Blake discussion: "The Chimney Sweeper," "The Divine Image," "On Another's Sorrow"
17 Comments
Kerry Xu
1/26/2018 05:20:03 pm
I feel like a common theme that Blake chooses to write about in his Songs of Innocence is religious content. Whether he chooses to make direct references, like "Angel" and "God" as he does in "The Chimney Sweeper," or through more subtle references like "he who smiles on all" as he does in "On Another's Sorrow," I think that Blake is trying to comment on how religion plays a role in our daily life as we grow old enough to understand what religion is. I feel like in a way, Blake is sort of mocking God's figure. For example, in "The Divine Image," he describes Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love as symbols of God. But then he goes on to say that these same characteristics can also be manifested in Man, either on their face, their clothes, or their heart. So, in a way, Blake is saying that God is no more divine than any other man, but that we choose to make him so. I also think that innocence itself was another central point in Blake's writing. He seems to be commenting on what/who is innocent and how as they grow older and gain more experience, their innocence becomes corrupt or ruined because life gets difficult as ugly. This can be seen in "The Little Black Boy" and "The Chimney Sweeper" where the children are facing a world that seems to be against them.
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Andrea Hernandez
1/27/2018 03:47:28 pm
Across the poems we have read in Songs of Innocence there seems to be a continuum of themes related to a form of social critique between faith, divinity, God, and different social backgrounds. Most poems are similar in that they introduce a discord between the harsh reality of experiences/background as seen in "The Little Black Boy" and "The Chimney Sweepers." This comes to question whether these poems are actually critiques of society by using irony and ridicule. How this connects to innocence and what that entails is up to interpretation. Yet, I feel that these songs or poems are expressing innocence as a misguided and misrepresented idea. Innocence can be seen in the little black boy blindly believing his mother and his relationship to God due to the color of his skin, since he doesn't know any better, or it can be seen in Tom Dacre following the guidance of an Angel telling him to be a good boy and God will be his father. In a way, there are different projections of innocence, whether it be through sharing another person's sorrow, possessing mercy, pity, peace, and love to be a divine human being, or through social implications, innocence resonates in each poem.
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Hallie McManus
1/27/2018 05:48:50 pm
In his use of religion as a theme of “Songs of Innocence”, I believe Blake questions the very existence of God and the foundation of religion. In “The Little Black Boy” Blake writes “Look on the rising sun there God does live”. Blake references God’s whereabouts again in “The Divine Image” when he writes “Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell There God is dwelling too.” To me this shows Blake questioning the very existence of God. When you look at the rising sun, you are blinded by the light, and would never be able to see God. In the case of “The Divine Image” Blake says God dwells in the same place that Mercy, Love & Pity dwell. These are all intangible virtues, suggesting that Blake believes God is just that, something intangible. Both of these references suggest that God and religion is very unattainable. It an idea that he repeats in “The Chimney Sweeper”. Where “the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, He’d have God for his father”. I interpreted this, in the context of the poem, as meaning that he won’t be able to meet God until he dies.
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Raya Mahony
1/28/2018 02:31:21 pm
Blake’s poems share the message and vision of God’s strength, mercy, and love. He seeks to create songs that teach lessons of overcoming sorrow, hardships, differences, and embracing God’s love. Blake’s poems repeat notions of “lamb,” “angel,” “child,” and “white”; these indicate a pattern of symbolism for innocence. He makes each poem repetitive in rhyme, length, language, simplicity of meaning, and cohesive in the grand scheme of the rest of the book. Each poem is roughly a page and has four lines in each stanza; within each stanza, the rhyme scheme generally repeats a ABAB pattern. The poems’ simple language and lessons allow a younger audience to access the positivity and strength of the lessons he’s trying to spread. The eloquence that rings through the simple poems lies in the continual religious connotations. By incorporating a religious standing and a simplicity of language, he is able to appeal to a high level of morality and yet include those who might not connect immediately.
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1/28/2018 04:17:29 pm
Each poem that we have read in Songs of Innocence reflects many moral and religious themes. The Little Black Boy, The Chimney Sweeper, and The Divine Image are three poems that directly mention “God” and show major theme of religion. In On Another’s Sorrow, it seems to have a moral aspect compared to the religious tones that the other poems have. In this way, this poem doesn’t perfectly fit with the other poems. It presents a series of questions in the first part, while in the second part he responds to those questions. Although the Introduction does not mention God, it has an image of a child on a cloud which I thought represented an angel, which evoked a religious theme within the poem. All of these poems also have a common theme of innocence. In the Introduction, The Little Black, On Another’s Sorrow, and The Chimney Sweeper all mention children which represent innocence. The children are who we see mostly praying and believing that they will one day be with God, which could be Blake showing the innocence/naivety of the children. Also, in many of the poems God seems to continuously rescue those in bad situations or represents a guiding figure to pray to. Each of these poems has 4 lines with similar rhyme scheme with simple words, and most are in first person.
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Luca Deza
1/28/2018 06:01:48 pm
In Blake's poems there seems to be many themes. One major theme that I noticed in his poems is religion. Religion seems to be something of significant importance for him and his story. In general, Blake gives off a serious or sad tone in his writings. Most of his writings do not make readers laugh or smile. The three poems recently read talked a lot about religion including stories with an angel. Some stories leave hints that Blake is talking about God like in the last poem when he says "he" and refers to God in that way. In the second poem however which is "The Divine Image" he deliberately states God and states the line "love, mercy, pity, peace". This is very interesting because by putting those lines in his poem several times it makes me believe that these are some of the authors core belief. These core beliefs are shown in his other poems as well.
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Fatema Yasini
1/28/2018 06:17:29 pm
In the songs of Innocence, a common theme seems to be related to religion and faith. Blake questions the existence and intention of God. Blake shows negativity towards the existence and role of God portrayed by religion. This is expressed through comparing God to humans. An example would be in “The Divine Image”, Blake shows how the four virtues, known as Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, are representations of God. At the same time, these are characteristics of humans, In “On Another’s Sorrow,” Blake explains how God isn’t able to see others suffering, as it still occurs. On the other hand, humans do. This is shown through a “...father see[ing] his child weep…” and a “...mother [hearing] an infant groan…” In terms of structure, his poems follow a rhyme scheme, whether it may be AABB (like in “On Another’s Sorrow” and “The Chimney Sweeper”, ABAB (like in “The Little Black Boy”), or a mix of two such as ABAB and ABCB (like in “Introduction” and “The Divine Image”). The idea of innocence is commonly represented by children and the color white throughout the poems.
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Kamryn Lanier
1/28/2018 09:17:30 pm
A major theme in the Sons of Innocence poems is religion and questioning society. Many of them poems for example "The Chimney Sweeper" mention God. The poem refers to God as the thing that would help your problems go away such as the line of "The Chimney Sweeper" that says "he'd have God for his father and never want Joy". With God as his father he would never have to long for happiness because he would have it. A few of the poems also mention colors such as white and black. White typically symbolizing purity. I think the Introduction piece doesn't go with the rest of the poems that well, because the rest of the poems have an element of sadness. His poems typically had sometime type of rhyme scheme, but it was always different from each poem.
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Yvie Lock
1/28/2018 09:49:17 pm
Across the poems, there is a clear connection to faith and religion. There are constant references to “angels” and words that are common in a religious context such as “divine”. It is unclear whether Blake is critiquing faith or making a direct comparison to the teachings of it. I think that the “The Divine Image” differed the most from the other “Songs of Innocence” poems. This was because the work focused on all of mankind asking God for help, in comparison, the others poems had a strong emphasis on the teaching of the “innocent”, or a “child” or “a lamb”. In addition, I think there is a connection between “Little Black Boy” and the Chimney Sweeper” in which, there are both social injustices when the children are young and “innocent” but God can show them that these social prejudices can be overcome as his love is unconditional. “The Divine Image” does not reference youth but draws attention to the vulnerability and sorrow of all men. Also, in “ On Another’s Sorrow”, “The Little Black Boy”, and “The Chimney Sweeper” there is a reference to either a “mother” or a “father”. I think this emphasizes the purity of the child, however, there are slight differences as in each poem the child is innocent of a different impurity or temptation that the world threatens their virtue with.
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Evan Lane
1/28/2018 10:26:24 pm
In Songs of Innocence, there are 3 main themes that I have identified thus far.
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Daniel Frise
1/29/2018 02:15:07 am
Despite being titled "Songs of Innocence", Blake's poems seem to represent anything but that — if anything, a more appropriate title would be "Songs of The Loss of Innocence". When I think innocence, I think of a child who is yet to be exposed to the horrors of reality, such as death, poverty, hunger, etc.
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Sai Kapuluru
1/29/2018 10:01:34 am
William Blake's "Songs of Innocence," are all written based on a set of underlying themes. One of these reappearing themes is the connection between hope and God. It seems to be that in all his poems whenever there exists conflict or distress, God is there to save the day. It also includes a lot of intricate ideas like karma. In "The Chimney Sweeper," Blake ends with the point that if the workers continue to do their work and be good, they will eventually be saved by the divine one. Another theme that I noticed was the lack of innocence in most of the poems. The points that Blake wants to get out are completely the opposite of what the title suggests. Time and time again, he alludes to the symbol of the innocent lamb and also attributes the color of white to innocence and its contrast, black, to darkness and evil. A lot of the ideas he ends up implying seem to revolve around racial difference, slavery, and distress in general. I do not know if he is critiquing these societal faults or whether he is just stating that they have to happen, and that eventually God will help everyone, but I am leaning towards the critique side. The rhyme scheme in all of the poems also stands out to me, because it seems that Blake is trying to appeal to children with this more than childish ideas.
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Cameron Wright
1/29/2018 10:20:26 am
The most obvious similarity to me is that all of Blake’s stanzas in “Songs of Innocence” have exactly 4 lines. They all include rhyme, however, the scheme varies from poem to poem. Religion is definitely a dominating theme throughout; specifically the relationship between light and dark and innocence and impurity is brought into focus. The introduction seems like it is a little more focused on himself than any of the others. It is told from first person and it is the only one where William Blake himself is the protagonist. Another similarity I’ve noticed while reading them is that they all have some sort of resolution at the end. They may explore dark matters, but eventually the reach a happy ending for the reader.
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Andre Gutierrez
1/29/2018 10:23:20 am
Blakes works in "Songs of Innocence" represent two major themes that span most of his works, innocence directly correlates to God, angels and children and the condition of man. These themes were first introduced in the Introduction which (although not directly stating angel and God) had religious connotations. The poems "The Chimney Sweeper", "The Divine Image" and "On Another's Sorrow" strongly represented these themes. "The Chimney Sweeper" shows that the working children are going to be saved if they are "good". Since innocence related to being "good", the angel will save the boys from sorrow. Although this poem represented the theme of innocence and God, it lacked representation of the condition of man, which "The Divine Image" and "On Another's Sorrow" addressed to greater detail. "The Divine Image" described how emotions such as love, pity, mercy and peace are needed to be connected to God and "On Another's Sorrow" delves deeper in the condition of man by describing how everyone is connected to one another, especially with emotions.
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Erica Clay
1/29/2018 10:52:16 am
The most obvious theme that comes across in Blake's work is innocence. Each poem contains an element of naivete, which is manifested most often through young or childish characters. Another theme that often presents itself is religion, or divinity. Even when God is not directly mentioned, there is some sort of allusion to a divine power. In some cases, an angel, in others, God itself.Often, the divine power is seeking to reassure the innocent, look after them.
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Frank Ye
1/29/2018 11:08:27 am
These poems in the 'Songs of Innocence' do really sound like songs, after all. They all have the four line structure with, if not consistent, a very obvious intention of use of rhymes, repetitions and rhythm as you read them out loud. Now, regarding to the innocence part of the 'Songs of Innocence', my first impression of the idea of innocence came from the religious references. Innocence, to what I think to be the definition in the context of these poems, is purity of one's mind, and that seem to point to the absence of influence of certain negative emotions or any sort of beliefs. And yes, Blake's poems (so far the ones we read) are almost all about the loss of innocence, in which one had no greater thoughts from oneself until something, often something related to the god or the doctrines of, influences one's mind and causing one to change.
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Isaac Merritt
1/29/2018 11:19:22 am
Overall, the song collection is relatively fluid and interconnected. Many of the works share common tropes; innocence is a fragile and valuable commodity, and those who possess it (generally young children) should embrace it while they can. The recurring occurrence of white representing innocence and godliness adds to the overtly religious undertones, and its yang, black, slowly develops to represent sin and experience, which will likely become more developed in the following song collection of the similar name. As a whole, the collection seems to preach the importance of finding meaning and passion in a world that can be a very interesting, but dangerous place. Whether it be the soot of a chimney or the sorrow of a man trying to help others to the best of his abilities, the worth and value of hard work is revered, yet cowered before. It may be scary to venture out of the comfort of a world well known, but it is a necessary and inevitable stage of human development.
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