WILLIAM BLAKE POWERPOINT, Slide di Inglese

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William Blake

LIFE

• (^) He was born into a family of humble origin in 1757
• (^) He was trained as an engraver and practised this craft until he died
• (^) He was contemporary of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution.
• (^) He supported the French Revolution and remained a radical throughout his life

Blake the artist

• (^) Blake studied the works of Raphael and Michelangelo.
• (^) From Michelangelo he learnt the technique of representing exaggerated muscular bodies William Blake, Portrait of Newton , 1795

• (^) Blake studied the monuments in the old churches of London, particularly Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey

William Blake, The Ancient of Days , 1794 William Blake, The Whirlwind of Lovers , 1824- Examples of Blake’s engravings

Complementary opposites

• (^) Blake believed in the reality of a spiritual world but he thought that Christianity was responsible for the fragmentation of consciousness and the dualism which characterised man’s life.
• (^) So he had a vision made up of complementary opposites. good male reason kindness evil female imagination cruelty

Blake’s Imagination

• (^) Blake did not believe in man’s rationality and considered imagination as the means through which Man can know the world.
• (^) Faith and intuition were the only source of true knowledge
• (^) The internal mind really builds the external world that man sees.

The poet as a prophet

The poet becomes a sort of prophet who can see more deeply into reality and who also tries to warn man against the evils of society William Blake in an illustration by John Linnell.

Songs of Experience (1794)

• (^) “Songs of Experience” is more complex and pessimistic. The poems pair those of “Songs of Innocence”.

• (^) The world of innocence is full of joy and happiness , while the world of experience is full of cruelty and injustice.
• (^) The child is closer than the adult to the original state of harmony with nature.

The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789) Text analysis

• (^) Rhyme scheme AABBCCDDAA
• (^) Repetitions Who made thee (ll 1, 2, 9, 10); clothing (ll 5, 6); little Lamb I’ll tell thee (ll 11, 12); child (ll 16, 17) name (ll 13, 18); God bless thee (ll 19, 20)
• (^) Assonances /ee/ /ea/ ( th ee , f ee d, str ea m, m ea d : ll 3,4); /ei / ( g a ve, m a king, v a les : ll 7, 8)

The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789) Text analysis

• (^) Alliterations /l/ ( l ittle l amb : l 1); /v/ (ga v e, v oice, v ales: ll 7, 8); /ð/( th ou; th ee : l 2); /m/ ( m eek , m ild : l 15)
• (^) Archaisms thee > you (object); thou > you (subject); bid > ask; dost > do; thy > your
• (^) Syntactic structure : 1 st^ stanza > questions / 2 nd stanza > answers

The Tyger Theme  God’s power in creation. Key images  The tiger as seen by Blake’s poetic imagination: “fearful symmetry” ; “burning bright… fire of thine eyes Devices :

• (^) Repeated (rhetorical) questions.
• (^) Hammering rhythm (like casting a spell).
• (^) Creator presented as a blacksmith. Reference to myth  Icarus and Prometheus

The Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794)

Text analysis

• (^) Rhyme scheme AABBCCDDEE
• (^) Repetitions Tyger, Tyger (ll 1); What (ll 3, 5, 7, 8 …); dread (l 10; Did (ll 19, 20);
• (^) Assonances /ai/ ( T y ger , br i ght, n i ght : ll 1,2)
• (^) Alliterations /b/ ( b urning, b right : l 1; /f/ ( f rame, f earful : ll 4); b egan, b eat l 11); /d/( d are; d eadly : l 16)