Reading Response #3: Mark Edmunson's "William Blake's America, 2010"

Mark Edmunson’s “William Blake’s America, 2010”, annotates Blake’s poem “London” and the selfhood it represents. It compares the state of London from Blake’s perspective 200 years ago, to how America is now, specifically in New York. A poet wanders throughout the city and is appalled by the misery surrounding him. The main source for this overwhelming misery, Blake blames on the peoples’ inability to see more than just from their own perspective. Blake goes on to talk about the chimney sweeps and the horrible lives they are forced to live. The children born into families too poor to feed them are made to work these horrible conditions. Children are a perfect fit for cleaning the chimneys, but it is a job far too dangerous for them to do. Edmunson then connects how children are treated to the moral state of the country. He also compares this theory to America and the state it is in. Children in America, though living in a country so rich, are going hungry. Many Americans are so concerned with how to advance themselves further in wealth and success, that they forget what is really important. “…you see the world from your own perspective. You look out for your own advantage. You pursue your own success. You hog and hoard. You’ve entered the state that Blake calls the state of Selfhood…”(Edmunson 1). In the eyes of Blake, that was what had filled the streets of London, and for Edmunson, this is what America had come to be. He also refers to the part in Blake’s poem that talks about the soldier’s who are forced to fight for a country who has forgotten all about them, offering no support. Edmunson believes that both in our world and Blake’s, compassion and courage have been lost. Although they both believe their worlds have fallen to selfhood, they still feel there is hope for change.

Edmunson says, “You think that affirming Selfhood will get you what you want in the world… But all the state of Selfhood does is cut you off from the possibility of a better life”(Edmunson 1), and I couldn’t agree more. No one can get through this life alone, so only being concerned about yourself will send you on a downward spiral. Like in Blake’s “On Another’s Sorrow”, it is not yourself you are concerned with when another is hurting. When seeing someone crying in pain, empathy is apparent. Having compassion for someone is the total opposite of being in selfhood, something that no one should fall to, yet so many are. Selfhood, although seeming to bring “happiness”, will in itself bring you to sorrow. When your own success is all you live for, what happens when you don’t succeed? You are left with nothing. America is filled with many of these people, whose number one concern is the successfulness of their business. While they are up to their necks in money, there are people right around the corner with no home and no food. These same people let children attend schools who have no money for books, leaving these children with no means for learning. While some families barely have enough to get by, the rich are still asking for more. This is what has become of America. Blake saw the same misery surrounding London, and yet 200 years later, there is almost no difference. The soldiers of America are not forgotten, unlike the ones of London, but do they really know what they are fighting for? They may not know the exact reason we are at war, but they are willingly fighting for our country. That is why I don’t feel as if the courage is lost. Our soldiers aren’t being forced to fight, like the draft many years ago, but voluntarily devoting their lives to protect the country they live in. So yes, there is still hope for change. America has regained the courage lost so long ago, but the selfhood taking over the country is the war we are still fighting everyday. Both Blake and Edmunson saw hope for the future, now it is time that those in selfhood open up their eyes “to help see what’s directly in front of them”.

The Lamb & The Tyger

Both The Lamb and The Tyger, By William Blake, he spoke of good, evil and the creator. How innocent one can be, and the other be nothing less evil goodness. Nothing spoke so loud as related to Christ himself. Blake shares similarities that Christ and the lamb share between one another. Sharing that each one shares peacefulness and innocents. Nothing alike can be the same. This Lamb is like a form of Christ, each has been sacrificed for their religious purpose. The Narrator is like a child, who is asking many questions. Asking, "Little Lamb, who made thee?" Many questions are being asked to help the reader make since of the poem. Not only are these questions are pointing to new conclusions, many readers can contribute to new answers and even new questions. These questions point to clues that contain the answers to each question and what the mean of each line is in meaning. "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" are both poems that relate to each other. In Context the Lamb is unified as Innocents and the Tyger is Evil. Theses creations were both were taken with pride. The places they live in are compared as goodness and the Forest where the Tyger itself lives is known as a dangerous place. For more understanding of The Lamb, or The Tyger, Both must be read. They each contain there own answers, but as always can answer each other with no doubt. Tyger or Lamb both refer to a godlike figure. Nothing less the Christ himself. Both the Lamb and Tyger create by him.

Sources:
Image : http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/asset_upload_file797_117934.jpg...

Poems :
http://www.blackcatpoems.com/b/the_lamb.html
http://www.blackcatpoems.com/b/the_tyger.html

On Another's Sorrow

Click here to view poem (:

Watching sad movies makes me cry. Just seeing the hurt in those people and hearing the grief in their voice makes me feel their pain too. What Blake says in this poem is very similar. Seeing people in sorrow, and watching them shed a tear is hard to do without somehow connecting with how they’re feeling. How can anyone see someone in pain and not feel anything? Blake asks how a parent could see their own child weep and not be filled with sadness. Seeing someone in sorrow, especially when that person is someone you care about, will in turn bring you sorrow.

Towards the end of the poem, Blake relates this to God. He sees so many of us suffering and in pain and it makes Him sad. When we shed a tear, He does too. It also talks about how He gives “His joy to us all in an infant so small”, to help us find relief. He will never just sit there while we dwell in our sorrow, when he can easily wipe away our tears. Until our grief is gone, He will be with us and weep. “He doth give his joy to all: He becomes an infant small, He becomes a man of woe, He doth feel the sorrow too.” Here, Blake talks about God’s solution for man’s sorrow. To bring joy to the world, he sent his son as an ‘infant small’, who became a man, a man who could ‘feel the sorrow too’.

When people are struggling with the obstacles in their life it’s easy to simply feel bad for them, but it’s another to actually try and help them. When you hear the infant cry, don’t continue to let it cry, but sit beside and hold them, giving them comfort. Sometimes it’s enough to simply to empathize with someone and what they’re struggling with. All they need is someone to be there for them, to know that someone cares.

The poem ends saying how God gives to us His joy, so that we too may be happy and be rid of our grief. Until then, He will sit by our sides and moan as we moan, feeling all of the hurt that we feel. So when in sorrow, you are never really alone.

A Little Boy Lost By William Blake

The poem “A Lost Little Boy”, by Blake, was about a little boy who knows too much for his own good. As far the boy knows is nothing as his own father is leading him to his own fate? Why was it the boy not given a chance? Just a priest choice to end fate. The boy was accused of an act of cursing or reviling God which is known as a blasphemy by the priest because of what the priest had heard. The father himself had the boy follow him till his death await. The boy was still wondering where they both were heading and kept asking, "Father where they are going". When dead had came, his Father sat and weep as his son was placed in a chair to be burned to death. This was the ruling it’s self of the King and the Church back then and how it is today. Blasphemy was not allowed back then and was ruled illegal in cases. To the priest, the boy was found guilty of blasphemy and was thought of what he had heard was theory of blasphemy. The boy was never given the chance of the reason before his death, which was very uncertain and ruling. To William Blake's vision of this poem was found of a cruel and an unusual death upon a child. William Blake himself saw this as the body as Jesus Christ. This was found with no freedom the boy, and was only accused and was never found this to be true. Was the boy found as a religious symbol in Blake's Vision? Yes, to all religious symbols, the child was found as a religious symbol, because it relates to the death of Christ. He was to burn with all who have died in this holy place. Are such thing done on Albion's shore?

Sources:
Poem:
http://www.blackcatpoems.com/b/a_little_boy_lost.html
Image:
http://www.rositour.it/Arte/Blake William/Illustrazioni/SIE/SIE 13_The little boy lost.jpg

The Tyger By William Blake

Blake’s poem “The Tyger”, a Tiger is symbolized as terrible beauty. Why would the creator create such a peaceful living thing as a lamb, but create a creature of such terrible beauty as a Tiger? To have beauty its self, the tiger has terrible beauty. This show that beauty cannot come without a price, it shares that the nothing comes with a purpose the tiger was brought to this earth for a purpose. The tiger was brought to bring life to the earth, and the only way for its life to be speared or even to stay was for its life skills of attacking, killing, and it’s natural instincts  The Tiger symbolizes that in ones beauty, could hide fearfulness. Could the creator share pride for the creation he had made? Yes, because the creator had given pride for the creation of the lamb, and has given pride to all his creation that he has created. To point to show how ones killing features could bring such beauty to themselves. Was the creature meant for evil or brought to this world to survive? The Tiger itself wasn't meant to bring evil, it was creating to live among every living creature, not only live, but it’s just a different way of life between the two animals. They were meant to bring life to the world. It was meant for each reader to build their own meaning to how the tiger was brought to life and how there was bloodshed to the world? This also shares that each reader can have their own perspective to the tiger, and to why the creator would create something of so much beauty that also comes with evil. When the tears fell down on heaven, it was the time the stars sang for joy that the creation was created. Nothing other than the creator’s creations could show the pride as one has taken to build them. Heaven it's self was based on creation, that all creations were loved by its own creator. There are so many answers, but could the same creator of the lamb have created the Tiger?

Sources:

The Poem: 
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/William_Blake/1840

Picture:  
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4614217238_3cce891cdc.jpg

Love's Secret by William Blake

In Blake’s “Love’s Secret”, a man confesses his love for a woman. Although all he did was tell her how he truly felt, she left him. Sometimes love is better left unsaid. For whatever reason, love and the very thought of it can intimidate people. They may love a person deep down in their hearts, but hearing it out loud can be scary.

What Blake says is to let love be, and to never tell of your love, because it could potentially ruin it all and before you know it you‘ll be left all alone. In some circumstances, I do agree, but not in all cases. When two people love each other, at the right time, telling each other how they feel is expected. One person may care more for their “lover” than their lover for them, and that can be dangerous. They aren’t exactly on the same “level” which can result in one person being ready to take the next step while the other is still much farther behind. Sometimes people take things too fast and they end up chasing the other person away, sometimes into the arms of another.

Telling someone of your love for them is always risky. You never know how they will react, or how they feel about you. Even if they feel the same, there is no telling what the outcome may be. It may take time for some to realize what they have right there in front of them. Even if you pour your heart out to them and they know how you feel, they still might not know what to do with that. Commitment is hard for some people, and this may have been the case for the woman whom Blake loved. He was ready to confess of his love for her so that they may be together, but she wasn’t. For Blake, it wasn’t worth telling because he lost her for good. She ran away and never looked back, and before he knew it she was gone. To him, losing her wasn’t worth the risk and he wished he had never “told her all his heart“.

Prose Poem: Rain

Raindrops run down the window like the tears from my eyes. As I stare at the gray skies, I’m reminded of my state in life, cold and without sunshine. It’s dark and gloomy, and makes my loneliness grow worse. I feel trapped in my thoughts. All I can focus on are the raindrops, watching them roll off of the window and disappear. Just as life has it’s storms, there is always the rainbow that follows surely after.

As the marvelous colors fill the sky, and the rain starts to clear, I can’t help but feel a sense of hope. How can something so beautiful come from something so depressing, such as a storm? No matter how bad the storm may be, the rainbow still appears. Although the rainbow may appear shortly after the storm, what if one day it failed to show up? What then? Does that mean we are left in a constant state of storm? Or can we find peace despite the storm surrounding us, attempting to take us over?

Rain; it may not be so bad after all. The very thing that reminds us so much of pain, is a thing that brings about life. With the rain, flowers bloom, and as it hits the rooftop makes a soothing tune. The sound of the raindrops as they meet the pavement, bring a sort of calming effect. Thunder and lightning may hit, but we can’t let it scar us. Life will have it’s storms, but we must make the best of them. They may be hard to get through, but they help us grow, like the green grass after the rain and the rainbow that heals the pain. As I sit at my window sill, I stare at the storm, and for the first time in my life, I’m glad it came.

Dreams

Sometimes people are burdened by their parents to become something that they don’t want to be. They are forced to meet a standard that they aren’t sure they can reach. When people pursue a dream that is not of their own, they sometimes feel as if they have bitten more off than they can chew. Just like going into a career only because it "runs in the family", soaring on wings that aren't your own will seem almost impossible. Following your own dreams are not this way at all. Behind your own dreams there is heart, passion, desire and a wanting to become something or do something great. Personally, when I am being told to do something by someone else, my drive to accomplish that task isn’t as great as when doing something because I want to.

All dreams, big or small, can be attained if you reach for them. All you need to do is try. Not pursuing your dreams is almost as bad as not dreaming at all. When I decided not to continue playing basketball I didn’t think much of it, but when I realized how much I missed it I kept telling myself that I would try out and play again. Every year when the season rolled around, I always found a reason not to play, which I really regret now. Not knowing how things would’ve turned out had the dream been chased after, has to be the worst feeling in the world.

When you "soar on your own wings", the possibilities are endless. This can be related to a persons' work ethic as well. In everything a person does, there is always room for improvement. There are no limits when it comes to effort, so striving to do better should be a priority. Not trying at all won't get you anywhere in life. Don’t just sit on the couch letting life pass you by, you have to make life happen. Those who go after what they want are the ones who "soar". Whether it be reaching for your dreams or striving to improve, when pursuing them on your own ambitions, they will never be out of arms reach.