How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
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How Romantic Was William Blake?
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How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
The time period typically associated with the Romantic Poets and writers was one of
the most turbulent to hit Europe ever. With the French Revolution sweeping the fields
of Alsace, Lorraine and beyond, most monarchs, including those in England were
wary of the new notions that were becoming common place among the commoners.
Not since the Reformation of the 16th century was the continent in more turmoil. Yet
with this build up of angst came a fertile bed for a new style of writing to grow in.
This new style embraced many things that were ignored for one reason or another in
the previous period of writing among the Augustans. To generalize, but not trying to
be an idiot, one would have to attribute a heightened sense of nature to the Romantics
(from this point on the Romantic writers will be simply called the Romantics.) This
was done in an attempt to portray the "intimate self-revelation of the poet" (Perkins 9).
In addition, there was an attempt to try and minimize the seemingly prepackaged and
symmetrical lyrics of the previous age. The attempt to create poetry as a "'spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings'" was the goal of many of the main poets (Perkins 9).
This was exemplified by the poet Keats when he said, "'if Poetry comes not as
naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all'" (Perkins 13).
These are some of the broad ideals of the writers, though not all embraced these ideals
themselves. Yet inside of these standards was the content which was altered greatly
from that of the Augustans. Some of the things stressed by the Romantics were
synaesthesia, intuition, and "e`talage du moi" or the "display of the self" (Perkins 9).
These were all used to create the feeling in poetry that the poem was as Wordsworth
said, "man speaking to men" (Perkins 13). Therefore the goal changed from the poet
as a sort of deity forming poetry as a "maker", in which the poetry should be revered,
to the poet as a "speaker", in which the common man could read and benefit from the
work (Perkins 13).
The aforementioned characteristics are what are generally associated with Romantic.
However, there must be more than a simple synopsis in an attempt to define what the
How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
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How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
Romantics were all about. The official definition as seen in the Oxford English
Dictionary is, "Of a fabulous or fictitious character; having no foundation in fact"
(OED def 2). Now if in keeping with this definition, are we to assume that the
Romantic writers were writing works that had no basis in real life and fact and only on
"fuzzy-minded ideals"" This does not seem to be the case at all. Actually the opposite
is probably the case. The Romantics used what they saw in life and nature to
symbolize what they felt themselves. In this way, they could create elaborate
metaphors and link seemingly incongruent things to each other. As Perkins states in
the General Introduction, "[t]he illusion was that in lyrics one heard not a fictional, but
a real person speaking on a real occasion...in reading a lyric, was the speakers inner
life, his or her mind or emotion" (Perkins 13). In this manner, Romantics were able to
convey their emotions and feelings through a third person or narrator. The lyrics
themselves were generally not as formulaic as the pre-cursor Augustans, but what was
lost in form was made up for in "beauty of sound and image and in the formal
processes of emotion changing through time" (Perkins 13). Using this style of
lyricism, the Romantics were better able to paint the picture they wished, and were
able to convey it to the masses.
So far we have described what the Romantics did and why they did it, however, so far
it has all been generalities about all of the writers writing in the Romantic period
under the moniker of Romantic. Now we will focus on one writer and his techniques,
William Blake, and carefully compare and contrast his poetry with the others of the
age. We will break down his imagery and decipher it to deduce what he was alluding
to. In doing this we will have a better idea of what things worked for Blake and what
didn't and maybe look into his mind and try to figure out the why to what he did.
William Blake was a mysterious figure in the literary scene of 18th century London.
He never became popular and died in relative obscurity. In addition, he was primarily
an engraver by trade rather than a writer, as Wordsworth and others that followed
would be. This means that he earned his income from engraving instead of through the
sale of his poems and writings. After his death, literary historians delved into his
canon of writings and brought much that had been overlooked back into literary
How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
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How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
circles. Thus, in a similar fashion to Van Gogh, Blake's influence was felt much
greater after his death than during his life.
Blake's early writing was much before the turn of the century, which is generally
considered among academics as the beginning of the Romantic period. However, his
poems are drastically different in both content and form to those of the Augustans
preceding him. And still, his poetry is quite different than that of the later Romantics
such as Wordsworth and Coleridge. For example, Blake writes an entire poem about a
lamb going by the same title in 1789, before the Romantic period had officially begun,
and therefore still in the Augustan period. Yet he also writes a poem titled "To
Summer" in which several lines are as follows: "O thou, who passest thro' our vallies
in/ Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat" (Perkins 83). This is a stark
contrast to the language that Coleridge and Wordsworth would use when attempting to
move away from the Augustans and chose to use more plain English in their poetry.
If Blake is drastically different from both the Romantics and the Augustans, then why
is he forced to be placed into an Anthology of Romantic writing? The answer is
because he has enough characteristics of the Romantics to be included and also, he
provides a wonderful bridge from one movement to another. Blake shows that it was
not a drastic change from one style to the other. As seen in even the work of Blake
himself when comparing his early work to his later, one notices that it was a gradual
change from the formulaic Augustan model to the loose mode of the Romantics.
Blake overall was anything but an Augustan. He may have resembled them in his form
of early poetry, but the content made sure that he would not be confused with the prior
period. Over and over, Blake used imagery from nature and his surroundings to
portray his feelings, something that was unheard of during the Augustan period. For
example, Blake writes in his poem "The Fly", "Am not I/ A fly like thee"/ Or art not
thou/ A man like me"" (Perkins 93). In this poem, Blake compares the narrator, the
fictional person resembling real life in real situations, to a fly. Milton, Pope or Dryden
would never have compared themselves or anyone in their poetry to a lowly creature
such as a fly. Flies are dirty, miniscule, insignificant and seemingly pointless.
How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
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How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
However, as Blake portrays both man and fly, the reader is able to see that the narrator
and in turn themselves, are the "happy fly" that Blake depicts. Therefore, the narrator
is in kind dirty, miniscule, insignificant, and seemingly pointless and thus the reader is
as well. In this way Blake shares his own feelings by way of symbolism and also is
able to have the reader empathize with the narrator thus making the poem that much
more powerful.
Coming from our viewpoint with our bias of hindsight, it would seem a trifle that this
form and style would be a shocker to the people of the age, yet when the culture of the
time is analyzed it is easy to understand why Blake's poetry, despite it's brilliance
would be largely overlooked. With modern poetry, it is an almost simple symbol to
equate a fly with a man. Yet at the time, coming on the heels of Milton's epic of all
epics "Paradise Lost" and the dry wit and satire of Samuel Johnson and Jonathan
Swift, it is much easier to comprehend. This poetry was far ahead of its time. Even
when Wordsworth and the others were writing about nature, they generally did not
attempt to associate humanity, which in the Age of Reason was the epitome of all
things good and just, with a nasty fly. In this way, Blake was writing some 130 years
ahead of his time. It wouldn't be until after the Great War before poets would be
willing to make such statements on humanity.
This was not the only time in which he made such statements. In fact, this likening of
such things together was even a higher metaphor than just that of the surface level. At
the surface level, "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" seem to be only descriptions of what
each of those animals characteristics are. For example, he writes, "Gave thee clothing
of delight,/ Softest clothing wooly bright;" (Perkins 87). In addition to this kind of
imagery, Blake uses a style in this poem of soft syllables and delicate rhyme schemes
to portray his little lamb as a peaceful gentle creature. In contrast, Blake describes the
tiger in this way, "And what shoulder, & what are,/ Could twist the sinews of thy
heart"" (Perkins 94). He also uses a cacophonic sounding rhyme scheme and diction to
give the illusion of darkness and brutality. With a surface reading, this seems to be
consistent with how a lamb and tiger would be viewed in his culture, however, there is
a deeper meaning. In these two poems, which are found in "Songs of Innocence" and
How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
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How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
"Songs of Experience", respectively, we notice that he is alluding to something other
than just the animal itself. Rather he is creating the symbol of lamb for Christ and the
Tyger for Satan. He writes in "The Tyger", "Did he who made the Lamb make thee""
referring to the fact that God had originally created Satan before his challenging of the
throne of heaven. The Augustans shied away from this kind of imagery and
symbolism. In fact as Perkins states in the General Introduction, "[t]hat poetry was
symbolic was a concept of German Romantic theory...English critics and readers did
not yet possess this concept" (Perkins 12).
This was just one instance in which Blake used very mature metaphors to get his ideas
across. In fact, the way he organized his poems into "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs
of Experience" show a larger metaphor which incorporates even how the poems
themselves relate to each other. Another is his inclusion of "The Blossom" in his
"Songs of Innocence" and the inclusion of "A Poison Tree" in his "Songs of
Experience" (Perkins 90-96). In "The Blossom", Blake describes only pleasant images
of Robins in the trees and merriment all around. This is contrasted with "The Poison
Tree" in which the narrator's fears and wrath kill his foe.
These images and Blake's separating them into two contrasting ideas of Innocence and
Experience come together to form an idea of his philosophy. Blake believed greatly in
the hope of redemption. He wrote extensively about the effects of temptation and the
possibility of salvation. It is possible to relate nearly all of his works into this scheme
of thought and even differentiate further into one of the two camps of Innocence or
Experience. This ability to write so extensively and from so many different viewpoints
of Innocence and Experience could almost be called its own religion with a separate
mythology and players. This again was amazingly ahead of his time and is on par with
Milton as the epic of choice for all of English literature.
Blake, as described beforehand, came for all intents and purposes in between the
Augustans and the Romantics. He was a visionary in how he wrote and about what he
wrote. Previously he had not received much attention, but recently he has been given
much more what is due to him. He was the first main writer and arguably the best and
How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
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How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
if he is looking down from heaven with arm around the lamb, I believe that he would
be very pleased.
How Romantic Was William Blake? Essay
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