The Role of Illustrations in William Blakes Poems - Essay Example

The Relationship of Illustrations to Poems in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience The poems included in both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience by William Blake are unusual for their day not only due to their simple appearances and deeper meanings but also by the way in which the poet, artist, engraver illustrated them, providing his readers with the rare opportunity to glimpse his thoughts in creating each poem. Typically focused on aspects of the human spirit as it comes in contact with authority figures, whether they be government or religious, as well as the joyful celebration of his idea of Christianity and humanity, these poems provided many with inspiration and hope in times that seemed overly chaotic as revolutions of various types were occurring on virtually every front and power structures were struggling to hold onto whatever controls they could. In “London” for example, a poem describing the way in which the human spirit had been shackled in 1794 when the poem had been written, Blake expresses an abiding belief in the unchristian nature of the restrictions on freedoms being experienced by the British people. The French Revolution had just occurred and sentiment in Britain had reached an all-time low as expressed in lines such as “How the chimney-sweepers cry” (9) and “… the hapless Soldiers sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls” (11-12) in which it can be seen that even time-honored occupations such as chimney sweeps and soldiers had fallen into disrespect and despair. The red walls of the street depicted in the poem’s illustration provide a subtle imagery of the British soldiers’ and, by extension, the rest of the British population’s plight. Although he is describing physical situations, “A mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe” (3-4), he makes it clear that he is also discussing the state of the souls of people he meets, “In every voice; in every ban / The mind-forg’d manacles I hear” (7-8). The idea that even thoughts are chained is echoed in the illustrations Blake has selected to accompany the poem. In them, an old man robed in the blue of purity is seen stooped, dejected, defeated and walking only with the aid of a cane. This man has become so entrapped in the rules and regulations not only of his own government, but also within the shackles of his own mind, that he is prevented from crying out or perhaps even seeing the effects of what has been created. This is suggested by the idea that although the man’s eyes are open, he is still led by a small child as they move down an empty street. The image portrayed is that of someone completely helpless to fend for himself in any way, just as Blake envisioned the people of Britain under the yoke of oppression they were suffering at the hands of both government and religion. The other illustration on the plate is that of a human figure hunched up to a bonfire, feeding it the next book in line. The smoke obscures the sky as well as the progress of the old man and the child even as the words of the country are destroyed in the flames. More than simply obscuring the sky, the smoke also removes Blake’s words from the view of the burner, completely removing him from any knowledge, responsibility or consciousness of his actions as he undertakes the task of burning the books of the country. Although there is light and hope along the left-hand margin as expressed in a soft yellow wash that fades as it moves across the page to the bonfire, even this is blocked from the figure at the fire by the dense smoke. Although the old man and the child are part of a different panel, the sharp contrast between the dark shadows of the street behind the old man and the fact that he is being led away from the yellow light and hope, symbolizing the enlightening nature of Blake’s version of Christianity, and toward even more shadow and the smoke of the bonfire indicate Blake’s vision that the absence of books, knowledge, freedom of speech and so on would only lead to another period of darkness and despair. “Nurses” from the Songs of Innocence is another such poem that seems simple enough on the surface, but the illustrations and a deeper reading expose both Blake’s faith in the human spirit to rise above the mundane world as well as the power of the mundane world to entrap and destroy the human soul. The mental images of the first stanza serve to recall to mind the innocence and carefree nature of the young child as he/she plays with friends. “When the voices of children are heard on the green … The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind” (1,3). This innocence is also expressed in terms of color associations as his “face turns green and pale” as it would be in early childhood, green with inexperience, pale with the freshness of youth as it remains unstained by the touch of outside controls. However, Blake doesn’t paint this as being an entirely positive experience as he points out that the child’s “spring and your day are wasted in play” (7) while “your winter and night in disguise” (8) indicating that while they are playing, they are not learning how to cope with the difficulties that lie ahead of them. However, because these difficulties lie so far ahead of them, they remain in disguise, making it difficult to even know how to prepare. This poem is illustrated with a very domestic image of a child, a mother and a nurse. While one woman sits under a tree reading a book, another works to comb the hair of the child. The image of the woman under the tree is reminiscent of the image of the shepherd, whom Blake uses often to help depict the image of Jesus watching over his flock. This is an indication that all is well and no harm shall come to these innocent lives. The woman in the act of combing the child’s hair is positioned in such a way as to frame the child’s head with her arms, providing a halo effect around him that further suggests Blake’s tendency to view childhood and innocence as being closer to Godliness than the dictates of the Church elders and the authority of government-sanctioned worship. Grapevines along the margin help to illustrate the idea of fruitfulness and a prosperous life for this child. The soft blues, pinks and yellows used in coloring this edition of the poem worked to convey a sense of serenity, peace and life. For Blake, yellow often indicated the presence of the divine and it is used to highlight the wall against which the reading woman is leaning, further emphasizing the idea of the divine shepherd. The soft rose of the other woman’s dress indicates life, vitality and emotion in a way that had not been done previously. The blue of the boy’s outfit helps to indicate where Blake envisioned the most pure being to be, in the mind of the child as he alone remains carefree and unfettered by the responsibilities, rules and dictates of the adult world. In “The Garden of Love” as it appears in Songs of Experience, Blake discusses the ways in which the strict doctrine of church law had encroached its way into areas of life in which it did not necessarily belong: “A Chapel was built in the midst, / Where I used to play on the green” (3-4). The mental image presented by these words shows an unnatural building standing in the middle of a deeply wooded forest glade. Because “the gates of this Chapel were shut, / And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door” (5-6), the reader is made to understand that the chapel, and by extension the church as a governing body, had both imposed itself where it didn’t belong and had restricted access to it, binding up the God-given joys and happiness that was the rightful belonging of every individual. The sweet flowers are described as having been replaced by graves and tombstones while the “priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, / And binding with briars my joys and desires” (11-12). By using the idea of a garden, Blake invokes a latent image of the Garden of Eden, but because the priest in black gowns bind it with briars, it is the church that ensures they are unable to enter it. With this poem, Blake seems to be indicating that the church is actually standing in the way of the individual’s progress toward reunification with Christ because of their willful destruction of God’s most precious gift – love. Although the words of this poem are powerful enough on their own to indicate what Blake is trying to convey, he illustrates it with unmistakable imagery. The shaven-headed priest is seen kneeling on the stone floor reading from the Bible as two children unnaturally kneel in devout prayer beside him. They are not free to go out and play as are the children in the Songs of Innocence, nor are they clothed in the same rich tones as their predecessors. Instead, they are in barely dyed gowns of the plainest cut and sit bowed over their hands in eternal supplication. The shadows around them threaten to engulf them completely. By making very little of the altar visible, Blake seems to even question just to whom these people are praying. The filigrees formed around the letterforms of the poem are reminiscent of smoke as it bounces along the obstruction of the line and then rises sinuously toward the praying figures. A touch of red along the right side of the page further suggests heat in a very subtle way as patterns upon the altar itself seem to indicate flame. Along the bottom of the page, Blake has included a darkened area filled with large X marks, typically taken to mean danger or keep out. However, other readings of this imagery are possible. This same type of design could be used to indicate growing fields, but because of their placement on the page, the growing fields are blackened and could be fields of hell rather than heaven. Also, pirates were known to use Xs to mark the places in which they have buried their treasure. The three visible Xs in this darkened area could be standing to indicate the buried treasure of lost souls. Regardless of how the Xs are interpreted, this shaded area at the bottom of the page proves ominous to the overall meaning of the piece as a whole, easily calling into question the true motives of the restricting church doctrines of the time. “The Human Abstract” presents a similar portrait, but this time one not governed by the church at all. In this poem, Blake illustrates how the nature of man can so easily turn into something ugly and undesirable with the simple addition of a little selfish love. According to this poem, the human race would not have pity or mercy if there were no need of them. We must first make someone poor and unhappy before we can learn to have pity and mercy. However, when selfish love enters the picture, the progression is inevitable. “Then Cruelty knits a snare” (7) and “waters the ground with tears” (10) so that “Humility takes its root / Underneath his foot” (11-12). This frightening image gives birth to Mystery and Deceit “Ruddy and sweet to eat” (18). The idea that this is a tree becomes clear as Blake tells his reader “The Raven his nest has made / In its thickest shade” (19-20). The Raven, the bird most closely associated with death and war, not only identifies this object as a tree, but as a tree of death as he has made this tree his favorite home. This also indicates that the only true outcome of these actions can be war and death. Although it is obviously a tree of evil, the gods have been unsuccessful in removing it from the world altogether because the roots of this tree forever grow “within the Human Brain” (24). The illustrations used for this poem help to achieve the thought that Blake is trying to express, that without this tree of evil that lives within the human mind, this world would be a happy, lovely place indeed. The panel is given a warm, red-tinged hue throughout, with flame-like filigrees in the corners that are more decorative than dangerous. The red-tinge on the light of the page could indicate evil, but with its colorwashed effect blending it to orange and yellow, it instead has the impact of proving friendly, inviting the viewer to go inside the page, behind the words, to find the world of happiness that might lie behind this entrapment of branches and words that hold us to this plane of being. The swash of blue behind the last stanza help to illustrate the helpful nature of “the Gods of the earth and the sea” (21) as they try to destroy the tree. This extra bit of blue also helps to highlight this stanza as being the one with the most importance to the poem, finally helping us to help the gods as we work to purge it from the only source from which they cannot remove the choice of good and evil. Although all this use of color to illustrate the meaning of the poem is highly impactful at the subconscious level, affecting the viewer immediately upon seeing it without any serious mental processing, the image of the tree along the right hand side of the page, with its writhing, snakelike branches, again seems to give the impression of the evil nature of the kinds of thoughts and ideas expressed in the poem. When these things are brought out in the human world, they are evil and working toward fulfilling the goals of the dark one rather than adhering to the righteous and goodly direction one should naturally follow. The image of the man at the bottom of the page, with his head weighted down by roots climbing out of his own skull is alarming in the extreme, pushing home the point that Blake is trying to make. Not only do these roots tie the man to the ground and prevent him from taking pleasure in the Godly light behind him, but they seem to be causing him physical pain as well by the expression on his face. That he is trying to escape is apparent by the grip of his hands on the roots, but little effect is shown in his attempts, rooting him ever more firmly to the ground. Blake’s inclusion of illustrations in developing his poetry helped to convey the new direction artistic works were taking going into the Romantic period. The poems focus more on Blake’s individual way of seeing the world and on the emotions these investigations brought out. This attention to the emotions of his readers is unique to Blake at this time and helps to usher in the movement that placed a great deal of emphasis on the emotional feeling as well as a more open way of viewing the world around them. Political freedom seemed to be taking the world by storm as first the American colonies and then the French declared freedom and independence from the shackles of monarchy. Religious ideologies were changing and breaking away even further from the strict dictates of the Roman Catholic Church and even the Church of England. Artists, writers, poets and musicians were all exploring a new world in which individual expression was taking on a new significance. And William Blake was there to help show them the way, not only in the words he delivered, but in the way in which he illustrated them that could provide even the illiterate with an appreciation of the meanings he was attempting to convey. Read More