William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience

William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience appeared in 1789, the year of the French Revolution. His songs are marked by political radicalism, but also bear the hallmarks of the Romantic movement in poetry.
For Blake, innocence and experience are two contrary states of the human soul and, like all the Romantic poets, he sees the imagination as a productive, unifying faculty rather than one of understanding. The poet's role is essential to avoid the 'mind-forg'd manacles' of the legalists who insist on the dead letter.
Blake marks what in Romanticism becomes a conversion of thought away from Christian theology towards a humanistic understanding of everything, including and especially spiritual matters.
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Пікірлер: 26

  • @gizemaslan4431
    @gizemaslan44314 жыл бұрын

    I will take a class about romantic period in english literature next semester I am reading Norton Anthology (course book) , preface, and blake's wordsworths and other romantic poets 'poems and your videos are extremely helpful to understand these poets I'll definitely watch your videos again when my exams start and ı 'll take notes this time . Thanks a lot :)

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    4 жыл бұрын

    You're welcome. Glad you found them helpful.

  • @mehrozeazeem48

    @mehrozeazeem48

    Жыл бұрын

    if you have gone through Norton Anthology. Can you help me?

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    4 ай бұрын

    I use David Perkins’ English Romantic Writers.

  • @claudettedavis4113
    @claudettedavis4113 Жыл бұрын

    I listen to your lectures over and over again and learn something new each time. Thank you.

  • @diarrhea2_pseudo_moralist
    @diarrhea2_pseudo_moralist2 жыл бұрын

    Oh! How i really wish to learn English literature from someone like you. You are very ordered and articulate about the topic. I also like how I am not getting bored at all. Thanks ❤️

  • @ishfaqnabi9532
    @ishfaqnabi95323 жыл бұрын

    Awesome way to teach us... Great way , we understood it greatly.... Thank you so much sir.

  • @amylupton8006
    @amylupton80062 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for this! I'm currently doing a uni assignment about Blake and found this very useful

  • @scarlettpu3881
    @scarlettpu38813 жыл бұрын

    My, LOVE the lion-tiger guess!

  • @sarahafzal7183
    @sarahafzal71833 жыл бұрын

    Excellent lecture. Easy to understand and very insightful. Helped me alot as a student

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    3 жыл бұрын

    Glad it was helpful!

  • @shaziarose702
    @shaziarose7024 жыл бұрын

    Thanks, it made things easy to understand

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    4 жыл бұрын

    Glad it helped!

  • @nawabyousaf3059
    @nawabyousaf30594 жыл бұрын

    Good

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    4 жыл бұрын

    Thanks

  • @arrowfar920
    @arrowfar9204 ай бұрын

    By the way, sir, can you please give me some sources for this lecture? I need the sources for my own research that I'm doing on this subject. I would appreciate it.

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    4 ай бұрын

    Sources? It is my material based on years of study. I am sure I am indebted to many others, but I only cited them where they came to mind.

  • @arrowfar920

    @arrowfar920

    4 ай бұрын

    Ah okay, thank you so much.

  • @antidepressant11
    @antidepressant112 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Scott. This is very fresh for me. I'm fascinated d by Blake and I think you do a food job of describing him and his work. You said in so many words that Blake was not interested in doctrine or dogma. Or certitude. So Blake could be described as an unorthodox Christian? This is of particular interest to me because I am a fan of Thomas Merton. Merton loved Blake perhaps because he shared the artistic vision of God. I can also see why many artists are drawn to Blake. Artists who are Christian too. I know you are a very committed Christian yourself Scott. Is your Christianity more orthodox? How much has Blake affected your faith? Sorry if this is intrusive or off topic? I'm Christian but perhaps drawn more to Blake's more non linear version of God and Christ.

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    2 жыл бұрын

    Blake is certainly a non-orthodox Christian. I critique him from the vantage of Christian orthodoxy, yes.

  • @ishmaelforester9825

    @ishmaelforester9825

    Жыл бұрын

    Blake is better described as an orthodox Christian. He was a radical supernaturalist, like his heroes in the Bible. He believed entirely and with awesome passion in the reality of a spiritual world and everything that entails. He is more truly Christian than Luther or Calvin, for example. He is as close to Jesus and Peter and John as anybody since, in all seriousness.

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    Жыл бұрын

    Anyone who doesn’t affirm the Trinity or the divine-human nature of Christ is hardly orthodox. Blake is an antinomian.

  • @umniaaltai
    @umniaaltai4 жыл бұрын

    Can you explain racial discrimination to me in the poem?🌚💕💕

  • @LitProf

    @LitProf

    4 жыл бұрын

    I don't quite understand the question.

  • @AlcyoneSong

    @AlcyoneSong

    3 жыл бұрын

    Basically the line, "When I shade him from the heat of the sun, then he will love me" the black child says. The only time he is loved, is when hes being used. Read between the lines.

  • @ishmaelforester9825

    @ishmaelforester9825

    Жыл бұрын

    @@AlcyoneSong You are being ridiculously shallow. Why is it the only time he is loved? Nothing in the poem intimates that. It specifically talks about relative values and love. Not only is there irony but humane common sense. The essence of the poem is no doubt the situation of the African child as victim. But his suffering is concieved of as wrong but noble even in the suffering.