William Blake Research Paper

With his individual visions William Blake created new symbols and myths in the British literature. The purpose of his poetry was to wake up our imagination and to present the reality between a heavenly place and a dark hell. In his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience he manages to do this with simplicity. These two types of poetry were written in two different stages of his life, consequently there could be seen a move from his innocence towards experience.
He was born on November 28, 1757 in London (at 28 Broad Street, Golden Square), to James Blake, a hosier, and his wife Catherine Wright Armitage Blake. He was educated by his mother at home, instead of formal school while his father encouraged his artistic talents. Blake said that
Religion is also presented from different points of view along the poems. In the 'innocence' poem, the angel of death, is something heavenly. A divine help, that is above humankind and everything connected to society. In opposition with it, in the 'experience' poem religion is more artificial, is more a human institution. Because of this artificial feature of the church there could be an obstacle between the boy and God. This interpretation of the poem put the parents into a worse light because they turn blind eye through the suffering of the child searching for refugee among the fake priests and kings, instead of solving the bad situation of their own kid. The biggest problem occurs, when we find out that the child realizes what his parents are not capable to. They hide themselves between the walls of churches, rejecting the harsh
In the first part of the poem, the child is asking the lamb about his origin while the second part is a kind of answer provided from the same child. With his innocent voice the child says: "Little Lamb who made thee/ Dost thou know who made thee." He builds up a series of questions, also characterizes and praises the Lamb. He creates a bright and pure picture of it. There are images of the lamb that lifts this creature up into divine spheres: it has the clothing of delight, the softest wooly bright, and a tender voice. The closing lines of this stanza are the repetition of the first two lines, which tensifies the mood of the poem, emphasizing the unknown origin of the lamb. The second stanza starts with a kind of suggestion, a kind of hope concerning the creator of the lamb. The narrator talks as if he would know the answer for the child's questions: "Little lamb I'll tell thee,/ Little lamb I'll tell thee!" Blake then states that the lamb's creator is the lamb itself. In fact, this little mild creature could be no one than Jesus Christ, himself. As we go on reading the poem, Blake makes it clear that the poem's point of view is that of a child when he says "I a child and thou a lamb." It is a child's curiosity that raises the question in our minds, as well, about the creator of the lamb and about everything that is beautiful and divine. The poem ends with the blessing of the child, "Little lamb God