An Analysis of Intertextuality in William Blake’s Companion Poems: The Lamb and The Tyger

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2B) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmood Eshreteh
Keyword(s):  
Great Percentage ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Songs Of Experience ◽  
Songs Of Innocence ◽  
Dualistic Approach

Abstract This study undertakes a thorough analysis of the aspects of intertextuality and their undertones in William Blake’s companion poems:The Lamb (1789) from the Songs of Innocence and The Tyger (1794) from the Songs of Experience. These poems are often read side by side since they are described as counterparts to one another reflecting Blake’s dualistic ideology on the conflicting states of the human soul (good vs. evil). The researchers adopted Charles Bazerman’s(2004) theory in analyzing intertextuality within texts. The analysis of the poems revealed that there are 22 instances of religious and literary intertextual allusions within both poems and their type of textual integration was mainly description. In addition, a great percentage of those allusions consist of religious undertones which help reflect the dualistic approach that Blake adopted in his volumes of poetry. Keywords: dualistic; intertextuality; poetry; religious

William Blake and the Human Abstract

PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 373-379
Author(s):  
Robert F. Gleckner
Keyword(s):  
William Blake ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Precise Nature ◽  
Organic Unity ◽  
Songs Of Experience ◽  
Songs Of Innocence

It is well-known that in Songs of Experience several of the poems are direct contraries to some of the Songs of Innocence, the precise nature of this opposition being reflected in the subtitle of the combined Songs of Innocence and of Experience: “Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.” And Blake emphasized this essential organic unity of the contraries by giving four of the opposing poems identical titles: “Holy Thursday,” “The Chimney Sweeper,” “Nurse's Song,” and “A Cradle Song.” Occasionally he changed the title almost imperceptibly: “The Little Boy Lost” becomes “A Little Boy Lost,” “The Little Girl Lost” becomes “A Little Girl Lost,” and “The Divine Image” becames “A Divine Image.” The great majority of Songs of Experience, however, have either totally new titles or changes of the Songs of Innocence titles which make more explicit the nature of the opposition between the two states. Thus in the two introductory poems the piper yields to the bard, in others “The Lamb” becomes “The Tyger,” “The Blossom” becomes “The Sick Rose,” “The Ecchoing Green” becomes “The Garden of Love” or “London,” “The School Boy” becomes “The Little Vagabond,” and “The Divine Image” becomes “The Human Abstract.”

scholarly journals Blake’s Songs, Their Introductions and the Bible

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Chiramel Paul Jose
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
William Blake ◽  
Human Form ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Religious System ◽  
Songs Of Experience ◽  
Songs Of Innocence ◽  
Great Code

Although William Blake was highly eclectic and drawing from multifarious sources, religious system, philosophical thoughts and traditions, the Bible was Blake’s most predominant concern. Throughout his life of meticulous and tedious composite art Blake aimed at decoding the Bible as the Great Code of Art for helping people to be imaginative and visionary like Jesus Christ. Both in his complex and sophisticated prophetic works, meant for the illuminated people, and in his deceptively simple lyrics of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, meant for the rank and file of society, Blake did keep this up. The present study is an attempt to focus on this element, by delving deep into the texts and designs of the Introductions of Songs of Innocence as well as of Songs of Experience, inevitably considering the totality of Blake’s works and in the special context of their marked allegiance or affinity to the themes and symbols from the Bible. Blake visualized a blend of lamblike meekness and mildness with the ferocity of tigers of wrath for having the human form divine perfect. 

Art and mythology of William Blake in the context of the "Dead Man" by Jim Jarmush.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
T.A. Dmitrieva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
William Blake ◽  
Common Features ◽  
History Analysis ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Songs Of Experience ◽  
Songs Of Innocence ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The Universe

The presented article is devoted to the study of the image of creativity and mythology of William Blake in the film by J. Jarmusch "Dead Man". The author has carried out a detailed philosophical and art analysis of the film "Dead Man" and graphic works by William Blake, in particular, the series of engravings “Heads of Ghosts”, engravings “Ghost of the Flea” and “The Lost Boy”. The author also examined poetry and mythology in the work of William Blake based on the material of the works "The Marriage of Hell and Eden" (1973), "Songs of Innocence" (1789) and "Songs of Experience" (1973). Having conducted a comparative analysis of the works of W. Blake and the film by J. Jarmusch, the author revealed the similarities among the characters, mythology, plot and attitude in the movie "Dead" by J. Jarmusch and the works of W. Blake, interpreted the reason for citing the works of W. Blake in the movie "Dead Man" ... As a result, a conclusion was made about the commonality of the worldview attitudes of the work of J. Jarmusch "Dead Man" and the work of W. Blake. The article highlights the common features of the investigated works and the film: quotations from works of other authors, acquiring new meaning (citing the works of John Milton and Dante W. Blake correlates with the quotation of W. Blake in the film "Dead Man"); initiation motive; wandering motive; the idea of the wrongness of the world and the dualism of the universe. The author notes that the main artistic ideas of the works under consideration by William Blake are reflected in the film "Dead Man" by J. Jarmusch. In synthesis, they acquire a new meaning – the path of the soul to salvation through the overcoming of false ideas, vices, knowledge of the truth. This work uses the method of philosophical and art history analysis, developed by the Siberian art history school.

scholarly journals Interrelation/Coexistence between Human/Nonhuman in Nature: William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Leila Baradaran Jamili ◽  
Sara Khoshkam
Keyword(s):  
Close Relation ◽  
The World ◽  
Songs Of Experience ◽  
Songs Of Innocence ◽  
The Web

This paper considers the interrelation and coexistence between human and nonhuman in nature in William Blake’s (1757-1827) Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (1789-1794). The paper looks at his poems in the light of ecocentrism, especially the theories of Lawrence Buell (1939- ) and Ashton Nichols (1953- ), who articulate ecocentrism as a word which expresses the interconnection between human and nonhuman in nature and environment. The word, ecocentrism, denotes nature and environment as the central and essential parts of the world to represent them as a web or system wherein all members and parts, including human and nonhuman, are related and connected to each other so closely that they cannot exist and live separately and lonely. By human, it refers to who is a creature in the web, who links to other creatures and entities so closely that he cannot be isolated from them. The linkage and coexistence are the matter which can be viewed in some of the poems of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Blake watches environment and nature carefully, and in some of the poems of two mentioned collections such as “The Echoing Green,” “Nurse’s Song,” “Holy Thursday,” “The School Boy,” to name just a few, he illustrates a situation of life in which human has close relation and connection to other creatures. According to Blake, human and nonhuman have such a vital relationship so that no one can live without the others. All creatures and beings in an organism have an effect on each other, and they are interrelated. The paper shows interconnection and coexistence between human and nonhuman in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience due to portrayal and representation of nonhuman creatures in the world. It defines some nonhuman terms such as nature and environment and then focuses on the interrelation and coexistence between human and nonhuman in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in accordance with ecocentrism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document