Blake’s
Weeping Women
William
Blake’s Songs of Experience shows the
dark revelations born of experience. With this break from the more optimistic Songs of Innocence come a new, darker
pallet, and more despairing imagery. Specifically, two poems contain imagery
that, although not mentioned directly in the poem are of great importance.
Both, “The Angel” and “My Pretty ROSE TREE” rely on the image of a despairing
woman, sprawled on the ground. These women exemplify the despair, and fall from
grace due to the experiences of life.
Blake’s
poem “The Angel” emphasizes the hardening of one’s demeanor towards life as
experience builds. It states the difference between expectation and reality,
and the emotional downturn from that gap when the narrator states, "I was a maiden Queen... and I wept," (Blake location 446). The image of the woman, lying on the
ground, turned away from the angel signifies the turning away from God. The
poem states the disappointment in life, but furthermore the women’s movement
away from the angel signifies movement from God.
The
second poem, “My Pretty ROSE TREE” is similar to the first in its overt
message. It expresses the narrator’s displeasure based on the difference
between reality and their expectations. The narrator expected the rose tree to
be bountiful, and beautiful, but instead that was not the case. He or she says, "But my rose turnd away," (Blake location 463). The deeper
meaning, when viewed in conjunction with “The Angel” given the similar imagery,
is displeasure with the natural way of life, the way of God.
In
both cases, life and experience holds only disappointment, but the imagery
depicts a deeper meaning as it relates to the religious undertones present in
the poem. The imagery signals a turn away from the religious; it shows the
disenchantment with religion when faced with reality. When viewed in contrast to poems in Songs of Innocence, this difference
becomes even more compelling. The imagery serves to ask a question of the
viewer. It questions who is truly responsible for life events. Are they due to
pre-destination or in-life actions? Through his imagery, Blake seems to suggest
the former.
Citation:
Blake, William, and Geoffrey Keynes. Songs of Innocence and Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul; 1789 - 1794. Kindle ed. London: Oxford U, 1977.
I like you said that Songs of Experience shows the dark revelations born of experience. Otherwise I did not see the clearly relationship between poem and illustration in your analysis. I think you need to have more evidence and example to prove your statement.
ReplyDeleteI think you're doing a little too much in too little space- likely this needed to be a little bit longer. The image does repeat - that's a good starting point - and you've got some good things to say, especially about "The Angel." But your reading of "My Pretty ROSE TREE" is clumsier. It's overtly a poem about jealousy, which is more or less sexualized - that isn't incompatible with your argument, but between the lack of a clear representative of the divine in the imagery (unlike the other poem), and the poem, which is rather different & more complex than your very quick response to it implies, I think you let that one get away mostly from you.
ReplyDeleteYour last paragraph is interesting, but the move to pre-desination isn't in any way justified. It's a perfectly good topic, but you've got to actually do it, which you aren't doing here.