One aspect that Blake seems to incorporate into his works is the idea of God being almighty and the age of innocence is in the youth and there is where we should start teaching of God. The Lamb illustrates the innocence of youth and asks where the lamb was created. Blake seems to use the idea of God being everywhere and that is how he explains the The Little Black Boy. No matter what color one is, God loves all of his children and we must do the same and show the same love to each other. When he states “When I from black and he from white cloud free,/ And round the tent of God like lambs we joy” (81) he seems to state that the both white and black boy will help each other and only then will there be peace between all races. In his next work, The Chimney Sweeper seems to be a reiteration of his belief that God will love those whom love him. The poem tells of a boy who had lost his parents, and is lost most of the people he knows. Then comes an “Angel who had a bright key” (81). The Angel tells the chimney sweeper that if “he’d be a good boy,/ He’d have God for his father & never want joy” (81). Blake tells the idea of being good and God will take care of you. When a man who has lost everything, the moment he believes in God he will no longer need anything.
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Joe,
ReplyDeleteOK post on this challenging poet, but you lack a clear focus and don't go deeply enough into your discussion. It would have been better to have picked a single poem, and to have explored it in greater detail. You quote some passages, but need more analysis of the particular words and ideas in them. Other claims you make lack any textual evidence.
I got out of most of his work that God was the central thought on his mind. That everything you do is viewed by God and that if you do good works God will be happy. However, when he writes "The Voice of the Devil" I feel that he has gone in the opposite direction and I can't really see why he has done that. I feel that this post is in line with what I thought each of his works said and I agree with your thoughts.
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