Community Blog

Searching through the variety of blogs, I found one that sort of stuck out to me. This blog caught my eye because unlike all the rest it mainly focused on only one of William Blake’s poems. The blog is called The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: A Tribute to William Blake .This blog obviously targets the poem “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” The blog got to the core of what Romanticism was about, rebellion against established social rules and conventions. It shows you all the diverse ways people view the poem, and how they reacted to it.

The post I found most interesting was “Decoding the Voice of the Devil” by Melissa Bolinger. Although this post was very hard to follow it seems like she did actually get to a good point. She talks about distinctive “sacred codes” and their meanings. She also talks about the well known quote “Those who restrain desire do so because theirs are week enough to be restrained.” I really like this quote because it really hits a problem that’s always been around in our civilization. People only get where they want if they have a true desire to persevere.  Not only does do a good job of translating what she believes are Blake’s ideas, but she also does a good job of incorporating her own ideas and thought process.

Overall this blog is a good way to get familiarized with the Romanticism poets, especially if you’re having trouble understanding what they’re all about. It shows different ideas and points of views shared by the poets in that time. Although it only Focused on Blakes works it gives you a good out look on the rest of the poets. How they seemed to be tied to religion and sciences, but at the same time denied all the standards of their era.

The Dream (Prose Poem)

I’m standing on the shore. I see the waves coming to greet me, so I wave back. As I lay on the sand I can feel the graininess rub hard against my skin. The sun sends down a heat current and it begins to caress my face softly. When I reach for it begins to shrink in my hands, like a bouncy ball I throw it on to the ground soon it jumps back to its place. The ocean is tints of blue, from turquoise to indigo, and it begins to call my name. I run to it but as I do the world around me starts a metamorphosis. An “Oh no!” slips through my lips.

All these memories start to flash before my eyes, but then suddenly it all stops. There I am only five years old helping my grandma make her famous apple salad. I reach for her but she can’t see me. Tears stream down my face like rivers and soon I yell, but I’m not heard.

I close my eyes and count to ten, I open them and it is pitch black. Slowly a scene around me gets painted. I realized I’ve been dreaming. Grabbing hold of my bed frame I weave out of my sheets. The pain is still there. I’m an empty shell. I can’t believe a jagged little pill could cause all of this. It was the incredible ride it takes you on that hooked me. You feel nothing; no pain no sorrow, and especially not the need to be loved. I fabricated too many lies, and like a jenga tower they all eventually tumbled down.  It seems like my withdrawals have triggered my body to convulse I can sense the bed quivering beneath me like the ground does during an earthquake.

Before I know it I open my eyes and I’m standing on the shore. I see the waves coming to greet me, so I wave back.

Earth's Answer

 

 

In this poem Blake is truly expressing how the human race has been exploiting and misusing Earth’s recourses. Earth is personified wonderfully; she of course is a woman. She begins to show her discontent with humans, and shares the pain she feels for being mistreated, as well as unappreciated. He lucidly describes it in the first stanza. The part where he says, “Earth raised up her head,” is almost trying to show that she is kind of ashamed to have let the abuse go on this long.

 

“Selfish father of men! Cruel, jealous, selfish fear!,” this one phrase could not be more accurate in describing exactly how people are, and the reasons why they feel the need to try to conquer everything around them. People fear the unknown, and get super worked up about things that are out of their control. They try to tame the untamable. Earth is one of those things we simply weren’t meant to conquer, although it doesn’t seem like we understand that. It was not too long ago that our ancestors walked this land and had a beautiful bond with it. They knew how fragile it is, and how horrible it would be if it was left in the wrong hands. However somewhere along the way civilization took over and greed did as well.

 

 “Brake this heavy chain, that does freeze my bones around! Selfish, vain…” Money and power was the only thing people began to care about.  Vainness played a big part in it as well. Simultaneously she wishes nothing more than for the hurting to end. To be free again is all that she asks for, so her rivers can run on their own course, and her trees can grow where the want. Towards the end of the poem it seems like even though she has been betrayed by the humans she still feels love for us and hopes we are able to realize that without her we literally cannot survive. Hopefully we still have the time needed to repair all the damaged we have inflicted upon her, and that we are still able to salvage our relationship with her.

The Divine Image

We, as humans, are linked with Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love. First Blake says “All pray in their distress” We humans have to believe in something, and have a reason to live. We believe there is a higher power, an all-seeing being, who created us we call him God. And when we pray to God it seems like we’re always praying for these four things. In the second stanza he says that God too lives by Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love. We were made to his image and so we in some way represent him, of course we are not his equal. Blake then describes us as Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love its self.


Our heart gives mercy to those who hurt us. Always asking God to show mercy on us for the sins we commit, and when our day comes and we stand before him to be judged he understands we are sorry. We pity those who suffer. Starving kids in Africa, and in other third world countries, as God pities us for the unfair things some of us are put through. Millions of unfair things happen in our world day after day.

 Love is a big one, all we look for is someone to love us and under stand who we are. Many people say that real love is something unattainable. However sometimes people forget that there are many different forms of love, like the way parents love their children more than anything else in this world. People imagine that, that is the way God loves us too, because they say we are all children of God.




 “And Peace, the human dress,” when Blake states this he tells us how humans must show peace, or act peacefully towards each in order to live in harmony as God intends us to. Blake fundamentally says it is essential to live by these four things in order to feel happiness and reach our purpose. If we are able to transmit this to all kinds of people, even those who seem to not deserve it we will be closer to our God.

The Tyger

The Tyger is perceived as something great and mighty. The big question is who was powerful enough to create such an amazing beast. Some kind of eerie energy seems to surround him. There is also a sense of ancientness that comes along with The Tyger. His inner workings exposed showing him as a complex machine. He is seen as untouchable and unmovable, how did he come to be? There is a saying in Spanish “Mas sabe El Diablo por viejo que por ser Diablo,” This connects to Blake’s poem, because like the Tyger, the devil learns through hard experiences and that’s what makes him the way he is. They are not supposed to be made into a figure to follow, but something to learn from. The devil use to be one of God’s angels, however he fell from heaven. Maybe The Tyger just like the devil was made from God’s creation and turned into what he is now.  Or maybe he is a precisely engineered to fulfill a purpose.


“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?” Here Blake is explaining that something from the skies was capable of designing the Tyger, Later he says if it was possible that this same omnipotent being created The Lamb along with The Tyger. The Lamb is another poem Blake has written. In it he describes The Lamb in a similar format as he does The Tyger. However what do a fierce Tyger and an innocent Lamb have in common?  The Lamb is a symbol of pureness and innocence on the other side of the spectrum lays The Tyger. He is the symbol of old experience, and curruptness, but not necessarily the symbol of Evil. Ultimately Blake says that God is who invented both Lamb and Tyger. He creates them both to illustrate there cannot be good without there being evil, dark with no light, heaven without a hell. A person cannot fall into the extremes; he must have a midpoint in his life. Everything must have a balance.