1. As a group discuss one sonnet other than the two Shakespeare one we looked at and decide what the central conceit is and how it develops...
2. Why are Blakes' poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'?
3. Can you find some colour plates of the poems to upload?
4. How do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
5. How is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?
6. Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake?
7. Analyse one poem by Blake according to the schema I introduce in class week 7-8.
8. What was the impact of Rousseau’s revolutionary idealism on
Blake?
9. How does Rousseau’s assertion of women’s equality read to a modern audience?
10. What really happened at Villa Diodatti??
tbc...
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hey guys,
ReplyDeletewas just wondering on what poem we were wanting to use for this weeks bloggers session?
Hey Jazz,
ReplyDeleteThe poem for this weeks discussion is in the Critical Reader, you can get if off the K Drive from any AUT computer. :)
Akash
hey Paul,
ReplyDeleteI just have a quetion what are we trying to base out slide show on? I am a bit confused where am
Paul,
I meant to get my literarey piece from is it our critical reader or our own source based on what we have learning about for example the hobbit or beowulf?
Could you please get back to me asap.
Thank you
Jasmin McQuinn
Thanks akash would I be able to ask a major favour I am unable to come to uni would you be able to email me the poem so I can blog about it I am at a hockey tournament in Whanagarei other wise I wouldnt ask
ReplyDeleteHey Jazz,
ReplyDeleteYeah sure no problem, just pass me your email address. :)
Akash
jazzy13@windowslive.com. Thank you so much for doing that for me! Can I ask you one more question I am trying t do my assignment that is due for this class but I am not sure what topic orliterarey piece we are meant to have do you know?
ReplyDeleteHey Jazz,
ReplyDeleteI've sent the email to you and I myself am not too sure about what exactly we have to do. :(
yes I got that thank you so much. Well I am glad I am not the only one! I have been trying to get in contact with Paul but no reply! If you do find out can you let me know good luck to you with the essay.
ReplyDeleteI am going to answer question 10.
ReplyDeleteWhat really happened at Villa Diodatti??
It seems that three author/producer; Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley and Bryon.All stayed at Villa Diodatti while there they were inspired to write Haunting stories after ghost story session at the Villa diodatti. (I read this in our critical reader)
5. How is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?
ReplyDeleteBlake was well known for his Poems and art. He wasnt appreciated like he was today.
Blake was known as an "individualist to society", he attend "Royal Academy of Arts" which was an art school but argued with with the lecturer. Blake was known for combinding his art with his poetry.It is said that Blakes poems mark the history of the romantic period for poetry.
"Along with the Romantic poets, Blake sought out a
spiritual truth, a truth that could only be achieved by the use of feelings and the imagination.
He believed that man originated from a spiritual realm, and was born as a free spirit, but that
as a result of the deeply negative influence from the earth itself, man became trapped in the
confines of his physical body and the five senses, which limited his capacity for perception."
(found:http://www.skoletorget.no/abb/eng/blake/pdf/life.pdf)
Question 2
ReplyDeleteWhy are Blake’s poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of ‘Innocence’ and ‘Experience’?
One of many reasons that Blake’s poems are divided into poems of ‘Innocence’ and ‘Experience’ could be viewed as Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ illustrate life from an innocent child’s point of view whereas ‘Songs of Experience’ demonstrates the point of view on life from an older person who had realized that our life journey was filled with pain and tragedies.
For example, ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ in Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’, the small boy, Tom Dacre was portrayed as an innocent and unknowing and he believed the excuse why his hair was shaved off given by the narrator without questioning; it showed the naiveness of Tom. On the contrary, ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ in Blake’s ‘Songs of Experience’ showed a huge contrast of a more worldly and wise “little black thing” accepting the hardship in life and believing that it was not wholly his parents’ fault to exploit him in such harsh line of work, it was simply because they were ‘too busy’ praying in church!
Hope this makes some sense to you guys & please feel free to leave your comments.
Cheers
Albie
Question 4
ReplyDeleteHow do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
William Blake combined images and text together on a single page in his ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of Experience’ books to create a brand new breed of books, which were refereed as the ‘Illuminated Books’. This new method of printing had never been done since the Middle Age. The images and text work together to demonstrate Blake’s belief of both the unification and contradiction of “religion and politics, intellect and emotion, mind and body…” (William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books).
They also work together to generate a better understanding of Blake’s verse and to create a colourful sublime for his readers where small figures or forms dancing between the lines of the text and flames which seem to consume the whole page and also astonishing “images of death, destructions, and liberations” (William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books).
Source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23910.William_Blake_The_Complete_Illuminated_Books
Question 4
ReplyDeleteHow do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
I will be basing my two examples on the color plates of the poems I contributed on the top.I'm not sure how to answer this question but i will be analyzing the two poems.
The Garden Of Love
The poem ‘The Garden Of Love’ is about Blake’s thoughts and how the garden was a place where he played innocently as child when it was filled with flowers and green grass and where symbols of love or ‘love’ would be naturally found. The Garden of Love has now turned into a graveyard and is occupied by the ‘Chapel of Negation’ which means in literal ‘An Old Church of the Non-existence’. Blake then describes priests in black gowns wondering around the ‘joys and desires’ of Blake’s garden sealed by prickly plants/ shrubs (briars). The illustration with this poem portrays an image on top with the text in the middle. The illustration shows a priest instructing a boy and a girl about religious policies and principles (doctrines) over a grave. In the background of the priest and children is a glimpse of the chapel and its briars windows showing how old and dead the chapel is relating to the environment of non-existence. To what I believe the priest and children are inside the chapel and not outside on the garden. Or maybe it could be the other way around, I’m not too sure. Lastly at the bottom of the illustration of text shows a grave. I’m not too sure what this means but to what makes sense to me is that Blake’s ‘joys and desires’ has been covered by the shrubs, which is ‘The Garden of Love’ is no longer to be recognized because of the the non-existence and briars.
The Little Boy Found
This poem is about a child lost in a forest and is then rescued by an impersonator of God leading the child out of the forest and straight to his weeping mother. This poem is a continuation of ‘The Little Boy Lost’. The illustration shows a clearly shows a female holding the little boy’s hand because of her obvious breast. However Blake’s figure could also be a man leading to an androgynous figure (male or female characteristics). The background shows a dark forest visible enough to only see the trunk of the trees giving a scary effect to darkness in the middle of the figure and little boy. On the right side of the illustrations shows the little boy’s mother clearly being female with her arms stretched out ready to receive her little boy.
Blake, W. (1972; 1794). Songs of Innocence and Experience with an introduction and commentary by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, London: Oxford.
Hey all! =D
ReplyDeleteI am going to join Jazz in answering the tenth question on the blog. I would have to agree with what she said that staying at the Villa Diodati inspired the writers to write haunting stories after their ghost story. However, In the critical reader there is only part of the explanation. In the “Lord Byron & Villa Diodati” (2006), in 1816 at the Villa Diodati, Lord Byron spent six months there travelling around Lake Genevato places where Jackues Rousseau travelled.
He visited the former Savoy Castle at Chilon near Montreux and hearing that Rousseau was a prisoner there (sorry, I don’t know for what reason Rousseau was put away for), Byron was inspired to write the novel ‘Prisoner at Chilon’.
Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ in which she was horribly famous for, was said to be influenced by a ‘horrible dream’. This was said to happen after a poem challenge amongst the guests who stayed at Lake Geneva’s Villa Diodati.
Percy Bysshe Shelly and Mary (Godwin – her maiden name) Shelley had visited Switzerland earlier and their Summer trip to the Villa (1816) had made it their second trip. This time, travelling with Mary’s step sister – Claire Claremont (who had an affair with Lord Byron), stayed in the house of Jacob Chappuis, which was not far from the Villa Diodati.
However, I myself wouldn’t know what to believe as the article also said that “some of the events of that summer are apocryphal” or untrue, fictional, invented – you decide what you word you would use.
So all in all, the Villa Diodati at Lake Geneva was seen as the best place where writers like poets could “write good gothic ficition”.
I don’t know if I have made sense but comment if you like. I researched the Villa Diodati and this was the only relevant article that came up. As there is not much written on it. The article link is below, so take a look if you like.
PEACE!
-annie =D
http://www.bargaintraveleurope.com/08/Switzerland_Villa_Diodoti_Geneva.htm
Hello again guys,
ReplyDeleteI know I talk too much (haha)! But I am going to join Albie in answering question number two by adding in my two cents.
I totally agree with what Albie has to say... but wait, there’s more!
As soon as we hear the title “Songs of Innocence”, we automatically come to think that the song is of a child’s point of view – similar to what Albie said. A child doing things out of clear conscience, not knowing what the difference is between right and wrong unless they are told. Whereas, when we hear “Songs of Experience”, we think of a matured person who knows what they’re doing, calling everything good, bad, fun or not – an experience. Just like today how we go out of the country to see what it’s like to be away from home and returning to share the experience.
According to the critical reader (at the bottom of page 4), Blake puts himself inside a Shepherd’s shoes “wandering in an Arcadian valley and piping to his sheep”. He sees a small child (in his head – imagining) on a cloud addressing him by the innocent spirit of poetry and is asked to play a song about a lamb on his pipe.
As a shepherd to play a song of a lamb requested on his pipe, by a child amongst the clouds (the innocent child, the innocent lamb and the shepherd) biblically symbolises Jesus. Just as Jesus is innocent from doing wrong (like the little boy in the clouds), just as Jesus is called the “Lamb of God”¸and just as Jesus was called “The Good Shepherd” – “The Songs of Innocence” introduction immediately gives a sense of innocence itself, as no one or nothing has done anything wrong.
On the contrary, for the “Songs of Experience”, according to the critical reader (at the bottom of page 10), Blake sees himself as “Ancient Bard the prophet, who heard Jehovah speaking to Adam in the Garden”. Again, more biblical symbols of God to Adam – the first man created.
Hope you understood my two cents! : P
PEACE!
-annie =D
Blake, W. (1972; 1794). Songs of Innocence and Experience with and introduction and
Commentary by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, London: Oxford.
Mountfort. P. (2009). Language, Literature & Desire. Lyceum Press: Auckland University of
Technology: Auckland.
I also want to point something out about the two poems of "Song of Innocence" and the "Songs of Experience". If we look at the collection of poems (in the critical reader), we will be able to find that in the "Songs of Innocence" contains poems that is narrated by an older person of a younger child or boy. If we take a look into the other poems, other than the "Introduction", we can just tell by the headings, it says it all - like "The little boy lost" and "The little boy found" or the "Infant joy". "The little boy lost" and "The little boy found" are both narrated by what seemsto be a spectator on the side. It is "Infant Joy" that is narrated by the infant themself, making the poem delicate and sound innocent.
ReplyDeleteIf we take a look now at the "Songs of Experience" collection, we can see that or we can tell that the narrator of each poem is a slightly more matured person who has been through eiter a horrible experience (like "The chimney sweeper), or a dramatic (slash) good expeience. In most cases, a lot of the poems seem to be dramaticor horrible - like the "Sick Rose" and "Holy Thursday". The only poem that has a calm romantic sort of atomosphere in their narration, is "The Garden of Love".
I don't know how you see it, but this is what i reckon when I read the headings themself... then move on to the actual poem ... But, I want to hear what you guys also think. =]
PEACE!
-annie =D
hey guys...
ReplyDeletethat last comment that I just posted, could also be my answer to number two ... just adding on to what Albie had already posted . THANKS ! =D
-annie =D
Hey Annie,
ReplyDeleteGood job on answering the questions, you got a lot of work done unlike me. Anyways just wanted to let you know that I’ve read your article, it’s really interesting how the poets used the Villa Diodati to get ideas on writing poems. I did a little bit more research and it seems that the time Lord Byron had rented the Villa Diodati in the summer which was also called the “Year without Summer” in 1816 due to the wet and cold weather that Lord Byron, John Polidori, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her stepsister Claire Clairmont were forced to stay in for warmth. Because of this they kept themselves busy reading a collection of ghost stories leading to why Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin had a dream or a nightmare of a corpse standing over her in bed, hence the ghost story in 1818 “The Birth Of Frenkenstein”. And as for John Polidori he published his version of a ghost story in 1819 “the Vampyre” which was wrongly attributed to Lord Byron.
It’s funny how the poets became famous because they were forced to stay in the Villa Diodati due to the horrible weather. Maybe we should give the weather credit for this one ;) haha.
This is the website where I found my references.
http://www.thecabinet.com/darkdestinations/location.php?sub_id=dark_destinations&letter=v&location_id=the_villa_diodati
Akash
6. Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake?
ReplyDeleteWilliam Blake was famous for his best known lyrics The Lamb, The Tyger, London, and the Jerusalem lyric from Milton, which has become a kind of second national anthem in Britain.
Metal experimental music band called Ulver released “Themes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” in 1998. They even named their album name “The Human Abstract” taken from Blake’s poem of the exact same name.
In 1995, Jim Jarmusch’s “Dead Man” played by Johnny Depp who is a man named William Blake, assumed and believed by a native American in the movie that this William Blake is the poet William Blake, this character stays by William Blake’s side nursing him through his journeys.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/68793/William-Blake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake_in_popular_culture
These are a few songs considered in the popular culture influenced by William Bakes’ work.
http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/misc/ficrep/poprend.html
Cheers :)
Akash
WOOOO HOOO! Great work Akash! =D
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that last question. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE VILLA DIODATTI? hehe. I like the fact that we have to research things like that, it's like a mystery story we have to find out who did what and where. lol
But good job in researching as well.
will post some more answers and feedback later =D
-annie =D
Hi All,
ReplyDeleteI would like to share with you an article that I found very interesting in regards to Question 6: Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake? The article might not be entirely relevant to the question but I think the creativity of the author is amazing; how he sees the potential of Blake’s poems being transformed into a video game.
Digital Designs on Blake-Blake’s Contraries Game by Joseph Byrne, University of Maryland
http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/designsonblake/byrne/byrne.html
Happy reading & I’ll try to summarise some of the main points here too ^_^
Cheers
Albie
Hello again team !
ReplyDeleteI am now going to attempt to answer question nine. “How does Rousseau’s assertion of women’s equality read to a modern audience?”
I know that the question sounds straight forward – but I got m older sister to re-phrase the question for me (as it had me lost and I can speak for Albie as well… Isn’t that right Albie?).
Paraphrased question came out as “How does Rousseau’s extracts, interpret the equality of women to today’s audience?” I don’t know if that made sense to any of you guys or if it had made things more easier for us all to understand.
But anyways…
The critical reader has given us extracts from Rousseau’s (1762), book one gives reasons (if you like) about why the man of the house or the head of the family s given or was given the authority to lead a country and how the society wouldn’t be able to cope without a male or father figure in the family. But, as Rousseau elaborates more he goes onto defending the manhood and everything ( you can read it for yourself.. haha).
We go further onto book five. Titled “Sophy, or woman” (and this is when the modern audience view comes in). Just by reading the first stanza, I would have to say that Rousseau has a woman inside of him (haha). “…a woman is a man, she has the same organs, the same needs, the same faculties”, I would have to say that in that part I would have to agree in a way. It sounds like he’s supporting women, to have a male from back in the days supporting women – is somehow unusual. As in most cases, it was the men or the male figure that dominated the world seeing women as worthless of even having a voice out in the public.
But anyways group...
That's all from me for now. Would love to hear your feedback or comments – especially on this question. SO- let’s get cracking! ;)
-annie = D
Thanks Annie, now th question is starting to make some sort of sense to me.
ReplyDeleteAlbie ^_^
4. How do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
ReplyDeleteI am going to try an explain question four on "The tyger". In this piece I find that it is explaining the life of the tiger, alone in the dark what dangers it brings,"fire in the night", "Tyger tyger burning bright", I think the image also relates to this part of the text below the text of the poem there is a tyger walking through the forest. The colours of the tyger are orange, streaks of yellow, white with black stipes hot bright colours. Colouirs that are involved in the sun, they have used a pun I think by using a tyger yet in a way it can refer to the sun.
Jazz