Frank Blake

The act of commenting on written works is not limited to written commentary. In his engraving series Illustrations of the Book of Job, William Blake visually implements his varied interpretations of the Book of Job. He links the story to the greater Christian Biblical canon by adding verses from St. Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians. In doing so, he condemns the Job’s comforters as blatantly evil rather than mislead. Additionally, he depicts Elihu as an ignored and inessential in order to…

“A Poison Tree” by William Blake is ostensibly dealing with the narrator’s refusal to communicate his anger to a tree, but the overdetermined nature of the words Blake uses makes a final, correct determination of meaning impossible. In this paper, through a utilization of Derrida’s methods set forth in works such as Spectres of Marx and Dissemination, I will examine how the contradictory imperatives contained within the metaphors in this poem draw a reader away from their initial assumption (i.e…

of our misery” (12). Realizing his isolated existence from the church and God, the alienation between the chimney sweeper and God could be both the motive and outcome of the sweeper’s self-discovery gained along with the increase of experience. For Blake, the skepticism of God and religious institution is a vital part of the experienced soul of the child and the main determinant of his…

In John 10 in the New Testament, Jesus proclaims “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me--just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Through this statement, Jesus asserts that the relationship between a shepherd and his flock symbolizes the paternal relationship between God and his children. In Telemachus, his biting allegorical criticism of Louis XIV, Fenelon adopts this theological idea of the “good shepherd” to elucidate the…

Rather than a defined period of someone’s life, childhood is an abstract period created only when one can look back at it. In order to explore themes such as remembrance and childhood, it is crucial to consider linguistic features and the communications of emotions or feelings such as warmth. It is believed that copious poems all portray the subject of innocence of the younger; poems including ‘Prayer Before Birth’, ‘Half Past Two’, ‘Piano’ and ‘Hide And Seek’ are no exception to being exemplars…

During the romantic era, There were poets like William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who used their lives as inspiration.William Wordsworth is considered the father of modern romantic literature. While Shelley paid a tribute to William Wordsworth, however it was more of a look where you are now. Both poets used themes, symbols, and characterization to get their thoughts across. “To Wordsworth” was written by Shelly and “I wandered lonely as a cloud” by Wordsworth. To begin, there are…

William Wordsworth’s poem: ’Composed on the Westminster Bridge’ is a sonnet that describes London in the morning as the city is still asleep. The poem’s title: “composed on the Westminster Bridge” tells the reader that the Author is standing on the Westminster Bridge, in London and is describing the sights of the City that he can see from the Bridge. Wordsworth is fascinated by the city’s beauty. He says that the earth has nothing equal to show than this beautiful scene and that the one who…

related to the nature of the speaker and the content of the poems. William Blake (1757-1827) is one of the Romantic poets, whose poetry and artwork became part of Romanticism in late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth century in European Culture. William Blake wrote in the time when the world was seeing a sudden change in many phases with the industrial revolution especially in Europe. Blake’s collections of poems in the Songs of Innocence and Experience exemplify the world around him in two…

Structurally, Blake composes the poem as a dramatic monologue utilizing an ABAB rhyme scheme and simple vocabulary. Much of the work uses an anapestic poetic meter, which is often characterized with childish cadence of literature. The composition therefore resembles perhaps a children’s hymn -- establishing the innocence of the boy which narrates it. Ergo, the very nature of youthful innocence is tied inextricably to the overall tone of the poem. Blake not only addresses the reader, but…

Symbolism is when a writer uses an object or sign in a physical form to represent an idea. The use of symbolism was popular in the Romantic period of literature from around 1800 to 1850. Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his use of symbolism in his stories. In 1850, Hawthorne used this technique while writing The Scarlet Letter. He did this to make the reader think deeper about the story, and to make it have a figurative meaning. A symbol doesn’t always have to be an object or a sign, in the case…