“Crossing the Bar”

“Crossing the Bar”, written by Alfred Tennyson was written during the Victorian Era, which symbolizes Queen Elizabeth’s reign.  poetry created during this period bridged the gap between poetry of the Romantic period and modern 20th century poetry.  “Crossing the Bar” is a speaker’s account of change and the beginning of the end.  

Here, It does not necessarily matter what in fact is ending.  Tennyson uses the sea as a metaphor through the use of imagery and poetic form.  Here, the poem is written in ABAB form, a rhythmic pattern similar to the movement of an ocean wave, “Sunset and Evening star-And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar-When I put out to sea” (1-4).  The language here insinuates death, the death of life through the eyes of Christianity, or more symbolically, a period of time. 

On a basic level, “Crossing the Bar” appears to be representative of the speakers preparation of his own death.  “Sunset and evening star-And one clear call for me!” (1-2).  “And may there be no sadness of farewell-When I embark” (11-12).  phrases like a “call for me” or “When I put out to sea” symbolizes his need to leave his life behind.  The tone of this poem is melancholy and sorrowful as the speaker embarks on his journey into the afterlife.  Yet, he looks at it as a new journey rather than an end, “I hope to see my pilot face to face-When I have crossed the bar” (15-16).  The speaker may be weary of what is to come but embraces the unknown instead of rejecting it.  

Secondarily, “Crossing the Bar” has strong Christian undertones within it’s context.  Even the use of “crossing” used in the title and in the last stanza, “When I have crossed the bar” (16), represents the Christian term for “crossing over” into the after life.  The mention of the “evening star” in the first stanza symbolizes the “bright light” that is said to lure those on the bed of death to leave their physical body behind.  He hopes that no one feels “sadness of farewell” as he “embarks” on his journey into the afterlife.  The speaker mentions, “I hope to see my pilot face to face-When I have crossed the bar” (15-16).  The pilot may be considered God, and the speaker is eager to finally meet such a source of mystery when he has crossed the bar, or “heavenly gates”.  

      

       Lastly,  “Crossing the Bar” is symbolic for the beginning and end of “something”.  As mentioned earlier, the Victoria Era symbolics the political reign of QueenVictoria n England.  Victorian poets were greatly influenced by Romantic poets, and Victorian poetry was said to bridge the gap between the poetry of the Enlightenment and modern 20th century poetry.  Here, the speaker speaks of the end of a period and the beginning of a new one.  This could be a physical journey, or just a period of change in general.  The speaker does not want to feel sorrow as he leaves his memory of the past, “And may there be no sadness of farewell-When I embark”, yet, he is excited to explore on his journey after he crosses the bar. Literature during the Victorian period represented a longing for exploration and adventure.  Kings Solomon's Mines, written by Rodger Haggard, is a great representative of that.  The novel’s contents and plot surrounds around adventure common of this time period.  

“Crossing the Bar” written by Alfred Tennyson, is a speakers account the beginning of an end in regards to death, death in the eyes of Christianity, or adventure.    

"The World is Too Much With Us"

“The World is Too Much With Us”

William Wordsworth, like many other Romantic poets during his time, felt a deep connection with nature and worked hard for others to follow their creative and spiritual way of life.  “The World is  Too Much With Us, follows this theme, and mainly discusses Wordsworth disapproval of how we in fact treat the world and the nature encompassed in it.

In the first stanza , Wordsworth drops key information, “The world is too much with u; late and soon-Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;-Little we see in Nature that is ours...” (1-3).  Wordsworth indicates that humans are too focused on material objects rather than appreciating what we already attain in the beauty of nature.  Here he capitalizes the word “nature” in attempts to personify it and treat it as its own, powerful, living being.  lHe charges humans with the guilt of  loosing touch with anything meaningful in the world, “We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (4). 

Wordsworth believes that humans are so far from being harmonic with nature:

“ This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon-The winds that will be howling at all hours-

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers-For this, for everything, we are out of tune-

It moves us not” (5-9).  

One seems to ignore nature in its entirety, thus, rejecting it from ones lifestyle for a more materialistic and gluttonous one.  

Towards the end of the Sonnet the speaker states:

“I’d rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn-Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea-Or 

hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” (9-14).  

Here, the speaker would be happier living as a Pagan, a man of another religion, just to see if he appreciated the world much more than the average Christian.  Overall, The speaker is in fact angry with man’s connection with nature, and prompts all to step back and appreciate the natural things Earth has to offer, rather than relying on material needs.   

MIDTERM*** KUBLA KHAN

“Kubla Khan”

Romanticism.  To some, their initial response of this term would be to conjure up images of young lovers, beautiful spring days, flowers, and cupid.  However, the technical definition stands as the, “attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century,” according to the Britannica Encyclopedia (4).  Romanticism can be viewed as the rejection of order and rationality during the late 18th-century.  

Samuel Taylor Coleridge for example, was a well known poet during the mid 18th century.  He wrote many brilliant works, including “Kubla Khan” all representing romantic ideologies of the Enlightenment.   The Romantic era was a period of self expression and the acceptance of nature into ones everyday life.   According to The History Guides article on the Romantic Era, “The philosophes had attacked the church because it blocked human reason.  The Romantics attacked the Enlightenment because it blocked free play of the emotions and creativity”. (3) The romantics believed that to live a fulfilled life, one must experience both sorrow and happiness to gain completion and understanding of the human soul, and ultimately achieve true bliss and personal satisfaction.  

Considering the fact that realists opposed nature, religion, art, and all other forms of expression, the Romantics, much like Coleridge turned to hallucinogenics to help them “escape” into a world un-tainted by reason.  “Kubla Khan” is one of Coleridge’s most well known and riveting poems he had created during his career, and, the way in which this poem came to exist is almost as interesting as the content itself.  The Romantics placed great importance on the idea of the imagination.  To them, within one’s imagination nearly anything was possible, and where one didn’t have to live under the watchful and oppressive eye of realism.  Coleridge, felt that science was diminishing what God had intended for the World he had created, so as a result, a Romantic poet like himself, chooses to live in a world based off emotions and feelings without boundaries.  

In a dream world, anything is possible, and the Romantics strived to capture that feeling of ecstasy and supreme happiness.  To attain such a strong connection to ones imagination, Coleridge used Opium as his method of transportation.  As legend has it, Coleridge had just taken Opium while he read a story about how Kubla Khan commanded the creation of the new palace.  He then fell into a drug induced sleep.  During his slumber, it is said that he had an amazingly vivid vision where he created more than two-hundred lines of poetry.  Upon his awakening, he began writing furiously, including every last detail of his vision that he was able to remember.  Unfortunately, a few stanzas into the poem, he was interrupted by a “visitor” who has been historically described as a “business man from Porlock” and sadly lost his train of thought (5).

On a basic level, “Kubla Khan” can be deemed as just the recording of a drug addict during his hallucinogenic trip.  The first three stanzas represent pure imagination, “...And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills-Where blossom’d many an incense-bearing tree; and here were forests ancient of the hills, enfolding sunny spots of greeney” (Coleridge 8-11). Here is building some type of utopia which sounds absolutely beautiful.  Have people been looking into this poem for centuries, picking apart symbolism  and allusions meanwhile, this is just a “trip” that nearly anyone could have?  Are we being over analytical?  When it comes down to it, “Kubla Khan” may be just the recordings of a frustrated poet, who uses hallucinogenic drugs  to help calm himself and feel at peace.  

One a second level, “Kubla Khan” can be considered an allegory to the oppression those underwent during the Enlightenment.  Unjust child labor, and unsanitary working and living conditions were man made errors in effect during this time. In stanza two, we see elements of war prophecies, “Abs’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far-Ancestral voices prophesying war!” (Coleridge 29-30).  Thus, following an event of “eruption”, “As if his earth in fast thick pants were breathing-A mighty fountain momently was forced; Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst-Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,” (Coleridge 18-21).  Coleridge says that following a natural disaster a man made one is bound to happen.  With the rejection of nature, a natural disaster, comes a man made one such as a civil war between the Romantics and Realists.  He states that this is a beautiful land, yet overcome with such hellish qualities, much like 18th century England itself, “ A savage place! as holy and enchanted as e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted-By woman wailing for hr demon-lover!” (Coleridge14-16).  He calls this land of Xanadu a “pleasure dome” in line thirty two and later says, “A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!”  Even though, Coleridge can live in a fantasy world, he must face the facts that realism lurks over him and he can truly never be at peace with nature and his imagination.  similar to the idea of the “glass celling”; you can see or imagine what you want but may never actually attain it. 

On a more complex level, Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” may be an illusion for the  human imagination itself. Within the first three stanza’s Coleridge builds Xanadu with his imagination, which can be a metaphor for the construction of ones mind.  The “stately pleasure-dome” can be symbolic of ones actual brain while the rivers described in the first stanza, “Where Alph, the sacred river, ran-Through caverns measureless to man-Down to a sunless sea” (Coleridge 3-5), may be thoughts and ideas running through the mind and “fertilizing” it with thought.  There are “gardens” which have “blossom’d” symbolizing ideas and the creative process itself, and ultimately, “enfolding sunny spots of greenery”, the final idea.  Yet, as we make our way into the second stanza, this bliss begins to dissipate as he comes to reality that his “fountain” of thoughts will never come into reality as long as he lives in the rational and oppressive world, again relating to the idea of the “glass celling”.  

On a fourth and final level, Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” can be an allusion for a sexual experience and encounter.  In he first stanza he introduces us to “the pleasure dome” followed by a vivid description of Xanadu that can be easily associated with the female anatomy, “Through caverns measureless to man-Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground-With walls and towers were girdled round...”.  The term “pleasure” itself has gained a sexual connotation among the english language as well.  As we enter the second stanza, the language grows more vivid and suggestive, “A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted-By woman wailing for her demon-lover!” (Coleridge 13-14) This can be an allusion of acting one ones sexual desires and having sexual intercourse. 

 “As id this earth in fast thick pants were breathing-a mighty fountain momently was forced-Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst-Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail: And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and over-It flung up momently the sacred river...”  (Coleridge 13-24).  

The quote above is a direct representative of the sexual process and climax.  As the stanza continues, these same images remain present.  In the last stanza, the speaker recalls the “damsel” “In a vision” he once saw.  He names her an “Abyssinian maid”.  He longs to regain that moment of passion and ecstasy in lines forty two through forty four, “Could I revive within me, Her symphony and sony-To such a deep delight ‘twould win me”.  This sexual encounter, was in fact, his own “paradise”.  

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” was written during the Enlightenment period.  It was known that Coleridge was dependent on hallucinogenic drugs such as Opium, and was under the influence while creating “Kubla Khan”.  Is his poem just the erotic recordings of a drug induced trip, or, does it have deeper meaning.  The answer has been debated over the centuries and one may continue to perceive it as they like using their own imagination, which is exactly what the Romantics prompted the reader do.   

Bibliography:

1. "550. Kubla Khan. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Oxford Book of English Verse." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.bartleby.com/101/550.html>.
2. Doré, Gustave. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge>.
3. Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 16: The Romantic Era." The History Guide -- Main. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture16a.html>.
4. "Romanticism -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia." Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticism>.
5. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/292>.

   

Keat's Odes

Keat’s Odes 

John Keat’s like many other romantic poets of his time, wrote about elements of the human soul.  Pain and beauty seem to be linked within his poems, as well as the transformation of pain into beauty as well.   The romantics believed that to live a fulfilled life, humans must undergo pain and to fully experience and understand happiness.    

Within the five Ode’s given to us, “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode to Autumn”,  “Ode on Melancholy”,  “Ode on a Grecian”, “Birds of Passion and Mirth”, we see elements of the romantic era and ones internal and external struggles.  Keats focused on death and the possibility of it throughout many of his works.   He gives plenty of examples from large to minor instances representing the loss of life, like,  the loss of a lover, or the death of nature in Autumn.    

Keats introduced the element of beauty as a distraction of death.  He connects the rational thought that yes, everyone must die inevitability, however, we can either choose to live out life in fear, or reinvent ourselves and embrace beautiful objects.  For example,  in “Ode to a Nightingale,” the speaker experiences great heartbreak and wishes to live like the nightingale  and sing beautiful music. “That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees-In some melodious plot of beechen green, and shadows numberless-Singest of summer in full-throated ease” ( 6-11).  The speaker longs to be like the “immortal” bird and experience happiness, freedom, nature, and beauty.   

In most of Keats works, much like other romantic poets during the Enlightenment, the speaker leaves the realm of the real world for a totally imaginative utopia, only to return to reality at the end of the adventure.  However, the speaker seems to be transformed or changed in his beliefs with a new experience of beauty.  Again, this is very visible in “Ode to a Nightingale, since the speaker speaks of the relation of visions and art.  

To Keats, art and creativity was very important.  He believed that nature and art were very closely related.  He also described the relation between art, nature, and the human soul. For example, in “Ode to Autumn”, the element of “harvesting” can be representative of “self -harvesting”.  The writing tool, also acts as a tool to harvest the thoughts in the brain, and one’s books are filled with details much like “seeds of thought”.  In “The Ode to Melancholy,” the speaker experiences great joy and sorrow, yet, the solution to such sorrows is described in “The Ode to Autumn” when the idea that yes nature is dying now, but, the spring will come again, and the fields will grow and the birds will sing yet again:

“Where are the songs of the Spring? Ay, where are they?  Think not of them, thou hast thy music too-while barred coulds bloom the soft-dying day-And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn-among the river-sallows, borne aloft-or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; and full -gorwn lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; hedge-crickets sing; and now the treble soft-the redbreat whistles from a garden-croft-and gathering swallows twitter in the skies” (23-33).      

Lastly, a major element with the work is the idea of the disappearance of the speaker.  Some, like Keats, believed that it was impossible to understand what the poet was thinking as he wrote the poem and by the end of the work, the speaker focuses on a object obsessively  and as a result, they erase themselves.  “The Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a great example of that.  The description of the urn itself is so intricate , that for centuries, theorists have questioned who in fact is the speaker by the end of the poem:

“...When old age shall this generation waste, thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,-that is all- Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” ( 47-50)

Keat’s odes may prove to be very complex, overall, they all represent the same theme: embrace nature, life, sorrow, the imagination, music, and pain.  For all of these elements make up the dimensions of the human soul itself: pain is beauty and beauty is pain.  

Assignment#4 THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

“The Rime if the Ancient Mariner”, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is filled with symbolism  of the romantic period.  His use of symbolism throughout the poem helps exemplify Western thought during the Enlightenment.  

One of the first and most prominent symbols that we see is the  Albatross.  The plot of the poem feeds off the inclusion of the Albatross.  For example,   The Albatross represents nature and life, which, was being denied during the Romantic period, “At length did cross an Albatross, thorough the fog it came; As it had been a Christian soul we hailed it in God’s name” .  The Albatross sends good vibes by helping them get through the icy world, however, it brings a strange murky fog which follows the ship.  This fog can be connected with the idea the realism continues to lurk over the West during this time, depriving them from the freedoms of life.  The Albatross plays with the sailors and also eats their food which can be symbolic for how deprived people were during this time, “It ate the food it ne’er had eat, and round and round it flew...And every day, for food or play”.  For example, factory workers were given jobs, however, they were making very little to no money so it was almost like a tease to these workers.  Much like in these people’s real lives, even though they had jobs, they often didn’t have enough money to put food on the table.  So even though the Albatross symbolizes nature, which the romantics wished to incorporate into their every day lives, it may only be possible to imagine such a thing, because in reality, just like the fog, reality lurks over them.  

When the Mariner shoots the bird, he automatically feels an overwhelming feeling of guilt, “And I had done a hellish thing, And it would work ‘em woe: For all averred, I had killed the bird”.  Much how one might feel if they cut nature and religion out of their lives.  The bird’s corpse lays around the Mariner’s neck, and only removes itself when he is able to accept nature and faith.  So, even though the Mariner is alive, without the beauty of nature and prayer in one’s life, their soul is “dead”.  

The sailors, who were originally freed by the Albatross being to die slowly after the Mariner kills the bird, which represents nature.  Symbolically, this means that once the sailors refused nature in their lives, their souls slowly began to depreciate, “There passed a weary time.  Each throat was parched, and glazed each eye”.  Many say that “eyes are the windows to the soul” and here, we see the sailors had “glazed” over eyes, yet again symbolizing their loss of soul and life.    

Soon after, The Mariner meets a Hermit, who is a Holy man who prays and practices religion daily.  He lives a simple life , in the woods, yet “loves to talk with Mariners-that come from a far country” which represents his sense of imagination.  The Hermit allows himself to imagine where the Mariners come from, and accepts the use of vivid imagination.  The Hermit forgives the Mariner of his sins, “It is the Hermit good! He singeth loud his godly hymns-that he makes in the wood.  He’ll shrive my soul, he’ll wash away-The Albatross’s blood”.  The Hermit represents a godly figure, who can give reconciliation to the Mariner. 

This is a tall tale, which almost seem fairytale like, which was rejected by many realists during the Enlightenment.  Here, Coleridge tries to tell those of the Enlightenment to trust in nature and religion, because without it one remains lifeless.  He encourages those to use their imaginations, like the wedding guest for example.  The wedding guest claims that he is “afraid of the Mariner”, which represents how those become fearful of the imagination.  However, the Mariner assures him that there is nothing to be afraid of, and to accept this phenomena as a gateway to ones happiness. 

 

Homework Assignment #3-- Kubla Khan

“Kubla Khan” is one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s most well known and  riveting poems, and the story in which it came to exist is just as intriguing as the poem itself.  The Romantic era, in which Coleridge wrote this poem highlighted the importance of the imagination.   And “Kubla Khan” exemplifies such a fascination. 

Romantic poets during the Enlightenment emphasized nature, religion, and imagination.  They felt that science was ruining what God had intended for the world, by picking the natural world apart.  A Romanticist poet  for example, dismays scientific theory and reason.  Instead, they live in a world based off emotions and feelings.  

Romantics deemed the imagination highly important, and as a result, should play a role in  one’s daily life.  In “real” life, one may grow discouraged of their dreams or even rational thought.  However, in a dream world anything is possible.  For example, someone can create a world where purple elephants existed, like mentioned in class last Thursday.  That is a perfect example since when one thinks of purple elephants, the first thing that comes to mind; child’s play.  Which brings me to my next point, children who are beings of innocence live with this mindset everyday.  As one enters adulthood, they start trying to answer all of life’s “big questions” and rationalize all thought.  These romantic poets believed that one should never let go of their imagination, in that realm of “make believe” anything can happen.  Oppression, or harm is not in arms reach and life is much more enjoyable.   

To attain such a connection with the imagination, most romantic poets used drugs, such as opium which allowed them to live and think in such creative ways.  Such a phenomena holds true for Coleridge in his work of “Kubla Khan”.  The story says that Coleridge, after taking a drug similar to opium, and reading about how Kubla Khan commanded the creation of the new palace, he fell asleep.  And during his slumber he had an indescribable vision and while sleeping,   created more than two hundred lines of poetry.  As soon as he awoke from his slumber, he began writing furiously, jotting down every line that he could remember, however, a few stanza’s into the poem he was interrupted by a visitor, “a business man from Porlock” and was unable to remember the rest of his imagination’s creation. It is believed that the last stanza of the poem was written after the interruption.  No one has been able to pin point who this man from Porlock was, however, he stands as a prominent figure in many of Coleridge’s works as a collective whole.       

The first three stanzas of “Kubla Khan” are products of pure imagination. “...And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills-Where blossom’d many an incense-bearing tree; and here were forests ancient as the hills, enfolding sunny spots of greenery” (8-11).   Here, he is building a totally imaginative location, which sounds absolutely beautiful.  This creation could be a metaphor for the building of one’s imagination itself as well.  

In  stanza two, we see elements of a war prophecies, “Abs’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far-Ancestral voices prophesying war!” (29-30). Thus, following an even of “eruption”, “As if his earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced; Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst-Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,” (18-21).  Coleridge is saying that following a natural disaster, a man made one is bound to happen. In lines  thirty five and thirty six, contrasting images of  beauty with elements of darkness, “It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!”.  In lines thirty seven and forty one, the speaker recalls a vision of a beautiful damsel, “A damsel with a dulcimer, In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she play’d, Singing of Mount Abora.  The speaker is impressed with the the damsel’s voice and tries to revive the image within himself, “Could I revive within me, Her symphony and song, to such a deep delight ‘twould win me, that with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, that sunny dome! Those caves of ice!”  considering some say that the last stanza was written after Coleridge had been interrupted of jotting down his dream, which is symbolic of his attempt to recreate her voice.  Within the last few lines, the speaker invites the audience to use their imagination to those who are willing, “And all who heard should see them there, An all should cry, Beware! Beware!...And close your eyes with holy dread, for he on honey-dew hath fed, and drunk the milk of Paradise” (49-54).  Here the speakers thesis comes together: one should never deny their imagination.

        Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” is one of the most well known poems written during the Romantic Period.  And like other romanticists, Coleridge believed that the use of ones imagination is very important and “Kubla Khan’s” message directly represents this belief.   

Assignment #2- William Blake

Sigmund Freud believed that humans are undeniably evil, but, to live peacefully amongst one another, one must suppress their animalistic behaviors.  A Romanticist such as William Blake, for example, may have agreed with Freud’s assumption based on is works of Innocence and Experience.

            William Blake, a well know poet during the controversial time of the Enlightenment, had strong opinions on both humans and their ways of life during this time.  As a result, Blake wrote, “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”.  The content in both selections are similar, yet, have opposing views on the particular situation at hand.  Some may argue that there is unsettled tension between the two lines of work, and others claim there is a direct relation between the two.  When one thinks of the literal and connotative definitions of innocence and experience, it is easy to see that they are relative to each other.  For example, one who is “innocent” is usually a child who has yet to learn right from wrong.  However, to get passed one’s stage of innocence, and be accepted into adulthood, they must gain life experience which rids them of their innocence. 

            A person who represents innocence, like a child, for example, looks at the world with a fresh eye.  Thus meaning, they are unbiased and unaware of any binaries such as, “good and evil”.  Blake was an avid believer in binaries, which others may have dismayed, and his “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience represent such a phenomena. 

                   Blake’s work tended to include aspects of religion and nature, and as a Romanticist poet, he disproved of the Enlightenment and its interest in science and realism.  His poem “The Lamb” has religious undertones, considering Jesus was considered a Sheppard himself.  “The Lamb” is a child’s song, written in the form of question and answer, “Little Lamb who made thee?” (1) “Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee” (11).  Jesus of course represents all that is calm and peaceful, and “The Lamb” expresses the positive side of Christianity.  The poem only discusses the “good” and  “clear” and does not mention the bad and evil that exists in the world, which has a direct correlation to innocence itself.  “Gave thee clothing of delight, softest clothing, woolly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice…” (5-8). According to the bible, Jesus was a tender and graci9ous figure, and considering this child is blinded by his innocence, he does not pick up on any evil in the world.

            Unlike its light counterpart, “The Tiger”, exposes suffering in the world which the speaker in “The Lamb” is blind sighted too.  Like “The Lamb”, this poem is also in the form of question, but instead, it does not provide any answers to the proposed questions.  “In what distance deeps or skies-Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  On what wings dare he aspire?  What the hand dare seize the fire” (4-8).  The speaker longs to know what type of God would create such a beautiful yet horrid being.  He questions that life and nature is a reflection of it’s creator.  Does that mean that God himself is evil?  Blake writes, “Did he smile His work to see?  Did he who made the lamb make the?” (19-20). In a world that can be both good and evil, how can the same God create a creature as innocent as the lamb, and one so vicious as the tiger?  For an innocent child, finding an answer to his question may prove simple, however, for those who have experienced harm these questions remain unanswered.           

            Like “The Lamb” and “The Tiger”, Blake also wrote two versions of, “The Chimney Sweeper”.  The earlier version can be found in “A Song of Innocence”.  Both versions reject the idea of child labor during the late eighteenth and nineteenth century.  Because of their size, young boys were often sent to become chimney sweepers, and due to the lack of child labor laws, these children were greatly oppressed.  In the earlier work, the speaker, presumably a child, speaks of a dream that one of his fellow chimney sweeps had.  “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 a coffins black.  And by came an angel who had a bright key, and he opened the coffins and set them all free…” (12-16).  The boys feel there is hope in a better place, “Then down a green plain leaping, laughing ,they run, and wash in a river, and sine in the sun” (17-18).  The innocent child does not loose sign of hope and optimism, where, the adult who  is not so blind sighted, may not prove so hopeful.  In the last stanza, Blake writes; “And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark, and got with our bags and our brushes to work, with the idea that there is something lying beyond this world.

            In the later version of “The Chimney Sweeper”, the speaker is presumably an adult, who has life experience.  In his experience, the speaker encountered a young chimney sweep in the snow, “A littlr blak thing among the snow, crying “weep! ;Weep!” In notes of woe! “Where are thy father & mother? Say?” “They are both gone up to the church to pray” (1-4). Ironically, these parents are at a church, the house of God, while their child lay miserable and dying.  In the last stanza Blake writes, “And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King, who make up a heaven of our misery.” (11-12).  These lines are incredibly powerful.  The speaker explains that life in this word is struck by oppression, danger, and injustices, and those who have died under such harsh conditions, make up heaven itself.

            William Blake’s attempt to expose oppression during the Enlightenment was effective.  By writing, “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”, Blake allows the reader to see these harsh realities through different eyes and perspectives.