Pre-Romanticism and William Blake

1. Pre-Romanticism and William Blake To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour --William Blake 一粒沙里看出一个世界， 一朵花里藏着一个天堂， 把无限放在你的手上， 永恒在刹那间收藏。 —威廉.布莱克 1757-1827

2. Pre-Romanticism • In the latter half of the 18th century, a new literary movement arose in Europe, called the Romantic Revival. It was marked by a strong protest against the bondage of Classicism, by a recognition of the claims of passion and emotion, and by a renewed interest in medieval literature. In England, this movement showed itself in the trend of Pre-Romanticism in poetry. William Blake and Robert Burns are the representatives.

3. William Blake (poet, painter and printmaker) • William Blake, was the son of a London hosier (袜商). The boy never went to school. He picked up his education as well as he could. His favorite studies in early days were Shakespeare, Milton and Chatterlon. • At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to James Basier, an engraver. After leaving him, Blake began to earn his living as an engraver of illustrations for various publishers. • At the age of 24, Blake married Catherine Boucher, an illiterate girl. Blake taught her to read and Catherine helped him in engraving. Catharine proved to be an excellent wife, sympathizing with his work and sharing in it.

4. Blake lived a life of seclusion and poverty. He was often misunderstood by other people, who would regard him as gifted but mad. Blake’s last years found him chiefly concerned with painting and engraving. And he gradually gathered around him a small group of devoted young admirers. However, Blake’s genius in poetry remained unknown in his life time; he was recognized only posthumously.

5. As a Painter The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve Ancient of days

6. Newton A Negro hung alive by the ribs to the gallows

7. Works: • Poetical Sketches(1783)《诗歌集》, is a collection of youthful verse. (joy, laughter, love and harmony are the prevailing notes) • Songs of Innocence (1809)《天真之歌》 is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings. • Songs of Experience(1794)《经验之歌》 paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone. • Childhood is central to Blake’s concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience，but it it depicted in very different tone.

8. The Chimney Sweeper • The Chimney Sweeper is the title of two poems by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794. • The poem, ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ is set against the dark background of child labor that was well-known in England in the late 18th and 19th Century”. At the age of four and five, boys were sold to clean chimneys due to their small size. These children were oppressed, and had a diminutive existence that was socially acceptable at the time.

9. In the earlier poem, a young chimney sweeper recounts a dream had by one of his fellows, in which an angel rescues the boys from coffins and takes them to a sunny meadow; • in the later poem, an apparently adult speaker encounters a child chimney sweeper abandoned in the snow while his parents are at church or possibly even suffered deathwhere church is referring to being with God.

10. Songs of Innocence • When my mother died I was very young,And my father sold me while yet my tongueCould 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."

11. 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;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.

12. Interpreting “London” • This is the mightiest brief poem (Mighty line with brevity). The speaker wanders through the streets of London and comments on his observations. • Form: the poem has four quatrains, with alternate lines rhyming. Repetition is the most striking formal feature of the poem, and it serves to emphasize the prevalence of the horrors the speaker describes.

13. Stanza 1 and 2 • How do you understand “Chartered Street” and “Chartered Thames”? • What does the speaker see when he wanders? What is the atmosphere in London? • Pay attention to the repetition of the word, what role does it serve? • Notice the visual and auditory effects

14. In the first two stanzas, Blake utilizes alliteration and word choice to set the mournful atmosphere. Blake introduces his reader to the narrator as he “wanders” through the “chartered” society. A society in which he sees has “marks of woe.” Blake repeatedly uses the word “every” and “cry” in the second stanza to symbolize the depression that hovers over the entire society. (in economics and in politics)

15. Stanza 3 • What kind of figures of speech are used in this quatrain? • Analyze “Chimney-sweeper’s cry appalls every blackning Church”. • Analyze “the hapless Soldier’s sigh runs down Palace walls in blood”.

16. In the third stanza, Blake utilizes imagery of destruction and religion. The “chimney-sweeper's cry” symbolizes the society trying to clean the ashes that causes their state of depression. Blake uses the religious imagery of the “blackning church” to represent the loss of innocence, and the society's abandonment of religion. • The use of the soldiers creates an imagery of war. The “hapless soldier's sigh” symbolizes how men are drafted into war and have no choice but to serve their country. Blake uses this sense of destruction to explain how people are forced to repair the “weakness” and “woe” of their society. (in religion and in government)

17. Stanza 4 • Harlot: prostitute, representing moral degeneration and fall • Notice the explanations of “tear” and “hearse” • The juxtaposition of “Marriage” and “Funeral”

18. The fourth stanza of “London” unravels the complex meaning of the poem. The “youthful harlot's curse” symbolizes how the youth's sinful deeds will effect the next generation. Their “curse” causes the “newborn infant's tear” which exemplifies how the new generation will have to correct the mistakes of the previous generation. The “plagues” also symbolizes this curse, and the “marriage hearse” creates a paradox, which confuses eternity and death. • (in morality, degeneration and corruption)

19. The main thread of the poem • in economy in politics in religion and government in morality • Through the choices and arrangements of voices, the speaker presents a panoramic picture of England of the 18th century before the readers.