UCLR Midterm

I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, [5] In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, [10] And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear [15] And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse -title -poet -summary -analysis

-London from the songs of experience -william blake -The speaker wanders through the streets of London and comments on his observations. He sees despair in the faces of the people he meets and hears fear and repression in their voices. The woeful cry of the chimney-sweeper stands as a chastisement to the Church, and the blood of a soldier stains the outer walls of the monarch's residence. The nighttime holds nothing more promising: the cursing of prostitutes corrupts the newborn infant and sullies the "Marriage hearse." -The opening image of wandering, the focus on sound, and the images of stains in this poem's first lines recall the Introduction to Songs of Innocence, but with a twist; we are now quite far from the piping, pastoral bard of the earlier poem: we are in the city. The poem's title denotes a specific geographic space, not the archetypal locales in which many of the other Songs are set. Everything in this urban space—even the natural River Thames—submits to being "charter'd," a term which combines mapping and legalism. Blake's repetition of this word (which he then tops with two repetitions of "mark" in the next two lines) reinforces the sense of stricture the speaker feels upon entering the city. It is as if language itself, the poet's medium, experiences a hemming-in, a restriction of resources. Blake's repetition, thudding and oppressive, reflects the suffocating atmosphere of the city. But words also undergo transformation within this repetition: thus "mark," between the third and fourth lines, changes from a verb to a pair of nouns—from an act of observation which leaves some room for imaginative elaboration, to an indelible imprint, branding the people's bodies regardless of the speaker's actions. Ironically, the speaker's "meeting" with these marks represents the experience closest to a human encounter that the poem will offer the speaker. All the speaker's subjects—men, infants, chimney-sweeper, soldier, harlot—are known only through the traces they leave behind: the ubiquitous cries, the blood on the palace walls. Signs of human suffering abound, but a complete human form—the human form that Blake has used repeatedly in the Songs to personify and render natural phenomena—is lacking. In the third stanza the cry of the chimney-sweep and the sigh of the soldier metamorphose (almost mystically) into soot on church walls and blood on palace walls—but we never see the chimney-sweep or the soldier themselves. Likewise, institutions of power—the clergy, the government—are rendered by synecdoche, by mention of the places in which they reside. Indeed, it is crucial to Blake's commentary that neither the city's victims nor their oppressors ever appear in body: Blake does not simply blame a set of institutions or a system of enslavement for the city's woes; rather, the victims help to make their own "mind-forg'd manacles," more powerful than material chains could ever be. The poem climaxes at the moment when the cycle of misery recommences, in the form of a new human being starting life: a baby is born into poverty, to a cursing, prostitute mother. Sexual and marital union—the place of possible regeneration and rebirth—are tainted by the blight of venereal disease. Thus Blake's final image is the "Marriage hearse," a vehicle in which love and desire combine with death and destruction.

ONE Day the Amarous Lisander, By an impatient Passion sway'd, Surpris'd fair Cloris, that lov'd Maid, Who cou'd defend her self no longer ; All things did with his Love conspire, The gilded Planet of the Day, In his gay Chariot, drawn by Fire, Was now descending to the Sea, And left no Light to guide the World, But what from Cloris brighter Eyes was hurl'd. [10] 2 In alone Thicket, made for Love, Silent as yielding Maids Consent, She with a charming Languishment Permits his force, yet gently strove ? Her Hands his Bosom softly meet, But not to put him back design'd, Rather to draw him on inclin'd, Whilst he lay trembling at her feet; Resistance 'tis to late to shew, She wants the pow'r to say — Ah!what do you do? [20] 3 Her bright Eyes sweat, and yet Severe, Where Love and Shame confus'dly strive, Fresh Vigor to Lisander give : And whispring softly in his Ear, She Cry'd — Cease — cease — your vain desire, Or I'll call out — What wou'd you do ? My dearer Honour, ev'n to you, I cannot — must not give — retire, Or take that Life whose chiefest part I gave you with the Conquest of my Heart. [30] 4 But he as much unus'd to fear, As he was capable of Love, The blessed Minutes to improve, Kisses her Lips, her Neck, her Hair ! Each touch her new Desires alarms ! His burning trembling Hand he prest Upon her melting Snowy Breast, While she lay panting in his Arms ! All her unguarded Beauties lie The Spoils and Trophies of the Enemy. [40] 5 And now, without Respect or Fear, He seeks the Objects of his Vows ; His Love no Modesty allows : By swift degrees advancing where His daring Hand that Alter seiz'd, Where Gods of Love do Sacrifice ; That awful Throne, that Paradise, Where Rage is tam'd, and Anger pleas'd ; That Living Fountain, from whose Trills The melted Soul in liquid Drops distils. [50] 6 Her balmy Lips encountring his, Their Bodies as their Souls are joyn'd, Where both in Transports were confin'd, Extend themselves upon the Moss. Cloris half dead and breathless lay, Her Eyes appear'd like humid Light, Such as divides the Day and Night; Or falling Stars, whose Fires decay ; And now no signs of Life she shows, But what in short-breath-sighs returns and goes. [60] 7 He saw how at her length she lay, He saw her rising Bosom bare, Her loose thin Robes, through which appear A Shape design'd for Love and Play; Abandon'd by her Pride and Shame, She do's her softest Sweets dispence, Offring her Virgin-Innocence A Victim to Loves Sacred Flame ; Whilst th' or'e ravish'd Shepherd lies, Unable to perform the Sacrifice. [70] 8 Ready to taste a Thousand Joys, Thee too transported hapless Swain, Found the vast Pleasure turn'd to Pain : Pleasure, which too much Love destroys ! The willing Garments by he laid, And Heav'n all open to his view ; Mad to possess, himself he threw On the defenceless lovely Maid. But oh ! what envious Gods conspire To snatch his Pow'r, yet leave him the Desire ! [80] 9 Natures support, without whose Aid She can no humane Being give, It self now wants the Art to live, Faintness it slacken'd Nerves invade : In vain th' enraged Youth assaid To call his fleeting Vigour back, No Motion 'twill from Motion take, Excess of Love his Love betray'd ; In vain he Toils, in vain Commands, Th' Insensible fell weeping in his Hands. [90] 10 In this so Am'rous cruel strife, Where Love and Fate were too severe, The poor Lisander in Despair, Renounc'd his Reason with his Life. Now all the Brisk and Active Fire That should the Nobler Part inflame, Unactive Frigid, Dull became, And left no Spark for new Desire ; Not all her Naked Charms cou'd move, Or calm that Rage that had debauch'd his Love. [100] 11 Cloris returning from the Trance Which Love and soft Desire had bred, Her tim'rous Hand she gently laid, Or guided by Design or Chance, Upon that Fabulous Priapus, That Potent God (as Poets feign.) But never did young Shepherdess (Gath'ring of Fern upon the Plain) More nimbly draw her Fingers back, Finding beneath the Verdant Leaves a Snake. [110] 12 Then Cloris her fair Hand withdrew, Finding that God of her Desires Disarm'd of all his pow'rful Fires, And cold as Flow'rs bath'd in the Morning-dew. Who can the Nymphs Confusion guess ? The Blood forsook the kinder place, And strew'd with Blushes all her Face, Which both Disdain and Shame express ; And from Lisanders Arms she fled, Leaving him fainting on the gloomy Bed. [120] 13 Like Lightning through the Grove she hies, Or Daphne from the Delphick God ; No Print upon the Grassie Road She leaves, t' instruct pursuing Eyes. The Wind that wanton'd in her Hair, And with her ruffled Garments plaid, Discover'd in the flying Maid All that the Gods e're made of Fair. So Venus, when her Love was Slain, With fear and haste flew o're the fatal Plain. [130] 14 The Nymphs resentments, none but I Can well imagin, and Condole ; But none can guess Lisander's Soul, But those who sway'd his Destiny : His silent Griefs, swell up to Storms, And not one God, his Fury spares, He Curst his Birth, his Fate, his Stars, But more the Shepherdesses Charms ; Whose soft bewitching influence, Had Damn'd him to the Hell of Impotence. [140] -Title -Poet

-The Disappointment -Aphra Behn -interested in famale anatomy -woman consents to sex -she is willing and man is so undone that she is willing -now women can agree to sex when all men do is harass women

I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall

Kent says this even the highest ranked people have no idea whats going on in the kingdom no one can read the mad king he does things based on a whim things are bad already

"Lady, I am not well, else I should answer From a full-flowing stomach. (to EDMUND) General, Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony. Dispose of them, of me. The walls is thine. 80Witness the world that I create thee here My lord and master."

Regan talking to Edmund at the end of the play before she dies patrimony=things owned my father. shes claiming shes the patriarch and can give away things like a man would. but also promotes edmund to husband position so he completely dominates her. Ironic because the most outrageous thing she can do is make a mad her lord. shes trying to go over the patriarchy by she imposes the patriarchy onto herself

"what need one?"

Regan to king Lear when talking about the amount of knights he needs she is saying he doesnt need servants or knights he says that people need things to be a person. To be a person is to need more than the things we need to live. to just have needs=beast if humanity is defined by excess, how much can be stripped until theyre not a person

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Rochester was never published because his work was so scandalous only some of his works survived because most was burned

"I do remember now"

This is when Gloucester thought he fell off the cliff edgar told him he survived because of a miracle edgar says that him pretending to be tom was actually a devil telling him to jump gloucester says he remembers edgars sotry happening showing how easily it is to get people to believe critique on how spiritual belief is and we only believe it because it comforts us

How soon hath Time the subtle thief of youth, Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! My hasting days fly on with full career, But my late spring no bud or blossom show'th. Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, [ 5 ] That I to manhood am arriv'd so near, And inward ripeness doth much less appear, That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, It shall be still in strictest measure even [ 10 ] To that same lot, however mean, or high, Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heav'n; All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great task Masters eye. -Title -Poet -"My hasting days fly on with full career," -"my late spring" -"Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, [ 5 ] That I to manhood am arriv'd so near, And inward ripeness doth much less appear," -"Yet be it less or more" -"All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great task Masters eye." -"Master"

-"How Soon Hath Time" -John Milton -time has flown past and he doesnt have a career he is happy with -Im 23, im almost dead, and ive done nothing (funny because he has done so much) -I may appear like a man who knows what he's doing but inside im just a scared little boy -big deal or not -God is infinite and has no use for the temporary. god does not see time. my anxieties about my career do not matter to god -God wants you always to be working, intense god who wants you to labor

Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; Thou know'st that this cannot be said [5] A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead, Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pampered swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do. Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, [10] Where we almost, nay more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our mariage bed, and marriage temple is; Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met, And cloistered in these living walls of jet. [15] Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that, self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three. Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? [20] Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it sucked from thee? Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou Find'st not thy self, nor me the weaker now; 'Tis true; then learn how false, fears be: [25] Just so much honor, when thou yield'st to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee. -title -poet -what can it be compared to -second line -what does he make the flea into -"It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be" -"Thou know'st that this cannot be said [5] A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead, Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pampered swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do." -"Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare," -"Where we almost, nay more than married are." -"And cloistered in these living walls of jet." -"Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? [20] Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it sucked from thee" -"Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou Find'st not thy self, nor me the weaker now; 'Tis true; then learn how false, fears be: [25] Just so much honor, when thou yield'st to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee."

-"The Flea" -John Donne -it's like an attempt to pick a woman up at the bar -the second line is the thesis. -the flea is nothing but he makes it into something sexy -mixed bodily fluids with blood -no one says that the flea combining their blood is a sin, so why would them having sex be a sin? -she has no interest/is indifferent. She just wants to kill the flea. -the trinity. He tells her not to kill the flea because the flea is like god. -we're better than married -he wants to worship her. nothing unholy like sex -she kills the, as he insists, innocent flea -He tricked her all along. He walked her through how significant the flea is. Flea is actually, like virginity, insignificant. She killed the flea which didnt even matter in the first place, just like losing her virginity wouldnt matter.

Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the devil's foot, Teach me to hear mermaids singing, [5] Or to keep off envy's stinging, And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind. If thou be'st born to strange sights, [10] Things invisible to see, Ride ten thousand days and nights, Till age snow white hairs on thee, Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me, All strange wonders that befell thee, [15] And swear, No where Lives a woman true, and fair. If thou find'st one, let me know, Such a pilgrimage were sweet; [20] Yet do not, I would not go, Though at next door we might meet; Though she were true, when you met her, And last, till you write your letter, Yet she [25] Will be False, ere I come, to two, or three. -title -poet -what its about -metaphysical -starts with what -A plot and B plot -"False, ere I come, to two, or three." -problem with men

-"The Song" -John Donne -The poem "Goe, and catche a falling starre" is a song, peculiar to Donne, and different from typical Elizabethan lyrical poems. It is connected with women, but is not a poem on womanly love or love for women. In fact, the song is distinctly different from Donne's usual Love poetry. The song is actually on feminine inconstancy. Its theme is the lack of fidelity of women. The poet's point of contention is that no woman, who is both true and fair, can be traced anywhere. This is well struck in the last two lines of the second stanza: "No where Lives a woman, true and faire." However, this is not all. The poet even claims that constancy in women is not only rare, but also short-lasting. Even if a woman be found fair and true, she will change and prove false in no time - "Yet shee Will bee False, ere I come, to two or three." -This is, however, no characteristic attitude from Donne. His tone here is playful, rather witty, although it may smack of some sarcasm. In fact, the song represents the metaphysical way to mingle the serious with the light. The subject matter is, no doubt, grave - the inconstancy of women. No fair women can be fair in attachment and devotion. This forms, too, the very serious charge from Hamlet in Shakespeare's great play, after the same name. "Frailty, thy name is woman." But Shakespeare's Hamlet has a serious tone, while Donne's all light and witty. His wit flashes here and there, as he goes to emphasize feminine frailty. The concepts of getting a child from the root of a mandrake, the Devil's cleft foot, the visualization of invisible materials are all witty enough. Furthermore, the poet's mention of a pilgrimage to see a fair and faithful woman has a slightly sarcastic touch. Even his conclusion that she will be false, ere the poet come, to two or three, has a satiric stroke. But in all these cases, the poet bears out a lively mood fun and mockery to make his song diverting, rather than coldly didactic -starts with things that can't happen and then relates that to the final impossibility being women who are true -A plot=pretty women are sexually unreliable -B plot= it's men's fault that they're this way -before I come, she will have already had sex with other men. "come" does mean in the sexual way. He was planning on going to have sex with her. -men are the one's who make fair women false. Men make their own harassment of the women into the problem of the woman. Men play a part in women's untrustworthiness.

When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide, Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present [ 5 ] My true account, least he returning chide, Doth God exact day labor, light denied, I fondly ask; But patience to prevent That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts, who best [ 10 ] Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best, his State Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o're Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait. -Title -poet -meaning

-"When I Consider How my light is spent" -John Milton -He feels as if God gave him a mission but then took away his ability to do it -Christians blamed his blindness on the fact that God was punishing his because he was a protestant -Light not a metaphor for eyesight but instead represents intellectual illumination -spent=empty, exhausted. Word performs what he wants to do and why he cant do it. -murmur= to complain, whine. to prevent that murmur= not allowed to speak -God does not need our work, doenst care what you do because he is a king and alien from us, God gives you work as a gift not because he needs it but because you need it. work is good for you -yoke= what you put on animals to pull a plow. God wants you to do this. standing in place and doing what he tells you to do and being restless is miltons challenge. -self harming and self sacrificing poem -god has thousands of people doing his bidding -gods test= you must wait for instructions that never come. wait= service. this meaningless service (doing nothing) is the best service you can do for God

Nought loves another as itself Nor venerates another so. Nor is it possible to Thought A greater than itself to know: And Father, how can I love you, [5] Or any of my brothers more? I love you like the little bird That picks up crumbs around the door. The Priest sat by and heard the child. In trembling zeal he siez'd his hair: [10] He led him by his little coat: And all admir'd the Priestly care. And standing on the altar high, Lo what a fiend is here! said he: One who sets reason up for judge [15] Of our most holy Mystery. The weeping child could not be heard. The weeping parents wept in vain: They strip'd him to his little shirt. And bound him in an iron chain. [20] And burn'd him in a holy place, Where many had been burn'd before: The weeping parents wept in vain. Are such things done on Albions shore. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-A Little BOY Lost from the songs of experience -william blake -Another poem featuring a child as the inquiring human spirit, "A Little Boy Lost" presents an honest search for understanding on the part of the titular boy. He recognizes that love is at first selfish, that no one seems capable of loving another more than himself, and that human "Thought" cannot know anything "greater than itself" (for example, God in His true divine nature). The boy sincerely asks, "Father, how can I love you,/Or any of my brothers more?" since he loves like a little bird "that picks up crumbs around the door." The boy's sincere inquiry and humble recognition of his own limitations are taken by a nearby priest as blasphemy. The older man grabs the boy "by his little coat" to the admiration of all onlookers. The priest then stands upon the altar and holds the boy up as a "fiend" for all to see and vilify. To the priest, the boy "sets reason up for judge/Of our most holy Mystery." In other words, the boy places human thought above the unfathomable faith of the church. In an act of almost unthinkable cruelty, the priest ignores the boy's and his parents' cries for mercy, strips the boy "to his little shirt," binds the lad in an iron chain, and burns him "in a holy place." This spectacle echoes the burning at the stake done to alleged heretics by the Inquisition and other religious authorities. The poet concludes with a question that is really a condemnation: "Are such things done on Albions shore?" -"A Little Boy Lost" is a poem of six heroic quatrains. The first stanza is a sort of prologue or meditation on the nature of love, particularly of the self and Thought. The second stanza continues this meditation, but the inclusion of "Father" addressed here indicates to the reader that this is a prayer. The speaker of this prayer is a child, himself in turn overheard by a priest. Unfortunately, the priest disapproves of the boy's prayer and from this point on the poem becomes the harrowing tale of the boys' punishment at the hands of a narrow-minded, vindictive clergyman. While the actual burning alive of a blasphemous boy may never have taken place in the England of Blake's day, the poet witnessed the abuse of Innocence by those with religious authority. In continuing the themes taken up in "The Garden of Love," "The Little Vagabond," and "The Human Abstract," Blake questions a religious system that would denounce human reason as inadequate for apprehending spiritual truth. Blake explains his philosophy that extols human rationality as a means of understanding spiritual matters, but simultaneously rejects reason as a more powerful force than imagination. The little boy exemplifies both: he is thinking through his beliefs, but dares to ask his imagined questions of this seemingly unknowable heavenly Father. That the boy addresses God with his questions, rather than the earth-bound church authority of the priest, shows that Blake seeks to relate to God outside the confines of the intellectually and emotionally repressive religious institutions of his day.

I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I waterd it in fears, [5] Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night. Till it bore an apple bright. [10] And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine. And into my garden stole, When the night had veild the pole; In the morning glad I see; [15] My foe outstretchd beneath the tree. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-A Poison Tree from the songs of experience -William Blake -This meditation on the nature of wrath offers two ways of dealing with on an offence. When the speaker is angry with his friend, he told the friend of it and his "wrath did end." However, when he was angry with his enemy, he kept the anger hidden, allowing it to grow. His wrath, which is watered "in fears" and sunned 'with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles," grows into the poison tree of the title. The tree bears "an apple bright" that the speaker's enemy desires; the greedy enemy takes the fruit, even though he knows it belongs to the speaker, and eats it. The next morning the speaker is glad to see his "foe outstretch'd beneath the tree." -"The Poison Tree" consists of four sets of rhyming couplets. Each stanza continues into the next, giving the poem a hurried, almost furtive tone that matches the secretive deeds done in darkness of the poem's content. The obvious moral of this poem is that hidden wrath becomes more dangerous behind the deceit that hides it from its object. Possibly, the "Friend" mentioned in the first stanza is a friend simply because the speaker respects him enough to voice his anger face to face, whereas the "enemy" may be a potential friend who remains an enemy because the speaker keeps his wrath secret and nurtures it. There is a touch of irony, however, in that the poem ends with the speaker's gladness over his foe's death by poison. No final line refutes the secret nurturing of wrath, and in fact, the poem may be read as a guide for taking vengeance upon one's enemies. Some critics suggest that the apple symbolizes Blake's creative work, which another of his contemporaries may have stolen and used as his own. If so, it appears the theft of Blake's intellectual property ended badly for the thief (or at least Blake hopes it will).

Earth rais'd up her head, From the darkness dread & drear. Her light fled: Stony dread! And her locks cover'd with grey despair. [5] Prison'd on watry shore Starry jealousy does keep my tent Cold and hoar Weeping o'er I hear the Father of the ancient men [10] Selfish father of men Cruel jealous selfish fear Can delight Chain'd in night The virgins of youth and morning bear. [15] Does spring hide its joy When buds and blossoms grow? Does the sower? Sow by night? Or the plowman in darkness plow? [20] Break this heavy chain, That does freeze my bones around Selfish! vain! Eternal bane! That free Love with bondage bound. [25] -title -poet -summary -analysis

-Earth's Answer from the songs of experience -William Blake -Earth replies to the bard's call from the "Introduction" by stating that Reason and the "Selfish father of men" have imprisoned her. She is chained in cold and darkness on the "watery shore," the bounds of the materialistic world, which is mentioned in the "Introduction." She seeks daylight, arguing that the creative forces of life such as spring blossoms, the sower, and the plowman, can only bring life by daylight. She asks that the bard, or the reader, "break this heavy chain" that binds even "free Love." Rather than hide the act of sexual congress natural to all creatures in the darkness of shame, it should be openly celebrated and acknowledged as a gift from her creator. -Blake subtly undermines the Bard's voice by having the Earth reply that she is helpless to "rise up" on command. She needs the redemption brought by Love, which is both sexual and spiritual, for the two are not a dichotomy in Blake's mind, to free her from her icy bonds. In fact, what is necessary is that those things normally relegated to the night, such as a lover's tryst, be brought into the daylight. Only then can Earth be restored to her primordial glory. Blake echoes the Garden of Eden account in Genesis, where the sin of knowledge of good and evil, and disobedience of God's command, led Adam and Eve to leave the noonday sun and hide themselves from their Creator's likely wrath. In responding to the Bard, Earth places the responsibility for her own restoration on the Bard, and by extension, on all men, to break the chain of Jealousy and to free Love. Only then can she be free again.

-Aphra Behn -The Disappointment vs. The Imperfect Enjoyment

-First published female writer in the English world. -The Disappointment is a response to the Imerfect Enjoyment. Imperfect enjoyment= bad but still orgasmed. the disappointment=he gets so excited, he arrives too early.

John Donne

-He was a priest but when the protestant reformation happened, he became a protestant so he could get married -He wrote very erotic and godly poetry. Those two things are often combined in his poems where he often talks about God erotically. -we don't know the order in which he composed each poem -All his poems commit to a certain value -wrote metaphysical poetry- include physical and spiritual aspects and it loves absurdities -he didn't publish his poetry but instead swapped it with other aristocratic men (writing for money came much later) -Shakespeare is more abstract meanwhile Donne's poetry like the Flea has an agenda (he wants the woman to have sex with him)

John Milton

-He's 23 and at college and he does not know what he's doing with his life. -He learned a lot of languages and read every book at the Cambridge library and could remember everything -he went abroad to florence and lived with Galileo and was horrified that Galileo was under house arrest -He gets a letter to come home due to civil wars -it was a protestant country vs. the king -milton writes defense of parliament -liberal ideas, wants death of the king -the republican democracy makes milton secretary of state -John Milton goes blind but gets his secretary to write everything for him -democracy falls apart and the King's son returns to power -They have a list of people such as milton to hunt down -milton goes into hiding and writes paradise lost. In it he includes his sympathy for rebels by making Satan justified and Eve justified.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me and bend Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new. I, like an usurpt town, to another due, [5] Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end, Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain, But am betroth'd unto your enemy: [10] Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. -Title -poet -"three-person'd God" -"Batter my heart" -what he thinks -"As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;" -"That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me and bend" -"Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new." -"I, like an usurpt town" -"But am betroth'd unto your enemy" -"Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again" -"Except you enthrall me" -"Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me."

-Holy Sonnet 10 -John Donne -father, son, holy spirit. -request that god perform violence against him -he does not believe god loves him and he thinks that he should be punished for his sins. -thesis: knocking: more gentle, illustrating Donne's agency breathe= breath of God going inside of you like God breathed life into Adam creating your spirit shine: guiding light (use light to find new things" to seek to mend= make me better, God is doing all these things to help him, but he doesn't want it -Oxymoron: in order for me to stand, knock my legs from underneath me. In order for me to be righteous you must throw me to the ground. -words are much different than before. he wants to be completely remade. Calvinism="in my is no good thing" take original sin very intensely. The world is terrible, world is designed by a god who is angry with us. Salvation helps only through god. Predestination. The more graphically violent, the more likely to be saved. -metaphor, he can't help god -I am married to satan -Divorce was illegal at the time so he wants God to commit an illegal act/sin -"Enthrall"=keep captivated. thrall= old anglo saxon word for slave, captivate me to enslave, I will never be free unless you enslave me -Sexual assault, final humiliation, body resexed by God's force, he will become a woman, worst possible thing for a man is to be made into a woman

Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so, For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, [5] Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, [10] And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well, And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. -Title -poet -meaning

-Holy Sonnet 6 -John Donne -Death is made less important and insignificant. Christians believe there is a life after death so death is actually nothing. This poem represents a basic christian belief. At the same time the poem illustrates how death is scary even for Christians. Illustrates how Christianity is not entirely compelling.

Is this a holy thing to see, In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduced to misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand? Is that trembling cry a song? [5] Can it be a song of joy? And so many children poor? It is a land of poverty! And their sun does never shine. And their fields are bleak & bare. [10] And their ways are fill'd with thorns. It is eternal winter there. For where-e'er the sun does shine, And where-e'er the rain does fall: Babe can never hunger there, [15] Nor poverty the mind appall. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-Holy Thursday from the songs of experience -william blake -In the corresponding poem from Songs of Innocence, Blake subtly critiques the treatment of poor children by English society. Here, he is more direct, questioning the holiness of a day that essentially celebrates the existence of poverty. England is a "rich and fruitful land" but her children are "reduced to misery,/Fed with cold and usurious hand." Despite the outward praise that the poor children offer at the Holy Thursday spectacle, their country is "a land of poverty!" England is doomed to be "bleak & bare" in an "eternal winter" so long as poverty exists within her borders. In contrast, Blake points to lands where "the sun does shine" because there a child "can never hunger...Nor poverty the mind appall." -"Holy Thursday" consists of four quatrains. The first is a heroic quatrain (ABAB) but the remaining three vary. The second stanza strikes discord by having no rhyme (ABCD, although there may be an intended slant rhyme for "joy" and "poverty" in their spelling). The last two follow the ABCB pattern. This irregularity contributes to the poem's tone of decay and confusion as the subject matter, the exploitation and neglect of children, becomes clear to the reader. The "Holy Thursday" of Innocence was open to two contrasting readings. This version is blunt and may only be read as a harsh critique of the religious hypocrisy inherent in the institutions of Blake's day. The "eternal winter" in which the children live suggests that poverty is a state of death in nature, and that the true order of things is not to have children languishing in squalor and hunger. The children lack the sun and life-giving rain of summer and spring, and are thus doomed to this unnatural state by the machinations of a system that remembers them only to justify its own righteousness.

Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean The children walking two & two in red & blue & green Grey headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow O what a multitude they seemd these flowers of London town [5] Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among [10] Beneath them sit the aged men wise guardians of the poor Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door -title -poet -summary

-Holy Thursday from the songs of innocence -William Blake -On Holy Thursday (Ascension Day), the clean-scrubbed charity-school children of London flow like a river toward St. Paul's Cathedral. Dressed in bright colors they march double-file, supervised by "gray headed beadles." Seated in the cathedral, the children form a vast and radiant multitude. They remind the speaker of a company of lambs sitting by the thousands and "raising their innocent hands" in prayer. Then they begin to sing, sounding like "a mighty wind" or "harmonious thunderings," while their guardians, "the aged men," stand by. The speaker, moved by the pathos of the vision of the children in church, urges the reader to remember that such urchins as these are actually angels of God. -The poem's dramatic setting refers to a traditional Charity School service at St. Paul's Cathedral on Ascension Day, celebrating the fortieth day after the resurrection of Christ. These Charity Schools were publicly funded institutions established to care for and educate the thousands of orphaned and abandoned children in London. The first stanza captures the movement of the children from the schools to the church, likening the lines of children to the Thames River, which flows through the heart of London: the children are carried along by the current of their innocent faith. In the second stanza, the metaphor for the children changes. First they become "flowers of London town." This comparison emphasizes their beauty and fragility; it undercuts the assumption that these destitute children are the city's refuse and burden, rendering them instead as London's fairest and finest. Next the children are described as resembling lambs in their innocence and meekness, as well as in the sound of their little voices. The image transforms the character of humming "multitudes," which might first have suggested a swarm or hoard of unsavory creatures, into something heavenly and sublime. The lamb metaphor links the children to Christ (whose symbol is the lamb) and reminds the reader of Jesus's special tenderness and care for children. As the children begin to sing in the third stanza, they are no longer just weak and mild; the strength of their combined voices raised toward God evokes something more powerful and puts them in direct contact with heaven. The simile for their song is first given as "a mighty wind" and then as "harmonious thunderings." The beadles, under whose authority the children live, are eclipsed in their aged pallor by the internal radiance of the children. In this heavenly moment the guardians, who are authority figures only in an earthly sense, sit "beneath" the children. The final line advises compassion for the poor. The voice of the poem is neither Blake's nor a child's, but rather that of a sentimental observer whose sympathy enhances an already emotionally affecting scene. But the poem calls upon the reader to be more critical than the speaker is: we are asked to contemplate the true meaning of Christian pity, and to contrast the institutionalized charity of the schools with the love of which God—and innocent children—are capable. Moreover, the visual picture given in the first two stanzas contains a number of unsettling aspects: the mention of the children's clean faces suggests that they have been tidied up for this public occasion; that their usual state is quite different. The public display of love and charity conceals the cruelty to which impoverished children were often subjected. Moreover, the orderliness of the children's march and the ominous "wands" (or rods) of the beadles suggest rigidity, regimentation, and violent authority rather than charity and love. Lastly, the tempestuousness of the children's song, as the poem transitions from visual to aural imagery, carries a suggestion of divine wrath and vengeance.

Piping down the valleys wild Piping songs of pleasant glee On a cloud I saw a child. And he laughing said to me. Pipe a song about a Lamb; [5] So I piped with merry chear, Piper pipe that song again— So I piped, he wept to hear. Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe Sing thy songs of happy chear, [10] So I sung the same again While he wept with joy to hear Piper sit thee down and write In a book that all may read— So he vanish'd from my sight. [15] And I pluck'd a hollow reed. And I made a rural pen, And I stain'd the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear [20] -title -poet -meaning

-Introduction from The Songs of Innocence -William Blake -The narrator is a piper who is happily piping when he sees a child on a cloud. The child tells him to pipe a song about a lamb. He does so and the child weeps on hearing it. He then asks the piper to sing. He sings the same song and the child cries with joy when he hears it. The child then tells the narrator to write a book and disappears. The piper takes a reed to make a pen. With it he writes happy songs for children to bring them joy. This poem sets the tone for the entire sequence. It establishes the poet as a visionary who is divinely inspired. It also establishes the voice of the poems as being that of a child and/or accessible to children. ntroduction introduces the Songs of Innocence within the context of the pastoral poem. This style of writing evokes an ideal, idyllic world of innocence and simplicity, a Golden Age before the Fall of humankind. The genre recognises, however, that such a state does not exist unalloyed in the present world. See Aspects of literature > Recognising poetic form > Pastoral poetry in brief. Innocence here is presented as a state of happiness and obedience. The piper is happy to do whatever he is told. He has no fear or suspicion regarding the voice he hears and no reluctance to do its bidding. He acts as one child responding to another.

Hear the voice of the Bard! Who Present, Past, & Future sees Whose ears have heard, The Holy Word, That walk'd among the ancient trees. [5] Calling the lapsed Soul And weeping in the evening dew: That might controll, The starry pole; And fallen fallen light renew! [10] O Earth O Earth return! Arise from out the dewy grass; Night is worn, And the morn Rises from the slumberous mass, [15] Turn away no more: Why wilt thou turn away The starry floor The watry shore Is giv'n thee till the break of day. [20] -title -poet -summary -analysis

-Introduction from the songs of experience -William Blake -The speaker urges his audience to listen to "the voice of the Bard!" who can see past, present, and future. In contrast to the "Introduction" for Songs of Innocence, this poem introduces a more mature and polished poetic voice in the bard. No rural shepherd converting his heart's songs to words using merely the tools at hand, this poet has heard "the Holy Word/ that walk'd among the ancient trees." This speaker's poetry is characterized by direct revelation rather than by the shepherds' inner melodies, and therefore holds the authority of both divinity and experience. However, despite the Bard's claims to see past, present, and future, he has only heard the Word of God walking and weeping in the Garden of Eden, in the past. The Bard's moment of divine revelation is singular, and does not continue throughout his present or into his future. -The "Introduction" is a four-stanza poem, with each stanza made up of an ABAAB rhyme scheme. The rhyme is slightly more complex than the "Introduction" to Songs of Innocence, indicating the increased sophistication the reader may expect from the Songs of Experience. The first two stanzas urge the reader to hear the voice of the "Bard," while the second two are directed at the Earth herself, calling her to return to her prior state of primordial bliss to better hear and heed the Bard/Prophet's words. Also unlike the shepherd of Songs of Innocence, this bard is a prophet intent on calling fallen man to reclaim the world he lost to the "starry pole" of Reason. Man needs to return to his imagination and awaken from his slumber of materialism. However, the Bard's call must often go unheeded, simply because it is impossible for his audience (in some cases Earth, in others fallen human beings) to pull themselves up out of their spiritually diseased state. While recognizing the preeminence of God and the singular potency of His will to redeem a fallen world, the Bard unfortunately slips into the error of addressing others as if they could be self-redeemed and have a choice in the matter. The Bard's voice differs from Blake's own in this way: when Blake "sings" in such poems as "Holy Thursday" and "London," he recognizes the depravity of man and nature, and the inability of both to purify themselves without divine intervention.

Methought I saw my late espoused Saint Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad Husband gave, Rescu'd from death by force though pale and faint. Mine as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint, [ 5 ] Purification in the old Law did save, And such, as yet once more I trust to have Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, Came vested all in white, pure as her mind: Her face was veil'd, yet to my fancied sight, [ 10 ] Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin'd So clear, as in no face with more delight. But O as to embrace me she enclin'd, I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night. -Title -Poet -saint -methought -Who is Joves great son?

-Methought I Saw" - John Milton -protestants dont have saints and he is a protestant. shows how he can never recover his wife. -i though i saw her but i actually didnt. she came but also actually didnt come -Hercules. Hercules says he will rescue her(Alcestis) from death by force. This isnt how resurrection works. Stupid and trivial to milton. If this womans wife is brought back to life this woman, it will be false -laws about how childbirth should be managed, women cant come back to church right after birth (milton thought this was crazy). -milton didnt believe in heaven

Can I see anothers woe, And not be in sorrow too. Can I see anothers grief, And not seek for kind relief? Can I see a falling tear, [5] And not feel my sorrows share, Can a father see his child, Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd. Can a mother sit and hear, An infant groan an infant fear— [10] No no never can it be. Never never can it be. And can he who smiles on all Hear the wren with sorrows small, Hear the small birds grief & care [15] Hear the woes that infants bear— And not sit beside the nest Pouring pity in their breast, And not sit the cradle near Weeping tear on infants tear. [20] And not sit both night & day, Wiping all our tears away. O! no never can it be. Never never can it be. He doth give his joy to all. [25] He becomes an infant small. He becomes a man of woe He doth feel the sorrow too. Think not, thou canst sigh a sigh, And thy maker is not by. [30] Think not, thou canst weep a tear, And thy maker is not near. O! he gives to us his joy, That our grief he may destroy Till our grief is fled & gone [35] He doth sit by us and moan -title -poet -summary -meaning

-On Anothers Sorrow from the Songs of innocence -William Blake -The speaker asks himself whether he can see the sorrows of another and not be moved in his own heart. The answer, as with most rhetorical questions, is "no." From the general suffering of another, the speaker moves to the grief of a father over his children's sorrows and a mother's tears over her children's pain. From this understanding of his own capacity for compassion, the speaker derives his view that God, "he who smiles on all," cannot see the suffering of others, whether man or beast, without also being moved to pity. -This nine-stanza poem consists of quatrains following the AABB rhyme scheme of two rhyming couplets. Blake structures this poem differently from any others in Songs of Innocence, placing the first four stanzas in a column parallel to the next four stanzas, with the ninth stanza centered below the rest of the poem. The content of each stanza is similarly structured, with the first four stanzas all asking the rhetorical question "Can I" (or "Can He," referring to God); the fifth through eighth stanzas answer the question with God's response to misery, both human and animal. Finally, the night stanza forms a coda to the poem, declaring the compassion of God in giving us joy to eliminate our sorrows. As the poem draws near its end, the speaker states specifically the form God's mercy will take: he gives his joy to all when he "becomes an infant child," in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and "becomes a man of woe," as Christ did in the time leading up to and including his crucifixion. The poem ends with comfort to the reader that his creator will not desert him, and will in fact "sit by us and moan" when we suffer.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark [5] That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: [10] Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. -title -poet -meaning

-Sonnet 116 -William Shakespeare -The first twelve lines build to a climax, asserting what love is by stating what it is not. The last two lines introduce us to the first person speaker, who suggests to the reader that if all the aforementioned 'proofs' concerning love are invalid, then what's the point of his writing and what man has ever fallen in love. Sonnet 116 is an attempt by Shakespeare to persuade the reader of the indestructible qualities of true love, which never changes, and is immeasurable. Shakespeare uses the imperative Let me not to begin his persuasive tactics and he continues by using negation with that little word not appearing four times. It's as if he's uncertain about this concept of love and needs to state what it is NOT to make valid his point. So love does not alter or change if circumstances around it change. If physical, mental or spiritual change does come, love remains the same, steadfast and true. If life is a journey, if we're all at sea, if our boat gets rocked in a violent storm we can't control, love is there to direct us, like a lighthouse with a fixed beam, guiding us safely home. Or metaphorically speaking love is a fixed star that can direct us should we go astray. And, unlike beauty, love is not bound to time, it isn't a victim or subject to the effects of time. Love transcends the hours, the weeks, any measurement, and will defy it right to the end, until Judgement Day.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, [5] And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; [10] Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. -title -poet -meaning

-Sonnet 18 -William Shakespeare -The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer's day: he is "more lovely and more temperate." Summer's days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by "rough winds"; in them, the sun ("the eye of heaven") often shines "too hot," or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as "every fair from fair sometime declines." The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever ("Thy eternal summer shall not fade...") and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved's beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live "as long as men can breathe or eyes can see." Sonnet 18, then, is the first "rhyme"—the speaker's first attempt to preserve the young man's beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speaker's poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved's "eternal summer" shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see," the speaker writes in the couplet, "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change, as is false women's fashion; An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, [5] Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling, Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth. And for a woman wert thou first created; Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting, [10] And by addition me of thee defeated, By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure, Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure. -title -poet -nature -meaning of the use of thou (line 2) -master-mistress "A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change, as is false women's fashion; An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling" -"A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling," -"Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth" -"And for a woman wert thou first created; Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting, [10] And by addition me of thee defeated, By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure, Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure." -thing vs nothing -"Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure."

-Sonnet 20 -William Shakespeare -Shakespeare says that the Fair Youth was created by Nature to be like a woman, with a woman's face, a woman's gentle heart, and beautiful eyes like a pretty woman's. -thou was an informal greeting with no gender and hinted at intimacy -ambivalent because you don't know if Shakespeare is referring to a woman or a man -But each of these attributes is without the downside that's found in a woman who has them: the Youth's gentle heart, for instance, isn't fickle like a woman's (a little Elizabethan misogyny for us there); similarly, the Youth's pretty eyes aren't prone to be rolled (e.g. in disapproval or nagging) as a woman's are. -This is sexist because Shakespeare is hinting that women's attributes are best handled by men. -Shakespeare argues that the Youth attracts the admiration of other men (such as Shakespeare himself) because of his feminine beauty, and astounds all women, also because of his womanly beauty. -And it was indeed as a woman ('for' means 'as' in this line) that the Youth was initially created, until Nature (which is usually personified as female) fell in love with what she had created and added something (i.e. male genitals) to turn the fair woman into a Fair Youth. In doing so, she 'defeated' Shakespeare, who can no longer properly expect to enjoy the Youth's love, now that he is a 'he' rather than a she. By 'adding one thing' (a penis) which is of no use to the male Bard, Shakespeare is thwarted in his now fruitless desire for the Youth. -thing= men's genitals and nothing=women's genitals -I own you and women merely borrow you

Love seeketh not Itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care; But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hells despair. So sang a little Clod of Clay, [5] Trodden with the cattles feet: But a Pebble of the brook, Warbled out these metres meet. Love seeketh only Self to please, To bind another to Its delight: [10] Joys in anothers loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heavens despite. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-The CLOD & the PEBBLE from the songs of experience -william blake -This poem takes up the refrain of love from the last line of "Earth's Answer" and explicates two views on the nature of love. The "Clod of Clay" sees love as selfless and giving, building "a Heaven in Hells despair." The hard "Pebble of the brook," however, sees love as seeking "only Self to please" in order to eventually build "a Hell in Heavens despite." -The love that has been bound by Reason, and which must be renewed in order to free Earth from her chains, is thus examined to ask if men love selflessly or selfishly. The difference in perspective aligns with the "experiences" of the two inanimate speakers. The clod has been "Trodden with the cattle's feet," so that it is malleable, but also easily shaped to the will of others. The pebble has been hardened by its time in the brook and therefore offers resistance to any who would seek to use it for their own ends. By contrast, the clod is somewhat mobile, whereas the pebble must remain at rest in its place on the bottom of the brook. Blake uses his ironic voice of experience to point out that love, if done according to the edicts of Reason, creates a Hell on earth, whereas selfless love—love from the heart and the ever-adapting Imagination—can make a Heaven out of the Hell surrounding mankind. Nonetheless, the poem does not allow the reader to side completely with the Clod and its view of love. Both clod and pebble experience loss; the Pebble rejoices in the loss of others, while the Clod rejoices in its own loss of ease. Even the Clod's Heaven is built on the despair of Hell, thus "taking" from another in order to increase. In the "Experienced" mind, exploitation of others is a requirement for progress of any sort. Structurally, the poem appears at first to be two balanced syllogisms of the respective viewpoints. The word "but" in line 6 is the turning point from the Clod's argument to that of the Pebble. The former argument is one of Innocence, while the second shifts to Experience. That Blake chooses to end the debate with the Pebble's argument lends to this poem an interpretation that favors the Pebble's hardened point of view regarding love. However, the balancing lines "And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair" (line 4) and "And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite" (line 12) force the reader to see the two views as balanced and to reach his own conclusions based on personal experience.

When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue, Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep. So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep, Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head [5] That curl'd like a lambs back, was shav'd, so I said. Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair. And so he was quiet, & that very night, As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight, [10] That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black, And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he open'd the coffins & set them all free. Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run [15] And wash in a river and shine in the Sun. Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind. And the Angel told Tom if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father & never want joy. [20] And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark And got with our bags & our brushes to work. Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm, So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm. -Title -poet -When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue, Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep. So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep, -Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head [5] That curl'd like a lambs back, was shav'd, so I said. Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair. -And so he was quiet, & that very night, As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight, [10] That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black, -And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he open'd the coffins & set them all free. Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run [15] And wash in a river and shine in the Sun. -Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind. And the Angel told Tom if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father & never want joy. [20] -And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark And got with our bags & our brushes to work. Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm, So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm. -christianity

-The Chimney Sweeper from the songs of innocence -William Blake -In these twenty-four lines of William Blake's poem, The Chimney Sweeper, a little boy, is telling the story of his despairing life as well as the sad tales of other chimney's sweeper boys. The little boy narrates that he was very young when his died. He was then sold by his father to a Master Sweeper when his age was so tender that he could not even pronounce the word 'sweep' and cryingly pronounced it 'weep' and wept all the time. The pun intended through the use of word 'weep' three times in the third line of this stanza holds pathetic significance. Most chimney sweepers, like him, were so young that they could not pronounce sweep and lisped 'weep'. Since that tender age the little boy is sweeping chimney and sleeping at night in the soot-smeared body, without washing off the soot (blackness). -In the second stanza, the little narrator tells us the woeful tale of Tom Dacre. This is a very famous character in Blake's many poems. Tom was called 'Dacre' because he belonged to Lady Dacre's Almshouse, which was situated between St. James Street and Buckingham Road. The inmates of the Almshouse were foundling orphans, who were allowed to be adopted by the poor only. It may be a foster father who encased the boy Tom by selling him to a Master Sweeper. Tom wept when his head was shaved, just as the back of a lamb is shaved for wool. The narrator then told Tom not to weep and keep his peace. The narrator told Tom to be calm because lice will not breed in the pate without hair and there will be no risk for hair to catch fire. -The third stanza continues the story of Tom who was calmed by the consoling words of the narrator. That same night while sleeping Tom saw a wonderful vision. He saw in his dream that many Chimney sweepers, who were named Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack, were dead and their bodies were lying in caged coffins, made of black-colored wood. Coffins of black could also be chimneys they died in. -In the fourth stanza, the vision is completed. An Angel, who was carrying a shining key, came near the coffins. The Angel opened the coffins containing the bodies and set all the bodies free from the bondage of coffins. The freed little sweepers of the chimney ran down a green ground, washed themselves in the water of a river and dried themselves in the sunlight to give out a clean shine. This was really a very delightful moment for these chimney sweepers, who got freed from the shackles of bondage labor, exploitation and child labor. -In the fifth stanza, the little boy continues narrating the dream vision of Tom. All the little boys were naked and white after washing. They were naked because their bags of clothes were left behind. They cast off the burden of life along with the bags of soot at the time of death. Now naked and white, the little chimney sweeper boys ride the clouds and play in the wind. The image of clouds floating freely is Blake's metaphor for the freedom from the material boundaries of the body and an important visual symbol. The Angel told Tom that if he would be a good boy he would have God for his father and there would never be lack of happiness for him. -In the last stanza of Blake's poem, The Chimney Sweeper, the narrator tells that Tom woke up and his dream vision broke up. Tom and other little sweeper boys rose up from their beds in the dark. They made themselves ready to work taking their bags for soot and the brushes to clean chimney. The morning was cold, but Tom, after the dream, was feeling warm and happy. In the last line of the poem, a moral has been thrown to us: If all do their duty, they need not fear any harm. The last stanza shows the reality of the sweepers' life. The antithesis between the vision of summer sunshine and this dark, cold reality is deeply ironic. Even though the victims have been mollified, the readers know that innocent trust is abused. -christianity used as a tool to keep them working

To Mercy Pity Peace and Love, All pray in their distress: And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy Pity Peace and Love, [5] Is God our father dear: And Mercy Pity Peace and Love, Is Man his child and care. For Mercy has a human heart Pity, a human face: [10] And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress. Then every man of every clime, That prays in his distress, Prays to the human form divine [15] Love Mercy Pity Peace. And all must love the human form, In heathen, turk or jew. Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell, There God is dwelling too [20] -title -poet -summary -meaning

-The Divine Image from the songs of innocence -William Blake -The personified figures of Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love are listed as the four "virtues of delight." The speaker states that all people pray to these in times of distress and thank them for blessings because they represent "God, our father dear." They are also, however, the characteristics of Man: Mercy is found in the human heart, Pity in the human face; Peace is a garment that envelops humans, and Love exists in the human "form" or body. Therefore, all prayers to Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love are directed not just to God but to "the human form divine," which all people must love and respect regardless of their religion or culture. -This is one of Blake's more rhetorical Songs. The speaker praises both God and man while asserting an identity between the two. "The Divine Image" thus differs from most of the other Songs of Innocence, which deal with the emotional power of conventional Christian faith, and the innocent belief in a supreme, benevolent, and protective God, rather than with the parallels between these transcendent realms and the realm of man. The poem uses personification to dramatize Christ's mediation between God and Man. Beginning with abstract qualities (the four virtues of Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love), the poem makes these abstractions the object of human prayer and piety. The second stanza explains this somewhat strange notion by equating the virtues with God himself. But the idea is still slightly unorthodox, suggesting as it does that we pray to these abstract virtues because they are God, rather than praying to God because he has these sympathetic qualities. The poem seems to emphasize that Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love are not God's characteristics but his substance—they are precisely what we mean when we speak of God. The speaker now claims that Mercy, Pity, Peace, Love are also equivalent to Man: it is in humans that these qualities find a kind of embodiment, and they become recognizable because their features (heart, face, body, clothes) are basically human. Thus when we think of God, we are modeling him after these ideal human qualities. And when people pray, regardless of who or where they are, or to what God they think they are praying, they actually worship "the human form divine"—what is ideal, or most godly, in human beings. Blake's "Divine Image" is therefore a reversed one: the poem constructs God in the image of man rather (whereas, in the Bible, God creates man in his image). The implication that God is a mental creation reflects Blake's belief that "all deities reside in the human breast." The poem does not explicitly mention Christ, but the four virtues that Blake assigns alternately to man and God are the ones conventionally associated with Jesus. Because Christ was both God and man, he becomes the vehicle for Blake's mediation between the two. But the fact that he is given an abstract rather than a human figuration underscores the elaborate intellectualization involved in Christian doctrine. Blake himself favors a more direct identification between what is human and what is divine. Thus the companion poem in Songs of Experience, "The Human Abstract," goes further toward exposing the elaborate institutions of religion as mental confabulations that obscure rather than honor the true identity of God and man.

The Sun does arise, And make happy the skies. The merry bells ring To welcome the Spring. The sky-lark and thrush, [5] The birds of the bush, Sing louder around, To the bells chearful sound. While our sports shall be seen On the Ecchoing Green. [10] Old John with white hair Does laugh away care, Sitting under the oak, Among the old folk, They laugh at our play, [15] And soon they all say. Such such were the joys. When we all girls & boys, In our youth-time were seen, On the Ecchoing Green. [20] Till the little ones weary No more can be merry The sun does descend, And our sports have an end: Round the laps of their mothers, [25] Many sisters and brothers, Like birds in their nest, Are ready for rest; And sport no more seen, On the darkening Green. [30] -title -poet -The Sun does arise, And make happy the skies. The merry bells ring To welcome the Spring. The sky-lark and thrush, [5] The birds of the bush, Sing louder around, To the bells chearful sound. While our sports shall be seen On the Ecchoing Green. [10] -Old John with white hair Does laugh away care, Sitting under the oak, Among the old folk, They laugh at our play, [15] And soon they all say. Such such were the joys. When we all girls & boys, In our youth-time were seen, On the Ecchoing Green. [20] -Till the little ones weary No more can be merry The sun does descend, And our sports have an end: Round the laps of their mothers, [25] Many sisters and brothers, Like birds in their nest, Are ready for rest; And sport no more seen, On the darkening Green. [30]

-The Ecchoing Green from the songs of innocence -William Blake -This first stanza wastes no time in delivering the brightness that's occurring on this "Ecchoing Green," though no specific person is initially addressed as a part of the scenery. Rather, Blake concentrates on the sounds and scenes that nature and inanimate objects bring to give a background of merriment before people are added to the equation. Specifically, "the sun" is in "happy...skies" while "merry bells ring" and "birds" offer their own "cheerful" sounds. Before we ever come across a single person in this poem, we're grounded in scenery that exemplifies happiness. With the final two lines though, we realize that the narrator is a part of some group playing "sports" among the happy sounds on "Green" land. From the animals and inanimate objects to the joy and plant life, this scenery is treated like a thing of beauty, and the concept is so childish—playing in a field—that the reader can conclude that this group is made up of children. Under the weight of this deduction, the whole stanza shifts in meaning to something much deeper than just children playing. The lively qualities and happiness expressed are representations of the vivacity of youth where life is still as early and fresh as a "sun" that's high in "happy...skies." In this state of life, people can play, run, and enjoy what's around them in a hands-on way. -In this stanza, we're introduced to the only character who's given a specific name, and "Old John" is of note because he's observing the merriment occurring in "the Ecchoing Green" even though he himself is not partaking. This can be seen as stepping into a different stage of life than the one in which the children exist as "Old John" likely can't partake in those activities due to his age. Instead of sharing in that heightened level of motion, he's "[s]itting under the oak" in the company of "the old folk" as he watches the display. The use of "the oak" in this stanza is of particular significance in two ways. One, we get a visual of a series of older people casually assembled in the shade of a towering tree. This image is both helpful in giving the reader a mental picture of the setting, and also reinforcing that elderly quality for this group. They aren't running or even walking. They're sedentary. This leads into the second significance of "the oak" since the tree is a symbol of wisdom and steadfastness due to the time required to grow a tree large enough for a series of people to linger beneath. By providing such a representation of older superiority and strength, Blake is commenting on the wisdom and steadfastness to be had in the elderly group who has endured decades of life experiences. Regardless of the elderly quality though, "Old John" still finds happiness in the children's antics, and the young narrator is aware of this detail as he comments things like how the observers "laugh at [the] play." But even in this child's description of the elders genuinely finding enjoyment, there's the first hint of melancholy showing itself in the latter lines of the stanza. This sad twist arises through the reminiscing of the elder generation about the times when they were all "girls & boys" who experienced similar joys as the children's. Though the observers remember those days and can still enjoy the children's happiness, they will never again be able to experience that same free quality and activity as the children currently are. It's worth noting as well that the phrase, "girls & boys," is evidence in favour of the idea that the people playing at "the Ecchoing Green" are children. If not, the recollection would lose sensibility in that no "girls & boys" would be present to spark the comparative comment. -What was already a melancholy detail in the second stanza grows to overtake the remainder of the poem. Now, there's no more playing as "the sun does descend," creating a scene that's much darker and less active than what was presented in the first stanza. At first glance, this scenario could be explained as the children going home for the sake of sleep and such, but a careful exploration of the wording reveals so much more. For one thing, this is the first time the children are referred to by the narrator—who claims to be a part of the group—as "the little ones." This isn't vernacular often connected to a child by another child, so it's constructed to stick out and sparks the question of why a child would suddenly be referring to the youth in such a way. The most logical of explanations would be that the child is no longer a child, but rather is growing or has grown into an adult. From that viewpoint, the meaning of this final stanza alters to surround that idea. The fact that their "sports have to end" becomes a statement of having to leave behind the merriment of childhood so much that "sport [will] no more be seen." That last quote, too, affords this theory of passing into adulthood credibility since the narrator doesn't mention a time when the play can recommence. By the word choice, it's just over as age comes and death approaches. Much like a day has a sunrise and a sunset, so does life, and this stanza clearly notes that the "descend[ing]" is taking place. The vivacity of childhood is draining, and as life passes, the "Green" is no longer "Ecchoing." It's "darkening," like the light of life slipping away. This theory does make the description of children being "[r]ound the laps of their mothers/Many sisters and brothers" an odd thing. If the narrator is now talking about aging adults, after all, the visual of them gathered around "the laps of their mothers" feels out of place. However, this statement is actually quite fitting. Let's recall that those elderly fellows were watching the children play by "the oak" in Stanza 2. Perhaps then "the oak" is being treated like the "mothers" in this scenario—or rather what "the oak" would represent. That steadfastness and wisdom that was earlier addressed could be the explanation needed here, that these former children who are now aging adults are gathered around wisdom and steadfastness garnered from life experience. In that, this concept adds beauty even to the most melancholy of stanzas in this poem. Even though they're aging and death is approaching, they've grown solid and strong. What begins then as a purely beautiful tale in the first stanza progressively delves into melancholy until the beauty, in the end, has shifted from the primary focus to the underlying theme. Still, Blake has effectively created a poem to showcase both the beauty and melancholy of aging and life.

Little Fly Thy summers play, My thoughtless hand Has brush'd away. Am not I [5] A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me? For I dance And drink & sing: [10] Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength & breath: And the want [15] Of thought is death; Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-The Fly from the songs of experience -William Blake -The speaker draws a comparison between himself and a fly that he has thoughtlessly brushed away. He asks if he is like the fly, or the fly is more like himself. He imagines another, greater hand, perhaps that of God, brushing him away some day and ending his private designs. He concludes with the belief that he is indeed like the fly, not in his insignificance to Fate or chance, but in the fly's significance in the natural world. Just as the fly dances and sings, so does the speaker. Thought is what gives him life and breath, and "the want/Of thought is death." He takes joy simply in existing, with little thought or worry over what tomorrow may hold. -This five-stanza poem takes on a playful rhyme scheme and meter, despite its serious and somewhat morbid subject. The first four stanzas are ABCB quatrains, each made up of terse lines to communicate the brevity of life, which is the subject of this poem. The final stanza, however, is an AABB rhyme scheme, a pair of rhyming couplets, which lends an even more playful quality to the poem as a whole while offering a moral or coda to the entire work. This poem also returns to Blake's theme in Songs of Experience of the place of thought in the quality and quantity of human life. The speaker harms the fly with his "thoughtless hand," indicating that thoughtlessness leads to death. Whatever power exists higher than the speaker may also be thoughtless or completely indifferent to human life, but that cannot be changed. The speaker thus resolves to live each moment fully, but his moment of contemplation leads him to this life-affirming conclusion.

Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody Poor: And Mercy no more could be, If all were as happy as we; And mutual fear brings peace; [5] Till the selfish loves increase. Then Cruelty knits a snare, And spreads his baits with care. He sits down with holy fears, And waters the ground with tears: [10] Then Humility takes its root Underneath his foot. Soon spreads the dismal shade Of Mystery over his head; And the Catterpiller and Fly, [15] Feed on the Mystery. And it bears the fruit of Deceit, Ruddy and sweet to eat; And the Raven his nest has made In its thickest shade. [20] The Gods of the earth and sea, Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree But their search was all in vain: There grows one in the Human Brain -title -poet -summary -analysis

-The Human Abstract from the songs of experience -William Blake -This poem offers a closer analysis of the four virtues—Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love—that constituted both God and Man in "The Divine Image." The speaker argues that Pity could not exist without poverty, that Mercy would not be necessary if everyone was happy, that the source of Peace is in fear, which gives rise to only "selfish loves." The poem describes how Cruelty plants and waters a tree in "the human Brain." The roots of the tree are Humility, the leaves are Mystery, and the fruit is Deceit. -This poem asserts that the traditional Christian virtues of mercy and pity presuppose a world of poverty and human suffering; so, too, do the virtues represent a kind of passive and resigned sympathy that registers no obligation to alleviate suffering or create a more just world. The speaker therefore refuses to think of them as ideals, reasoning that in an ideal world of universal happiness and genuine love there would be no need of them. The poem begins as a methodical critique of the touchstone virtues that were so praised in "The Divine Image." Proceeding through Pity, Mercy, and Peace, the poem then arrives at the phrase "selfish loves." These clearly differ from Love as an innocent abstraction, and the poem takes a turn here to explore the growth, both insidious and organic, of a system of values based on fear, hypocrisy, repression, and stagnation. The description of the tree in the second part of the poem shows how intellectualized values like Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love become the breeding-ground for Cruelty. The speaker depicts Cruelty as a conniving and knowing person; in planting a tree, he also lays a trap. His tree flourishes on fear and weeping; Humility is its root, Mystery its foliage; but this growth is not natural; it does not reflect upon the natural state of man. Rather, the tree is associated with Deceit, and its branches harbor the raven, the symbol of death. By the end of the poem we realize that the above description has been a glimpse into the human mind, the mental experience. Thus the poem comments on the way abstract reasoning undermines a more natural system of values. The result is a grotesque semblance of the organic, a tree that grows nowhere in nature but lies sequestered secretly in the human brain.

Naked she lay, clasped in my longing arms, I filled with love, and she all over charms; Both equally inspired with eager fire, Melting through kindness, flaming in desire. With arms, legs, lips close clinging to embrace, [5] She clips me to her breast, and sucks me to her face. Her nimble tongue, Love's lesser lightening, played Within my mouth, and to my thoughts conveyed Swift orders that I should prepare to throw The all-dissolving thunderbolt below. [10] My fluttering soul, sprung with the painted kiss, Hangs hovering o'er her balmy brinks of bliss. But whilst her busy hand would guide that part Which should convey my soul up to her heart, In liquid raptures I dissolve all o'er, [15] Melt into sperm, and spend at every pore. A touch from any part of her had done't: Her hand, her foot, her very look's a ****. Smiling, she chides in a kind murmuring noise, And from her body wipes the clammy joys, [20] When, with a thousand kisses wandering o'er My panting bosom, "Is there then no more?" She cries. "All this to love and rapture's due; Must we not pay a debt to pleasure too?" But I, the most forlorn, lost man alive, [25] To show my wished obedience vainly strive: I sigh, alas! and kiss, but cannot swive. Eager desires confound my first intent, Succeeding shame does more success prevent, And rage at last confirms me impotent. [30] Ev'n her fair hand, which might bid heat return To frozen age, and make cold hermits burn, Applied to my dead cinder, warms no more Than fire to ashes could past flames restore. Trembling, confused, despairing, limber, dry, [35] A wishing, weak, unmoving lump I lie. This dart of love, whose piercing point, oft tried, With virgin blood ten thousand maids have dyed; Which nature still directed with such art That it through every **** reached every heart — [40] Stiffly resolved, 'twould carelessly invade Woman or man, nor aught its fury stayed: Where'er it pierced, a **** it found or made — Now languid lies in this unhappy hour, Shrunk up and sapless like a withered flower. [45] Thou treacherous, base deserter of my flame, False to my passion, fatal to my fame, Through what mistaken magic dost thou prove So true to lewdness, so untrue to love? What oyster-cinder-beggar-common ***** [50] Didst thou e'er fail in all thy life before? When vice, disease, and scandal lead the way, With what officious haste dost thou obey! Like a rude, roaring hector in the streets Who scuffles, cuffs, and justles all he meets, [55] But if his king or country claim his aid, The rakehell villain shrinks and hides his head; Ev'n so thy brutal valour is displayed, Breaks every stew, does each small ***** invade, But when great Love the onset does command, [60] Base recreant to thy prince, thou dar'st not stand. Worst part of me, and henceforth hated most, Through all the town a common ****ing-post, On whom each ***** relieves her tingling **** As hogs do rub themselves on gates and grunt, [65] May'st thou to ravenous chancres be a prey, Or in consuming weepings waste away; May strangury and stone thy days attend; May'st thou ne'er piss, who did refuse to spend When all my joys did on false thee depend. [70] And may ten thousand abler pricks agree To do the wronged Corinna right for thee. -Title -Poet -"In liquid raptures I dissolve all o'er, / Melt into sperm, and spend at every pore."

-The Imperfect Enjoyment -John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester -which is talking simply about premature ejaculation

Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee Gave thee life & bid thee feed. By the stream & o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, [5] Softest clothing wooly bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice! Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee [10] Little Lamb I'll tell thee, Little Lamb I'll tell thee! He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek & he is mild, [15] He became a little child: I a child & thou a lamb, We are called by his name. Little Lamb God bless thee. Little Lamb God bless thee. [20] -Title -Poet -summary -meaning

-The Lamb from the songs of innocence -William Blake -The poem begins with the question, "Little Lamb, who made thee?" The speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding, its "clothing" of wool, its "tender voice." In the next stanza, the speaker attempts a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one who "calls himself a Lamb," one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb. The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessing on the lamb. -The poem is a child's song, in the form of a question and answer. The first stanza is rural and descriptive, while the second focuses on abstract spiritual matters and contains explanation and analogy. The child's question is both naive and profound. The question ("who made thee?") is a simple one, and yet the child is also tapping into the deep and timeless questions that all human beings have, about their own origins and the nature of creation. The poem's apostrophic form contributes to the effect of naiveté, since the situation of a child talking to an animal is a believable one, and not simply a literary contrivance. Yet by answering his own question, the child converts it into a rhetorical one, thus counteracting the initial spontaneous sense of the poem. The answer is presented as a puzzle or riddle, and even though it is an easy one—child's play—this also contributes to an underlying sense of ironic knowingness or artifice in the poem. The child's answer, however, reveals his confidence in his simple Christian faith and his innocent acceptance of its teachings. The lamb of course symbolizes Jesus. The traditional image of Jesus as a lamb underscores the Christian values of gentleness, meekness, and peace. The image of the child is also associated with Jesus: in the Gospel, Jesus displays a special solicitude for children, and the Bible's depiction of Jesus in his childhood shows him as guileless and vulnerable. These are also the characteristics from which the child-speaker approaches the ideas of nature and of God. This poem, like many of the Songs of Innocence, accepts what Blake saw as the more positive aspects of conventional Christian belief. But it does not provide a completely adequate doctrine, because it fails to account for the presence of suffering and evil in the world. The pendant (or companion) poem to this one, found in the Songs of Experience, is "The Tyger"; taken together, the two poems give a perspective on religion that includes the good and clear as well as the terrible and inscrutable. These poems complement each other to produce a fuller account than either offers independently. They offer a good instance of how Blake himself stands somewhere outside the perspectives of innocence and experience he projects.

My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white; White as an angel is the English child: But I am black as if bereav'd of light. My mother taught me underneath a tree [5] And sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissed me, And pointing to the east began to say. Look on the rising sun: there God does live And gives his light, and gives his heat away. [10] And flowers and trees and beasts and men recieve Comfort in morning joy in the noon day. And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love, And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face [15] Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove. For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice. Saying: come out from the grove my love & care, And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. [20] Thus did my mother say and kissed me, And thus I say to little English boy; When I from black and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy: Ill shade him from the heat till he can bear, [25] To lean in joy upon our fathers knee. And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair, And be like him and he will then love me. -Title -poet -background on Blake -"bore" in line 1 -where is the poem set -"The southern wild" -father -"And I am black, but O! my soul is white" -"White as an angel is the English child" -"My mother taught me underneath a tree [5] And sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissed me, And pointing to the east began to say." -"Look on the rising sun: there God does live And gives his light, and gives his heat away. [10] And flowers and trees and beasts and men recieve Comfort in morning joy in the noon day." -"And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love, And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face [15] Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove." -"For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice. Saying: come out from the grove my love & care, And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. [20]" -"Thus did my mother say and kissed me, And thus I say to little English boy; When I from black and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:" -"Ill shade him from the heat till he can bear, [25] To lean in joy upon our fathers knee. And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair, And be like him and he will then love me."

-The Little Black Boy from the songs of innocence -William Blake -Blake was an abolitionist who made artwork for the movement -bore means to give birth to in a sense that recognizes that giving birth is a struggle. It's a more dehumanizing word to say. -This poem was probably set in the West Indies(the now Caribbean). It was even worse to be a slave her than on America because it America the slaves were kept alive but in the British West Indies they were simply used up and their life expectancy was 18 months. -Africa. Wild meaning it was not civilized (a racist assumption). If the south is wild, the north is sophisticated. He was born somewhere he doesnt belong. -No father mentioned. The father may have raped his mother. The english boy he talks about may be his brother. -This may be attempting to say that he is not governed by the racist ideas about black people. He may also be talking about his complex racial identity. -The white english people are seen as angels, but he doesn't have the same privilege. -education and christianity were illegal to slaves. Therefore, knowledge would often circulate in underground ways. This could also be referencing to eve under the tree of knowledge. The poem wants us to think that this knowledge is coming from a place of deep affection. The mom is telling the child this story because she loves him. She's trying to help him make sense of the world. -God is a loving one and expresses his love with heat and light. The mother is trying to make the boy believe that their ecological condition isnt actually hell on earth but it's actually where God is projecting the most of his love. The whole condition of slavery is having things constantly taken away but God is constantly giving -Their struggle has purpose. This struggle(slavery) will pass like a cloud. The mother is trying to help him get through this rough time. -In this world we are learning to bear gods love and then eventually we will go to heaven. Blackness is a condition of the body. Slavery is a preparatory step to get into heaven. -The little black boy then goes and projects the same story onto the little white boy. The little black boy thinks the little white boy must escape his condition of whiteness like he has to escape his condition of blackness -The little black boy's vision of heaven is one where heaven recreates the injustices it was supposed to transcend. The poem understand why the mother told this story, but is also against her story. The poem is anti christian. This story continues white supremacy on Earth. Once you get to heaven you'll be white/ free from blackness is perpetuating racism on earth

How sweet is the Shepherds sweet lot, From the morn to the evening he strays: He shall follow his sheep all the day And his tongue shall be filled with praise. For he hears the lambs innocent call, [5] And he hears the ewes tender reply, He is watchful while they are in peace, For they know when their Shepherd is nigh -Title -poet -meaning

-The Shepherd from The Songs of Innocence -William Blake -Blake shifts from the first-person shepherd of the "Introduction" to a third-person description of the idyllic shepherd's lot in life. The image of the lamb is again used, but this time "lamb" is a common noun, and not overtly meant to be a representation of Jesus Christ, although that connection remains. Blake's own disenchantment with the city is implied here in his paean to the shepherd's rural life. In contrast to the busy life of the urban dweller, the shepherd needs only to follow his sheep, listening to their innocent cries and singing songs of praise. These songs of praise echo the song sung in the Introduction, leading the reader to see the following poems of Songs of Innocence as the shepherd's pastorally-inspired, spontaneous songs. The shepherd's blessed life is not one merely of relaxation, however. "He is watchful," Blake writes, indicating the shepherd's role s caretaker over his flock. In response, the sheep are "in peace,/For they know when their Shepherd is nigh." The capitalization of "Shepherd" throughout the poem suggests the Divine Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who watches over his church "from the morn to the evening" while constantly creating beauty, just as the poetic shepherd does in Blake's present work.

O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: Has found out thy bed [5] Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-The Sick Rose from the songs of experience -william blake -The speaker, addressing a rose, informs it that it is sick. An "invisible" worm has stolen into its bed in a "howling storm" and under the cover of night. The "dark secret love" of this worm is destroying the rose's life. -While the rose exists as a beautiful natural object that has become infected by a worm, it also exists as a literary rose, the conventional symbol of love. The image of the worm resonates with the Biblical serpent and also suggests a phallus. Worms are quintessentially earthbound, and symbolize death and decay. The "bed" into which the worm creeps denotes both the natural flowerbed and also the lovers' bed. The rose is sick, and the poem implies that love is sick as well. Yet the rose is unaware of its sickness. Of course, an actual rose could not know anything about its own condition, and so the emphasis falls on the allegorical suggestion that it is love that does not recognize its own ailing state. This results partly from the insidious secrecy with which the "worm" performs its work of corruption—not only is it invisible, it enters the bed at night. This secrecy indeed constitutes part of the infection itself. The "crimson joy" of the rose connotes both sexual pleasure and shame, thus joining the two concepts in a way that Blake thought was perverted and unhealthy. The rose's joyful attitude toward love is tainted by the aura of shame and secrecy that our culture attaches to love.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies. [5] Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare sieze the fire? And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? [10] And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, [15] Dare its deadly terrors clasp! When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? [20] Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? -title -poet -summary -tone -symmetry -In what distant deeps or skies. -creator -questions what -what the hammer -poem comes back to beginning

-The Tyger from the songs of experience -William Blake -The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being could have created it: "What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry?" Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first one. From what part of the cosmos could the tiger's fiery eyes have come, and who would have dared to handle that fire? What sort of physical presence, and what kind of dark craftsmanship, would have been required to "twist the sinews" of the tiger's heart? The speaker wonders how, once that horrible heart "began to beat," its creator would have had the courage to continue the job. Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and the furnace that the project would have required and the smith who could have wielded them. And when the job was done, the speaker wonders, how would the creator have felt? "Did he smile his work to see?" Could this possibly be the same being who made the lamb? -quite dark -switches rhyming in last line. symmetry but not symmetry. -did god make you or did satan make you -if the tyger and the lamb are both created by god, if tyger is a source of evil and violence why would god make such a thing? -questions the body of the creator. Poem is not interested in the tyger but in who created it. there is a symmetry between the creator and what it created. what we know about creator is what we learn from its creations. -what tools did the creator use to make you? the write is getting mad and agitated with these deep questions that dont help with his task. youre reading the mind of the speaker of the poem. they're becoming wound up and cant form coherent sentences -no answer to the questions. it instead switched to dare. -poems skeptical about experience claims on the world

A little black thing among the snow: Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe! Where are thy father & mother? say? They are both gone up to the church to pray. Because I was happy upon the heath, [5] And smil'd among the winter's snow: They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe. And because I am happy, & dance & sing, They think they have done me no injury: [10] And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King Who make up a heaven of our misery. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-The chimney sweeper from the songs of experience -This poem parallels its namesake in Songs of Innocence. Where that poem posits a subtle satirical message against the type of religion that brings false comfort to abused children, this version strikes directly at the problem. Like Tom Dacre of the earlier poem, the chimney sweeper is crying. When asked where his parents are, he replies, "They are both gone up to church to pray." The boy goes on to explain that his appearance of happiness has led his parents into believing that they have done no harm in finding him work as a chimney sweep, but the boy knows better. He says they taught him to "wear the clothes of death" and "to sing the notes of woe." In fact, they taught him to do this "Because [he] was happy upon the heath,/And smil'd among the winter's snow." The boy's happiness was in fact an affront to his parents, and his ability to enjoy life despite the deathly cold and deprivation of winter, which may represent poverty, as it does in "Holy Thursday," is the very quality that condemns him to a life of further labor and danger. The boy finishes with the damning statement that his parents "are gone up to praise God & his Priest & King/Who make up a heaven of our misery." -When compared structurally to the companion piece from Songs of Innocence, it is obvious that this poem is half as long as its counterpart is. In addition, many lines are much shorter by one or two syllables. The voice of the young chimney sweeper is similar to that of Innocence, but he clearly has little time for the questions put to him (hence the shorter lines). This poem starts with the AABB rhyme scheme characteristic of innocence and childhood, but as it delves deeper into the experience of the Chimney Sweeper, it switches to CDCD EFEF for the last two stanzas. The final stanza, in fact, has only a near rhyme between "injury" (line 10) and "misery" (line 12), suggesting an increasing breakdown in the chimney sweeper's world, or the social order in general. The entire system, God included, colludes to build its own vision of paradise upon the labors of children who are unlikely to live to see adulthood. Blake castigates the government (the "King") and religious leaders (God's "Priest") in similar fashion to his two "Holy Thursday" poems, decrying the use of otherwise innocent children to prop up the moral consciences of adults both rich and poor. The use of the phrase "make up a Heaven" carries the double meaning of creating a Heaven and lying about the existence of Heaven, casting even more disparagement in the direction of the Priest and King.

A simple child, dear brother Jim, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death? I met a little cottage girl: She was eight years old, she said; Her hair was thick with many a curl That clustered round her head. She had a rustic, woodland air, And she was wildly clad: [10] Her eyes were fair, and very fair; —Her beauty made me glad. "Sisters and brothers, little Maid, How many may you be?" "How many? Seven in all," she said, And wondering looked at me. "And where are they? I pray you tell." She answered, "Seven are we; And two of us at Conway dwell, And two are gone to sea. [20] "Two of us in the church-yard lie, My sister and my brother; And, in the church-yard cottage, I Dwell near them with my mother." "You say that two at Conway dwell, And two are gone to sea, Yet ye are seven! I pray you tell, Sweet Maid, how this may be." Then did the little Maid reply, "Seven boys and girls are we; [30] Two of us in the church-yard lie, Beneath the church-yard tree." "You run about, my little Maid, Your limbs they are alive; If two are in the church-yard laid, Then ye are only five." "Their graves are green, they may be seen," The little Maid replied, "Twelve steps or more from my mother's door, And they are side by side. [40] "My stockings there I often knit, My kerchief there I hem; And there upon the ground I sit, And sing a song to them. "And often after sun-set, Sir, When it is light and fair, I take my little porringer, And eat my supper there. "The first that died was sister Jane; In bed she moaning lay, [50] Till God released her of her pain; And then she went away. "So in the church-yard she was laid; And, when the grass was dry, Together round her grave we played, My brother John and I. "And when the ground was white with snow, And I could run and slide, My brother John was forced to go, And he lies by her side." [60] "How many are you, then," said I, "If they two are in heaven?" Quick was the little Maid's reply, "O Master! we are seven." "But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven!" 'Twas throwing words away; for still The little Maid would have her will, And said, "Nay, we are seven!" -title -poet -core of poem -sad -strange -the lyrical ballads -"simple" in the first line -brother jim -"That lightly draws its breath" -"What should it know of death?" -why it in the line above? -"I met a little cottage girl:" -"And two of us at Conway dwell," -"And two are gone to sea." -"Two of us in the church-yard lie, Beneath the church-yard tree."" -father -"Two of us in the church-yard lie, My sister and my brother; And, in the church-yard cottage, I Dwell near them with my mother." "You run about, my little Maid, Your limbs they are alive; If two are in the church-yard laid, Then ye are only five." -house -"Their graves are green, they may be seen," -"Twelve steps or more from my mother's door, And they are side by side. [40] -living haunitng -lines 50-60 -shes denying what (last stanza) -christianity

-We are Seven -William Wordsworth -The core of the poem is about the fundamental roe of religion which is what happens after death -It is sad because, like the songs of innocence, it has tragedy that the characters are unaware of -it is strange because it is about a 30 year old man arguing with a very young girl. why does he care? why does he insist that they are dead? -these were after the songs of innocence and experience. Wordsworth was known for poetic experiments. the lyrical ballads were an experiment. they were an attempt to write in accessible english so even those without the highest of educations could understand it. He was a fan of the french revolution so he democratized his poetry. all about a 30 year old man who foes walking and talks to alienated, less fortunate people. they tell him a story he is incapable of managing and it frustrates him. People used to call the lyrical ballads dangerous because it went against societal norms/constructs. -stupid, uncomplicated, innocent. is this the simplicity of stupidity or wisdom? -aimed at community of men who critique meaning of poem -her breath is shallow so she could have tuberculosis or she could be completely healthy so she doesnt struggle to breathe. Shes enegetic and alive so shes alien from death. -she has no experience with death. she should know about death. shes surrounded by death. its the burden of adults to explain death to her. she deserves to be aware of death. -she is a sociological case study, thus why she is referred to as "it" instead as a person -little motifies both girl and cottage. she is young and vulnerable and economically poor -basically the characters from SOI and SOE. chimney sweepers and housemaids -needed children to tie sails on boats. changing sails in terrible weather very high up. children in perilous work. this girl knows nothing but alienation from her family. -closer to corpses than other siblings who are working. -women cant own property so she must have no father. part of the reason family is shatteres is because father is absent. -lie and I, maid and laid= her future, she too will die -they would reserve houses in graveyards for poorest. publicly assisted housing -grave green=life, form of vitality. they are just as alive as her absent siblings. -shes telling the man that she knows how to count, she just doesnt agree with his argument. -the living are haunting the dead in this poem -she shows vulnerability and then right after he shows harshness -the little girl is denying their resurrection. seven and heaven rhyme. -she lives in a churchyard so she is uncovered by christianity. christianity wanted to establish that belief is natural. all you need to do is look at the world. this is questioning whether christian is unnatural. shes a walking and talking refutation of christianity. this is the mans ideological panic about the collapse of christianity. Any religion that shocks the conscience of a child cannot be true

About the Songs of Experience: -experience -tone -context -our ideas based on what

-awareness, cynical. has it's own errors too. Experience isn't always right despite being dark. -bleak and dark -The French Revolution took a bad turn -sensory claims

Information about Shakespeare's sonnets

-formal and rule bound -same number of lines for all sonnets (14) -They're all based on a single idea and then the second line is the thesis -the first 12 lines are the same structure and idea and then the last 2 are a twist -Petrarchan conceit=which was especially popular with Renaissance writers of sonnets, is a hyperbolic comparison most often made by a suffering lover of his beautiful mistress to some physical object—e.g., a tomb, the ocean, the sun. Shakespeare makes fun of this with his sonnets. Shakespeare is done writing about women in the way men always did.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, [5] But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; [10] I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. -title -author -meaning

-sonnet 130 -William Shakespeare -Sonnet 130 is an unusual poem because it turns the idea of female beauty on its head and offers the reader an alternative view of what it's like to love a woman, warts and all, despite her shortcomings. It parodies other sonnets of the Elizabethan era which were heavily into Petrarchan ideals, where the woman is continually praised and seen as beyond reproach. In this sense sonnet 130 is an anomaly, a unique poem that flouts the rules of convention and breaks new ground in the process. Sonnet 130 carries within it similar themes to those traditional sonnets - Female Beauty, The Anatomy and Love - but it approaches them in a thoroughly realistic way; there is no flowery, idealistic language. The mistress's imperfections are praised and by so doing it could be argued that the speaker is being more honest. True love isn't reliant on some illusive notion of perfect beauty. The speaker accepts that his lover isn't a paragon of beauty but a real woman with wiry black hair, off-white breasts and a stinking breath. There is no poetic falsity on display. n being brutally open, candid and unconventional, the speaker has ironically given his mistress a heightened beauty, simply because he doesn't dote on her outward appearance.

William Blake: -what did he love -education -career -how his career relates to the songs of innocence and experience -when did he write the songs of innocence -poems about what -what are the songs of innocence organized around -meaning of innocence

-the bible and paradise lost -he was one of the first poets without a real education. He taught himself, he was born poor, and he never went to school. -He was an engraver which means he could take someone else's illustration and etch it into copper. Meanwhile, painters were men of status while Blake was a working class artist. He said his work was just as valuable/important. He would often create books that no one ever bought. -His works were an argument saying that what he did was actually important. He knew what it was like to be less fortunate so that's what he wrote about. -he wrote it during the French Revolution. This was a moment of profound possibility for human flourishing. Blake was skeptical about this idea. He didn't think the French Revolution would lead to opportunity for the less fortunate. -His poems are about basic language and are interested in the idea that innocence is developed rather than just a blank state. -the murder of christianity -Innocence now means lack of knowledge, purity, goodness, optimism (overall positive). The original roots don't mean anything it does now. the Latin word means someone incapable of doing harm, not moral condition but physical and economic power in the world. Someone who can't fight back. Innocence means someone ripe for exploitation, someone who has no power in the world. Innocent is something you are made into. Innocence makes you useful to someone else.

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, [5] And Thou shalt not. writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: [10] And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires. -title -poet -summary -analysis

-the garden of love from the songs of experience -William Blake -The speaker visits a garden that he had frequented in his youth, only to find it overrun with briars, symbols of death in the form of tombstones, and close-minded clergy. -"The Garden of Love" is a deceptively simple three-stanza poem made up of quatrains. The first two quatrains follow Blake's typical ABCB rhyme scheme, with the final stanza breaking the rhyme to ABCD. The lack of rhyme in the last stanza, which also contains the longest lines, serves to emphasize the death and decay that have overtaken a place that once used to hold such life and beauty for the speaker. Following the specific examples of flowers representing types of love, this poem paints a broader picture of flowers in a garden as the joys and desires of youth. When the speaker returns to the Garden of Love, he finds a chapel built there with the words, "Thou shalt not," written overhead. The implication is that organized religion is intentionally forbidding people from enjoying their natural desires and pleasures. The speaker also finds the garden given over to the graves of his pleasures while a black-clad priest binds his "joys and desires" in thorns. This not-so-subtle critique shows Blake's frustration at a religious system that would deny men the pleasures of nature and their own instinctive desires. He sees religion as an arm of modern society in general, with its demand that human beings reject their created selves to conform to a more mechanistic and materialistic world.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: -by who -its full of what -he wants this to be a what -what to teach reader -Rintrah -perilous path -a memorable fancy: -angels -books -metaphysics -what is god -plate 11 -"and at length they pronounced that the gods..."

-william blake -You're trying to figure out what it all means but its actually just a bunch of satirical jokes -a counter bible. wants to be from the antagonists position. Bible is supposed to be the word of god revealed. God gave us the bible himself. in the 17th century people started questioning who wrote the bible. bibles are written by people. There is a book that is known as the autobiography of moses. But this included moses's funeral so how could he have written it himself? what happens when you ask historical questions about the bible. God is called two different words in genesis 1 and 2. Two diffeent textx maybe written several years apart and then someone came and put them together. this challenges that it is the word for god. Just might make revealed truths into stories/myths. Blake says that the bible was not writeen by moses, but just two stories. Miltons paradise lost or this book could be just as real as the actual bible. This excites blake because what if christianity isnt finished? what if everyday people could be prophets? -shows the experienced reader how to be an inexperienced reader. very confusing to understand. wants educated people to feel naive. -a completely new word he made up -he said perilous path was already there but then he said it was just planted. Story not bound by narrative syntax. Its the same story told in contradictory ways which is a jab at genesis. Hes making strange the bible. -angels think they have perfect theological rules, systematic reasoning doesnt work here. struggles between competing forces. -books created by people with agendas. trying to show you how it itself is voiced. blake is trying to show you inconsistencies. sentences are written in different colors almost like it is written by different people. -things that are fundamentally true. the stories we tell about metaphysics are different. we should all agree on metaphysics. -all our claims about god are just us projecting our own own lives onto him. god is the ultimate expression of human psychological history. -first stories about gods are just stories created by poets. humans made systems of religion/theology. only priests have enough knowledge to know theology which is stupid and a way to control people -last thing people do is disappear the fingerprints after they made the religion. they say they didnt write it but it was given to them by god.

"And worse I may be yet. The worst is not as long as we can say 'this is the worst'

Edgar after he found our Gloucester was blind he already thought he was at his worst, but it might even get worse than this language itself implies a host of possessions. if you are coherent enough to say this is the worst you can still experience worse trauma

"Regan, I think you are. I know what reason I have to think so. If thou shouldst not be glad I would divorce me from they mother's shrine, sepulchring an adultress....."

Lear says this to Regan after she says that she is happy to see him. Lear says that if she were not happy to see him he would walk to the grave of his dead wife and denounce it and call her a *****. Lears first instinct is to break family bonds even though he always insists how important they are to him

"No more perchance does mine, or his, or hers."

Cornwall says this to Kent after Kent says that he attacked Oswald simply because he doesn't like Oswald's face Cornwall is saying with this line that Kent is a danger to everyone kent says that he will fight everyone and cornwall says that its time to put him in the stocks. All the other characters know about Kent at this point is that hes a crazy man in their courtyard.

"though we may not pass upon his life without the form of justice, yet our power shall do a curtsy to our wrath, which men may blame but no control"

Cornwall when he is about to pluck out Gloucester's eyes We cannot sentence him to death without pretending to hold a trial power is not as atrong as my wrath, my anger will take over People may whine about what ive done but there is nothing they can do about it since im the one with power and privledge and i can do whatever i want with little consequences

"Yet better thus, and known to be contemned, Than still contemned and flattered. To be worst, The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear. 5The lamentable change is from the best; The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then, Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace! The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst Owes nothing to thy blasts." "O gods! Who is't can say "I am at the worst"? I am worse than e'ver i was"

Edgar talking to himself It's a thesis by Edgar be being an object of contempt, he realized how awful people are. its better to know what people are saying about you (cause hes tom) than people saying things behind your back. Better to be outright hated than flattered to my face and talked about behind my back.At the bottom, any change is for the better. Hes sunken down as far as he can go so he has nothing to fear now. liberated without your possessions because you have nothing to lose. Despite this, the play says that his thesis is wrong. Edgar after seeing what happened to Gloucester I thought i was at my worst before, but before looks like heaven to me now.

"This is the excellent foppery of the world: that when we are sick in fortune-often the surfeit of our own behavior-we make guilty of our own disasters the sun, the moon, the stars, as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion........"(pg 121)

Edmund this is after talking to Gloucester and how he blamed whats happening on the ecliplse. Edmund says that people blame everything on a higher power when it is actually our own fault

"these late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide; in cities mutines, in countries discords, palaces treason, the bond cracked between son and father. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing. Do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished, his offence honesty! Strange, strange! "(pg 120)

Gloucester after Kent is banished for giving advice to Lear and Edmund lies in giving him a fake letter which says that Edgar wants to kill their father. Gloucester blames everything on the eclipse. this was set before Christianity in England. Shakespeare is critiquing pagans.

"As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods; they kill us for their sport"

Gloucester after eyes being gouged wanton boys=naughty boys were like insects to the gods gods dont pay attention to our sufferings we're so unrecognizable to the gods that our suffering is insignificant

"our flesh and blood have grown so vile, my lord, that it doth hate what gets it" "poor Tom's a-cold"

Gloucester then Edgar Gloucester is saying that the world is so bad that even our own children want to kill us Edgar is thinking that he wants to say he loves his father but then doesnt so he says something random

"Say, if I do? The laws are mine, not thine. Who can arraign me for 't?" "Most monstrous, oh!"

Goneril says this to Albany. shes claiming patriarchal authority. Albany to Goneril. most montorous that a woman would claim to govern the law over men. the two girls badness is based off the fact that they're taking over the mens roles all men in this play believe men should rule women

"The text is foolish"

Goneril to Albany during fight your morality based on your bible and morality is stupid

"milk-livered man" "cheek for blows" "wheres thy drum"

Goneril to Albany during their fight instead of being redblooded and hot he is weak Albany has a punchable face according to Goneril also mocking sacred tenants of christianity Goneril says albany isnt doing anything for the war. he is supposed to literally be beating a drum in the military. but instead hes here crying. hes too busy weighing the ethical questions and relying on god to save them

"nothing can come from nothing"

Lear towards the beginning of the play This is after Cordelia says that she has nothing to say when he asks how much she loves him he is saying that he wont give her anything if she gives him no praise Lear does not want love, he wants the performance of love This represents the grand arc of the play. the plays goal is to strip down every attribute of what makes humans human. maybe there is nothing there. if there is no god or no meaning, what is the point? Cordelia does not love him anymore than a daughter should love a father

"anger hath a privilege"

Kent says this after Cornwall breaks up the one-sided brawl between Kent and Oswald Only people in power with privilege are allowed to be angry Kent was banished because he took Cordelias side Kent is mad at oswals because he thinks he is not loyal to Goneril and he is extremely violent towards anyone who does not support the king Lear's side of the conflict are very violent. Kent's excuse is that he doesnt like oswalds face. Old men dont think they need to justify their actions

"Let us deal justly" and "purr the cat is grey"

King Lear he is going insane. He is having a pretend trial for his daughters. Surest sign that you're crazy is to believe in god or the devil.

I am a man more sinned against than sinning

King Lear Self-pity, doesn't acknowledge his blame in anything yet, thinks it is purely the actions of those around him. However, he has been taken advantage of by those he trusted. He says this when he wanders out into the storm and is talking to Kent when Kent is disguised Regan and Goneril said he can only have 25 knights so he said hes staying outside

"howl"

King Lear at the end of the play holding Cordelias body the word was the first time it ever appeared in english language the loss cannot be registered new word for the most catastrophic of losses

"Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.— Off, off, you lendings! Come. Unbutton here. "

King Lear to Edgar and the fool during the storm he has nothing forked=having 2 legs, most basic part of being a human is to be able to walk on two legs off you lendings= stripping clothes. wants to go back to basic form of a person.

"I will have such revenges on you both...."

King Lear to Regan and Goneril after they said he cant have knights he will have revenge but no idea how he falls apart

"O, how this mother swells up towars my heart! Histerica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow; Thy elements below.-where is this daughter?"

Lear says this hysteria was a disorder of the womb when the womb would detatch and move around. This was when the womb was not being filled by a baby. the womb would push around other organs and release the four humors so women needed to be impregnated. he is upset that no one respects him he is saying that he is starting to go crazy no one is treating him with the respect he deserves, his daughters are turning him into a woman. he is no longer treated like a man, he is going insane like a woman. play strips everything. can gender and sex be stri[pped from a person?