English Lit 2

Intro to Blake, pp.76-79;
“Songs of Innocence and Experience” by Blake, pp.81-97
Intro to Wordsworth, pp.243-45;
Preface to Lyrical Ballads with Introduction, pp.262-74;
“Intimations of Immortality” p.308;
“The World is Too Much With Us” p.319.
Part I: William Blake (1757 – 1827)

Aside from writing, how did Blake earn a living? (p.76)
Who were the 18th Century writers outside of the tradition of Pope to whom Blake turned as a young poet for inspiration? (p.76-77)
What does the remark, “I must Create a System or be enslaved by another man’s” tell you about what to expect from Blake’s poetry? (p.77)
What has happened to Blake’s reputation as a poet and artist since the mid 1920’s? (p.77)
“Songs of Innocence and Experience”
Blake subtitles this book “Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.” This is useful to keep in mind, because like many of his other works, “Songs of Innocence and Experience” is a dichotomy— a two-sided coin. “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” which Blake published with his original engravings (illuminated printing) was in two sections—literally Songs (poems) of Innocence, and then Songs (Poems) of Experience. Often, there are “paired” poems that directly contrast one another, sometimes even with the same title. Consider, “The Lamb” versus “The Tyger,” or “The Chimney Sweeper,” which is titled the same in both books.

The tone of some of the poems is similar to that of a biblical story that a child might hear, but make no mistake, even though it sounds very melodic when read aloud, Blake is addressing serious issues. Songs of Innocence aren’t meant simply to lull us to sleep—they are meant through contrast to exaggerate the ugliness, the pain, that is in Songs of Experience. If Blake is doing anything, he is doing an early version of what will happen much later in British literature: he is diagnosing gross social injustices of the government, society, and even the church.
Finally, to briefly explain before we get there, “The Chimney Sweeper” poems are referring to the fact that often, very young children were “hired” in England at the time to work as chimney sweepers—literally, they would have to crawl down into the chimneys to clean them out. They were preferable to adults because they were so small and able to fit into tighter spaces. The bad side of this, other than the fact that it was child labor, was that the inhaled soot from the chimneys would blacken the children’s’ lungs, leading quite often to death.

What characteristics of the lamb are commented on in the poem, “The Lamb”? (p.83-84)
What characteristics of the tiger, opposing the lamb, are commented on in “The Tyger”? (p.92-93)
In Christianity, the lamb is often a metaphor for God, and “The Lamb” describes the character of a God who could create such a creature as being gentle and loving. But, what do the lines, “What the hammer? What the chain? / In what furnace was thy brain? / What the anvil? What dread grasp / Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” suggest in “The Tyger” about the nature of a God who creates a predator as pure as the tiger? (p.93)
What is the difference between the fourth line of “The Tyger” and the last line? What does this shift in word choice suggest or create? (p.92-93)
In “Songs of Innocence,” we surprisingly have a poem about “The Chimney Sweeper.” What has happened to the parents of the Sweeper in “Songs of Innocence”? (p.85)
What happens in Tom’s dream in this poem toward the end to justify its placement—why is it not in the unhappy grouping of “Songs of Experience”? (p.85)
The Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Experience (S.E.) does have parents. Where are they? (p.90)
The answer to number 7 at first sounds like it would make the situation better for the Sweeper in S.E., but what about his parents’ behavior is, perhaps, even worse than that of the other Sweeper? (p.90)
Lines 9 and 10 of the sweeper poem in S.E. are very revealing: “And because I am happy & dance & sing, / They think they have done me no injury.” What is the subtext, here? In other words, what does this reveal about what is really going on, and the boy’s level of understanding? (p.90)
Finally in this poem, though the parents have left the child out in the cold to do his miserable work, there are 2 other entities that are responsible for that, at least by neglecting him even though they know he exists—who are they, in line 11? (p.90)
The last of these poems we will look at is “London.” Read through the 4 stanzas of the poem. In the 2nd group of lines (stanza), he says that he hears the “mind-forged manacles” in several sounds. In this case, something is mind-forged, or made by our own minds. So, using your dictionary, what are manacles? So, what are mind-forged manacles, essentially? (p.94)
Where are the places that the narrator hears these mind-forged manacles? (p.94)
In line 9, the narrator mentions the sweeper’s cry—who does it appall? (p.94)
In lines 11 and 12, on who or what is the blood of soldiers? (It’s important to note for our purposes that the answer to this and the previous question are essentially two groups who the narrator feels need to be responsible for trying to help the sweeper and the soldier—and are doing nothing about their suffering or deaths.) (p.94)
The last stanza mentions another London problem that is coming about. Women are having problems finding work—and if they are poor, they must work. So prostitution comes about in a much bigger way. Who, aside from the harlots themselves, suffers from this problem in the last 2 lines of the poem? (p.94)
Part II: William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Why did Wordsworth initially support the French Revolution? (p.243)
In 1795, who does Wordsworth move in with? (p.243)
Around the same time, what poet does he meet—one who will influence his work later? (p.243)
What volume did these two poets publish together in 1798, a book that your text calls one of the most important books of the era? (p.244)
What poem opened that book? (p.244)
Later in his life, when he is 73 years old, what title is he given in 1843? (p.244-45)
The book describes that Wordsworth is above all a poet of remembrance of things past, or, how does Wordsworth himself describe it (“emotion…” that is what)? (p.245)
Preface to Lyrical Ballads 1802
The Preface or opening to Lyrical Ballads was more than just an opening. In fact, it was for Wordsworth a kind of manifesto. Manifesto, for us in this case, is a statement of beliefs regarding how poetry ought to be written and even how it ought to be read in some cases. And this particular manifesto was revolutionary, in that Wordsworth was really taking poetry into the 18th Century for the first time, out of the mouth of the past. It was controversial and many people disagreed (in fact the first publication of Lyrical Ballads was anonymous), but more importantly, it was a poetic landmark co-written between himself and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (though Coleridge was not responsible for the Preface, just some of the poems in the book, and sometimes thought Wordsworth’s beliefs were a bit far-fetched).

In the Intro to the Preface, our editor says that Wordsworth attacks the idea of his fellow poets in the 18th Century that there is a hierarchy of poetic genres. What does that word mean? (p. 262)
What is the traditional hierarchy, beginning with the epic poem? (p.262)
He also rejects the tradition of decorum. What did this refer to? (p.262)
Rather than use an elevated diction, what must all good poetry be? (p.262)
At the end of your editor’s commentary, he explains what Wordsworth feels that the very purpose of literature and poetry is. What is it? (top of p.263)
Now in Wordsworth’s actual Preface, he finds subjects for poetry in “incidents and situations” from what? (p.264)
In the rest of that paragraph, he explains why he chooses “low and rustic life” to examine. What are his reasons? (p.264)
He explains later that he rejects “personifications of abstract ideas” in his poems—what does he say that abstract ideas in poetry are (an “ordinary device” meant to do what)? (p.267)
In the first several lines of “What is a Poet” in the Preface, what does Wordsworth say a poet simply is? (p.269)
What makes a poet a little different from other men, then? (p.269)
“Intimations of Immortality” p.308
This “ode” begins by reflecting that “There was a time” when everything to the narrator appeared “Apparell’d in celestial light,”—in other words, a time when the world was so beautiful that it was like heaven on earth. But the narrator says, “Things which I have seen I now can see no more” (line 9). The poem begins with a very mournful, sad mood.

What sight, or the sight of whom, makes the narrator happy again in line 36?
In other words, although the author is old and cannot see the earth the way he once did as a child, why does he not despair? (He explains that it would be an “evil day” if he were mournful and sad while children were leaping into their mothers’ arms. Why?)
The narrator says in the next stanza that our birth is “but a sleep and a forgetting”—in other words, that life is just a stage—that the soul existed before, and will exist again after death. In fact, the earth itself is nothing compared to where the soul comes from. In line 68, he describes the earth as shades of a… what?
Why would you guess, since this is a poem in which the narrator seems to be coming to terms with the knowledge of his own physical death, do you think Wordsworth might call the ode an intimation on “Immortality,” rather than “Mortality”?
“The World is Too Much With Us” p.319
This poem is similar in tone to “Intimations of Immortality” in that it is missing one key element: the narrator wishes for a stronger connection to nature—a connection he feels he might have once had in another time. Often times, things to do not change, and Wordsworth’s narrator seems to be harboring a resentment against the materialism of his time. He even wistfully wishes to see the old gods in the time before Christianity rise again, not because he truly wishes to be pagan, but because it was a time when he thinks people were more connected to nature.

What do you think Wordsworth means by the line, “Little we see in Nature that is ours”? (line 3)
The narrator often personifies nature—the sea, for instance, “bares her bosom to the moon,” and the winds are “howling at all hours”. Why do you think the narrator describes these inanimate things in living terms?
Finally, how do you see Wordsworth’s poetic ideals, as he laid them out, happening in these works? How do you see the Romantic sense of imagination being used to understand the world around the narrator?
Read the following from The Norton Anthology of English Literature,Volume D:
Blake biography pp.76-79
Songs of Innocence and Experience pp.81-97
Wordsworth biography pp.243-5
Preface to Lyrical Ballads with Introduction pp.262-74
Intimations of Immortality pp.308-12
The World is Too Much With Us p.319
Assignment Two:

Thoroughly answer each question.
Use text to support your answer when necessary.

Read the following from The Norton Anthology of English Literature,Volume D:
Blake biography pp.76-79
Songs of Innocence and Experience pp.81-97
Wordsworth biography pp.243-5
Preface to Lyrical Ballads with Introduction pp.262-74
Intimations of Immortality pp.308-12
The World is Too Much With Us p.319