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UNIT 28 WILLIAM BLAKE

Structure

Objectives
Introduction
Blake's Visions
Blake's Revolutionary Views
28.3.1 Blakeas an Anarchist
28.3.2 Blake's Views on Christianity
28.3.3 Blake's Anti-classicism
Blake's Interpretation of History
28.4.1 Blake's Triadic Division of Poetry
Approaches to Blake's Poetry
28.5.1 Four Levels of Meaning
28.5.2 Blake's Search for New Forms
The New Process of Printing
Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
28.7.1 Introduction
28.7.2 Notes on Songs of Innocence
28.7.3 Notes on Sorzgs of Experience
28.7.4 Comments on Both the Collections
28.7.5 Songs of Innocence: Study of Some Poems
'The Lamb' : Text and Discussion
'The Chimney Sweeper' : Text and Discussion
'The Divine Image' : Text and Discussion
28.7.6 Songs of Experience : Study of Some Poems
'The Sick Rose': Text and Discussion
'London': Text and Discussion
'The Tyger': Text and Discussion
Blake's Contribution to the Romantic Movement
Questions for Comprehension
Summing Up
Suggested,Reading
Answers to Exercise

28.0 OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this unit are to .

1. give you an idea.of the range and variety of Blake's artistic and other interests.

2. enable you to analyze and interpret some of his important poems, and

3. make you appreciate the uniqueness of Blake.

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 William Blake
28.1 INTRODUCTION

We have briefly discussed William Blake in 27.7 and indicated his interest and his
place in World literature. In this unit, we shall devote our attention to an
understanding of Blake the man and the artist. We shall also attempt a detailed study
of a few of his poems to understand his genius.

Blake was known only to a few people in his lifetime. He was original, strongly
individualistic, and mostly a solitaj figure. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, through his
edition of Blake's poems, brought him to public attention. A. C. Swinbume wrote an
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essay in 1868, and W.B. Yeats played a part in making Blake's work known to a large
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public. Under these circumstances, Blake could not have influenced his
contemporaries.
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I Blake was a genius who distinguished himself in poetry, engraving and painting. He
lived in London unlike many other poets who lived in the countryside. He had little
of formal education, but he taught himself. He was steeped in the Bible, Elizabethan
literature and Milton. He knew inany languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
French and Italian.
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11 2 8 , ~ BLAKE'S VISIONS
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1 Blake saw visions even when he was a small boy of four. As a child he started

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I screaming when G0.d pressed his face to the window. At eight, Ezekiel appeared to
him, and at nine, he saw angels on a tree. Blake cultivated his faculty carefully. He
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had a strongly visual mind and be could see whatever be imagined, This rare gift of
11 experiencing visions or images is known as eidetic imagery. The sensory organ of
sight which be called the "Corporeal or Vegetative Eye" stimulates "the Divine Arts
I of Imagination-Imagination, the real and eternal World of which this Vegetable
1 Universe is but a faint Shadow". Physical objects like a rose or a tiger conveyed
mystical or spiritual meanings to him:

With my inward Eye, 'tis an old Man gray;

With my outward, a Thistle across my way.

He claims to have had threefold or fourfold visions unlike the rationalist who sees
only one. These images (or visions) illuminated his poetr- ,..., ,c,r.klngs.
 Rom arttic Poets
28.3 BLAKE'SREVOLWTIONARUVIEWS
Blake's views on politics, religion, literature and science were revolutionary. He
could not accept the prevailing culture of the eighteenth century. He opposed the
mechanistic view of the universe of his time. He despised the tendency to analyze
rather than synthesize, He ridicules Voltaire and Rousseau:

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.
Again, in Reason and Imagination,he says:
I come in self-annihilation & the grandeur of Inspiration
To cast off Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour,
To cast off the rotten rags of Memory by Inspiration
To cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton from Albion's covering,
To take off his filthy garments & clothe him with Imagination:

I:II He held reason in contempt because he thought it imprisons the mind.

28.3.1 Blake as an Anarchist

Blake was attracted by revolutions. He was eighteen when the Declaration of
Independence by the American Colonies inspired idealists all over Europe. He was
an eye-witness to the burning of Newgate Prison (1780) as an expression of the
hatred of authority. He sympathized with the French Revolution. He was incensed
when Tom Paine was attacked in 1798. With such a political background, Blake
became a sort of anarchist. He hated all political systems and favoured complete
personal freedom. He admired Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Several radicals
were his friends: Godwin, Dr. Price (who was the first Englishman to support the
French Revolution) and Tom Paine. He despised tyranny of every sort. Although he
did not develop a coherent political theory, he wanted freedom and love for all. He
was opposed to private property, any established church, formal government, the
prevailing laws, and machinery.

28.3.2 Blake's Views on Christianity

Blake hated traditional Chiistianity. The Romantics attempted a re-evaluation of
Christian values after the French Revolution. Some Romantics said that godless
philosophers fomented the Revolution. But Blake believed that all churches are a
kind of prison. He attacked the lack of individual freedom in the Church in his poem,
Tlze Garden of love:
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I have never seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with brairs my joys & desires,
Blake's political radicalism combined with his Christian Non-Conformity inspires the
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politics of the left even now.

28.3.3 Blake's Anti-classicism

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Blake hated the classics and in this be foreshadowed a common romantic tendency.
The established cultural tradition was shattered in the Romantic period. Newly
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 popular cultural lore was introduced paving way to primitivism and Orientalism. William Blake
n i s is in line with the Protestant rejection of the classics as shown in Milton's
Paradise Regained Here Christ rejects the classics and prefers the Psalms. Blake is
forthright in his Preface to Milton:

"The Stolen and Perverted writings of Homer & Ovid, of Plato & Cicero, which all
men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible ... We
do not want either Greek or Roman Models if we are but just and true to our own
Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever in Jesus our
Lord".

Another reason for Blake's detestation of the classics is that they, in his opinion, are
related to the adult world of experience, and represented intellect. He favoured an
intuitive and imaginative view of the world. Blake's attitude to society was
conditioned by his anarchism, non-conformism, anti-rationalism and anti-classicism.

Self-check Exercise 1
1. Explain the nature of Blake's visions.

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2. Why did Blake criticize Voltaire and Rousseau?

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3. Enumerate the events which influenced Blake's political views.

4. What are Blake's political beliefs?

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5. What are Blake's views on traditional Christianity?

6. Why did Blake hate the classics?

28.4 BLAKE'S INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY

Blake's hostile attitude towards traditional Christianity also influenced his

interpretation of history. As he did not have any fomal education his reading was
perhaps uneven. He read the works by quakers and the Gnostics. He also read
Ranrantic Poets mystics like Swedenborg (whom he attacked later), Jakob Bdhrne, and the New
Platonists. Hig view of history was shaped by his reading in religious literature. He
identified three stages in history which corresponded to three stages in the life of an
individual. The first stage corresponds to that of the Garden of Eden, or of primal
innocence. The second stage was the eating of the h i t of the forbidden tree or the
Fall. The third stage was that of achieving a higher state of innocence or redemption.
Blake also divided history into a number of periods corresponding to the historical
divisions in the Bible. For example, the first period was the Druid period, which
corresponded to the period of Lucifer and Moloch which he found in the Bible.

28-4.1 Blake's Triadic Division of Poetry

Blake extended his scheme of the triadic division to poetry also. He thought that the
function of poetry was to regain a kind of oneness with life which had been lost. The
eighteenth century represented the Fall. The Age of Reason which emphasized the
intellect, in his view, was equivalent to the eating of the h i t of knowledge of good
and evil. The intellectual approach had destroyed man's early modes of perception.
Blalce believed that the function of poetry is to restore our early ways of seeing and to
revive the heart. His comprehensive view of the role of poetry is stated in Auguries
of Innocence:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And Heaven in a wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the paIm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

Blake presents not the actual world of our nornlal experience, but a world before the
Fall. He enables us to see the world in its beauty a d horror and gives us the hope
that t.he apocalypse can be attained. His propl~eticbooks such as Jerusalem are not
merely allegories, but pure visions in which light is shed on something so that the
poet and the reader can together see it.

Self-Check Exercise 2
1. What are the three stages in Blake's interpretation of history?

2. What relationship did Blake see between an individual's life and the progress
of history?

3. What is Blake's triadic division of poetry?

4. What is the function of poetry according to Blake?

 William Blake I
28.5 APPROACHES TO BLAKE'S POETRY
Blake's poem are simple and direct; there is no sentimentality which makes poetry
distateful. One may approach Blake as a child or as a scholar. Blake's poems,
particularly the short lyrics, can be enjoyed by children. But we need to analyze and
synthesize the meaning for a better understanding. As scholars, we have to consider
his views and how they form a consistent system. Blake writes in metaphors or pure
images. Concept or ideas are pre-dominant in much popular poetry. We have to
figure out Blake's meaning by examining his metaphors or images.

Blake's poems can be read in several ways : as direct statements, as indirect

statements, or as clusters of images. Our understanding of his poems depends on
how we wish to study his poems.

28.5.1 Four Levels of Meaning

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Again, Blake's poems can be read on four levels, the levels which Dante had
suggested for the interpretation of his Divine Comedy. These are:

1. Literal : On this level, the poem can be read simply as a sequence of actions,
situations, descriptions, and so on.
2. Moral: On this level, the poem may be read as a series of moral commands,
both positive and negative. A system of rewards for right actions and
punishments for wrong deeds is given in Dante's poern.
3. Allegorical: On this level, all actions are interpreted in terms of some dogma.
4. Anagogiical: On this highest level, a poem can be given a mystical reading.

The use of these four levels ofinterpretation of a given theme or poem may be
illustrated in the following way. 'Jerusalem may stand for different things depending
on the choice of the level of interpretation. On the literal level it is a city in Palestine,
allegorically it may mean the Church; morally it may mean the believing soul;
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ailagogically it may imply the City of God.
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These four levels are helpful in reading Bpke's poems. The literal meaning is very
I simple in many of his poems. The moral aqpect is evident in Blake's criticism of
I social evils which the readers are enco~rage'q~
to set right. The allegorical approach is
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I useful in the interpretation of some poems. Byt the anagogical level seems tp be
1 appropriate for understanding the full import of Blake's poems because Blake's
poems were composed on the basis of mystical eAperiences.
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i 28.5.2 Blake's Search for New,Forms
I Although Blake had lived in the neoclassical age, he was o t of sympathy with its
poetic themes, forms and techniques. He sought new v e r s h m s and fresh
techniques. He went back to the Elizabethan and early seventkenth century poets, to
, the Ossianic poems, Collins, and other eighteenth century write+ outside the main
stream poetic tradition of Alexander Pope and Dr. Samuel Johns+ for his lyric
, models. He also introduced partial rhymes and new rl~ythmsand *ed daring figures
of speech.
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, 28.6 THE NEW PROCESS OF PRINTING
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1 I Blake used an entirely original process for printing his poems, starting with Songs of,
Innocence. He engraved the text and the related illustration on a copper blate in
I varnish. The letters and designs were then made to stand out after an acid has
II lowered the surface of the copper plate. Impressions of these were taken from the
raised etchings and then painted in water colours by hand. Thus he could give his
i visions substance through all the arts at his command. Most of Blake's well-known
i works were produced through this process called 'illuminated printing'. The new
Runt antic Poets
method of printing enabled Blake to present 'a unique fusion of text, picture, and
decoration'. In the printed text we read only words, but in the original version, the
words and designs are mutually illuminating, Thus, Blake's message is conveyed
through words, engraving and painting, and this triple process reinforces Blake's
meaning.

Self-check Exercise 3

1. What are the different approaches to the study of Blake's poetry?

2. Explain the relevance of Dante's four levels to an understanding of Blake's

poems.

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3. What new forms did Blake seek for his poetry?

4. Explain Blake's invention of "illuminated printing".

What is the advantage of the new process of printing?

28.7 SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND SONGS OF

EWEHENCE
28.7.1 Introduction
Now let us examine closely some of the poems of Blake. Let us see how these poems
exemplif) the qualities of hi$ poetry and convey his message.

Songs oflnnocence'was pub1ished;in1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794.

Although these are epoch-making in more ways than one, they hardly made an
im act then. Jacob Bronowski says: ''They were as formative for the culture of the
20t century in Europe and Ameri~aas the Bible and The Pilgrim Ir Progress have
been for an earlier ago". Blake aw cleprly the shape of things to come; the problems
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of urban living, the power structures, the animosities among nations and the bitter
rivalries among industrial societies, Blake's prophetic insights made no sense to his I
contemporaries, but we are in a better position to understand the temiblo truths i
conveyed in his poems.
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Blake has chosen simple models for these "songs". They are the hymns of Charles I

Wesley, the moral verse of Isaac Watts and other Nonconformists. But there is one
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 ~th$mnt
difference, Blake reverses the roles of the poet and the child and makes the ~ i l l i a mBlake
child teach the poet. Broadly, in Sottgs oflnnocence, the child narrates the joys of
, life iii hhature; in Songs ofExperience, the child is trapped in prisons of state and
. C$W&.
28,7,2 Note on Songs of Innocence
rtre former are happy songs written to and about children, the latter depict, to use
Blake's own words, the "contrary state of the human soul". Songs of Innocence is a
statement of the reaffirmation of the New Testament doctrine, "Lest ye become again
as a little child ye cannot hope to enter the kingdom of heaven". This is underscored
by Blake's use of pastoral Christian symbols (the Christ child, the lamb, the shepherd,
etc,) As Russell Noyes observes: "The poet has left out all art, all moralizing, all
pretending. The theme of loss and finding runs through the songs and the gaiety and
laughter of children fills them."
28.7.3 Note on Songs of Experience
Having experienced the hypocrisy and cruelty of the world personally, Blake was
indignant in Songs of Experience. If Innocence is Heaven, Experience is Hell, Love
and joy are suppressed by selfishness and by restrictions imposed by the priests (The
Garden of Love). The children's laughter is silenced by adults; the children are
exploited by an insensitive world (The Chitnney-Sweeper), The Church and the State,
two pillars of society, are indifferent. Sometimes they even connive, to cause
suffering to children. Blake thought that these social evils were shameful. As a poet
be could speak out with indignation and compassion. Russell Noyes says:"These
songs reverberated the intensity of his feeling in brilliant denunciatory phrases, tight
rhythms, and searing imagery. The best of them are rarely to be matched elsewhere
iri Blake, or (for that matter) in their kind in anyone else".

28,7.4 Comments on Both the Collections

kt is interesting to note that many poems in these two collections represent parallel
situations, ptesenting two sides of the same coin, Holy Thursday and Nurse's Song
are titles in both collections of songs, but the situations they describe are different.
f i e shift from innocence to experience can be seen also in the change from the lamb
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' to
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the tiger, the blossom to the sick rose, the piper to the bard, the divine image to the
hufnan abstract. The world of innocence is the world of childhood, and childhood
cotlveys suggestions of the Christ child. The world of experience is the adult world.
It is urban and it is opposed to the natural world of childhood. The pure simple love
of innocence becomes lust and depraved sexuality in the world of experience. In
Blake's poetry there is generally a dominant symbolic pattern based on these two
~ o t l d s The
. child is good, and he represents the world of innocence. The father,
who represents the adult world of experience is evil.

28.7.5 Songs of Innocerice: Study of Some Poems

Lbt us examine three poems from Songs oflnnocence and three from Songs of
Experience. Thq first poem from Songs oflnnocence is reproduced below for your
convenience :

The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou h o w who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight
Softest clothing, wooly, bright;
Gave thee such tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Romantic Poets
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou h o w who made thee?
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee :

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb
, He is meek, & he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.

Little Lamb, God bless thee !

Little Lamb, ~od-bless thee !

This short poem describes innocence and refers to the mystery of creation. The
speaker in the poem is an innocent child who asks the lamb a series of rhetorical
questions concerning its birth and upbringing. The first stanza of ten lines mirrors the
child-like quality of innocence. There is an air of gaiety which is expressed in words
like 'delight', 'bright', 'rejoice'. The lamb's own "gentle" nature is indicated by words
like 'softest', 'wooly', 'tender'. The speaker who is himself tender, young and gentle is
delighted by the sight of the lamb. There is a parallel in that the lamb and the child
share the same qualities. The second stanza of ten lines attempts to answer the
questions posed to the innocent lamb. Without naming Christ, the speaker says that
the maker (or creator) calls himself a lamb. He shares the qualities of meekness and
mildness with the lamb and becomes a child. The lamb, the child and Christ are one.
There is the same divinity that hedges a child and a lamb as it does Christ.

The diction used in this poem is very simple and it is appropriate to a child; the
rhythm is like lisping numbers of a child. If the first stanza stresses the beauty,
gentleness and tenderness of the innocent lamb, the second stanza attributes similar
qualities to the creator. And the creator calls himself lamb or child.

The Chimney Sweeper

Now let us read another poem from Songs ofInnocence:

The Chimney Sweeper

When my mother died I was very youqg, '

And my Father sold me while yet my tongue
. Could scarcely cry "weep!" "weep!" "weep!" "weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep, and 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 and that very night

As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight !
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned and 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 and set them all free;
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Then down a green plain leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the Sun.
 The naked and white, all their bags left behind,
William Blake
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
And then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And Wash in a river, and Shine in the Sun

Then naked and 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, and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold. Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

This poem was inspired by the agitation in Blake's time against the employment of
children as chimney sweepers. The agitators demanded the passing of laws against
this inhuman practice. The speaker in this poem is a small child who is himself a
chimney sweeper. Hence the point of view is that of an innocent child. And the child
accepts without protest the appalling conditions into which he is forced.

The pathetic condition of a child who was sold to be used as a chimney sweeper even
before he could learn to speak the word 'sweep' ('weep' in line 3 is child's lisping for
'sweep') correctly is heart-rending. The pathos is reinforced when the speaker says
that he sleeps in the soot. Children are innocent and meek like lambs. The children
who worked as chimney sweepers were shaved. The implicit comparison is with the
lamb shorn of its wool. The lamb cannot protest; it has to accept what is done to it.
So also the child has to meekly apcept. There is biting irory in line 8 when the
speaker says that the soot of the chimneys cannot spoil a tonsured head. The spirit of
acceptance may be noted in Tom's dream in the third, fourth and fifth stanzas. A
chimney sweeper is like a body in a coffin. As thg child is innocent, an Angel sets
him free so he can wash himself clean and enjoy himself in the green plains in the
Sun. In Tom's dream, the Angel tells him that he could enjoy endlessly if he is a
good boy. God would be his father, his protector. But this is only a dream. When
Tom woke up, it was business as usual; they had to get back to sweeping chimneys.
In spite of the cold and discomfort, Tom was happy because he had learnt that doing
his duty was its own reward. The conclusion of the poem is rather strange and
unexpected, but the poem as a whole is an expose of an evil practice in the poet's day,

The Divine Image

The third poem we shall read is given below :

THE DIVINE IMAGE

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues to delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Romantic Poets Then every man, of every clime, ,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love human form,

Is heathen, turk, or jew;
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.

This poem presents the four virtues of mercy, pity, peace and love in direct terms.
The simplicity of its statement and its ballad metre remind us of the hymns of Isaac
Watts and otl~erhymn writers who influenced Blake. These qualities are identified
with God and his child, man. God dwells in man. Hence the human form is divine.
Loving men is loving God.

The poem should be read with "The Human Abstract" in Songs of Experience which
is a more difficult poem. m e virtues listed above become perverted in the second
poem; they are now false virtues. Human experience perverts the brain.

Self Check Exercise - 4

1. Why are the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience epoch - making ?

2. What are the models for the Songs ofInnocence and Songs of Experience?

3. Which New ~estament'doctrinedo the Songs ofInnocence affirm?

4. Explain how the Songs of Experience show the contrary state of the human
soul.

5. What qualities are shared by the lamb, the child and Christ?

6. What is the context of The Chimney Sweeper?

 7. What is the comparison between Tom and the lamb? William Blake I

8. Describe Tom's dream.

I 9. Why was Tom happy afier his dream?

10. What was the Angel's message to Tom?

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I 28.7.6 Songs of Experience : Study of Some Poems
I Now let us read three Songs of Experience: The first one is given below:
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28.7.6.1 The Sick Rose

0 Rose, thou art sick

The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the hawling storm,

Has found out thy bed

(If Crimson joy : .
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy

In this short and beautihl poem, Blake uses symbols connecting the sensuous with
the emotional and the moral meanings. As a visionary poet he uses symbols in an
elusive way. Poems such as these cannot be fully understood, although we enjoy
reading them. The three levels - physical, emotional and moral - are experienced at
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I the same time. Apparently the poem is about p rose and a worm, but it is obvious that
I t h r e is a hidden meaning in the poem. The thiags and the situation described in the
, poem are all symbolic. They imply something more than what they are. Blake uses
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contrast as a poetic device to convey his meaning. Thus 'rose' and 'worm''joy', and
I 'destroy' are paired off. The second word in each pair suggests evil while the first
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word in each pair suggests beauty and happiness, The implication seems to be that
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the dark secret lover, travelling in the stormy night stealthily found out the happy
state, "bed of crimson joy," of the rose and destroys its life, While good or virtue is
1 indicated by "bedof crimson joy," evil is indicated by a number of words: sick,
, worm, night, howling storm, dark, secret, destroy. A liberal use of words suggesting
I evil as against a single phrase suggesting happiness, perhaps shows that good is
1I surrounded by evil.
Again, although we know that the worm stands for evil, we do not know the nature of
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that evil. It may be lust, sin, destruction, or death. The mystery is compounded

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Romantic Poets because the worm is described as "invisible". It is engaged in secret activities:
finding out the bed, e'xpressing 'dark secret love'.

The rose which stands for purity or innocence is perhaps ruined by (the worm) .
experience; the rose which is a symbol of love is perhaps destroyed by selfishness;
the rose which is a thing of beauty is wrecked by jealousy.

Harold Bloom finds a human parallel in this allegorical poem. According to his
view, the poem attacks the myth of female flight and male pursuit, of female
resistance and male destruction. Where the rose's 'crimson bed' is concealed, the
destruction (rape-marriage) becomes a social ritual.

The rose is employed by the poet as a personal symbol which is capable of different
interpretations. The poem makes one thing clear. A crimson rose has been entered
and sickened and destroyed by a worm secretly. This destruction may symbolize the
destruction caused by secrecy, deceit, hypocrisy and pain.

Now let us turn to another poem born of Blake's bitter experience.

28.7r6.2 London
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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*everycry of every Man,

In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear.
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How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

This pkem, on the literal level, is rather easy to understand. It is clear that it is a .
social and economic protest. But the poem is more complicated than this, for the
"mind-forged manacles" must be approached on the allegorical and anagogical levels.
Man has forged these manacles himself.

Reason, which has an important place in the lathcentury, exercises tyranny and hence
"mind-forged manacles". Reason, nature and society which are highly valued in that
age have forged their own tyrannies. These are the ''triple goddess of destruction".
Everyone and everything, the streets and the river, are "charter'd", that is, used
A*#& commercially. The word "ban" may refer to Pitt's ban on people's liberties. The
nation is sick as weakness, woe and fear "bight" it. The child chimney - sweeper, the
adult soldier, the young prostitute are living testimony to the neglect of Christian
ideals and humane personal relationships, Blake saw madage as an institution
invented by fallen man. Like any other institution, it also limits freedom. Hence
marriage is a 'hearse'.
 : 28.7.6.3 The Tyger William Blake

Finally, let us consider Blake's well-known poem, "The Tyger".

0

THE TUGER
Tyger ! Tyger ! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could fkame thy fearful symmetry ?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes ?
I On what wings dare he aspire 7
What the hand dare seize the fire ?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of Thy heart ?
And when Thy heart began to beat
What dread hand, 8i what dread feet?
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 water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
I
Tyger! Tyger! burnign bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
This is not only Blake's most famous poem, but one of the great poems in the English
language.

The first thing we notice in this poem is the unusual spelling of the word, "Tyger".
Although Dr. Samuel Johnson mentioned it as an alternative form of the more
common spelling, "Tigert', Blake's spelling conveys a unique feeling. In this context,
it is important to remember that for Blake a poem is not a group of words presented
in a linear fashion on a page, but a poem is a visual object. His engraving and
painting are integral parts of his verbal art. Thus a poem by Blake is meant to be
seen and read. Only then is its full impact felt. So the unconventional spelling
reinforces our sense of wonder at the beauty, fierceness and strength of the tiger.

Our astonishment is expressed through a series of fourteen questions in a span of

twenty-four short lines. Eleven of these questions are fired rapidly in the first sixteen
lines. In the first four stanzas, the poet attempts to augment the reader's sense of
wonder progressively by asking a series of rhetorical questions on the extrao@inary
pchrvers required for creating an animal like the tiger. The creator must po'ssess the
same qualities to be'able to produce such a creature. The nature of the Tiger, as
Lionel Trilling says, is defined by the nature of God. In the last two stanzas, there is
a reversal of this procedure. God is defined by the nature of the Tiger. God who
created a meek and mild creature like the lamb dared to create the ferocious Tiger.
Earlier we saw that the lamb, the child, and Jesus are one and the same. That such a
God created the tiger is not comprehensible to the stars who are the agents of divine
law. As Blake himself suggests, it is the "contrary state of the soul". The Lamb and
the Tiger represent two aspects of God and two states of man.
Romantic Poets The sound effects in the poem are striking. The metre employed is trochaic
tetrameter which is itself an unusual form. There is a good deal of alliteration and
assonance. The diphthong (ai) in Tyger recurs throughout the poem.
The poem may be explained in terms of the creation myth and the problem ofgood
and evil in the world, What baffles man is that a kind God who created a mild L8m.h
also created the ferociaus Tiger. It is incredible; "Did he who made the Lamb makc
thee?" The Book of Job in the Bible raises the same question.
The poem is a fine example of compression. The questions at the end of the,stanza
lack a verb:
And when thy heart began to beat
What dread hand? what dread feet?
This is the revised draft. Blake must have felt that the fragment is forceful enough
and that it underscores the tone of exclamation.

In on9 sense, Khe Tyger is a simple and enjoyable poem. It raises the common
question: How do you account for the forces of good and evil in the universe?
Blake's Tiger has a dual aspect, it is both beautiful and terrible as the repetitive
phrase, "fearful symmetry", suggests. We should also remember that Blake turns
from the Tiger to an examination of the nature of the creator.

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
There are allusions in the second stanza to daring attempts in mythology to challenge
God: "On what wings dare he aspire?" is a reference to Icarus flying high towards tke
sun. The creator of the Tiger who had burning fire in his eyes must have had stronger
wings than Icarus's wings joined by wax which melted due to the heat of tha sun, In,
the very next line there is another question. What the hand, dare seize the fire? This
is a reference to Prornetheus's stealing fire from heaven for mankind's benefit, These
two acts of daring and courage are outdone in the creation of the tiger.
Self-check Exercise 5
1. Why is the rose described as "sick"?

What does the "invisible worm" stand for?

__m3

TA9-c

..,. , . . . ,, . ,
1

3. What is the meaning of the poem, The Sick Rase?

4. What are "the mind forged manacles"?

5. Examine the poem, London, as a poem of protest? William Blake

6. Why does Blake compare marriage to a hearse?

7. Why does the speaker in The Tyger wonder that the creator of the Lamb and
the tiger is one and the same?

8. What impression of the tiger's qualities do you get by reading Blake's poem?

9. Give an example.of compression in The Tyger.

10. Comment on the phrase, "fearful symmetry".

28.8 BLAKE'S CONTRIBUTION

We have seen Blake's use of symbols in The Lamb, The Sick Rose, The Tyger and
other poems. We have also noted examples of compressed or concise statements in
his poems. He developed these and integrated them into an elaborate system of his
own. He believed:"I must Create a System, or be enslaved by another Man's". His
"Prophetic Books"Jerusa1em is an example - deal with this developing and changing
system of Blake. Much of Blake's work in these books is abstruse or obscure, but his
main theme is clear. All the prophetic books deal with some aspect of the Biblical.
pattern of the Fall of Man, Salvation, the destruction of the fallen world and the
rebuilding of New Jerusalem, the City of God. All these are presented as visions .
which are modelled on the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Blake believed that the
violence predicted in the Book of Revelation was manifested in the American War of
Independence and the French Revolution, He thought that such violence precedes the
redemption of the world. He expressed these views in his unfinished "Prophetic
Books", The French Revolution and America: a Prophecy. His later writings such as
The Four Zoas, Milton and Jerusalem deal with Biblical history which is an outer
representation of the inner state of the soul. In this version, the fall comes through
the disintegration of the soul and salvation is attained again through imagination.
Blake held imagination to be the divine spark in man. He had stated: "I copy
Imagination; I write when commanded by the spirits".
R o m a ~ t i cPoets During his sixties, Blake devoted himself entirely to engraving and painting. He
produced hundreds of paintings and engravings. These include illustrations for
Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims, for the Book of Job (see Appendix) and for Dante's
Divine Comedy.
Blake provides a good example of the romantic revolt against traditional ideas. We
have seen that he is opposed to the classics, to the mechanistic view of the universe,
and to the tyranny of political systems. He has created a strange, even a private,
mythology, and re-interpreted Christianity to suit his opinions. There was a tendency
among the romantics to pursue truth in a new way. In their quest for ultimate
meanings; the romantics emphasized the importance of the work of art. Blake is an
outstanding example of this new approach to find out the ultimate truth.
Blake was almost unknown as a poet in his lifetime. Three decades after his death,
the Pre-Raphaelites regarded him as a precursor. In the early decades of the twentieth
century mythology and symbolism have been revived in the poetry of W.B. Yeats and
the fiction of James Joyce. Blake's posthumous recognition was due to the
importance given to myth and symbol in the poetry of W.B. Yeats and the fiction of
James Joyce.

28.9 QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY

1. Write an essay on Blake's personality.
2. Discuss the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience as "Contrary states
of the Human Soul"
3. Consider Blake as a precursor of the Romantic Movement.

28.10 SUMMING LIP

In this unit, we considered the revolutionary and nonconformist views of Blake. We
saw his unique and original achievement in three related arts, chiefly poetry.
Keep in mind th6importance given by Blake to Imagination, Vision and Prophecy
while reading his poems and those of the other Romantic poets.

28.1 1 SUGGESTED READING

Abrams, M,H. (ed.) English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism (1960)
(Essays on Romanticism and on all major Romantic Poets, including three essays on
Blake. This anthology is useful for the whole course on Romanticism).
Blook, Harold. The Visionary Company . [1961],1971.
(There is a chapter, "The Contraries", on Blake, pp. 33-48. There are brief
discussions of the better known poems of the major Romantic poets. Hence this is
also useful for the entire course).
Bronowski, Jacob. A Man without a Mask [1943], 1954. '

(An illuminating discussion of Blake).

Eliot, T.S. "William Blake" in The Sacred Wood.(l920).
(Insightful comments on Blake's honesty and original perceptions).
Erdman, D.V.Blake, Prophet Against Empire: A Poet lr Interpretation of the History
of His Own Times. [I 9531, 1969.
(Intensive study of English social and political thought during Blake's times and their
effect on him).
Frye, Northrop, Fearful Symmetry: A study of William Blake, [I 9471, 1958.
(Discusses Blake's mythology with emphasis on the prophecies).
Harding D.W."William Blake". From Blake to Byron, Tl~ePelica~iGuide to English
Literature, 5 , (1957).
- (A concise account of Blake's work with analyses of several well-known poems).
 Schorer, Mark. William Blake: The Politics of Vision ( 1 946). Wliliam Blake
(Comprehensive study of Blake in relation of his age).

28.12 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

Self-check Exercise I
1. See 28.2
2. See 28.3
3. See 28.3.1
4. He was opposed to tyranny of every kind. He was against private property
1 and against formal government.
5. See 28.3.2
6. See 28.3.3
Self-check Exercise I1
1. See 28.4
2. See 28.4
3. See 28.4.1
4. To restore our early ways of seeing things and to revive the heart. "To see a
World in a Grain of'sand".
Self-check Exercise 111
1. See 28.5
2. See 28.5.1
3. See 28.5.2
4. See 28.6
5. It presents a rare fusion of text, picture and decoration. In reinforces Blake's
meaning.

I
Self-check Exercise IV
1. See 28.7.1 first paragraph
2. See 28.7.1 second paragraph
3. See 28.7.2
I 4. See 28.7.4
5. See 28.7.5.1
6. See 28.7.5.2
7. S& 28.7.5.2
8. See 28.7.5.2
9. See 28.7.5.2
10. See 28.7.5.2
Self-check Exercise V
See 28.7.6
See 28.7.6
See 28.7.6
See 28.7.6.2
See 28.7.6.2
See 28.7.6.2
Because the Lamb and the Tiger represent diametrically opposite qualities.
See 28.7.6.2
See 28.7.6.2
The phrase epitomises the two important qualities of the tiger, fierceness and
beauty.