirmation of Wordsworth's view that in the spontaneous sensuousness of childhood there is a quality of mind which is vital to the development of spiritual life. 552 tempest - tempestuous characterized by strong and turbulent or conflicting emotion. 564 Organic : sensual; bodily 568 Cumbria's : Cumberland's 5 8 1 vulgar joy: ordinary pleasure 59 1 evil-minded fairies: fairies were supposed to cause ill-assorted couples to fall in love, as in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream 593 Collateral : indirect 612 affections : feelings 620 tedious tale : the banal alliteration is a joke for Coleridge about poetic craftsmanship 626 honourable toil : the writing of The Recluse 63 3 visionary things : things seen in the imagination with the inward eye. 645 discomfited : unfit. Comment upon the literary and historical significance of the prelude. Discuss The prelude as an autobiographical poem. Justify the sub-title of The Prelude as 'Growth of a Poet's Mind'. Make a critical analysis of The Prelude, Book I by Wordsworth

Condensed notes  on The Prelude - 

the prelude by William Wordsworth published from 1799 to 1805

This long poem of 7883 lines in blank verse is an epic of a very special type : its 'story' is in the account of the growth of a 'spirit', the development of an awareness, the evolution of a sensitive mind. 

3 months after his death his wife marry printed first version of the first book in 1799

second book in 1805 & last version 14 books in 1815

The poem’s subtitle the growth of a poet's mind

autobiographical book

He begins by describing impact of nature describes passage childhood nature adulthood he is inspired from French Revolution.Wordsworth was an activist and participant of French Revolution

Richard Clarke says it's a lyrical bildungsroman.

• First & Second book about childhood School natures pleasure landscape mountains but should drink reverse give the steam opens with divine ecstasy
• Third book residence at Cambridge University fourth book about summer days 5th book about academic time format formative years of his life where he met Philosopher's critic example Blake and all
• 6th book about his experience in Cambridge and working experience Alps mountain climbing Mount and nature spiritual
• 7th book about Residence Inn London depressing days tour countryside people and she man humanity he felt organised
• 8&9 about a restorative inside how love of nature lead to love of men some books are open overlapping thoughts about God in Humanities
• book 10 and 11 about the experience in France is visit from 1791 292 to financial reasons he had to return bloody revolution in France spiritual crisis
• book 12 and 13 is the climax of the book while climbing Mount snowdon he had epiphany imagination is connected to nature and
• book 14 is the conclusion of all 13 books

He mentioned his ordinary event of his life celebrated to its fullest world of transcendental reality with poetic strength. He stole a goat and heard a Roar. He was frightened. He said it was an intervention from nature when you do something wrong. Mother nature corrects you. Mother nature acts as a guardian

he was almost 40 years revised in edited his whole life 1850 poem is very different from 1805

theology devotion experience psychological exploration intervention emotions imagination human mind is a centre of divine scheme good versus Evil human mind is Arena of life he hated the artificiality of 18 century projects Mata stories

he stole a boat and Road it across the river overnight his struggle to clarify the idea of 35 cm see God in everything nature is educating him is particularly turbulent about certain business he doesn't depend on Christian doctrine he was spiritual than religious

 

Questions from previous papers -

 

1. Justify the sub-title of The Prelude as 'Growth of a Poet's Mind'.

2. Make a critical analysis of The Prelude, Book I by Wordsworth.

3. Comment upon the literary and historical significance of The Prelude.

4. Discuss The prelude as an autobiographical poem.

 

 

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WILLIAM BLAKE & HIS POETRY

 

MEG-1 Block-6 Unit 28 -  WILLIAM BLAKE & HIS POETRY

https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/22192/1/Unit-28.pdf

Blake saw visions even when he was a small boy of four. As a child he started I was screaming when God pressed his face to the window. At eight, Ezekiel appeared to I him, and at nine, he saw angels on a tree.

The sensory organ of sight which is called the "Corporeal or Vegetative Eye" stimulates "the Divine Arts I of Imagination-Imagination, the real and eternal World.

BLAKE'S REVOLUTIONARY VIEWS

He could not accept the prevailing culture of the eighteenth century. He opposed the mechanistic view of the universe of his time. He despised the tendency to analyze rather than synthesize.

Blake as an Anarchist

Blake was attracted by revolutions. He was eighteen when the Declaration of Independence by the American Colonies inspired idealists all over Europe. He was an eye-witness to the burning of Newgate Prison (1780) as an expression of the hatred of authority. He sympathized with the French Revolution. He hated all political systems and favoured complete personal freedom.

Blake's Views on Christianity

Blake hated traditional Christianity. Blake believed that all churches are a kind of prison. He attacked the lack of individual freedom in the Church in his poems.

Blake's Anti-classicism

Blake hated the classics and in this be foreshadowed a common romantic tendency.

The established cultural tradition was shattered in the Romantic period.

Another reason for Blake's detestation of the classics is that they, in his opinion, are

related to the adult world of experience, and represented intellect. He favoured an

intuitive and imaginative view of the world.

BLAKE'S INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY

He did not have any formal education; his reading was perhaps uneven. literature. He

identified three stages in history which corresponded to three stages in the life of an

individual. 

1. The first stage corresponds to that of the Garden of Eden, or of primal innocence. 

2. The second stage was the eating of the hit of the forbidden tree or the Fall. 

3. The third stage was that of achieving a higher state of innocence or redemption.

Blake also divided history into a number of periods corresponding to the historical

divisions in the Bible.

Blake's Triadic Division of Poetry

Blake extended his scheme of the triadic division to poetry also. He thought that the The function of poetry was to regain a kind of oneness with life which had been lost. The The eighteenth century represented the Fall. The Age of Reason which emphasized the intellect, in his view, was equivalent to the eating of the hit of knowledge of good and evil. Works - Jerusalem, in Auguries of Innocence, Songs of Innocence.

APPROACHES TO BLAKE'S POETRY

Blake's poem are simple and direct; there is no sentimentality which makes poetry distasteful. One may approach Blake as a child or as a scholar.

Blake's poems can be read in several ways : as direct statements, as indirect statements, or as clusters of images.

Four Levels of Meaning of Blake's Poems

Again, Blake's poems can be read on four levels, the levels which Dante had

suggested for the interpretation of his Divine Comedy. These are:

• 1. Literal : On this level, the poem can be read simply as a sequence of actions, situations, descriptions, and so on.

• 2. Moral: On this level, the poem may be read as a series of moral commands, both positive and negative. A system of rewards for right actions and punishments for wrong deeds is given in Dante's poern.

• 3. Allegorical: On this level, all actions are interpreted in terms of some dogma.

• 4. Anagogical: On this highest level, a poem can be given a mystical reading.

Eg. way. 'Jerusalem may stand for different things depending on the choice of the level of interpretation. On the literal level it is a city in Palestine, allegorically it may mean the Church; morally it may mean the believing soul; anagogically it means the city of God.

THE NEW PROCESS OF PRINTING

Blake used an entirely original process for printing his poems, starting with Songs of, Innocence. He engraved the text and the related illustration on a copper plate in varnish. The letters and designs were then made to stand out after an acid had lowered the surface of the copper plate. Impressions of these were taken from the raised etchings and then painted in water colours by hand. Thus he could give his visions substance through all the arts at his command.

SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

Songs of innocence published in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794. Although these are epoch-making in more ways than one, they hardly made an impact then.

Blake reverses the roles of the poet and the child and makes the child teach the poet. Broadly, in Songs of innocence, the child narrates the joys of life & hature; in Songs of Experience, the child is trapped in prisons of state and Church.

Note on Songs of Innocence

It is a statement of the reaffirmation of the New Testament doctrine, "Lest ye become again as a little child ye cannot hope to enter the kingdom of heaven". This is underscored by Blake's use of pastoral Christian symbols (the Christ child, the lamb, the shepherd, etc,) As Russell Noyes observes: "The poet has left out all art, all moralizing, all pretending. The theme of loss and finding runs through the songs and the gaiety and laughter of children fills them."

Note on Songs of Experience

Having experienced the hypocrisy and cruelty of the world personally, Blake was indignant in Songs of Experience. The children's laughter is silenced by adults; the children are exploited  an insensitive world (The Chimney-Sweeper), The Church and the State, two pillars of society, are indifferent. Sometimes they even connive, to cause suffering to children.

Comments on Both the Collections

The world of innocence is the world of childhood, and childhood coveys suggestions of the Christ child. The world of experience is the adult world. It is urban and it is opposed to the natural world of childhood. The pure simple love innocence becomes lust and depraved sexuality in the world of experience. In Blake's poetry there is generally a dominant symbolic pattern based on these two

worlds. The child is good, and he represents the world of innocence. The father, who represents the adult world of experience is evil.

Songs of Innocence: Study of Some Poems

1.The Lamb

If the first stanza stresses the beauty, gentleness and tenderness of the innocent lamb, the second stanza attributes similar qualities to the creator. And the creator calls himself lamb or child. This short poem describes innocence and refers to the mystery of creation. The speaker in the poem is an innocent child who asks the lamb a series of rhetorical questions concerning its birth and upbringing. The first stanza of ten lines mirrors the child-like quality of innocence. There is an air of gaiety which is expressed in words like 'delight', 'bright', 'rejoice'. The lamb's own "gentle" nature is indicated by words

like 'softest', 'wooly', 'tender'. The speaker who is himself tender, young and gentle is delighted by the sight of the lamb. There is a parallel in that the lamb and the child share the same qualities. The second stanza of ten lines attempts to answer the questions posed to the innocent lamb. Without naming Christ, the speaker says that the maker (or creator) calls himself a lamb. He shares the qualities of meekness and mildness with the lamb and becomes a child. The lamb, the child and Christ are one.

There is the same divinity that hedges a child and a lamb as it does Christ.

2. The Chimney Sweeper

The pathetic condition of a child who was sold to be used as a chimney sweeper even before he could learn to speak the word 'sweep' ('weep' in line 3 is child's lisping for 'sweep') correctly is heart-rending. The pathos is reinforced when the speaker says that he sleeps in the soot. Children are innocent and meek like lambs. The children who worked as chimney sweepers were shaved. The implicit comparison is with the lamb shorn of its wool. The lamb cannot protest; it has to accept what is done to it. So also the child has to meekly accept. There is biting irony in line 8 when the The speaker says that the soot of the chimneys cannot spoil a tonsured head. The spirit of acceptance may be noted in Tom's dream in the third, fourth and fifth stanzas. A A chimney sweeper is like a body in a coffin. As the child is innocent, an Angel sets him free so he can wash himself clean and enjoy himself in the green plains in the Sun. In Tom's dream, the Angel tells him that he could enjoy endlessly if he is a good boy. God would be his father, his protector. But this is only a dream. When Tom woke up, it was business as usual; they had to get back to sweeping chimneys. In spite of the cold and discomfort, Tom was happy because he had learnt that doing his duty was its own reward.

3. The Divine Image

This poem presents the four virtues of mercy, pity, peace and love in direct terms. The simplicity of its statement and its ballad metre remind us of the hymns of Isaac Watts and other hymn writers who influenced Blake. These qualities are identified with God and his child, man. God dwells in man. Hence the human form is divine. Loving men is loving God.

Songs of Experience : Study of Some Poems

1. The Sick Rose

The rose which stands for purity or innocence is perhaps ruined by (the worm) . experience; the rose which is a symbol of love is perhaps destroyed by selfishness; The rose, which is a thing of beauty, is wrecked by jealousy.

The rose is employed by the poet as a personal symbol which is capable of different interpretations. The poem makes one thing clear. A crimson rose has been entered and sickened and destroyed by a worm secretly. This destruction may symbolize the destruction caused by secrecy, deceit, hypocrisy and pain.

2. London

It is a social and economical protest on level 1 but must be approached on other levels. Reason, which has an important place in the lath century, exercises tyranny and hence "mind-forged manacles". Reason, nature and society which are highly valued in that age has forged their own tyrannies. These are the ''triple goddess of destruction Everyone and everything, the streets and the river, are chartered", that is, used commercially. The word "ban" may refer to Pitt's ban on people's liberties. The

the nation is sick of weakness, woe and fear "bight" it. The child chimney - sweeper, the adult soldier, the young prostitute are living testimony to the neglect of Christian ideals and humane personal relationships, Blake saw madage as an institution invented by a fallen man. Like any other institution, it also limits freedom. Hence Marriage is a 'hearse'.

3. The Tyger

Spelling of the word, "Tyger".

Although Dr. Samuel Johnson mentioned it as an alternative form of the more common spelling, "Tiger. Blake's spelling conveys a unique feeling. In this context, it is important to remember that for Blake a poem is not a group of words presented in a linear fashion on a page, but a poem is a visual object. His engraving and paintings are integral parts of his verbal art. Thus a poem by Blake is meant to be seen and read. Only then is its full impact felt. So the unconventional spelling reinforces our sense of wonder at the beauty, fierceness and strength of the tiger.

Our astonishment is expressed through a series of fourteen questions in a span of twenty-four short lines. Eleven of these questions are fired rapidly in the first sixteen lines. In the first four stanzas, the poet attempts to augment the reader's sense of wonder progressively by asking a series of rhetorical questions on the extraordinary perverse required for creating an animal like the tiger. The creator must possess the same qualities to be able to produce such a creature. The nature of the Tiger, as Lionel Trilling says, is defined by the nature of God. In the last two stanzas, there is a reversal of this procedure. God is defined by the nature of the Tiger. God who created a meek and mild creature like the lamb dared to create the ferocious Tiger. Earlier we saw that the lamb, the child, and Jesus are one and the same. That such a God created the tiger is not comprehensible to the stars who are the agents of divine law. As Blake himself suggests, it is the "contrary state of the soul". The Lamb and the Tiger represents two aspects of God and two states of man.

BLAKE'S CONTRIBUTION

He had stated: "I copy Imagination; I write when commanded by the spirits". During his sixties, Blake devoted himself entirely to engraving and painting. He produced hundreds of paintings and engravings. These include illustrations for Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims, for the Book of Job (see Appendix) and for Dante's Divine Comedy.