Blake and wordsworth.pptx

William Blake Songs of Innocence and experience Blake describes the entire sequence as ‘the two contrary states of the soul'. Innocence and experience are states which follow one another. The book consists of two sections “two contrasted elements in a single design” D...

William Blake Songs of Innocence and experience Blake describes the entire sequence as ‘the two contrary states of the soul'. Innocence and experience are states which follow one another. The book consists of two sections “two contrasted elements in a single design” Dr. Ayman Elhallaq  Innocence is a capacity for freshness of vision, for joy, for celebration But it is also vulnerable ,weak and needs protection It should be seen as totally ‘good' in contrast to ‘experience' as totally ‘bad'. Experience is a vision of reality, the Fall of humankind into separate selfhood It devours innocence Experience therefore becomes evil, not because it has been divorced from innocence and established as the only reality. Dr. Ayman Elhallaq  Blake's Romantic Beliefs Despise of intellectuality, philosophy and philosophers. MOCK on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau; Mock on, mock on; ’tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And the wind blows it back again. On the contrary he believed in imagination as a spiritual power and as a god that empowers humans to create. Creative imagination is the primary reality that matters in the human life. It is a great spiritual power and its product is divine Imagination is the reflection of truth and find a transcendental order which explains the world of appearances. Dr. Ayman Elhallaq Difference between Innocence and experience The Clod and the Pebble ‘Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.’ So sung a little Clod of Clay Trodden with the cattle’s feet, But a Pebble of the brook Warbled out these metres meet: ‘Love seeketh only self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another’s loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heaven’s despite.’  Blake believed in the creed of brotherhood and found this faith in the feelings of Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love. These feeling constitute both God and Man and he called them the four “virtues of delight.” To him the state of innocence is governed by these powers and give the state two things: Security and completeness. The fearful thing in the state of experience is that hypocrite people can use these powers for cowardly motives and to break the security and completeness of innocence. The result is a deadly blow to the human nature and spirit. Dr. Ayman Elhallaq  Human abstract Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody Poor: And Mercy no more could be, If all were as happy as we; And mutual fear brings peace; Till the selfish loves increase. Then Cruelty knits a snare, And spreads his baits with care. He sits down with holy fears, And waters the ground with tears: Then Humility takes its root Underneath his foot. Soon spreads the dismal shade Of Mystery over his head; And the Caterpillar and Fly, Feed on the Mystery. And it bears the fruit of Deceit, Ruddy and sweet to eat; And the Raven his nest has made In its thickest shade. The Gods of the earth and sea, Sought thro’ Nature to find this Tree But their search was all in vain: There grows one in the Human Brain  Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love become the breeding-ground for Cruelty. The speaker depicts Cruelty as a person planting a tree and lays a trap. His tree flourishes on fear and weeping; Humility is its root, Mystery its foliage; but this growth is not natural; it does not reflect upon the natural state of man. Rather, the tree is associated with Deceit, and its branches hold the nest of the raven, the symbol of death. By the end of the poem we realize that the above description has been a glimpse into the human mind, the mental experience.  Blake was interested in children, but he was more interested in the child- like vision that can be found in maturity. He hated the city life because he found social injustice, moral corruption and children abuse in there. Social injustice is represented by the fear that dwells inside each and every one that lives Dr. Ayman in London. Elhallaq  The Chimney Sweeper When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!" So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said, "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair." And so he was quiet, & that very night, As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight! That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack, Were all of them locked up in coffins of black; And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins & set them all free; Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run, And wash in a river and shine in the Sun. Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind. And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father & never want joy. And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark And got with our bags & our brushes to work. Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm; So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.  Blake believed that the mysterious aspects of Christianity impose harsh rules on life because they enhance the outward forms of relegion. Such outward forms are deadly like the tree of knowledge or life. Experience transforms the tree of life into a tree of death. Dr. Ayman Elhallaq  A poison Tree I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I watered it in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night. Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine. And into my garden stole, When the night had veiled the pole; In the morning glad I see; My foe outstretched beneath the tree.  To Blake, moral corruption is represented by human lust that destroys the human innocence. O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. Dr. Ayman Elhallaq  “The Lamb” Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life & bid thee feed. By the stream & o’er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright; The Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice! Trinity of Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee child, Little Lamb I’ll tell thee, Little Lamb I’ll tell thee! Lamb He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb: and He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child: Redeem I a child & thou a lamb, We are called by his name. er Little Lamb God bless thee. Little Lamb God bless thee.  “The Little Black Boy” My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white; White as an angel is the English child: But I am black as if bereaved of light. My mother taught me underneath a tree The divine And sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissed me, love that And pointing to the east began to say. transcends Look on the rising sun: there God does live race And gives his light, and gives his heat away. And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive Comfort in morning joy in the noon day. And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love, And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove. For when our souls have learn’d the heat to bear The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice. Saying: come out from the grove my love & care, And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. Thus did my mother say and kissed me, And thus I say to little English boy; When I from black and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy: I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear, To lean in joy upon our fathers knee. And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair, And be like him and he will then love me.  William Wordsworth Wordsworth finest achievement was the non-artificial poetic language. Poetry became an immediate and intimate experience told by an experiencer. His emphasis was on the simplicity of life and harmony between man and nature. (unity) Wordsworth’s philosophy of life, his theory of poetry and political beliefs are intimately connected. Dr. Ayman Elhallaq  Any change in one of them necessitates a change in the others. For example, he was a member in William Godwin circle ( a political philosopher and a novelist) who minimized the role of emotions in human affairs and claimed salvation in reason perfected by education. Wordsworth clung to this for four years then had a nerves breakdown. In 1798 Wordsworth turned back to nature and its andElhallaq Dr. Ayman became anti- intellectual.  In the second edition of the Lyrical ballads, he introduced his concept of poetry. Poetry is not dependent on rhetorical and literary devices, but the free expression of the poet’s feelings and thought. Poetry and prose differ only as to the presence or absence of rhyme; they don’t differ in language. (disagreement with Coleridge) Wordsworth was concerned with two things Nature and Man Dr. Ayman Elhallaq  In nature he Was concerned with the outward manifestations that delights most nature pets, but in the spirituality underlying these manifestations. “ with a seen of nature, it is a moment of spiritual consecration with the outward show of things” “there is a central peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.” “there is joy that lies in peace”  Wordsworth appeals to the ear as he appeals to the eye. Through the sound he finds the consolation that he seeks. He listens to discords to detect harmony. Both him and Shelly were prophets of nature. They were interested in explaining and exulting the inner significance of things and moving from the external fact to the idea. Nature, like a mother, never betrays  His attitude to man is the same as nature. He deals with humanity as a whole and its good qualities more than with the individual. He looked on life as a harmonious whole (man and nature) Men and women are poor creatures if they are apart from nature. He loved children and so nature as a pure child (Lucy) who came to unity Dr. Ayman Elhallaq with cosmos.