Paper Details  
 
   

Has Bibliography
8 Pages
2039 Words

 
   
   
    Filter Topics  
 
     
   
 

William Blake

s in our own time as well. As Appelbaum said in the introduction to his anthology English Romantic Poetry, "[Blake] was not fully rediscovered and rehabilitated until a full century after his death" (Appelbaum v). For Blake was not truly appreciated during his life, except by small cliques of individuals, and was not well-known during the rest of the nineteenth century (Appelbaum v). Blake lived during a time of intense social change. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution all happened during his lifetime. These changes gave Blake a chance to see one of the most dramatic stages in the transformation of the Western world from a somewhat feudal, agricultural society to an industrial society where philosophers and political thinkers such as Locke, Franklin, and Paine championed the rights of the individual. Some of these changes had Blake's approval; others did not. One example of Blake's disapproval of changes that happened in his time comes in his poem "London," from his work Songs of Experience. In "London," which has been described as summingcv up many implications of Songs of Experience, Blake describes the woes that the Industrial Revolution and the breaking of the common man's ties to the land have brought upon him (Mack 785). For instance, the narrator in "London" describes both the Thames and the city streets as "chartered," or controlled by commercial interests; he refers to "mind-forged manacles"; he relates that every man's face contains "Marks of weakness, marks of woe"; and he discusses the "every cry of every Man" and "every Infant's cry of fear." He connects marriage and death by referring to a "marriage hearse" and describes it as "blighted with plague." He also talks about "the hapless Soldier's sigh" and the "youthful Harlot's curse" and describes "blackening Churches" and palaces running with blood ("London"). "London" and many of Blake's other works dealing with a similar theme, p...

< Prev Page 2 of 8 Next >

    More on William Blake...

    Loading...
 
Copyright © 1999 - 2024 CollegeTermPapers.com. All Rights Reserved. DMCA