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Romantic Poetry - Coggle Diagram
Romantic Poetry
William Blake
Songs of Innocence: Holy Thursday
Three stanzas with two rhymed couplets each, AABB rhyme scheme. The lines are longer than the other typical poems in the collection, perhaps the an extension suggests the children's procession into the cathedral. Song like rhythm, as a representation of youth and innocence, contrasts with exploitation.
Analysis
“O what a multitude they seemd, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own.
The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands.”
Repetition of "multitude" and "thousands" demonstrates extent of impoverished children, forces reader to question why, yet not the speaker, showing difference in perspective - celebration of children.
"flowers" - vivid nature of youth, almost yet to be corrupted by institutions like the church, beauty of innocence, joy, idea of radiance, potentially giving off a holy light of joy and sense of hope.
Comparison of children to lawns - religion, union, regimented control. idea of corrupted children, lack of consciousness in their actions, the children as a mass. Innocence emphasised throughout.
“Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among.
Beneath them sit the agèd men, wise guardians of the poor;
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door."
Natural description and imagery compared to aggressive natural aspects of life, and innocence.
"thunderings" - power of children even when controlled, suggests that in reality the children are actually in control, not the priest - "angel", agression vs peace - oxymoron, contrast suggests something unsettling forming.
"cherish pity" - imperative, encourages welcoming and helping poverty, idea of irony?
"'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two & two, in red & blue & green
Grey headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames' waters flow."
Description of children contrasts with idea of poverty - metaphorical innocence, to simplify lack of sin, or to show the church service importance, demonstrates difference to regular life.
Immediate religious reminder, and its persistent control, emphasised by rhythm and rhyming couplets of poem.
Ceremonial, threat of abused, described as pure and innconcet, church vs sin
Grand nature pf the church, demonstrating of wealth, impressive, contrasts with children, emphasising separation between poverty and wealth.
Freedom of water contrasts with societal control over the children - reflection of Blakes admiration of nature, need for freedom, and idea of power for and of children.
On Holy Thursday - Ascension Day - the clean-scrubbed charity-school children of London flow like a river towards St. Paul's Cathedral. Dressed in bright colours they march double-file, supervised by "grey headed beadles". Seated in the cathedral, the children form a vast and radiant multitude. They remind the speaker of a company of lambs sitting by the thousands "raising their innocent hands" in prayer. Then they being to sing, sounding like "a mighty wind" or "harmonious thunderings", while their guardians stand by. The speaker, moved by the pathos of the vision of the children in the church, burgers the reader to remember that such urchins as these are actually angels of God.
Relevant context
Charity schools were funded heavily by public donations, providing care and education for orphaned or impoverished children in London, so they take place in the ceremony as a praise of their benefactors.
Reference to Ascension Day - the day which Christian's remember the ascension of Jesus to Heaven.
Blake's religious context: complex, characterised by a unique blend of Christian faith, pantheistic beliefs, and a rejections of formal, institutionalised religion - a celebration of innocence and the potential for a spiritual uplifting through charity and faith.
Individual ideas:
Critique of organised religion, economic inequality, innocence, corruption, social inequality, charity, poverty, sympathy, societal cruelty, hypocrisy, society's complacency, exploitation
Comparable ideas:
Nature, childhood, religion, place, outcast, corruption, freedom, confinement, awe, power
The Tiger
Relevant Context
Published in 1794 in Songs of Experience, so during a period of significant political and social change like the American and French revolution - sparked debates about power, authority and the nature of society
Industrial Revolution prompted Blake to critique the unnatural and destructive aspects of industrialisation - contrasts the sacredness nature with the horrors of manmade industry, evident in his questioning of the tigers creation.
Explores the duality of God's creative power and questioning the nature of evil - alludes to the story of prometheus and the creation of fire
Comparable ideas:
Nature, death, immortality, religion, outcast, awe, relationships
Slowly and gradually asks troubling question revolving around a creator and his trait. Each stanza poses a specific question, primarily questions the existence of God and his metaphysic attributes, referring to the tigress multiple corporeal characteristics as purely a work of art.
Composed of six quatrains in rhymed couplets, AABB, regular and rhythmic meter, trochaic tetrameter catelctric, hammering beat suggestive of the smithy that is the central image, simplicity and neat proportions of poem perfectly suiting regular structure, string of questions contributing to the articulation of a single central idea.
Individual ideas:
Beauty, religion, bravery, fear, existence of evil, creativity, wonder, good vs evil, mythical, power, imagination, the unknown, biological, creation, unnatural
Analysis
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
"burning bright" - comparison to fire sets expectation of natural beauty, shimmering, potential hope. Yet also an undercurrent of dingier and difficulty to control. Suggestion of unnatural, contrasting with natural habitat, illumination of power, makes us question type of power, dangerous malevolent or angelic.
"immortal hand or eye" - strong implication of this as God, potential for it to be the devil - potentially a question to the readers. Religious imagery, questions the idea of creation and creativity, Romantic idea
"fearful symmetry" - disharmony of evil, symmetry associated with beauty and perfection - linked with sublime. Oxymoronic phrase
"In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?"
"distant deeps or skies" implies the creator resides somewhere beyond our perception, doesn't simply suggest heavenly, place for satanic nature, hell vs heaven.
Fire linked with creation and bravery, idea of Prometheus stealing fire, idea of punishment?
Classical reference: Icarus flying too close to the sun and Prometheus stealing the fire from the Gods for mankind - images of rebellion. Idea of French Revolution, when rebels were referred to as tigers by Wordsworth and others.
"What the hand, dare seize the fire" - idea of Industrial Revolution, the tiger representing the cities that look like they are burning because of coal production, and the creator as the working class man.
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?”
"shoulder" - idea of industrial revolution
"twist" - physical power and manipulation, violence, visceral
"sinews" - biblical, ominous idea of creation, sheer power and force to create the being
“What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!”
"hammer" - blacksmith imagery, relating to workers who created huge industrial cities, idea of effort, working class, potential poverty, construction, creation, power and strength
"thy brain" - suggests that the tigers brain is full of bloodthirsty thoughts and wonders what kind of a creator would make such a creature
“When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”
"stars threw down their spears" - celestial, personified, aggression, idea of loss and giving into power, surrender
Contrast there creator of the tiger and the creator of the lamb, if the same, then God - the lamb as a symbol of innocence and righteousness.
Last questions could be wondering at the magnificence of the creator who can make a world with such variety - but potentially also wondering at the monstrous cruelty of creating both ferocious tigers and gentle beings that are born to suffer and die - potential reference to the book of Job and the problem of suffering.
“Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”
Nature of the tiger reminded, even though the terms of its creation seems unnatural
Repetition of he first stanza, only the word "could" is replaced with "dare". What seems like awe and admiration of the creator in the first stanza has been given a darker shade by the end of the poem, after the voce has chewed over what is actually is. Change of perception.
Cyclical ending - idea of nothing more to say, poem of questions, nothing is definite, reminding readers that the question continues to be posed, and that the answer is intended to be behind our understanding, unresolved, still questioning, following a constant theme of questioning throughout the poem.
London
Songs of Experience: Holy Thursday
Analysis
“Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!”
Questions religions actual benefit, religion conceals true emotion, sense of fear and weakness - opposite to innocence - singing is fearful, fear concealed by songs, by religion
Repetition of rhetorical questions, questioning churches benefit, outrage and dissagreement with Songs of Innocence.
Singular exclamation mark could suggest conclusion, yet also sense of outrage
“For where-e'er the sun does shine,
And where-e'er the rain does fall:
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.”
"sun does shine" - ida of potential for hope for the poor, or returning back to the rich to contradict the poor, emphasising uselessness of church and other institutions, poverty as entirely neglected.
Repetition of "babe" could reflect concerns for the children of society, corruption of youth and innocent, places emphasis to remind who is being effected.
"mind appal" - psychological hunger, and effects of poverty, idea of shame of what's happening to the children
"Is this a holy thing to see
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reduced to misery
Fed with cold and usurous hand?"
First line as the only line without punctuation - emphasises frustration and suffering
"rich and fruitful land" - complimentary, astontacious world, demonstrates the side the poor don;t experience, critquing stark difference between wealth and poverty, biblical language emphasises institutional impact, exploitation of children and poverty.
"cold and usurious" - cold and bold tone, too much interest, hand supposedly caring, yet lacks emotions and empathy, greed - religious idea, demonstrating the churches benefit in poverty, exploitation of children
“And their sun does never shine.
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fill'd with thorns
It is eternal winter there.”
Anaphora emphasises the effects on everyone, "and" stressed by trochaic meter, placing more emphasis on extremities of hardship they endure, and extent.
"sun does never shine" - idea that life is not possible without the sun, lack of joy and life, lack of nourishment and nurtured children.
"bleak and blare" - plosives heavily emphasis outrage ad aggression
"thorns: suggested conflicting and trial, obstacles, idea of christianity, Jesus' crown of thorns during crucifixion, imagery of institution vs the individual
"eternal winter" - idea of trapped cycle of poverty, lack of freedom, confinement, insecapbaility.
Alludes to Ascension Day, also known as Holy Thursday, where the city's poor charity children attend St Paul's Cathedral, singing church hymns, which are described as cries of anguish rather than sounds of joy, challenging the readers to consider how much the church and other supposedly charitable institutions are doing to support the city's poor.
Divided into quatrains, simple ABAB rhyme scheme, changing end sounds stanza to stanza, variation of ballad or hymn stanza, can be interpreted as stanza 2 being ABCB, shifting scheme could mirror its critical tone, highlighting dissonance between idealised vision of a holy day and the harsh reality of the children suffering, and also emphasises the underlying irony, reinforcing Blakes critique of society's superficial compassion.
Individual ideas:
Childhood, poverty, societal failure, society vs nature, death, disappointment, failure, religion, spirituality, compassion, hopelessness,
Comparable ideas:
Nature, death, mortality, childhood, religion, place, corruption, freedom, confinement, poet as a visionary, loss, power
The Sick Rose
Analysis
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
Percy Shelley
The Cold Earth Slept Below
The Question
Stanzas Written In Dejection, Near Naples
Ode to the West Wind
John Keats
Ode to a Nightingale
Sonnet on the Sea
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ode on Meloncholy
William Wordsworth
Lines Written In Early Spring
Ode: Intimations of Immortality
Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
Lord Byron
Lines Inscried upon a Cup Formed from a Skull
So We'll Go no More A Roving
On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year