Iam very much interested in poetry . I am now doing my MA degree in English poetry . I have changed the tittle to more specific .The new topic of my thesis is " The application of poetic elements to the English romantic poem with reference to William Blake " . I will be much happier if you help me with whatever you think is necessary to aid me in doing my thesis.

smile

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2006 02:54PM by lg.

Ismael, decide first which poetic "elements" you wish to consider, then choose poems from Blake which illustrate your choices.

Here's a list of the possibilities: [www.poeticbyway.com] />
And here is a list of Blake's most popular poems:
[www.emule.com] />

Bear in mind that entire books have been written about just one of Blake's poems, so be very specific in limiting your topic. I would choose perhaps no more than 5 poetic devices and use no more than 10 poems to illustrate these devices. Believe it or not the more specific the topic, the easier it will be to stay focused. Too large a topic makes for too difficult a task to manage within the time restraints of a reasearch paper.

[www.poetry-archive.com] />

Les

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2006 03:54PM by lg.

dear lg (Moderator)

you are absulotely right ,this is what i have been thinking
about,specifying five elements and applying these on some selected poems for Blake - what do you think are the most suitable elements applicable
on Blake poetry.I think metaphor is not present in his poetry !!!!

lots of love smile

smile

metaphor is not present in his poetry ...

Untrue. It is almost always present. The Tyger, for example, represents something - he is not talking about tigers themselves. Or, The Sick Rose - not really a flower he means, but the flower represents something else.

Click on the site below, then click on the individual poem links, and then again on the individual pictures. It is a little difficult to work your way around this particular site, but lots of information when you figure it all out. Note also the navigation links at the top right and left sides of the individual pictures on those pages.

[www.english.uga.edu] />
For the entirety of his works, available is also:

[www.english.uga.edu]

Note - I now see that my Mozilla browser fails to render those pages correctly. If this happens to you, switch to Internet Explorer. That program seems to work fine, for reasons I cannot understand.

I now see that my Mozilla browser fails to render those pages correctly.

Mozilla is owned by our friends at Netscape which is incompatible with many Microsoft designed websites.


Les

Which elements are present in Blake's poetry? Many of them. Certainly there is metaphor and its cousins allegory/simile.

Take one of Blake's poems like this one and see which elements you can identify:

I Heard an Angel
by William Blake

1 I heard an Angel singing
2 When the day was springing,
3 "Mercy, Pity, Peace
4 Is the world's release."

5 Thus he sung all day
6 Over the new mown hay,
7 Till the sun went down
8 And haycocks looked brown.

9 I heard a Devil curse
10 Over the heath and the furze,
11 "Mercy could be no more,
12 If there was nobody poor,

13 And pity no more could be,
14 If all were as happy as we."
15 At his curse the sun went down,
16 And the heavens gave a frown.

17 Down pour'd the heavy rain
18 Over the new reap'd grain ...
19 And Miseries' increase
20 Is Mercy, Pity, Peace.


Hopefully you will notice the "meter" and "rhyme" in the poem as well as "metaphor", and "personification". Look at "The Lamb" and "The Tiger" and you will find more.


Les

HI EVERYBODY

YOU HAVE BEEN VERY HELPFUL , THANKS FOR BEING SO

( THE APPLICATION OF POETIC ELEMENTS SYMBOL , METAPHOR AND IMAGE ON
ENGLISH POEM WITH REFERENCE TO WILLIAM BLAKE )

DO YOU THINK THE TOPIC IS QUITE FOCUSED , I AM TRYING TO BE SPECIFIC
BEFORE MEETING MY SUPERVISOR . IF NOT WHAT DO YOU , GUYS , SUGGEST ???

LOTS OF LOVE
SMILE

Correct me if I an in error, but did not Blake claim not to use metaphor at all, but instead employed allegory? And I suspect imagery is a better word than image, but that's just me.

Hi , Hugh Clary



YOU ARE RIGHT , I THINK IMAGERY IS THE RIGHT ELEMENT , NOT IMAGE .

DON'T YOU THINK THAT RED,RED ROSE - THE TYGER - THE LAMB ARE METAPHORIC
POEMS - I ONCE HAD THE SAME IDEA THAT METAPHOR IS NEVER PRESENT IN BLAKES POETRY , BUT ITHINK I WAS MISTAKEN , THANKS FOR YOUR REMARK ?WHAT ELEMENTS DO
YOU THINK ARE APPLICABLE ON BLAKE'S POETRY ????



ronasmile

Well, such words all all similar, and I guess the root concept is 'symbol'. Some thing or things are symbols for other things: metaphor, simile, analogy, allusion, parable, allegory (and maybe others).

Does a metaphor always have a 'tenor' and 'vehicle'? The tenor is that which is meant and the vehicle that which is said. If so, Blake would seem to go beyond that definition. Is the Tyger a metaphor for cruelty? Or does Blake's beast surpass such simplicity? Saying an old man is 'the last leaf' is a metaphor, but is an example like Blake's poison tree something else?

"Allegory: A literary, dramatic, or pictorial device in which characters and events stand for abstract ideas, principles, or forces, so that the literal sense has or suggests a parallel, deeper symbolic sense."

Does that definition fit Blake better than the simpler metaphor?

His basic premises seem always to be founded in 'dualism', which is to say life is a constant tension between two waring factions, good and evil, yin and yang - opposites struggling with one another.

He is specifically against churches, priesthood, sin, restraint in obedience to moral codes, marriage, child labor exploitation and the factory system, which battles show up often in his verses.

Compare also the sick rose and/or the clod and the pebble. To my mind, they do seem to overstep the simpler definition of merely metaphor.

I am rambling, sorry - hopefully these ideas will give you something to help your presentation.