Blake+08

media type="custom" key="3885203"media type="custom" key="3893411"  By Michael and Mark Listen to a medley of poems from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience as sung by Allen Ginsberg while you read. Here is a link if you wish to see the names of the poems as you listen: [|Poem List]

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The Little Boy Lost

'Father, father, where are you going? O do not walk so fast! Speak, father, speak to your little boy, Or else I shall be lost.'

The night was dark, no father was there, The child was wet with dew; The mire was deep, and the child did weep, And away the vapour flew.

__Analysis__: In Blake’s “The Little Boy Lost” from Songs of Experience, Blake describes how a child requires his father to guide him. In “The Little Boy Lost,” the little boy’s father is leaving him and setting him free in the world. However, Blake points out how it is important for a father to guide his son “or else [the child] shall be lost.” Eventually the child is left behind and the father is no longer with the little boy. The boy’s sadness and fear is shown in the second stanza by evoking strong visual imagery such as “the night was dark” and that the “child was wet with dew” which brings out a hopeless and lost feeling in the child. “The Little Boy Lost” is a companion poem to “The Little Boy Found.”



The Little Boy Found

 The little boy lost in the lonely fen, Led by the wandering light, Began to cry, but God, ever nigh, Appeared like his father, in white.

He kissed the child, and by the hand led, And to his mother brought, Who in sorrow pale, through the lonely dale, The little boy weeping sought.

__Analysis__: In Blake’s “The Little Boy Found” from Songs of Innocence, Blake shows how when your father is not around, God is always there to guide one. When the little boy was lost (from "The Little Boy Lost" from Songs of Experience), he began to cry, but then God came through the darkness and appeared in front of the boy. Since the boy’s father had left him, God took on the role of being the child’s father. God appears white which shows peace, goodness, and a lack of fear. The child is then led to the last remaining member of his family, his mother and is reunited with his family. Blake was spiritual but not religious, but in this poem, Blake showed how God is always available in times of need.

__Jacob's Ladder __  **__Background Information__: ** This watercolor painting is an artistic interpretation of a passage from Genesis 28 in the Old Testament. In the passage, Jacob finds a place to rest for the night, where he uses a rock as a pillow. While he sleeps, he has a dream where he sees a ladder resting on the earth, leading up into heaven, with angels of God ascending and descending it. Here is a link to the [|biblical passage.]


 * __Analysis__: ** The subject matter of this piece of art is clearly the staircase which extends from the bottom of the piece to the top, creating flow in the painting. As one follows the staircase up the picture, the staircase becomes smaller and smaller, thus creating a sense of depth within the work. Additionally, the figures both ascending and descending the staircase, which appear to be angels due to the work's religious origins, are larger near the base of the painting while diminishing into tiny specks into the celestial orb at the top (possibly representing heaven). The top of the work has great light value, full of analogous yellows and oranges which create a sense of security, safety, peacefulness and power. This is in direct contrast with the base of the work which has much more dark value. This may have been done to represent the contrast between heaven and earth, the earth being dark and full of sin and heaven being warm and pure. However, the bright white of the base of the staircase and the golden angels at the bottom remain bright in color, contrasting with the analogous blues and blacks that make up the sinful earth. This leads me to believe that the staircase represents something pure and bright in the darkness, a connection between heaven and the sinful Earth. The man, lying supine on some sort of ground, is clearly an unconscious Jacob, as depicted in Genesis 28. He and the other figures in the painting are made using mostly flowing, organic lines, giving them an almost realistic appearance, while the staircase is more geometric in design. Overall, there is strong unity in this piece of art, as colors flow together from top to bottom, creating an easy transition between the top and bottom, heaven and earth. I believe that this piece of art is meant to represent the bond between heaven and earth, and to show that we are never very far from God.

 Cool title thanks to this [|website]  The sun does arise, And make happy the skies; The merry bells ring To welcome the spring; The skylark and thrush, The birds of the bush, Sing louder around To the bell's cheerful sound, While our sports shall be seen On the Echoing Green.

Old John, with white hair, Does laugh away care, Sitting under the oak, Among the old folk. They laugh at our play, And soon they all say: "Such, such were the joys When we all, girls and boys, In our youth time were seen On the Echoing Green."

Till the little ones, weary, No more can be merry; The sun does descend, And our sports have an end. Round the laps of their mothers Many sisters and brother, Like birds in their nest, Are ready for rest, And sport no more seen On the darkening Green. <span style="text-align: center; display: block; color: rgb(13, 191, 13);">


 * <span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Analysis__: ** One of the main themes of the Romantic period is that society is becoming too industrialized, and as a society we need to rekindle our relationship with nature.<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> From the title alone, one can recognize that this poem is true to this theme. This involvement with nature is further affirmed in the first stanza of the poem. The early lines of the poem vividly describe a place that is bursting with life, as "The merry bells sing / To welcome the Spring" and "The birds of the bush, / Sing louder around". The significance of the setting being in the springtime is that the Spring is a period of rebirth and new life, symbolic of the rebirth of the connection with nature that the Romantic writers strived to achieve. Additionally, these lines exemplify the Romantic appreciation for the beauty of nature. In the second stanza, Old John and the other old folk sitting under the large oak tree, reminisce about the wonderful times they had as children on the Echoing Green, as they now watch the newest generation of kids playing games of their own. In the last stanza, the games of the day slowly come to an end as the sun finally sets on the Echoing Green. As the kids prepare for bed, the narrator makes one more connection to nature by means of a metaphor; "Many sisters and brothers, / Like birds in their nest, / Are ready for rest,". This poem is symbolic of a time when people had a strong tie with nature, enjoying its many beauties, wonders, and mysteries. In addition to the theme of connecting with nature, the theme of repetition/cycles is also expressed. The name of the place -the Echoing Green- implies repetition, as if this place as echoed through the ages, providing for one generation and then the one that follows. The old folk, representatives of experience, once enjoyed themselves on this green, and now the newest generation, of innocent children, have their turn to revel in the wonders of this green pasture until they too become "experienced". This poem, written in Blake's //Songs of Innocence//, is a prime example of the Romantic ideology, as it focuses on nature and the emotions one experiences in nature.

[|Source of The Echoing Green]<span class="wiki_link_ext">

Here is a link to a video/reading of [|The Echoing Green]

<span style="text-align: center; display: block; color: rgb(20, 20, 219); font-size: 200%;">Christ in the Sepulcher, Guarded by Angels <span style="text-align: center; display: block; font-size: 140%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="text-align: center; display: block; font-size: 140%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Analysis__: <span style="display: block; font-size: 114%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">In Blake's "Christ in the Spulcher, Guarded by Angels," one's attention is brought to the center of the painting in which two angels are overlooking Christ's dead body. The emphasis is placed on the center by a contrast of values from the light and dark and the angels' bodies converging together into one. The angels' wings are approaching each other and take on the appearance of two hands clasped together for prayer. Very thin, soft lines in the painting make the viewer feel calmness. The beige colors and bright, warm colors around the angels' heads give a feeling of peace and calmness to the viewer of the artwork. [|Additional information about the painting is available from the VA Museum]

__<span style="font-size: 190%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(255, 35, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun __

<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;">
 * Background Information:** William Blake in 1805 to1810 was commissioned to create a significant number of paintings depicting various parts of the Bible. He painted [|4 pieces] of art that depict the Red Dragon (Satan) of Revelations 12, one of which is the one above. Here is a link to [|Revelations 12], where you can read the background of the Great Red Dragon and the Woman Cloaked in Sun. The Great Red Dragon, or Satan, is described as having 7 heads, 10 horns, wings, 7 crowns upon his heads, and a tail that swats down 1/3 of the stars in the sky.


 * Analysis:** When one first looks at the painting, his or her attention is immediately drawn to the woman, the focal point/emphasis of the piece. She is painted using analogous yellows and oranges that make her pop when put against a background of complimentary reds and browns. This creates the sense that she is pure/holy, a sign of good in the darkness. The woman appears pregnant, an assumption made by the curving line below her bosom (this is confirmed in Revelations). Therefore, the position of her arms inclines me to believe that she is protecting her unborn child from the dragon, as if repelling/pleading with it, since Revelations states that the dragon plans to eat the child as soon as it is born. The woman has a pair of wings, made mostly from curving organic lines. Her wings appear angelic in appearance, contrasting with the wings of Satan which appear foreboding, rough, and intimidating. At first glance, one might not notice the giant dragon hovering over the head of the woman due to the fact that its colors are analogous to those of the background, thus making it blend in. This could be symbolic of Satan being a mysterious and hidden evil, lurking over the woman and waiting for its chance to pounce. This being has 7 heads, the main head (with the curving red horns) appearing to be fixated on the woman, while the other 6 appear to be looking all around on the "ground", watching the chaos going on below. Overall, the dragon appears as an intimidating and ominous force, accomplished by its blood red shade, its bat-like wings, and its vast size. Emerging from behind the dragon are two zig-zagging white lines, reminiscent of lightning, which appear as if painted with quick and violent strokes. These diagonal lines catch the observer's attention and represent the chaos and disarray that the Devil brings. Evidence of this suffering is provided by the vague outline of a man on the ground who is looking upwards, aghast by the scene occurring overhead. Overall it is a powerful piece of art, which signifies the fight between Heaven and Hell, good and evil.