After you read "Lamb" and "Tyger" a few times, take a some minutes and look at the artwork by William Blake. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39
Consider his written and visual art, What characterizes Blake's work? What topics and spiritual/soulful questions does he explore in his work? What do you get out of his poems and art? Pls cite a specific poem or piece of art that touched you.
Consider his written and visual art, What characterizes Blake's work? What topics and spiritual/soulful questions does he explore in his work? What do you get out of his poems and art? Pls cite a specific poem or piece of art that touched you.
What characterizes Blake's work is that he relates and combines abstract and simplistic factors to his work. In his poetry, the tyger and the lamb are dueling opposites. It seems like they are being compared as evil and good; heaven and hell or satan and god. If you compare the paintings Newton and The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne paintings, the colors in the painting distinguish the two. The colors of the Newton painting are dark and tenebrous, while the ...divine throne painting's colors are bright. It sets the mood between the two like the tyger and the lamb.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy Blake's poetry it seems as the he is telling a story through his poems, which a lot of poems are but it seems more obvious in Blake's poetry. His poetry remind me of greek mythology and then once I saw his artwork it just went hand in hand with that theme because his artwork also reminds me of greek mythology. The painting that stood out to me most was "visions of the Daughters of Albion" In this painting there is a very clear comparison between light and dark or good and evil. The left side seems to be dark and intense waves while on the right side there is a bright sun either setting or rising. It seems as though the daughter is chained into the water but she is still able to see how her father, probably, feels, and it seems as though he feels sad or remorseful, probably for his daughter.
ReplyDeleteBlake seems like a very religious person. His drawings include religious meaning. In the poem, "Lamb", basically the lamb is jesus and the shepherd is the God. It seems like the it is describing the innocence of the new born. Unlike the Lamb poem, the "Tyger" shows more of a strong feeling, evilness. The art work that I was interested in was the 'Satan in his Original Glory.' This drawing is about the Satan who used to be a perfect creation of God, but had fallen from his grace. It doesn't have much color but the red is very bold. At this time of period people were into religion.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Blake's poems because of the sense of eeriness I received from reading them. "The Lamb" refers to Jesus as the lamb and God as the shepherd. While "The Tyger" seems to be indirectly talking about satan. Essentially, the poems are taking on the dualistic views, how could God create something as wonderful as the lamb and then something as dark and malicious as the Tyger? The tyger is beautiful, yet destructive, similar to that of Satan or Lucifer. He was the most beautiful Angel, yet encompassed the "ugliest" spirit. The Tyger is representative of all evil in the world. The Lamb is representative of the innocence in the world, the poem almost comes off as some sort of a nursery rhyme. I really enjoyed the contrast in the painting: "The Good and Evil Angels". It seemed very fitting for the two poems we were presented with. An "evil" angel grabbing at a child (innocence).
ReplyDeleteI liked Blake's poem because of the way it sounds when you read it. I really liked the rhyming at the end of each line. It reminded me of a nursery rhyme. In "The Lamb" blake refers to the lamb as jesus and the shepherd as God.In "The Tyger" I think that they are talking about the tiger relating to satan. These poems can be compared because god created something so sweet like the lamb and so evil like the tiger. I liked these two poems the most because they were easy to read and they related to eachother.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading two of Blake's poems and looking at his paintings, I have noticed that he was very in tune with the animals of God. He also seemed to be a very spiritual man. In my opinion, his poems and his visual forms of art are different. When I read his poems, I sensed that he was a man who worshiped all of God's creations. When I looked at his art, I felt like it was just a series of random paintings. Some had to do with religion, and others had to do more with intellectual things, like Newton and Shakespeare's works. In his poems, I think that he described the lamb as something that it is a calm, sweet animal. When he said, "Gave thee such a tender voice, making all the vales rejoice," it meant that valleys surrender to the serenity of the lamb because it is the perfect animal. The other poem was very different. He described the tiger with "Fire in thyne eyes," almost as if trying to say that it is evil. Both of the poem touched me because I found it interesting how he wrote them as if he was describing good vs. evil. Coming from someone who seems to be very religious, I do not understand how an animal of God can be viewed in such a negative way. Blake produced very interesting works of art, both written and visual.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it seems like Blake’s work is all about the creation of people and animals. He asks the reader to think about the spiritual and soulful questions of creation and how people and animals change within their lifetime in the poem “Lamb.” In this poem he writes, “Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life, and bid thee feed.” Here he is “asking” the lamb if he knows where he came from, who made him, and who took care of him and did everything for him when he was a young lamb. This might have a connection to creation and how things came about but it might also be in relation to giving thanks to the people who did everything for you, like your parents. The writer, William Blake, could be a new father and maybe he is just starting to realize how many sacrifices are needed to be made and now he is giving thanks to his parents in this poem. The artwork created by William Blake was very strange. All of his pieces were very manly and muscular with long beards or strange poses. I think that in these he is trying to say just how manly some people are and he is showing the strengths of those men.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading both poems I noticed that there was a direct correlation between them and the artwork. Both depicted comparisons between the lightness and dark. I found it unnerving to look at the artwork, yet while reading the poems I felt nothing. The "Tyger" poem seemed almost childish in the way it was written, which I didn't particularly care for. Maybe it was the opening line that turned me off of the whole poem altogether,"Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night" but I just didn't really enjoy it. The artwork definitely peeked my interest, however. All of it seemed very strange and unnatural, yet there still seemed to be an animal-istic/human undertone to it all. The painting from which I couldn't take my eyes away from was'Thou wast Perfect till Iniquity was Found in Thee' Before I read the caption, I could tell that this "angel" was no normal angel; there was something dark about it. Once I read the description, it made sense that this was of Satan. I found it very interesting that the colors shown there were not the originals-the colors now seem much more fitting for a painting of that nature
ReplyDeleteIn Lamb, Blake seems to me very cynical, but dark in addressing this topic that clearly means a lot to him. He is talking about the church and how they are leading their lambs almost to the slaughter. in seems peaceful and kind in half of the poem, but in the other path, he turns spiteful and bitter. clearly here, he is talking about religion and the way in which the church goes about distributing the teachings of the bible. He loves and reveres religion, but he pities the way in which it is handled by the authorities, the way that it is almost bastardized and sold.
ReplyDeleteI think something that characterizes Blake's work is his spirituality and religion that shines through in his works.also in his poems, he examines animals rather than nature or humans and 'questions' them who their creators are. I did notice how different the two poems are. I feel as if Blake asks both animals essentially the same question but the way he describes both animals are almost polar opposites. He describes the lamb as this soft, delightful creature that has significance because the lamb represents God. In the "Tyger" he describes the Tyger as a deadly creature with deadly terrors clasp. As I read the two and see their difference, it almost makes me wonder if there is any deeper meaning behind these two animals, on so pure and the other so dreadful. It actually reminds me of yin and yang, because they represent the two forces of good and evil. The lamb seems like it represents good and the Tyger seems as if it symbolizes evil.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Blake seems to talk much of the church, for in 'The Tyger' everything seems to symbolize both good and evil, and even more in depth, heaven and hell. "In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire?" These four lines are contrasting heaven and hell, 'fire; distant deeps' is hell and 'skies; on what wings' is heaven. 'Lamb' is god and he talks about an immortal hand or eye. He talks about how you don't have to listen to the hard hand of the church, with all it's laws and rules, but just follow god.
ReplyDeleteby keeley
DeleteThrough Blake’s work I saw a constant theme of religion and the church. “The Tyger” shows the duality of good and evil. I found the poem to be very dark and somewhat satanic. It is evident that Blake has some conflicts with the church, because his poems demonstrate the corruptness and wrong doings of the religion. The Tyger refers more to the dark side of religion (satan, hell) and the Lamb focuses more on the goodness of God and jesus as the shepherd. Although I felt that both poems do not praise religion in any way. Blake makes a point not to berate God in any way, just the thought of organized religion. His hatredness looms in his writings.
ReplyDelete-Laura
What defines Blake's work is the religious tones that he laces through. The topics and spiritual questions that he explores in his work are the concepts of good vs. evil/heaven vs. hell. In a majority of his pieces he portrays the church and their beliefs as the evil that looms among Earth. His pieces the "Lamb" and the "Tyger" are two primary of examples of the duality in his work. The Lamb focuses on the creation of the creatures on Earth, while the Tyger symbolizes the havoc that the church has brought into the world. When comparing the two poems side by side it could be interpreted that God created the lamb, but the church created the Tyger. Overall, the message I believe Blake is trying to portray to his readers is that the simplicity of worshiping a God has been corrupted by the division and organization of 'religion'.
ReplyDeleteBlake's work, or at least the portion that I have seen, seems to clearly be focused around his idea of religion. In class, we have concluded that he was a highly religious man that did not approve of the church. He surely seems to have a very concise personal definition of god, and his artwork uses many mythological and biblical references such as people and creatures. His god is repeatedly shown as an enormous divine power, as the characters in his paintings are often stricken in awe of the might of their creator. God is not shown as a person, but perhaps an abstraction or simply a force. Nevertheless, this force holds itself over mankind with ubiquitous divinity.
ReplyDeleteMr. William Blake seems to enjoy asking the questions of where and how people & animals came to be. How did they "arrive" on Earth? Consider the first few lines of "Tyger" and "Lamb" and the questions he asks: "Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" and "Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee." He obviously is referencing God the Creator who has absolute divine power over all of creation. It is the Creator portrayed by Blake as an artist that "brings to life" creatures powerful and meek. Blake's artwork seems to answer the question of how things came to be - God the Creator. However, one is left asking how this Creator could make a creature so fair as the lamb and one so fierce as a tiger. Is this God representative of both good and evil? Is this analogous to the ying & yang paradox? Can you have one without the other? The dark and light in his art and poems shows his attempt at conveying these questions.
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