The Importance Of Childhood Dreams

During our childhood, we tend to fantasize and dream about what we wish to do when we become older. Normally, at that age, we base our reasoning for such job choices off of the interactions and what we see from the most influential people in our lives. However, our wishes as children will vary depending on how we are raised and the region that we are raised in. For my research paper, I plan to discuss the reasoning behind an individual’s childhood dreams and aspirations based on, or in relation to, their emotional geographical location. I conducted background research on one of the most famous poets during the Romanticism period by the name of William Blake. From him, I revised my research topic from studying whether our childhood dreams and …show more content…
In Blake’s Garden of Love, Blake helps readers paint a visual image of his childhood pleasures restrained from him by Priests wearing black gowns walking their rounds around the garden, where the children reside and play. He explains that as a child, we live in a gated garden, where there are only sunny days and no unnecessary conflicts. However, once we enter adulthood, we must leave the garden and we cannot reenter under any circumstances. A child develops his or her thoughts and ideas while they are inside the garden, but their thoughts and ideas will differentiate from others when we take into account which region or area they were in inside the garden. This analogy gives readers an opportunity to first experience how children’s ideas form and transform as they age into adulthood, which is why it seems only right that I expound on Blake’s ideas in order to educate the general public, Millsaps students especially. Many people may not think much of Blake because in contrast to Lord Byron, Blake was an introvert, who did not care to talk much. He hand wrote and illustrated every copy of his books, totaling at …show more content…
Blake explicates the nature of love by utilizing the clod and pebble, presenting the two objects to readers as completely extreme opposites. This poem explicates the nature of love, but it can also be read as a transformation from childhood to adulthood, showing the two perspectives of their personal experiences on love. The clod symbolizes the child, who loves freely and honestly. A child has absolutely no malice in their heart. From a child and the clod’s perspective, love does not seek to please itself, but instead, it provides a sense of comfort and a sense of peace to those who reciprocate the action toward another being. As Blake puts it, it provides a “heaven in hell’s despair.” The pebble, on the other hand, represents the adult. As one leaves the childhood stage, the number of their experiences with love increases. The pebble, as Blake describes it, is a more experienced person when discussing the topic of love, because at first, they tend to love with a sense of hesitation, since they have had exposure to the pros and cons of love and relationships. An adult is more fitting for the category, one who loves for their self and does not intend to please anyone other than their self, more so than a