A Reading Response to "William Blake and the world's body of science."

George H. Gilpin evaluates the life, paintings, poems and ideas of William Blake in his critical essay, "William Blake and the world's body of science." A large section of this literature was the analysis of Blake's "Book of Urizen." Gilpin discussed how Blake was mocking the bible. He duly noted how Blake was merely trying to entertain rather than inform. The satire was not to be taken seriously; although many grew a disliking towards the poet because of this piece. They accused him of being a Satanist and having a heart of fire. This article proves otherwise. Blake simply had an unfamiliar sense of humor that deemed evil by a large sum of people. I feel this article relates well with our blog. Gilpin worked hard to unravel the real Blake. He discovered Blake was passionate about exposing the truth about the decline of human compassion, "The plates and text of Urizen mock the abstraction of contemporary science and it's inhumane indifference to human suffering." Even today huge controversies erupt continuously in the medical field due to lives disposed as result of research. This essay also touches base on Blake as young man. Blake lived near a medical researcher named John Hunter. Hunter became notorious for his deathly experiences. Blake had quite a few confrontations with this "mad scientist." Blake even included some of Hunter's work for more mock plates. Many say that the relationship with Hunter was the beginning of Blake's hatred for science. Issac Newton, also, has been featured throughout the paintings. Newton doesn't not "see" the world around him, he is truly blind to beauty and nature. If you do not see nature, you do not see people. Therefore, giving Newton an antagonist persona.
      Gilpin's explanations intrigued me throughout the entire essay. He brought up facts about Blake that had been unheard of in my other research. I hadn't known Blake actually went to a school were medical students were being taught. To me, Blake's life was ridden with irony. It was inspirational to find out most of Blake's poems and paintings were based of true experiences and people that he had known. When I first started foraging through Blake's work I had the impression of him being a phony. His views on science, love and religion had such a obscure direction that it almost seemed as if they were conjured up from a dream or just some wild thought that raced through his head. Reading this article almost made fall in love with Blake. Gilpin idolized the humorous blasphemy that Blake presented so continuously. Blake had no concerns of censorship. His ideas and concepts created more controversy than most rap songs do today. Although I am unsure if Blake truly believes in God, it gives me joy knowing that someone so famous had no fears about redirecting from the flow of religion. Each and every day I feel judged and looked down upon simply because of my beliefs. I am an agnostic. My peers do not agree with me in the slightest. I have had death threats sent anonymously to me regarding my "religion." Reading this essay I am now considering to muster up the courage to distribute my thoughts and ideas to everyone. I have grown tired of ignoring questions due to my discomfort of the disappointment that follows my answers. Although I am a fan of Blake, I do not always agree with his "anti-science' campaign. Without science, humans would still be in primitive form. Caves, fire pits, fur pelts and giant clubs seem so grotesque as living conditions. Without the scientific findings of the "devil's," Blake would not be the philosophical man he grew to be. His main goal would be survival. There is no doubt that Blake held some gratitude in his heart, even if it was a minuscule amount. In conclusion, George Gilpin wrote a phenomenal article on William Blake. I, as a Junior in high school, comprehended the entire piece. He led me to discover how literature should not be taken for face value. Research the author, their life, their influences and other readers opinions before you jump to your own meaning. There is always a story behind the story.

The Lamb

“Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?”

In William Blake’s poem, “The Lamb” a little boy asks a lamb who made him. Blake is religious so he refers to Jesus as representing the lamb. Both the lamb and Jesus are supposed to represent peace, meekness, and gentleness. It is interesting that the boy asks this question in the first place because it is so obvious, but at the same time it’s a question everyone ask. Who made us, and how were we made? Through this poem, God is our creator. God is Jesus and the lamb represents Jesus. It is ironic that the child asks the lamb who created him when the one who made him calls himself the lamb.

“He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!”

The boy symbolizes innocence. A child is innocence itself because a child has not seen the horrors of life so they live their childhood thinking the world is good and great until their world come crashing down. But that is what Blake is trying to convey. “The Lamb” is from Blake’s Song’s of Innocence and truly representing innocence by highlighting the greater parts of the world. Although, the poem lacks the reality of the harsh world. In the Song’s of Experience, “The Tiger” shows the ugly and cruel side of the world and religion. Religion is good when it’s not forced onto anyone, but religion can cause war because of one’s beliefs. Seeing these horrible things in life like war and murder takes away any innocence that we might have ever had. Blake shows us that experience ruins innocence. A question to ask is if Blake was innocent or not. Did he remember what innocence really felt like? Or could he only imagine what innocence was really like? In this poem, there is only innocence between the child and the lamb. It also is innocent for a child to be talking to an animal in the first place.

"Blake's THE FLY"

G. S. Morris, from North Carolina State University, wrote an article “Blake’s THE FLY.” The article is an annotation of the poem “The Fly" by William Blake. The author opinions and criticism on the poem shows more deeper meaning and understanding of William Blake’s work. Throughout the article, G.S Morris mostly focuses on comparing the three stanzas in the beginning and the two last stanzas of the poem and showing connection between the stanzas. In stanza one through three, G.S Morris explains the human as a first person speaker and the fly as a second speaker in stanza four and five. His quote “The first three stanzas certainly issue from one speaker, as they follow logically and sentimentally” and “...the second speaker could be the fly itself" shows his interpretation of the speakers in the poem. He believed the human regrets what he has done to the fly, which was killing it with his hand. G.S Morris quoted, “The fly surreptitiously points out the first speaker's hypocrisy; in his self-regard the first speaker sees his injury to the fly only as an opportunity for self-reflection. His reflection offers no consolation to the fly, no sympathy, but only an abstract comparison and speculation; so the fly, in turn, replies with still more abstract speculation.” In this quote, G.S Morris wants the reader to know that humans are more concern about themselves instead of others. His opinion is quite similar to what Blake wants the reader to know; to have sympathy for others instead of worrying about the situations that is occurring. We tend to isolate ourselves with thoughts and reflection, from there we forget the things that are happening right in front of us.This reflects the interpretation on my blog because we want the readers to know more about William Blake’s opinion on life itself. His inspiration is outstanding and difficult to understand without knowing the true meaning of his poems and artwork. G.S Morris has done a very great job at showing the fly as our own personal thoughts.

In my opinion, the author’s idea of the fly speaking to the human showing his hypocrisy and his self reflection is close to what Blake wants the reader to know. I believe Blake made the fly die in the beginning of stanza one to show how death comes upon us instantly. Stanza two and three describes the feeling of the human felt towards the fly after he killed it, which was sorrow. The sorrow of the human to the fly symbolizes people showing sympathy for their love ones only because they are now dead. The answer lies in stanza four and five when Blake describes in his poem, “If thought is life And strength & breath And the want Of thought is death; Then am I A happy fly. If 1 live. Or if I die." To explain the theme of the poem, I will bring in a situation that happened to me. When I was ten years old, I was scared of death. These situations made it worse: seeing my grandpa died in the hospital, death on the streets because of car accidents, and hearing gun shots at night. I remembered every night, my parents will read the Bible to my brothers and I, explaining to us when they die, they will be happy in Heaven with God because God is everything they need. I grew up, learning that death is a part of life and one day I will die as well and be in Heaven with God. The interpretation of G.S Morris and mine shows what William Blake wanted to explain if he was alive today. People in this world are always thinking of death and are worrying about the things that are going to happened to them afterlife, what will happen after living in the world. Instead of worrying about ourselves, we should focus more on spending time with our family and the people who care for us. Learning more about William Blake’s poem and art opens up more opportunity to experience the beauty of Nature and how we, as humans need to work together and make this world a better place as what Blake visioned. The article of G.S Morris “ Blake’s THE FLY" is located in Mount Hood Community College Library below this post.

Blake's THE FLY

Blake's Biography

William Blake was a poet and a painter, and born in London on November 28, 1757. His father’s name was James and his mother’s name was Catherine Blake. As a young child, Blake claimed that he saw God and angels. His parents kept him at home, and Blake taught himself to read and write. When he got a little bit older, Blake decided that he wanted to go to an art school where he learned how to paint. When Blake turned fourteen he had to give up art school and started working with poetry. In 1782, Blake married Catherine Boucher. They never had children, but he taught her to read and write so that she could work together with him and print his work. Blake also asked for help from his brother Robert, but Robert got sick and died shortly after. His wife and he continued printing his work with copper plates and finishing all of his paintings with water colors. Blake claimed that he saw his brother’s spirit rise from the body, clapping to him, and rises through the ceiling. Later on he published “Songs of Innocence“, in 1789 and then in 1794, “Songs of Experience”. In both of Blake’s poetry and paintings, he repeatedly showed that he favored imagination over reason to rebel against “18^th-century neoclassical conventions”. In 1800, Blake moved to Felpham for three years and taught him self Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Italian so that he could read from original writing. Blake wanted to become popular and wanted common people to be able to read his poetry. Blake held exhibits of his paintings, and some thought his paintings were hideous and often times called Blake insane. His poetry was not locally known, but other well known poets had read his work and even called him a generous. The remainder of Blake’s life was in poverty. A group of younger artists marveled Blake’s work and they called themselves “The Ancients”. Blake met John Linnell in1818 who helped Blake financially and helped motivate Blake to finish the cycle of drawing before he died, which he did in 1827.

"Newton"

William Blake created this painting in 1795 to convey Newton’s doubts of God and his obliviousness to God‘s creation of everything. Newton’s strict concepts on science ruled his life. Blake described that through his painting by symbolizing that Newton was stuck in the circle that he drew with his compass. Meaning that he was so wrapped up with his thoughts and ideas, he could not see reason with Blake’s ideas and thoughts about imagination to step outside of his circle. In the painting, Newton, a scientist who studied many things that today would be classified as science, is found at the bottom of the ocean bending over naked to draw a circle with a compass on a scroll that seems to come from his mouth. The compass that Newton uses resembles the shape of the sun rays coming out of God’s hand in one of Blake’s other paintings, “Ancient of days. The compass symbolizes God. In the painting, Newton is surrounded by God‘s beautiful work, Nature, and is wrapped up in his personal bubble of science. Also the fact that Blake placed Newton at the bottom of the ocean speaks a lot about how he felt towards him. Surrounded by no one, Blake conveyed that Newton was alone. At the time, Blake felt very offended towards Newton. Blake believed that nature is imagination, and Newton called his science “natural philosophy”. This made Blake bitter considering his strong disbeliefs in science. Science had everything to do with rationalizing and Blake believed in more of the free thought. Newton also refused to believe that God created everything that is beautiful and is nature, and Newton did not see that, because he is trying to find scientific reasoning for the creation of everything. To me this painting it today’s version of an argument on religion. Every religion is different and people choose to have faith in their own beliefs. Blake was unhappy with Newton’s beliefs so he down graded him. “Newton” is a much deeper painting than most would seem. Blake made all of his work include a deeper meaning. This one painting sent such a huge message; it makes me wonder if there is anything else Blake tried to tell us through his work.

Review on "Blake is My Homie"

"Blake is my Homie"’s blog page, is a satisfying resource for students who want to find credible information and reviews on William Blake’s poems. Maria Castellanos, Megan Townley, and Ethan Palioca did a really good job on interpreting the poems they chose for there blog. It became easy to understand the poem as I read they’re thoughts and ideas because I compared my thoughts and ideas about the poem to theirs. They gave me a different perspective on the poem and answered questions I had about things I didn’t understand. They take the reader through the poem step by step, describing the poem in a way that students at a high school level can understand. Ethan did a good job of summarizing his poem for me through his first paragraph. I’ve never read the poem, but thanks to Ethan I have a clear view on what occurred in the poem. He also did a good job at using details to describe the significance of poem and the symbolism within it. At the end of "'The Chimney Sweeper' (Innocence by William Blake", Ethan pulled his paragraph together concluding that children represent innocence and innocence is normally lost with experience through life. The fact that the boys still maintained their innocence despite what they went through is where Blake tried to convey the importance of innocence. Maria Castellanos does a really good job at relating her poem, “Love’s Secret” to her personal experience. I was able to relate it to my personal experiences as well. Megan Townley did a really good job of interpreting her poem. I felt like if I didn’t read the poem, reading her paragraph would have been enough for me to understand what Blake was trying to say. Over all, "Blake is my Homie"’s blog page looks very nice and well put together, and is an easy page to navigate for students who want to research Williams Blake’s work. The page is clean and not cluttered with distracting pictures, but straight to the point. In one of Maria’s post, a link is located at the bottom to find the poem, and I did not find myself confused at all. Click here to visit "Blake is my Homie".

Plate 11 from 'The First Book of Urizen'

Click here to visit another student blog about William Blake.

"The Best Blake Blog that's Better than the "Best Blake Blog,"" is written by fellow classmates Austin Schwartz, Erika Hewgley, Veronica Sanchez, and MJ Roy, who are also studying romanticism.They have chosen William Blake as their main topic. Included in their blog are various Blake poems, original poems, Blake's plates and painting and their personal interpretations of William's work. This site is very thorough by maintaining a solid understanding the complex themes of the beloved William Blake

I enjoy this blog intensely, the layout is very well put together. The aesthetics are pleasing and aren't distracting in any way. These students break down the poetry in a way that is so easily understood. Most students are turned off by The Romanticism era simply because the literature is difficult to understand at a first glance. It is evident 'The Hottest People In Turner's Class" know very well what these poems are conveying. They give a great insight on views I never thought of before.

MJ Roy also analyzed "The Tyger" he compared humans to tigers, something I never would have thought of. He said, " God created the tiger, just as he created us, are we not as destructive as a tiger? Do we not kill animals and eat them?" That connected with me; humans are similar to tigers. We disregard life for our own benefit. 

I found the "Biography of William Blake" particularly useful. It gives so much more insight on why Blake wrote of God and nature. Blake had many experiences as a young man that influe3nced his writing that I had once not known.

Anyone who is interested in furthering their knowledge of this magnificant poet, they should definitely check out that blog.

Moral Dilemma (Prose Poem)

I make decisions everyday. So I find it hard to understand why some decisions are harder than others. In the end I want to make the right decision, or what everyone deems morally acceptable. But then I ask myself how do I determine the difference between everyone else’s right and wrong, and mine. Who is right, and more importantly, what is right? Today I confront choosing life and death because I must face the consequences for my actions. I think it might be easier to decide my life’s path if it did not involve other life, but this decision applies directly through mine and into another’s. I cannot find reason or resolve in any of the decisions I might make today considering I make them alone. One of the choices will directly lead me to sadness: something I will regret for the rest of my life. The other choice will bring hope, happiness, and more than likely shock. But later in life, I will look at the result of a mistake I made in my past. Again I will regret what I have done. I do not want regret in my life but it seems unavoidable. Still I do not have the will power within me to take life. Especially since I might take the life within me. This decision should not belong to me. I believe it belongs to a higher power. Therefore I make my decision based off of my belief instead of the influences around me. I shall endure the consequences resulting from my actions and choose life. There is sadness in both of my decisions so I choose the one that includes the slightest possibility of happiness. With my result I will learn true love, and regret will hide amongst the shadows of all the mistakes it takes to learn life’s lessons. Because my result will remind me daily of my life lesson with a smile.

Blake's Views on Science and Imagination (Reading Response 3)

Mark Lussier, from Arizona State University, writes an article, “Scientific Objects and Blake’s Objections to Science”, that compares the science and imagination within a scientific object. Lussier writes about scientific instruments that display his beliefs. A compass took role in one of Williams Blake’s paintings; “Newton” to represent that Newton could not get out of his circle of thought and reason. In this painting, a nude scientist, Newton, bends over and draws with a compass to create a perfect circle at the bottom of the ocean. “The compass imposes an imaginary order…” (Lussier 120). He describes how Blake took scientific instruments, such as the microscope and telescope, and used them to influence others about his beliefs on imagination. “In Blake’s age, the telescope created the most sensational results, a cultural phenomenon perhaps best exemplified by the forty-foot reflecting model invented by William Herschel and used in discovery of the planet Uranus thus enlarging the solar system, and to map the Milky Way, thus expanding contemporary views of the universe itself.” (Lussier 121). Blake includes these scientific instruments in his paintings and poems to symbolize imagination and how imagination is endless. Before the telescope and microscope, no one believed in what they couldn’t see. Blake wants people to see that at the end of our understanding, is where the endless domain of our imaginations begins.
Blake intellectually compares and contrasts the human imagination to scientific instruments. He does not believe in science because there are rules that set limits to the thought process and what could be possible. He believes in a never ending imagination within our brain, locked up by our perception. Although Blake does not believe in science, he was able to use scientific instruments, such as the telescope, that provided support to his beliefs. Even though Blake uses these instruments to represent his ideas, he does not believe that seeing the details prevailed beneficial. For example, looking through a telescope to see the colors and shapes of Mars diminishes our opportunity to imagine all the possibilities of what could exist there. For example, if I had to choose between reading a book and watching a movie about the same story, choosing to watch the movie first hinders my opportunity to imagine all the details within the story; what the characters look like, what the places look like, and so on. If I want to read the book after seeing the movie, I would already have an idea of what everything looks like in a movie, versus what I could imagine. Blake believes in reading the book first so that our imagination can create the details for us. Reading is a great way to exercise imagination. Blake did that by expressing his imagination through his poetry and paintings. In order to understand the message he conveys, he encourages us to broaden our imagination so that we can make the connections he makes and see what he sees. As children we have dreams about things we’ve never seen, or dreams that our imagination creates based off of all the things we have seen throughout our life. Blake tells us that imagination creates these images and ideas of things that seem impossible. Today almost nothing seems impossible. So many people doubted the idea of electricity, but Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. The invention itself starts with an idea and turns into reality. Referring back to one of his paintings, “Newton”, the compass was invented using imagination, but Blake does not agree that the compass should obtain an imaginary view. “The compass imposes an imaginary order, thereby providing an instrumental mediation for mental projection onto what Blake termed “The Vegetable Glass of Nature,” yet this imaginary order should not be (but often is) confused with both the imagination and its perception of the real.” (Lussier 120). Although it took imagination to create the compass, the compass creates something that does not pertain to nature. A perfect circle does not exist in nature, and Blake believes that “’Nature is Imagination.’” (Lussier 120). The Circle that Newton is drawing in Blake’s painting represents his thoughts and ideas and how he stays within his comfort zone of thought and reality. This defies Blake’s thoughts of endless imagination.