Willaim Blake “The Sick Rose” “London” “Tyger”

Outline William Blake “The Sick Rose” “London” “Tyger” (a companion of “The Lamb” in Songs of Innocence).

William Blake an English writer, poet, and illustrator of the Romantic period; Had visions of angels as a child; 1787  the technique of "illuminated writing," or relief-etching. Songs of Innocence (1789) 1797 –Songs of Innocence and of Experience ("the two Contrary States of the Human Soul." ) Image source: aol.com/lshause r2/wmblake.html aol.com/lshause r2/wmblake.html

Songs of Innocence and of Experience Both innocence and experience are necessary states in the development of the human spirit. We are all born innocents, but when we begin to recognize evil or wrong, and are inevitably tempted by it, we pass into a state of experience. Higher Innocence: with childlike trust and vision. See clips

“ The Sick Rose ” 1. What tone(s) can you find in this poem? 2. Are there images which are ironic? 3. And sound effects?

“ The Sick Rose ” 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. --spondee; -- trochee+ anapest Open vowel + short [i] sound

Irony and symbol Rose + worm =  sexual intercourse,  of destruction of Nature Context: howling storm and night Irony  The rose’s bed of crimson joy –happy about its own destruction?  Dark secret love which is Destructive

London I wander thro' each charter'd street. Near where the charter'd Thames does flow And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man. In every Infants cry of fear. In every voice; in every ban. The mind-forg'd manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackening Church appalls. And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse. (12:39)

London 1. What are the effects of repetitions? 2. What about the development of images from chimney sweepers, hapless soldiers to youthful harlots? And the contrast they make with church, palace and the Marriage hearse?

London 1. An industrialized city where everything is “chartered” (under control, in contract) – even the river (or our parks) is. 2. Repetitions of “marks” & “everyway” – constraints of mechanical life internalized  mind-forg'd manacles

London development of images: from the general (“every”) to the specific, which, in turn, is connected with the failure of some dysfunctional social institutions. individualSocial institutions chimney sweepers Church blackened hapless soldiersPalace and blood youthful harlots’ curse new-born Infants Marriage hearse ( 殯車 )

THE TYGER 1. What sound effects do you find in this poem? 2. Why are there so many unanswered questions? 3. What parts of the tiger the focuses of the speaker’s attention?

THE TYGER Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder and what art Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And, when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand and what dread feet?

THE TYGER (2) What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee? Tyger, tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Allusions Daedelus and Icarus (line 7), the daring Greek god Prometheus (line 8), Vulcan the blacksmith (lines 9-10 and 13-14), Lucifer and his angels (lines 17-18) the God of the Old Testament.  Blake himself?