论布莱克诗中的贫苦意识.doc

论布莱克诗中的贫苦意识The Analysis of Poverty and Hardship Consciousness In Blakes PoetryContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction of William Blake.1II. Poems and Analysis of William Blake.3III. Conclusion.8References.8摘要： 从总体上论述布莱克的生平及时代背景，从而引出作品的时代特色和作者的独特性。通过对作品的语言特点和文化内涵的分析来论证布莱克的贫苦意识。分析总结布莱克作品及本课题所研究的独特之处，从而更好的理解浪漫主义前期的时代特征和对浪漫主义运动所产生的积极影响。关键词：布莱克; 贫苦意识; 天真之歌; 经验之歌Abstract: From talking about all his life and his time, well know the time characteristic of his works and the uniqueness of the writer. From analyzing the characteristics of language in works and connotation of culture to show Blakes poverty and hardship consciousness. Analyzing and summarizing the Blakes works and the uniqueness, in this way, we can understand more about the time characteristics in early days of romantic period and the influence they made to the Romantics.Key words: William Blake; Poverty and Hardship Consciousness; Song of Experience; Song of InnocenceI. Introduction of William BlakeWilliam Blake was born in a hosiers family in London. And he was a transitional figure in British literature. He was one of the first writers of the “Romantic Period.” He turned back to Elizabethan and early seventeen-century poets, and other eighteenth-century poets outside the tradition of Pope. Of all the romantic poets of the eighteenth century, he is the most independent and the most original. In his earliest work, he seems to go back to the Elizabethan song writers for his models, but for greater part of his life he was the poet of inspiration alone, following no mans lead, and obeying no voice, but that which he heard in his own mystic soul. Though the most extraordinary literary genius of his age, he had practically no influence upon it. Indeed, we hardly yet understand this poet of pure fancy, this mystic, and this transcendental madman, who remained to the end of his busy life an incomprehensible child. He was not always a poet. In fact, his only formal training was in art. At the age of ten, he entered a drawing school. He became an apprentice under James Basire, a well-known engraver, at the age of fourteen and remained his apprentice for seven years. He found that he had quite a bit of free time. During this time, he read and soon began to try writing poetry. In 1788, at the age of thirty-one, he had the method used to produce most of his books of poems. He called this method “illuminated printing.” He wrote the text of his poems on copper plates with pens and brushes, using an acid-resistant medium. The illustrations were also drawn onto the plates. He then etched the plates in acid in order to eat away the untreated copper and leave the design standing (Wu WeiRen, 2004). William Blake received little school education. He was, however, widely read. As a child, Blake wanted to become a painter. He was sent to a drawing school. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to a engraver. He later studied briefly at the Royal Academy. But, he rebelled against the aesthetic doctrines of its president, sir Joshua Reynolds, who was a strong supporter of the traditional values of academic art. Blake frequently criticized Reynolds as a man who “depressed art.” Blake earned his living as an engraver of illustrations for various publishers. In 1782 he married Catherine Boucher, who was then an almost illiterate girl. But she proved an excellent wife, sympathizing with and supporting her husbands work. Their relationship was very close though there were poor throughout their life.In his old age Blake gave up poetry to devote himself to painting and engraving. In 1809 he put on his own exhibition, but it was a total failure because few people understood his picture. Blakes final years were spent in great poverty, but he enjoyed the admiring friendship of younger artists. He died in London on August 12, 1827 (Yang QiShen, 2004).Blakes first collection of poems, Poetical Sketches, was printed in 1783 with the financial support of two friends. These precious booklet constancies poems he wrote before the age of twenty. There are, of course, several failures; but some of the pure lyrics are not only original in substance and daring in form, but also exquisite in quality. These early poems include “To the Evening Star,” “How Sweet I Romd from Field,” “My Silks and Fine Array” and “To the Muses.” From his early poetry, we can see a strong sympathy for the freshness of Elizabethan poetry.Six years later, Blake published Song of Innocence (1789), a group of “happy songs every child may joy to hear.” His own hand engraved the poems and illustrations in this book. These poems praise the beauty of nature and the innocence of the child. The poet expresses, with a language, which even little babies can learn by heart, his delight in the sun, the hills, the streams, the insects and the flowers (Yang QiShen, 2004).Blake wrote Songs of Innocence and Experience” in the 1790s. The main theme of the poems in this work came from Blake's belief that children lost their "innocence" as they grew older and were influenced by the ways of the world. Blake believed that children were born innocent. They grew to become experienced as they were influenced by the beliefs and opinions of adults. When this happened, they could no longer be considered innocent. The poems from "Songs of Innocence" were written from an innocent child's perspective. Those from "Songs of Experience" were written from the perspective of a more experienced person who had seen all of the evil in the world and had, in a way, become bitter towards it.II. Poems and Analysis of William BlakeHis earliest poems are contained in Poetical Sketches, published in 1783 at the expense of his friends, Flaxman and Mrs. Mathew. In 1789 he engraved and published his Song of Innocence. In 1780 Blake engraved his principal prose work, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which, with vigorous satire and telling apologue, he takes up his revolutionary position, of which the main features are the denial of authority. In The French Revolution (1791), American (1793), and The Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), his attitude of revolt against authority is further developed. The Song of Experience (1794) is in marked contrast with The Song of Innocence. The Song of Experience includes the famous “Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright”. In The Book of Urizen (1794), the Book of Ahania, the Book of Los (1795). The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence)When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry “ weep! weep! weep! weep!” So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, That curld llke a lambs back. was shavd: so I said ”Hush. Tom! never mind it, for when your heads bare You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”And so he was quiet & that very night,As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned or Jack.Were all of them lockd up in coffins of black. And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he opend the coffins & set them all free; Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,And wash in a river. and shine in the Sun. Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind; And the Angel told Tom, if hed be a good boy, Hed have God for his father & never want joy. And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark. And got with our bags & our brushes to work. Tho the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm; So if all do their duty they need not fear harm. The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)A little black thing among the snow: Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe! Where are thy father & mother! say! They are both gone up to the church to pray.Because I was happy upon the heath,And smild among the winters snow:They clothed me in the clothes of death,And taught me to sing the notes of woe.And because I am happy, & dance & sing,They think they have done me no injury:And are gone to praise God & his Priest & KingWho make up a heaven of our misery. The Chimney Sweeper describes a poor children crying in the street to earn living, cleaning the narrow and dark chimney. In The Chimney Sweeper, he describes the pain of children who clean chimney; they feel as if they were shuttled in a black coffin. At that time the angle appears, this means the God will save them. Blake uses simple language, simple image, plain irony of reason to review the sham of religion, the arduousness of people and the unfortunate of children. In The Chimney Sweep, people are optimistic. The children are difficult, but they are hopeful. However the author points out in the following part that the God cant save the children who clean the chimney, and the priest associated with the King is also set up to heaven with their pain. This shows that the burst of revolutionary in French has affected Blake a lot, and he is more experienced and more mature in his thought that he can feel the pain of children and resist more strongly. In this poem, Blake shows his sympathetic and concern to children, and gives a rebuke to the society in which the children are persecuted. The Tyger (Songs of Experience)Tyger Tyger, burning bright,In the forests of the night;What immortal hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetryIn what distant deeps or skies.Burnt the fire of thine eyes!On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand, dare sieze the fire!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!What the hammer! what the chain,In what furnace was thy brainWhat the anvil, what dread grasp,Dare its deadly terrors clasp!When the stars threw down their spearAnd water'd heaven with their tears:Did he smile his work to seeDid he who made the Lamb make thee!Tyger Tyger burning bright,In the forests of the night:What immortal hand or eye,Dare frame thy fearful symmetrThe Lamb from Songs of Innocence is a very symbolic poem. Its companion poem in Songs of Experience, The Tyler, on the other hand, contains a different perspective of human life. The tyger could be compared to an “experienced” human. The Tyger is described as an animal that basically has to kill everyday in order to live. It is a being whose life is made by death. The question is asked “What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy tearful symmetry?” The “experienced” author is asking why god dared to make humans the way that they are, the way of the tyger. This, of course, is differs greatly from the perspective of the “innocent” author of “The Lamb.” The poem calls the oppressed people for striving against the oppressor with revolutionary anger by the flame in the forest which is represented by the tyger. The few words contain great power. In the poem, the tyger is compared to the God and the magnificence and strong of tyger make the reader identify with the poet to oding the destructive power which is represented by the tyger. The first paragraph suggests that the God is the tyger, but the last paragraph shows that the God creates the tyger. What make us amazed is not the invincible might of the God but the crude and rash of the God. The God disobeys the nature because of erecting the tyger.LondonI wander thro' each charter'd street,Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.And mark in every face I meet,Marks of weakness, marks of woe.In every cry of every Man,In every Infants cry of fear,In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hearHow the Chimney-sweepers cryEvery blackning Church appalls,And the hapless Soldiers sigh,Runs in blood down Palace wallsBut most thro' midnight streets I hearHow the youthful Harlots curseBlasts the new-born Infants tearAnd blights with plagues the Marriage hearse London is collected in Songs of Experience. The author is lymphatic for the French revolutionary, and expresses the unsatisfied feeling with reactionary ruling class and sympathy for people in low class.The first line describes the poet wandering in the street in deep thought. What we can think is the capitalist owning the using of street and the sail on Times River. In order to put stress on peoples inevitable bad luck, the poet used five “every” and parallel structured phases. He also describes the crying of father, the weeping of son, and the whispering of people in street. In the crying and whispering, the poet feels that they were poisoned by the shackles which made by heart.In the third paragraph, the author uses a chain of images to reveal the cruel of the society, the wailing of children who clean the chimney and the hypocrisy and terror of priest. In the last paragraph, the poet expresses the severest discontent to the society. He says sadly that what he is unwilling to hear is the young prostitutes cursing in the streets.William Blake is unselfish, and he is sympathetic. He has painful experiences and is influenced by evoking French revolutionary, which make him see the wickless of London more truly and clearly. So he determines to destroy the fiendish London and believes that one day a happy and new world will be set up in England. III. Conclusion From talking about all his life and his time, well know the time characteristic of his works and the uniqueness of the writer. From analyzing the characteristics of language in works and connotation of culture to show Blakes poverty and hardship consciousness. William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience reveals his own religious beliefs and his views of the established Catholic Church. Blake rejects the established Church as repressive, and says that true holiness is found in each individual. The songs of innocence and experience show two contrary states of the human soul and these are needed to make human progression possible .The poem in two sections, has a difference of character between them. William Blake's poem The Chimney Sweeper gives us a look into the unfortunate lives of 18th century London boys whose primary job was to clean chimneys of the soot that accumulated on its interior; boys that were named "climbing boys" or "chimney sweepers" . In the poem, London, the speaker hears and sees the signs of the oppression in his society. William Blake describes images he sees in London, using them to stand for larger concepts and institutions. He uses images of darkness and gloom as