William Blake, Songs of innocence and
Experience highlight and contrast the purity of childhood and the
transformation into adulthood. Blake creatively presents a selection of poems, with the combination of imagery and
narrative or abstract nature of the poems. Specifically the poems, The Divine
Image and The Human Abstract are accounts of Williams intertwining
of the abstract realm pertaining to god and the tangible realm of man. These two poems go build off of each other through
the metaphorical meanings of mercy, pity peace and love (p18), compensated with
the images of literal intertwining of the trees and actions of the people.
The
Divine Image explores
the relationship of what man thinks god has the qualities of is then relayed
into humans. The third stanza says,
“For Mercy
has a human heart
Pity, a
human face:
And Love,
the human form divine,
And Peace,
the human dress"(44).
Here, Blake is saying that these qualities that God possesses are
ones that are embedded in humans as well. However the poem makes it seem that
these qualities are God. For example,
“For Mercy
Pity Peace and Love,
Is God our
father dear:”(44).
This is somehow childish, and naïve not differentiating the difference
between God and his qualities. However, by saying these qualities are God, and
are also qualities that humans have, it blurs the lines between the abstract
worlds and the logical, tangible world that people live in. The image helps
support this; there are big colorful strokes along with small ones that take
form of tree branches. The weaving of the branches, and the universal symbolism
of a tree representing the roots of a person and their growth amplify the
content in the poem. A persons roots can be looked at in a way as their morals,
and how they live their lives, therefore the qualities in this poem that humans
exemplify, mercy, pity, peace and love link the image and the text. In addition
the people in this poem are lounging around, looking youthful and carefree
representing the innocence and naivety the poem conveys.
The
Human Abstract expands
upon The Divine Image. The four words mercy, pity, peace and love again
are used to convey qualities that are instilled into humans. However the
attitude turns negative. For example in the last stanza it is said that,
“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”(114)
Blake is stating that although these ideal qualities to have were
put into humans, the result of how humans used these qualities are negative. Blake describes the Gods looking to root these qualities but all they could find to
root them are in humans; he is speaking negatively on people. Earlier in the
poem Blake shows how these qualities are turned negative through humans in
each stanza. The image reflects this negative attitude of these rooted actions,
the strokes are not free flowing and you can see the rooted tree trunk as well.
The branches physically go farther into the lines of the words showing how
these ways are set in their brain. In addition the elderly man looking out at
towards the audience reveals one of two things. The first is that he is old,
representing the adulthood in this poem, and the learned qualities. Secondly
the body language of the old man shows that he is tense and almost scared of
how people act to one another. The image fully amplifies the learned behavior
and negativity in the context of the poem.
Blake makes connects these two poems, expanding upon the difference between childhood
and adulthood and symbolically adding images explaining and justifying his
views on the intertwining relationship between god and the human race.
I am not exactly sure what the topic of your essay is. There is some mention of the metaphorical meanings of mercy, pity peace and love, but there is also a common pattern about talking about the roots of human beings. The two body paragraphs seem to be mostly distinct with some vaguely mentioned overlaps. The essay is also mainly about the text and bringing up the painting as a slight support for the text. The prompt was to discuss a seemly misplaced object or color in the poem to show a different way of reading the poem. Your essay is almost the other way around. Also, as a side note, it would look better and be easier to read if you use slashes to separate the lines of a poem instead of placing each line of the poem on its own line.
ReplyDeleteI actually like the idea of the first paragraph, but the paragraph as a whole is awkwardly written - you could have expressed the idea much more compactly & coherently, probably in a single sentence.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of your paragraph on the Divine Image is really smart - your focus on the naïve identification of God with his qualities is fantastic, and the way you elaborate on that through the image is at least credible. Then you get into the discussion of roots & branches, and although I sort of follow you, I also think you're losing what had been a really interesting focus. I would have liked to see you remain focused on the naïve identification, rather than getting fuzzier as you proceed.
I don't really understand the connection you're making to the Human Abstract. Your analysis of the poem itself is ok, although you did better with the Divine Image - where it falls apart for me is in understanding the connection between the two. I don't see one argument here, but two arguments about two poems, with the first one being better. You have good insights, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts.
Note that Brian, too, ends up being confused about your actual topic...