The first poem that stuck out to me from the Songs of Innocence collection was "The Ecchoing Green." I immediately wanted to make a parallel between life and the poem itself. For example, we see that the poem has three stanzas, the first of which is a description of morning, of the rising Sun, birds singing, etc. which could be symbolic of birth or the beginning of life. The middle stanza is synonymous to life itself because it is of children playing which is like people living their lives. The quotation "such such were we the joys when we all girls and boys, in our youth time were seen on the Ecchoing Green," has to do not only with people living their lives, but with people reflecting on their lifetimes in older age, as the older people do when watching the children play in this stanza of the poem (79). Lastly, the Sun descends, the kids tire of their play and they leave the "Green" as we all must leave this Earth. Something else interesting to note is that in the last stanza the Green is no longer reffered to as "Ecchoing" but is now called "darkening" which furthers the idea that this is the end, so-to-speak. I think that the point of the Ecchoing Green is to serve as a positive way of reflecting on life while we are still living it, because just as the Sun must set, everyone has their time to go as well.
"The Chimney Sweeper" also caught my attention because it seemed misplaced. The young boy has experience of being a chimney sweeper, having lost his mother at a young ago, and having been sold practically into slavery as a young child by his own father. The things that still made it innocent were the facts that the boy was so young and that he has this dream of angels and heaven and some day everything looking better for him because "if all do their duty they need not fear harm" (81). And then it made sense to me that this poem was one of innocence because such an idealistic outlook on life, as opposed to being more of a realist, is still very innocent.
From the Songs of Experience, I liked the selection called "The Clod and the Pebble" because it shows two very different outlooks on life due to two very different lifestyles. The "Clod of Clay Trodden with the cattles feet" is used to putting the needs of others before itself so its song is one of almost extreme selflessness (88). This ideology is what creates Heaven because of true altruism and concern for others before concern for oneself. The Pebble, on the other hand, has been finely polished by the waters of the brook. It is used to being "taken care of" or treated by others and not doing for anyone else. It's extreme selfishness is the personification (if the Pebble were a person) of Hell. And maybe, these two extremes in some way relate to the extremes of the class system iin France during the French Revolution that we read about.
Finally, after reading "The Chimney Sweeper" from this selection, I completely understood why the first one was placed where it was. Although this young chimney sweeper has both of his parents in his life, he has the experience of knowing that he is constantly condemned for his happiness. His parents "are gone to praise God & his Priest & King Who make up a heaven of our misery," a quotation that can have two very different meanings, according to the caption (89). Either the divine beings create heaven from our pain or are delighted in our pain. And this is what takes away fromt he young boy's innocence. This is what makes him someone who has had experience because he has seen both sides of what knowing God has to offer. I think Blake wrote this, not because he wants people not to believe in God, but because he may think it is acceptable to question God's intentions with our lives from time to time.
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I really liked how you noticed and separated the three parts of the poem "The Ecchoing Green." I think seeing this is important in understanding Blake's poems, since they define the contrasting and turning points of his works.
ReplyDeleteFrom reading some of his other poems such as "Introduction" and "The Lamb," I noticed that Blake not only chooses his story and words carefully, but also structures his poems purposefully in order to effectively create analogies or compare and contrast different ideas.
In this particular piece, Blake elegantly juxtaposes the natural cycle of nature (the passing day), life itself (represented by the reminiscing "Old John"), and the daily experience of a playful child. It is impressive how he combines the three into one simple story of a passing day. This is a common style that I noticed in his other two works referenced above. But there is also something else that I observed that the author may be trying to say. Although it appears that the story tries to portray the transition of life from start to end, there is a subtle suggestion of echoing cycles that dies off with time with his choice of word and verse structure. He did not name this poem the "Ecchoing Green" by chance. To show the natural order of a complete life, "Green" is used since it gives us good symbolism of nature. "Ecchoing" is chosen to show that life is not a smooth path, and that there are ups and downs that will eventually calm off near the end. The second “c” in “Ecchoing” is the first subtle hint that is given by the author to indicate the repetitious nature of everything. It amazes me the level of detail that Blake puts into his work. His “Ecchoing” This theme is reinforced if you pay close attention to his use of the last verse of each stanza. He ends the first two with "Echoing Green" while ending the last one with "darkening Green." Like that of an echo, his word structure also echoes and dies off at the end. The illustration of the playful children makes me think that tomorrow, the children will come back out to play and continue this cycle again after a good night's rest. They will continue to "eccho" like this until they are of old age like "Old John" and eventually calm down enough to reflect on their life's experiences.
I think the author wants us to know that life is transient. Like water in a pond that is disturbed by a pebble that is thrown into it, life ripples playfully at first, but then slows down calmly and comes to a stop when all the energy has been used and dissipated. He's not only depicting a good life, but also a complete life, one that does end abruptly, but rather naturally.
It's almost as if Blake is reminding us to calm down and reflect on our life before we become too "weary" like the children and forget to think until it is the end of our lives.
(All references: Page 79 of text)
Jalisa,
ReplyDeleteVery good job with your discussions of this challenging poet. I like the way you focus on a few poems by Blake, rather than generalizing about all the assigned readings in our book. Good attention to specific passages, and interesting speculations about what the passages might mean. Keep up the good work, and try to make connections between these early texts and the later ones you read.