WILLIAM BLAKE"S - "The Tyger" and "The Sick Rose".
Welcome, welcome! Settle down please, today is a very special occasion. This is the day where the meaning and purpose of the writings of Romantics returns to the minds of the common man. My fascination and ultimate passion lay within the artistic and intellectual movement of the recently experienced Romanticism. Romanticism could be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealisation and rationality that typified Classicism. Emotion, imagination, freedom, individuality and rebellion against social conventions were all aspects of the emphasis during this time. As we all must be aware, the controversy of the Industrial Revolution played a significant role in shaping the behaviour and the strong opinions of the poets. The Industrial Revolution was a result of new economic and political forces, increased mechanisation and growing and darkening cities. Some, feeling that they had no well-defined place in the community, withdrew from society. Today, I will be concentrating on the poet who is of personal and particular interest namely, Mr William Blake. There are many determents of evaluating the meaning and purpose of a poem, taking into consideration the various literary techniques, structure, language, imagery and rhythm used in order to represent their beliefs.
William Blake is a writer of startling originality and notorious difficulty. He was an engraver, a painter, and a poet. He attacked rationalism, authoritarianism, industrialisation and religion. Blake's Songs of Experience (1794) contrasted his Songs of Innocence (1789). These Songs illustrate two imaginative realms: the state of innocence (The Lamb) and the state of experience (The Tyger). They are contrasted elements in a single design, The Songs of Innocence represent an imaginative vision of the state of innocence: the second shows how life challenges and corrupts and destroys it.