Discovering the Roots of William Blakes Complexity as a Literary Genius - Research Paper Example

Discovering the Roots of William Blake’s Complexity as a Literary Genius Introduction Anybodywho has tried to read or teach William Blake’s poetry will experience both the complexity and the value of the works of Robert Rix, Susan Matthews, and Morris Eaves. The creations of Blake are complex. Even those which appear ordinary is not so. The most attractive lines in The Songs of Innocence, the one which seems completely plain and simple, can create difficult burdens on a reader for they are components of a bigger, much less understandable entirety. A reader is constantly being compelled to take into account the point of view of the speaker and the circumstances of the characters in the poem. Obviously, The Songs of Innocence as a group of poems is impossible to comprehend excluding, or independently from The Songs of Experience, where same issues of perspective are constantly emerging. All of these concerns are explored in this paper. The above are the reasons why the current author is interested in the complexity of Blake’s poems and their inherent religious theme. In one of the poems in The Songs of Experience, the ‘Little Black Boy’, the storyteller is an African slave woman, trying to enlighten her child about his connection to the English lad who refuses to be friends with him and his relationship with God. How should a reader judge her point of view? Does she explain to her son a disgraced, desecrated representation of God? These are only some of the difficult questions raised in the poem. But this paper does not try to answer these questions for these are only illustration of how interconnected are the parts of Blake’s works are. The Complexity and Faith of a Creative Genius Robert Rix’s (2007) William Blake and the Cultures of Radical Christianity explores the ‘Little Black Boy’ and other poems from The Songs of Experience and The Songs of Innocence. I found this book interesting and useful because Rix tries to contextualize Blake himself and his poems within the historical and cultural environment from which they emerge, apparently claiming, exactly, I believe, that Blake’s effort has achieved a convincing success coping with numerous if not nearly all of the inner interpretative bottom lines, and the larger dilemma is representing him as the less gloomy, secluded talent and more the individual of or in communication with his period. Hence, the book of Rix is a religious treatise. The book is composed of eight chapters. The introductory sections quite thoroughly outline the general religious environment of 18th-century England. The explanation of Rix of Moravianism as a global reform campaign that largely paved the way for Methodism in England appeared quite thoroughly delivered, although the relationship to the own religious development of Blake, through his mother’s teachings, can simply be an issue of speculation. I chose Rix’s book as one of my references because of its comprehensive discussion of religion in the work of Blake as well as the influence of religion in his complex imagination. There are only two influences given by Rix: (1) family background, and (2) historical events. The discussion is credible because the author cites actual examples, or real cases from history. He also makes use of both primary and secondary references. The same is true for the books of Susan Matthews (Blake, Sexuality and Bourgeois Politeness) and Morris Eaves (The Cambridge Companion to William Blake), except that Morris Eaves’s book has been published 8 years ago. As stated by Susan Matthews (2011) regarding the complexity of Blake’s artistic influences, it was the blending of Moravian zeal, with its focus on a faith of the soul, with Behmenist religion alongside its restoration of medieval passion, that created the fertile ground where in the theosophical spiritual belief in general and the belief of Swedenborg particularly grew and thrived in England. Matthews’s analysis of Blake’s interpretation of Paine is especially fascinating and enlightening, illustrating a superb control of this intellectual domain. To demonstrate the influence of several modern political and religious treatises on the creations of Blake, Matthews explores a number of Blake’s poems of this era, such as parts of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Matthews’s analysis of Blake is quite useful in demonstrating how Blake’s complexity as a writer and a religious enthusiast merge, how ordinary his interpretation of the American Revolution will turn out to be, as a rebellion against religious captivity more fundamental than any other form, and how his representation of a Rebel Christ develops. On the other hand, Morris Eaves (2003) shows in his book that aside from Blake’s writings, his drawings and paintings are also a valuable source for understanding the complexity of this artist. According to Eaves, Blake’s technique of merging poetry and painting into one whole entirety is one of a kind. This revelation strengthens the rationale of his comment to Crabb Robinson that the ridiculous figures in Jacob Boehme’s Law were similar to Michelangelo’s genius. What Blake is trying to say is that the idea underlying them was as grand as the ideas of Michelangelo. At times the paintings and drawings are merely simple images of the texts; most often they are vital components of the words that the one cannot be grasped in the absence of the other. Blake afterward made use of his painting uniformly with his poetry to communicate his message. Conclusions One hidden message has continually emerged from the works of Rix, Matthews, and Eaves: whether in his biography or his works, Blake has an inclination to exaggerate, and confuse when confronted with foolishness or criticism. He retorted with strange answers. He afterward implant a riddle into a simple question, thus surfaced numerous unclear observations of his strangeness. He was especially so on religious thought. With these existing revelations, we can now try to analyze the complexity and religious animosity of William Blake. We may discover a number of obvious inconsistencies in the work of an individual who could proclaim that the absence of contradictions hamper progression. We should expect a certain extent of progression of principle, because Blake loathed the mind which, having second thoughts to move ahead, idles in its own orthodoxy. The individual who never changes his judgment is like stagnant water, and nurtures poisons of the mind. Therefore, we should try to make sense of Blake’s outlook and connection to the Church; this will give us a clear understanding of Blake’s gratitude to Swedenborg, and thus to the heart of his own faith, his spirituality; ultimately the different components of his method will show themselves for thorough scrutiny. Works Cited Eaves, Morris. The Cambridge Companion to William Blake. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Matthews, Susan. Blake, Sexuality and Bourgeois Politeness. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Rix, Robert. William Blake and the Cultures of Radical Christianity. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2007. Read More