You ever have a person who uses a particular vocabulary or even their own created language that rubs on you? William Blake is that type of guy. With his works, the more I read, the more I begin to speak like him and suddenly my life becomes a poetic, illustrative dialect. Unfortunately, nobody seems to like the way I speak after reading Blake so it doesn't go very far. But one thing I picked up on is his love for language and bringing nature into his works. For the last two days I've been referring to every child as a lamb, which even in modern day society may make sense, its still very unusual. He seems to incorporate the lamb and the child in his works quite frequently, most notably in "the lamb" "spring" and "tyger" I felt (excuse the lack of capitalization). But the language is capturing, and his word choice rings with me, for example:
When he says, "He is meek, he is mild" (The Lamb). I love the word meek here because although meek and mild (alliteration) are pretty similar to the palate, he sifts these words out that somehow still contrast each other. It's kind of like when you find two things that are similar, but after a complex and critical review you seem to find a distinction. Meek is definitely a word I'm adding to my temporary (hopefully longterm) vocabulary.
The connotation I get with a lamb is somehow innocence, which I think plays well with his whole Songs of Innocent/Songs of Experience classification. There's depth in his works and I see how he relates to the idea of a child in his poems. The one thing I would rather see him do however is have a much more lost train of thought so to speak. I want to see him explain things to the child (Uhh I mean Lamb) in an unfiltered stream of consciousness. Too late to request things from Blake now, I suppose :/
My favorite poem by Blake was the 1st "The Chimney Sweeper." There is just something about that poem that fascinates me. Maybe it's because I've had to read it in almost every English class I've ever had, or maybe it's because the kid finds God in his dream, I don't know. But I like it.
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ReplyDeleteI just had to laugh out loud about you calling every baby a lamb for a week. I like the alliteration in his poems because somehow the rhyming of it, to me makes it more childlike. It seems appropriate for the innocence.
ReplyDeleteI also love the language Blake uses in his poems and the incorporation of nature. I think what makes the language so capturing is it's simplicity, which like Akerria mentioned makes his poems more childlike. "The Lamb" especially, with its symbolism of innocence, is most appropriate for young children.
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