ENG308Y1 Lecture 8: William Blake, Blake
Document Summary
Energy brought to the idea of spiritual transcendence. Theory of the self and how to understand the external world must be from vision not what we see with the eye but a kind of spiritual vision. Apprentice to engraver time when he started writing poetry. He married an illiterate woman and taught her to read. Once they were published, blake never published songs of experience as a separate independent text. Songs of experience doesn"t stand alone where as songs of innocence can. Whether these are contrary steps or our experience of reading this produces a synthesis of innocence and experience. Who is the narrator in the introduction: piper, shepherd. Pastoral setting he"s piping songs about a lamb. He"s piping for his own enjoyment (first stanza) Child asks for a song of the lamb (second stanza) The lamb represents the idea and ideal of jesus (jesus as the lamb) The lamb is the ultimate symbol of innocence.
