1. As a group discuss one sonnet other than the two Shakespeare one we looked at and decide what the central conceit is and how it develops...
2. Why are Blakes' poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'?
3. Can you find some colour plates of the poems to upload?
4. How do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
5. How is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?
6. Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake?
7. Analyse one poem by Blake according to the schema I introduce in class week 7-8.
8. What was the impact of Rousseau’s revolutionary idealism on
Blake?
9. How does Rousseau’s assertion of women’s equality read to a modern audience?
10. What really happened at Villa Diodatti??
tbc...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In Edmund Spencer's Ice and Fire, the central conceit is well, Ice and Fire. Throughout the sonnet he makes contrasts between his burning, hot love for someone who like ice repels his heat for her. The conceit develops at the end when he concludes that the hotter his fire gets for her, the colder hers does towards him, and he concludes to say "what more miraculous thing may be told, that fire, which all things melts, should harden ice" and that love is such a thing that it even can alter the physical forces such that his fire freezes his love over.
ReplyDeleteSorry i forgot to put what question i was answering in my last comment, it was the first :)
ReplyDeleteAnd now ill get started on the 4th question.. In general, looking at al his poems and associated images, i found that the images really work. Personally i have never been a fan of images alngside poetry as the poem should be al the image you need, but using words (figuratively)thats the essence of poetry, and also so that the image does not distract and take away from the poem itself. However,Blake's images work for me. The majority of them serve mainly as a boarder around the text, that often comes out into the page between eash stanza. In his 'Introduction', he talks of the 'ancient trees' and the 'starry pole'. The border around the poem has two effects, one is that of tree trunks wth branches on each side, with the branches breaking up the stanzas, and the other is of the starry night, the trees trunks have stars in them. The overall tone of the poem is euphric, drem-like. This is supported with his imagery as the words appear as though they are in a cloud, but could aslo be seen as the patch of sky, breaking through the trees. Can any of you pick up on other visual elements in this piece? I didnt quite see the purpose of the woman at the bottom...
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2
ReplyDeleteI think Blake's poems of innocence are about the the visions of youth, writing about things that are seen and experienced through the eyes of a child. In Blake's Songs of experience, we see a more adult vision of poetry. This is about an older persons view of life.
Yes, i agree there with you Tim, also id like to add that there is a certain ammount of darkness introduced in the poems of experience. With maturity comes knowledge, knowledged is achived through experience, and with knowledge comes the darker, heavier aspects of life such as loss, the impermanence of all, the irrational constraints of society, and the dark sides of human nature. These such aspects are the underlying features and diferences between the songs of innoncence and experience.
ReplyDeleteRousseau's revolutionary, yet now seemingly obvious statement: 'Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains' is at the forefront of his impact on Blake's writing. Rousseau believed that human motivation is caused upon seeing others suffer. In Blake's 'The Chimney Sweeper' he exposes the rough and unforgiving elements of society with which the Christians are in denial and 'are gone to praise God and his Priest and King Who make up a haven of our misery.' He not only exposes society for it's hierarchically spoiled organization but also the Church. Blake was unlike the majority and didn't turn a blind eye to such sufferings as child slavery and racism (the Little Black Boy).I think Rousseau also influenced him to believe that God will not save us, that it is not worthy to use Heaven as an excuse to lead a tragic but 'holy' life and that organized religion is the main cause of this suffering. He then went on to develop his idealism to say that God is within each and every one of us and took on a more pro-active, individualistic outlook.
ReplyDeleteIn Sonnet Liii, the poem is about the Panther. The central conceit developes through the poem to show two things, i think, which are the predator (the Panther) and the prey (us). But then i think the conceit reverses towards the end of the poem to "made for to be the worlds most ornament" where now the panther is the prey and the people (us) are the predators.
ReplyDelete