William Blake course work Essay Example for Free

William Blake course work Essay William Blake was a man who only thought of bettering our society through his actions and poetry. He started working life as engravers apprentice, he grew up in a time know as the Age of Reason, and produced most of his work during this time as, he was a pioneer of this time. His work was called radical as well as his thinking this is because his revolutionary ideas were against all that the society of the time knew. Blakes thinking reduced the church and its institutions to tools of repression, this was because of the churches over ruling power and control of the general people and the society willingness to obey through fear of being punished or sentenced to an eternity in hell. His attitude to try a liberate the human sprit and freedom of thought was powered by his experience of being tried for sedition, this made his thinking very powerful because the church/institution tried to oppresses and control his to which he replied by ridiculing the church through his inspiring poetry. Holy Thursday The subject of this poem is about Holy Thursday and the lies and the make-up face they put on. The type of social injustice that is shown in this poem is towards children and how they are treated badly and used for the churches gain. The themes in this poem are of repression and greed, these are shown by how the children are being used to up the churches reputation by helping the children, and also how the church have used there power take and use the children. The structure of the of the poem keeps the poem in short basic line of words, sort of like how a small child would think, this puts you in a childs shoes and make you feel more empathy for them. The four quatrains also have the same effect of a childs mind by of staying on one subject for a short time. The quatrains are quite regular and strict giving you and impression of the repression of the church making sure there is no thinking against them. The rhyming is simple and regular. This could give the impression of a controlled person always having to think the same way and keep to the same rhythm or something bad will happen. The poetic techniques used in the poem are clever and well used to create emotion in the reader bringing out different feelings and certain biases towards certain opinions. The juxtaposition in the poem is very emotive like the comparison of a rich and fruitful land being disapproved of because of the babes the are fed with a cold and usurious hand this comparison has put the priests in the worst possible light as if this land is so rich and fruitful then why cant they show some compassion, warmth if it doesnt effect them in the slightest. Another juxtaposed stanza is the sentence is that trembling cry a song? Can it be a song of joy? this sentence juxtaposes the songs that the children sing it that it could a song of over flowing joy or a song of great sadness this bring a feeling of pity into the reader for the children as a cry being called a song is something that only the most evil people would say. This then again puts the priest in a bad light as they are forcing children to sing a song of sadness but call it a song of joy. The repetition in the poem emphasises the sadness and despair in the poem like the repetition for the sun not shining and then something bad happening in stead like it raining. The alliteration enhances the effect of the children suffering going on non stop and never ending like the alliteration in bleak and bare theses pieces of alliteration effect the readers feelings towards the children by makes they more bias towards them. The imagery in this poem is good because its create two different images one for greatness and prosperity and one of sadness and poverty these to images are about the same thing these images are contrast and the better one questioned to see if it is a real while the other images is meant to show the truth and a poverty that is there. The imagery also gives us a visual insight to the childrens life by describing it as the field bleak and bare and their ways are filled with thorns this visual description makes us feel sad for the children. This could also be compared to Jesus crown of thorns and his hard life and how they are being put into the public eye for the wrong reasons. The musical is effective in the poem because of how it contrasts what is actually happening and what the priests want to happen like how the want the children to appear happy to promote god to the people so the people come to church and the priests gain money when really the children get no after and are again just left to be abused. The language and syntax in this poem is simple but still very effective it what it meant to do. It is simple because it is not meant for one particular audience it meant for everyone so keeping it simple make this poem readable for everyone this creates an effect on all people as the rich and supposedly more intelligent dont get all think thats its just a plead to them and the poor and supposedly stupid do not feel left out and unwanted. So this brings the rich down to earth, and brings the poor to the same level the rich are on so they are a level playing field. The language is mostly simple with a few complex words this is again an effort to get everyone to understand the poem and be able appreciate it. The lack of complexity in the poem contributes to the meaning because it reflects the children and how they are simple but need to be cared for. The tone of poem is sad for the children and angry at the people who did this to them. The effect of having this tone make the reader for empathy for the children but it is then a warning and a telling off for the people who did it. The mood this sets is a mood of intensity because of it hate for the people who use the children. The authorial intent in this poem is to get across the point that the children are not happy just sad and abused, and the priests arent what they seem to be. The poem is effective in doing this because of its imagery and poetic techniques, the imagery and poetic techniques are effective because the imagery get across the essential parts of what the author wants to say then the techniques emphasise them. Garden of love The subject of this poem is the repression of freedom and the controlling power of the church and how it takes over. The social in justice show is the repression of the people and how they freedom is taken. The injustice that religion brings upon the people is highlighted in this poem by how it takes over with no question against it when the church is meant to present freedom to the people. It also shows the repression of the people by tell us about how everything the people had it take and converted then the conversion is told to be good. The themes in this poem are repression, controlling dominance and injustice these are shown by how no matter what the church does it is never wrong and how the church is unjust by taking things that are to taken. The structure of this poem is a simple three, 4 lined stanza, these stanzas get worst and worst as you go along adding to the meaning of the poem by reflecting what the church does by how the church just does worst and worst things to abuse the people. The rhyming in this poem make the church seems repetitive and the same all the time because the rhyming is repetitive and simple. The poetic techniques that the poem uses are alliteration, repetition and juxtaposition. The alliteration in the poem enhances the effects of the words by having a build up effect. The repetition in the poem is mainly in the last stanza where and is repeat 4 times and again it has a build up effect on the churches injustice to the people. The imagery in the poem is very strong and emotive. Like the flowers being destroyed and juxtaposed against the graves this creates a feeling of anger of how the church come a destroy like and naturally freedom of everything a bring only death and order and even after death things are still order like how graves have a specific set up. The imagery of the chapel is very strict and regimented with its controlling power. Also with the chapel having thou shall not write over the door promote control as it is an order and does not promote freedom it just show that religion is about what you cant do not what you can. The line priests in black gowns walking their rounds this suggests that the priests are corrupt because they were black instead of a pure white like there meant to be. Also the walking there rounds makes them sound like there patrolling the people making sure that they do not fall out of line and do what the priests want. This then adds the controlling effect that the church has. The language and syntax in this are good because the short sentence make the reader feel the controlling presence of the church only allowing a certain amount of words from the author. The language in this poem is effective because the author uses simple word and put them together to make complex meanings like black gowns this suggests evil and corruption, black is also a dominate colour making the church seem even more controlling. The tone of the poem is of anguish the anguish the author has for his special place of freedom and love being taken over and replaced by control and fake love. The mood that the mood creates is disgust for the church of how they could destroy something as pure as the garden of love, and then replace with fake purity shadowed by corruption. The authorial intent of the poem is that the author wants the reader to understand that the church does not enlighten and love but shadow the people with a cold, corrupt binding grip. It is effective in this because of its description of how the church destroys the garden and replaced with total order and darkness.