We see a major turn in the course pack this week, transitioning from romanticism, nature, and individualism in to ecology and industrialism. Right off the bat, William Blake's London reaches in to the grime of society. From the speaker's perspective, the town is cursed with sorrow, weakness, and woe, lining up with themes we've been discussing in class. When we are closed off from nature, submerged in societal industry, we are sorrowful sulking saps. The poetic form that Blake interestingly employs is called a "Walk Poem." The speaker, who may or may not be Blake himself, is on a simple walk throughout the town, interpreting and expressing his surroundings in a poem. I find it interesting that his voice back-talks society, surfacing the blemishes of pain and plague that is associated with city life. His specific use of the word "charter'd" is a direct reference to the way in which society attempts to upstage nature.
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.
When I see that word, especially in this context, I interpret it as a mapping; claiming territory, seizing ownership, conquering nature. The extreme meaning behind this word lies with its repetition. The mapping of city streets has now turned to mapping groves of nature, over-turning nature. Repetition continues to trickle throughout the rest of the poem, deploying great force. The repetition of the word mark afflicts the common people, separated from the higher classes. The elitists of London are above the dreariness of the city streets and slums, they aren't even present in this poem. On his walk, the speaker is meeting faces of commoners, marked as commoners with weakness and woe. The only reference to the elite class in this poem is the blood running down the palace walls, an extreme image that illustrates the suffering of the lower classes while the higher class is protected.
As to the biographical background of William Blake, there are many similarities to the life of Edgar Allan Poe. Blake had a madman reputation, lived in poverty most of his life, and his works didn't gain esteem until after his death. Poe was victim to all these things as well. The most shocking fact that I uncovered is that Blake was buried in an unmarked grave in London, peculiarly relating to the debate over Poe's mysterious burial. It may have been the trend at the time to bury bodies without a means of classification, but honoring the dead by visiting graves has been a regular practice pre-dating common era. A bit of irony arises in Blake's case because he was an apprentice engraver at the age of 14, yet his grave remain unmarked.
That's really interesting that you bring up Edgar Allen Poe's mysterious death because I was waiting for one of the presentations on him to discuss it. I know the movie had no truth to it really, but after I watched The Raven, I became really curious about his death. The movie at the end mentioned that his was shrouded in mystery and when I researched it I only found theories. So to hear that Blake was similarly buried in an unmarked grave is pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteSo do you think that even though Blake is talking about London and the grime that he is still commenting on nature? As a kind of critique on industrialism? Even in the short story Bartleby, which seems to have no relation to nature, still has strong romantic qualities. The way in which the city is described and looked down upon, even creating a sickness and depression of industrial areas. How do you think these authors praise the romantic values in poems and stories involving industrial themes.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good reading of those specific words, Josh.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete