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Explain how Blake uses imagery, form and language in these poems and what they reveal about him. - page 1
Keywords: William Blake, Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience
By Vikram on 30/12/2008
Level: A Level (Year 12) / AS Level
Page Number: 1 of 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6William Blake was born in London in 1757 to a poor family. He grew up without a formal education but later studied drawing at a school on the Strand. In the early 1770s, he became a student at the Royal Academy where he studied Arts and then was apprenticed to a famous engraver, James Basire. Even though his engravings were good, he was only moderately successful with his work. However, his English skills were amazing for an autodidact.
The Industrial Revolution was the major shift of technological, socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the late 18th and early 19th century that began in Britain and spread throughout the world. During that time, an economy based on manual labour was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of and with machinery Blake was well aware of the changes around him and saw them as a change for the worse rather than the better. Child labour increased, the population increased, churches promoted the wrong ideals, and Blake was angry and frustrated. He wanted a different kind of change and could not get it, thus he begun working on his poems – most of which have a hidden or subliminal message to them.
His first set of poems were published in 1783, entitled Poetical Sketches and was seen by many as an immature set. His second volume of poems were then published in 1789 and were entitled Songs of Innocence. This set contains some of his most famous work and is still read by many. His third set was published in 1793, entitled Songs of Experience, and it includes many poems that have to be seen as the counterparts of those published in 1789, for example the pair The Lamb and The Tyger.
In The Tyger, the speaker is an adult who has experienced many dreadful things. Throughout The Tyger, the language used is the complete opposite to what is used in The Lamb. Words such as ‘dare’, ‘what’, ‘twist’ and ‘dread’ set the aggressive tone, and there are also words that frighten us, for example ‘terror’, ‘fire’ or ‘fearful’. The language used is unpleasant and harsh, and there is also a reminder of the Industrial Revolution through the industrial imagery Blake used, ‘What the hammer? What the chain, In what furnace was thy brain?’ It seems to inspire hatred and fear and produces a new kind of person that can no longer think
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