Innocence and Experience
At the moment, I am studying Blake in English Lit. It's not quite as bad as I thought (and had been told) it would be, at least not the Songs of Experience. The Innocence poems ("Little Lamb who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee...?") make me feel sick.
"Talk about sex. EVERYTHING can be linked to sex." She said, and talked and talked about phallic imagery and sexual obsession and corruption and prostitution. Which is what gets me. How does she KNOW that this is what Blake meant when he wrote "Oh Rose, thou art sick!"? He might mean something totally different. He might not have meant anything. He might have missed out the word 'peace' in the last stanza of The Divine Image just to fit in with the rhythm of it. But no, apparently that's too simple.
I think everyone who writes a poem from now on must attach a full analysis on form/structure/word choice, so that there are no discrepancies when people come to study them in later years. Or would that ruin the fun?
Grrrrr.
Dost thou know who made thee...?") make me feel sick.
"Talk about sex. EVERYTHING can be linked to sex." She said, and talked and talked about phallic imagery and sexual obsession and corruption and prostitution. Which is what gets me. How does she KNOW that this is what Blake meant when he wrote "Oh Rose, thou art sick!"? He might mean something totally different. He might not have meant anything. He might have missed out the word 'peace' in the last stanza of The Divine Image just to fit in with the rhythm of it. But no, apparently that's too simple.
I think everyone who writes a poem from now on must attach a full analysis on form/structure/word choice, so that there are no discrepancies when people come to study them in later years. Or would that ruin the fun?
Grrrrr.
kiwiqueen - 5. Mar, 12:25
