As a poem, William Blake’s “The Tyger” functions much the same way that the rest of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience does; teetering on the precipice of duality in not only… Continue reading
I think we can all agree that relationships are hard. We would also probably agree that, within relationships, some habits are healthier than others. Lastly, I am willing to venture we can all… Continue reading
“The Lady of Shalott” and “The Defense of Guenevere” are Victorian era poems of the Arthurian tradition that focus on female characters that are negatively affected because their desires cannot be met without… Continue reading
As so often seen in the Victorian Age, the idea of the world being a “man’s world” does not come as a surprise when thinking of Victorian literature. However, Christina Rossetti puts forth… Continue reading
In William Blake’s poetry collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience, he examines the ways in which people relate and interpret the world around them. He stresses two perspectives: innocence and experience. These perspectives are… Continue reading
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience explores the relationship between experience and a lack thereof. This notion does not operate linearly– it’s fluid and malleable. For example, regardless of age, one could be innocent… Continue reading
A series of diverse, politically-charged poems, William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience,” evoke numerous thoughts and convictions in his audience, primarily exploring how a state of mind can influence perception… Continue reading
I created this meme because one of the main themes throughout Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti was dissatisfaction. Once a girl has tasted the fruit offered by the Goblins, they can no longer hear… Continue reading
Christina Rossetti’s Victorian-era poem, “Goblin Market”, is mired in allegorical representations of biblical proportions. Specifically, allusions to Eve’s temptation in the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis as well as Christ’s… Continue reading
Robert Browning, recognized for his dramatic monologues poems. Porphyria’s Lover is one of his well-known poems of this style. It is a dark monologue of an unknown speaker who murder’s his lover so… Continue reading
Tintern Abbey from a distance With the beginning of a new style of individual experiences and emotions we, as readers, see the shift of focus while studying the works from the years that came before us. Moving… Continue reading
Upon reading William Blake’s “The Sick Rose,” taken from his Songs of Innocence and of Experience, a seemingly unlikely but very applicable comparison quickly came to mind. Be it the current publicized hype… Continue reading
The Lady’s Dressing Room Jonathan Swift’s 1730 scatological poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room” details the many horrors and humors a man discovers when he decides to sneak into his lover’s room. Composed during… Continue reading
Playboy’s 1973 illustrations of The Goblin Market leaves little imagination room as to what is going on in Christina Rossetti’s poem. The poem is very complex in the ideas it presents. Rossetti’s work… Continue reading
William Blake and Lars Von Trier are two artists who’ve made some strong efforts to reshape theological structures to more accurately explain human tendencies than the original stories did. In Songs of Innocence… Continue reading
William Wordsworth’s Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798, usually abbreviated “Tintern Abbey,” was written close to the end… Continue reading
Many film goers can think of their favorite quotes from a movie. Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is rife with them. “That’s not a safe altitude (Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson, 2012)..” “I’m going to find a tree to… Continue reading
A close reading of Jonathan Swift’s famously obscene poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room” offers several targets for the author’s satire. The focus on Celia’s vanity and deceit, compared with the forgivability of Strephon’s crimes… Continue reading
When looking over Swift’s, The Lady’s Dressing Room, it is easy to be swept away by the contents, most pertaining to the grotesque. The shock is that the grotesque belongs to Celia, the “victim” of the… Continue reading
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy is a poem wrapped around the concept of a luring death, a coming death. This is, along with much of Keats poetry,… Continue reading
Arguably, fates worse than slavery are hard to find. Hannah More and Eaglesfield Smith’s 1797 The Sorrows of Yamba or The Negro Woman’s Lamentation expounds upon the degradation of captivity and transatlantic voyage… Continue reading
The French Revolution as it can be Read in Visions of the Daughters of Albion William Blake’s Visions of the Daughters of Albion is saturated with symbolism and ideological proclamations, one of them… Continue reading
Gulliver’s visit to the Academy of Lagado involves seeing various “scientific” experiments. One of these illustrates a complicated machine with wires and levers attached to wood-blocks that stamp-out words, creating random sentence fragments.… Continue reading
William Blake throughout his life was a man of religious beliefs. However being reverent of the Bible he was hostile to the Church of England and to all forms of organized religion.… Continue reading
Keats famously called Wordsworth’s approach to nature and the sublime egotistical. Indeed, most Wordsworthian poems are chiefly concerned with his metacognition — memory, personal loss, and nature are filtered through Wordsworth’s self-concept. But… Continue reading
Though William Blake was a religious man who believed he experienced visions throughout his life, he was not averse to critiquing the “social evils” he perceived within the church (Damrosch 171). In two… Continue reading
In William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, the speaker equates the experience of a being a young child with the existence of nature itself. By moving from pre-existent… Continue reading
