William Blake

Question 1

Poet of “All Religions Are One”?

Answer 1

William Blake

Question 2

Year “All Religions Are One” Published

Answer 2

1788

Question 3

“All Religions Are One” Genre

Answer 3

?? Religious

Question 4

“All Religions Are One” Base Meter

Answer 4

N/A

Question 5

What is the main concern in “All Religions Are One”?

Answer 5

The central concern in All Religions are One is the notion of the “Poetic Genius”, which is roughly analogous to the imagination. Blake argues that the Poetic Genius is greater than all else and “is the true man.” The Poetic Genius thus replaces traditional concepts of divinity insofar as “The body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius […] the forms of all things are derived from their Genius. which by the Ancients was call’d an Angel & Spirit & Demon.” Thus, the Poetic Genius supplants theological belief. This Poetic Genius is universal, common to all Mankind; “as all men are alike in outward form […] all men are alike in the Poetic Genius.”

Question 6

Poet of “There is No Natural Religion”?

Answer 6

William Blake

Question 7

Year “There is No Natural Religion (A&B)” Published

Answer 7

1788

Question 8

Genre of “There is No Natural Religion”

Answer 8

Religious?

Question 9

“There is No Natural Religion” base meter

Answer 9

N/A

Question 10

“There is No Natural Religion” summary

Answer 10

The argument Blake puts forward is that every religion, and all sects of philosophy, originated in God’s revelation but that that revelation is then filtered through our human consciousness. Therefore, each creed taken on by humankind adopts a human characteristic that is superimposed with a divine essence. At the center of each human lies a universal poetic genius, and it is this genius that is “God.” This “poetic genius” has the capability to procreate, and it is this God within us that gives birth to the body.

Question 11

Poet of “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

Answer 11

William Blake

Question 12

Year “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” Published”

Answer 12

1790-93

Question 13

Genre of “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

Answer 13

Satire and Revolutionary Prophesy / Satire that is targeting the Christian thought and morality as it is currently and limitedly understood - conventional morality

Question 14

“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” Base Meter

Answer 14

it varies

Question 15

“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ - “Road of excess leads to palace of wisdom” Meaning and placement

Answer 15

opposite of “everything in moderation” - saying let yourself go - in Proverbs of Hell

Question 16

“Concealment and disguise breads evil in this world” Meaning and placement

Answer 16

Romantic concern with authenticity - we aren’t allowed to be authentic - we have a “social self” produced by social pressure - release of authentic self is Romantic ideal / in Proverbs of Hell

Question 17

Blake’s thoughts on nature in “Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

Answer 17

not interested in nature - nature is a baron where humans aren’t

Question 18

Summarize the first two sections of “Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

Answer 18

The first two sections are The Argument and The Voice of the Devil. In these opening pieces, Blake tells us that good and evil aren’t what we think they are. They’re just different kinds of energies, and both are needed to keep the world going. The Bible and other religious texts, he says, have been responsible for a lot of the misinformation we’ve been given.

Question 19

Summarize “A Memorable Fancy” in “Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

Answer 19

A Memorable Fancy explains how Blake actually went on a visit to Hell. He is not the first writer to come up with this idea; both Dante and Milton wrote first-person accounts of their supposed trips to the netherworld. Blake has a very different view of the place, though. To stuffy religious outsiders, he says, Hell might look like it’s full of torment, but it’s actually a place where free thinkers can delight and revel in the full experience of existence.

Question 20

Summarize “Proverbs of Hell” in “Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

Answer 20

While he was touring around, Blake says he collected some of the Proverbs of Hell. A proverb is a little catchy saying, usually one with a pithy moral that’s supposed to help people remember to do right. The Bible has a whole book of Proverbs, and Blake knew that his 18th century audience would be familiar with them. He uses these little verses to turn the established world on its head, espousing his new vision. For example, while traditional Christian doctrine advised people to be humble and embrace poverty, Blake writes, ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.’ These sayings are satirical or blasphemous, depending on who’s doing the reading.

Question 21

Summarize the second “Memorable Fancy” and the ending of “Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

Answer 21

The Proverbs are followed by a longer section also titled A Memorable Fancy, where Blake travels through Hell, dines with prophets, and receives more information about how philosophers and religious leaders have misinterpreted the truth of Heaven and Hell. Humans have the capacity for greatness, he claims, if only they could shed their stodgy and fearful ideas and embrace who they really are, both ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ The book ends with the Song of Liberty, a prose poem where Blake uses apocalyptic imagery to incite his readers to embrace change.

Question 22

What does “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” suggest about opposites?

Answer 22

The Proverbs are followed by a longer section also titled A Memorable Fancy, where Blake travels through Hell, dines with prophets, and receives more information about how philosophers and religious leaders have misinterpreted the truth of Heaven and Hell. Humans have the capacity for greatness, he claims, if only they could shed their stodgy and fearful ideas and embrace who they really are, both ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ The book ends with the Song of Liberty, a prose poem where Blake uses apocalyptic imagery to incite his readers to embrace change.

Question 23

Poet of “Songs of Innocence and Experience”?

Answer 23

William Blake

Question 24

Year “Songs of Innocence and Experience” Published?

Answer 24

1789

Question 25

Genre of “Songs of Innocence and Experience”?

Answer 25

poem / “songs”

Question 26

Describe “Songs of Innocence”

Answer 26

The Songs of Innocence dramatize the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and trace their transformation as the child grows into adulthood. Some of the poems are written from the perspective of children, while others are about children as seen from an adult perspective. Many of the poems draw attention to the positive aspects of natural human understanding prior to the corruption and distortion of experience.

Question 27

Describe “Songs of Experience”

Answer 27

The Songs of Experience work via parallels and contrasts to lament the ways in which the harsh experiences of adult life destroy what is good in innocence, while also articulating the weaknesses of the innocent perspective (“The Tyger,” for example, attempts to account for real, negative forces in the universe, which innocence fails to confront). These latter poems treat sexual morality in terms of the repressive effects of jealousy, shame, and secrecy, all of which corrupt the ingenuousness of innocent love. With regard to religion, they are less concerned with the character of individual faith than with the institution of the Church, its role in politics, and its effects on society and the individual mind. Experience thus adds a layer to innocence that darkens its hopeful vision while compensating for some of its blindness.

Question 28

Compare and Contrast the Introductions of “Songs of Innocence and Experience”

Answer 28

Songs of Innocence - TROCHAIC TETRAMETER / it’s a narrative - tells a story / he was playing his pipe and a child comes on a cloud and asks him to play again / Romantics are great exemplars of joy - joy is an extreme and strong feeling / enlightenment didn’t promote joy, but reason - Romantics as opposite
Songs of Experience -

Question 29

What do “Songs of Innocence and Experience” compare?

Answer 29

Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression; while such poems as “The Lamb” represent a meek virtue, poems like “The Tyger” exhibit opposing, darker forces. Thus the collection as a whole explores the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world. Many of the poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of innocence first and then experience. Blake does not identify himself wholly with either view; most of the poems are dramatic—that is, in the voice of a speaker other than the poet himself. Blake stands outside innocence and experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the fallacies of both. In particular, he pits himself against despotic authority, restrictive morality, sexual repression, and institutionalized religion; his great insight is into the way these separate modes of control work together to squelch what is most holy in human beings.

Question 30

Discuss Blake’s use of auditory imagery in the poems, and cite one example.

Answer 30

Blake’s work shows a constant awareness of the ironies of publishing “songs” in written form—publishing poems that lay claim to an oral culture in a series of elaborately visual engravings. This awareness reflects the general Romantic preoccupation with the possibility of capturing in writing the rhythms, immediacy, and spontaneity of the spoken human voice. Blake seems, if not pessimistic, at least dubious about such a possibility, as can be seen in his Introduction to Songs of Innocence. Here, a child gives a wandering bard three commands: first to play his pipe, second to sing his songs, and third to write them. This progression may imply a decline, from the purity of music (without linguistic meaning), to orality (bound by meaning but still spontaneous and fleeting), to literacy (without need for human presence and perhaps less personal). The speaker’s pen, ambiguously, “stain[s] the water clear”; thus the image simultaneously implies both a purification (to “stain” it “clear”) and a corruption (to “stain” the “clear” water). On which process does the emphasis lie? Is writing part of the descent into experience?

Question 31

Comment on Blake as a social critic.

Answer 31

Blake wrote in an era of great social and political upheaval. The democratic ideals of the French Revolution of 1789—the year of the first publication of Songs of Innocence—undoubtedly influenced him. But in politics Blake aligned with no particular system or idealism; he speaks always for the primacy of the individual and the imagination. Blake did attach importance to particular social reforms: one might extrapolate some of these from a poem such as “London,” depicting great suffering and oblivious social institutions, or one might consider Blake’s use of the plights of innocent children in a whole range of poems such as “Holy Thursday.” But a reading of Blake as social critic should always keep in mind the transcendent, humane values of the imagination and of the self unrestricted by narrow social convention; for these values formed the core of his moral code. This code stringently opposes an impersonal, conventional transcendence, and rejects the consolation of a life after this world—both of which are offered by the Church. See in particular the irony of “The Little Black Boy” for evidence of this last point.