WILLIAM BLAKE- LONDON | Schemi e mappe concettuali di Inglese

fWILLIAM BLAKE

-He was born into a family of humble origins in 1757

-Trained as engraver when he was young, then he practised this craft for all his life

-he was deeply aware of the great political and social issues of his age

-he was a political freethinker who supported the french revolution and he remained a

radical throughout his life

-he had a strong sense of religion: the most important literary influence in his life was the

bible, he also claimed he had visions

-he died in 1827

Blake: the poet

-He explored the timeless struggle btw the role of law and reason during enlightenment

and the power of love and imagination during romanticism, which he supported.

-He used symbols to try to avoid any kind of realism, for him the real essence of the

world is not in the real things or in things that we can see and perceive, but it is beyond

reality and it’s possible to understand only thanks to imagination and symbols, he anticipated

symbolism, he claimed he had vision expressed by symbols.

-The figure of the poet, in Blake’s opinion, becomes a sort of prophet who can see more

deeply into reality , he is able to transmit what he knows and he also tries to warn man

against the evils of society but he is perfectly awake of them.

Blake: Imagination

-Blake considered imagination as the mean through which man can know the world

-Imagination means to see more, beyond material reality, into the life of things

-God, child and the poet share this power of vision, which is also power of creating

things

-He didn’t believe in man’s rationality, the representatives of a rationalistic and

materialistic philosophy were heretics since they denied the value of faith and intuition

that were for him the only source of true knowledge.

-He refused the sensory experience because what is really true is not perceived by sense

or mind

-the internal mind really builds the external world that man sees.

Blake’s Christianity-complementary opposites

-He believed in the reality of a spiritual world but he tought that christianity was

responsable for the fragmentation of consciousness and the dualism characterising

man’s life.

-He had a vision made up of complementary opposites: “good-evil, male-female,

reason-imagination, cruelty-kindness”

-He stated that without contraries there is no progression so the possibility of progress is

situated in the tension btw contraires: “attraction-repulsion, reason-energy, love-hate” are all

necessary to human experience.

-This contraries states exist, not in a linear sequence, but in parallel, they are simultaneos.

Blake’s interest in social issues

-He was concerned with the political and social problems of his time:

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fWILLIAM BLAKE -He was born into a family of humble origins in 1757 -Trained as engraver when he was young, then he practised this craft for all his life -he was deeply aware of the great political and social issues of his age -he was a political freethinker who supported the french revolution and he remained a radical throughout his life -he had a strong sense of religion : the most important literary influence in his life was the bible, he also claimed he had visions -he died in 1827 Blake: the poet -He explored the timeless struggle btw the role of law and reason during enlightenment and the power of love and imagination during romanticism , which he supported. -He used symbols to try to avoid any kind of realism , for him the real essence of the world is not in the real things or in things that we can see and perceive, but it is beyond reality and it’s possible to understand only thanks to imagination and symbols, he anticipated symbolism, he claimed he had vision expressed by symbols. -The figure of the poet , in Blake’s opinion, becomes a sort of prophet who can see more deeply into reality , he is able to transmit what he knows and he also tries to warn man against the evils of society but he is perfectly awake of them. Blake: Imagination -Blake considered imagination as the mean through which man can know the world -Imagination means to see more, beyond material reality, into the life of things

God, child and the poet share this power of vision , which is also power of creating things -He didn’t believe in man’s rationality , the representatives of a rationalistic and materialistic philosophy were heretics since they denied the value of faith and intuition that were for him the only source of true knowledge. -He refused the sensory experience because what is really true is not perceived by sense or mind -the internal mind really builds the external world that man sees. Blake’s Christianity-complementary opposites -He believed in the reality of a spiritual world but he tought that christianity was responsable for the fragmentation of consciousness and the dualism characterising man’s life. -He had a vision made up of complementary opposites : “good-evil, male-female, reason-imagination, cruelty-kindness” -He stated that without contraries there is no progression so the possibility of progress is situated in the tension btw contraires: “attraction-repulsion, reason-energy, love-hate” are all necessary to human experience. -This contraries states exist, not in a linear sequence, but in parallel, they are simultaneos. Blake’s interest in social issues -He was concerned with the political and social problems of his time:

-He supported the abolition of slavery and the egalitarian principles of the French Revolution -He believed in revolution as purifying violence necessary for the redemption of man. -Later he was disillusioned so he focused his attention on the evil consequences of the industrial revolution. Blake’s style -Blake uses complex symbolism however, his language and syntax were simple. -His verse is linear and rhythmical and is characterised by the frequent use of repetition -He used a central group of symbols : child-innocence, father-experience, Christ-higher states of innocence LONDON by William Blake -This poem conveys Blake’s views of the city of London , of the disease and suffering brought about by industrialisation -is a four stanza poem that is separated into four quatrains -the rhyme scheme is ABAB -1st person narration -setting time and place: London after the midnight -throughout the poem dominates a sense of sorrow, suffering, anguism, also the mood is dark and sad -themes: explotation of the child labour, soldiers and prostitute. -senses used: sight and hearing -vv.8 a metaphor-mental prison-it means that people in the london of this time is oppressed and have a very sad condition due to the industrialisation -repetitions: create a sense of obsession and anxiety The poet wanders through the streets of London at night and sees sorrow, weakness and sadness in the faces of the people he meets (sense of sight), he said that Roads, like rivers, have been monopolized for the purpose of making money, society and nature are here dominated by commercial profit: this condition oppresses men in fact, in the second stanza, thanks to the use of the earing, he hears the sounds of fear and oppression in their cries and voices. He gives various examples, using a repetition of the words “in every” which emphasizes the sense of anguish and pain, like the cry of the chimney sweeper which denounces the corruption of the church, which exploits the children instead of helping them, in fact in this period the children were exploited because they were small and they could pass through the chimney in order to clean them (criticize to the church). While the blood of the soldier flows down the walls of the palaces of the institutions, in this verse (11-12) Blake is saying that also the soldiers are exploited because the government asks them to die for their country and so they have to sacrifice their life. Then in the last stanza the poet is talking about the exploitation of the women, in particular of the prostitute, who sexually transmitted diseases to married men, giving to this curse a real destructive power and killing the institution of marriage. The condition of people is sad because they suffer every day in London because of illness, transmitted by prostitutes.

WILLIAM BLAKE- LONDON, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Inglese

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