Page 284 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 26: William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience

10. Blake was a rousing success not only as a poet but also as a painter, with his one-man show Notes
drawing enormous crowds. Is this statement true or false?
(a) True (b) False
11. Which work contains a title page depicting a naked man throwing himself upon a scantily
clad woman, while another woman looks on?
(a) The Four Zoas (b) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
(c) The Book of Thel (d) Visions of the Daughters of Albion
12. When he died, Blake had been working on illustrations for the writing of which author?
(a) Byron (b) Boccacio
(c) Shelley (d) Dante
13. Whose sigh “runs in blood down Palace walls”?
(a) The Happless Soldier’s (b) The Little Vagabond’s
(c) The Little Black Boy’s (d) The Chimney Sweep’s
14. Which of the following books, according to Blake, contained all he knew?
(a) The Bible (b) The Talmud
(c) The Inferno (d) The Canterbury Tales
15. Who was “binding with briars” the poet’s “joys and desires” in “The Garden of Love”?
(a) His Wife (b) Priests
(c) The Constable (d) Christ

26.4 Summary

• Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an illustrated collection of poems by William Blake.
• The lamb of course symbolizes Jesus. The traditional image of Jesus as a lamb underscores the
Christian values of gentleness, meekness, and peace.
• At first glance, Blake’s, “The Little Black Boy,” ends on a note of subjugation.
• In the poems of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, Blake contrasts how the human
spirit blossoms.
• The meter is regular and rhythmic, its hammering beat suggestive of the smithy that is the
poem’s central image.
• The rose’s joyful attitude toward love is tainted by the aura of shame and secrecy that our
culture attaches to love.

26.5 Keywords

Sermon : A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy.
Irony : Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp
incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of
words or actions.
Restoration : Restoration literature is the English literature written during the historical period
commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660–1689), which corresponds
to the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Mock-heroic : Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroic-comic works are typically satires or parodies that
mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature.

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