William Blake enriches his poetry with symbolism and imagery that is called Blake’s symbolism which makes his poetry a quite different appeal in English literature.
Symbolism in Blake’s
poetry is
the keynote and his poetry is rich in symbols and allusions. Most of the other
words in his poems are symbolic. Similarly, Blake's tiger symbolizes creative
energy; Shelley's wind symbolizes inspiration; Ted Hughes's hawk symbolizes
terrible destruction in the heart of nature.
William Blake as
a romantic poet is
regarded as the forefather of Romanticism. He is the earliest romantic poet in
English literature. He is the only poet who considers all temporal things to be
eternal. Reality is merely a symbol for him. He was the first modern writer to
preach the inextricable union of all great art and symbol. He was first and
foremost a visionary. He peered into the core of things, attempting to extract
the essence of existence. It was his job as a poet and artist to convey the
timeless essence through symbols. This was a laborious procedure, and the
symbols sometimes seemed a private language that had to be decoded for public
interpretation.
One
of Blake's poetry's most remarkable elements is his use of symbols. There isn't
a poem in "Songs of Innocence and of Experience"
that
doesn't have symbolic meaning beyond its literal meaning. Children, sheep,
wild birds, wildflowers, green fields, dawn, dew, spring, and its accompanying
images like shepherds, valleys, and hills are all symbols of innocence in
the Songs of Innocence. Lions, tigers, wolves, eagles, moon, sun, fire, forges,
swords, spears, and chariots are all energy symbols. Roses, gold, silver,
moonlight, and other sexual symbols may appear in dreams. Weavings, curtains,
cities, houses, snakes, and nighttime illness are all emblems of corruption.
Priests, mills, forests, mountains, seas, caves, clouds, thunder, ice, winter,
night, stone, iron, and other oppression symbols can be found.
All mystics utilize symbols to communicate their experiences and the spiritual truths they have discovered to their audiences. Blake isn't an exception to this rule. Biblical motifs are used extensively in the Songs of Innocence, enhancing the symbolic power of his poetry. In his poem, the lamb William blake symbolism is used. For example, consider the following lines. —
I
a child, and thou a lamb
We
are called by His name.
Christ
is the Lamb or God, and a child is often referred to as a "little
lamb." As a result, these two lines have a symbolic connotation.
Blake's use of Biblical symbolism is often supplemented with his own personal symbols, particularly in the Songs of Experience. The following lines appear in two poems titled Nurse's Song. —
Then come home my children,
the sun is gone down And the dews of night arise.
Because of the innocent, cheerful atmosphere in the first poem, these sentences are not metaphorical. They are, however, full with apprehension in the second verse, because the poet tells the children —
Your spring and your day are wasted in play
And your winter and night in disguise.
The
dew here represents dampness and coolness. We should also note that Blake
frequently employs the word "dew" as a metaphor for materialism and
apathy toward spiritual truth.
Blake
occasionally invents new meanings for traditional symbols. If the lamb
represents innocence and compassion, the tiger represents the frightening
energies that exist within each unique man. The lamb is sweet and innocent, and
it is the creation of a loving Creator. The magnificent yet deadly tiger
reminds us that god's goals are not always clear, which is why the poet
wonders, "Did he who formed the lamb also make thee?" The tiger is
also representative of the creator's masterful talent in framing the tiger's
"fearful symmetry." (blake's use of symbolism in tyger and lamb)
Blake
advocated for the uninhibited expression of natural inclinations and opposed
their restraint. He condemns anyone who imposes limits on others. Urizen's
characteristics, which symbolize human reason and rational control, are all
negative - jealousy, fearfulness, violence, secrecy, hatred of life and its
pleasure, to name a few. Urizen, the god of jealousy, is mentioned in a few
poems in Songs of Experience but is never named.
In
the Nurse's Song, the nurse is in charge and oversees the children's play.
Urizen's hatred is mirrored in her. In The Chimney Sweeper, the parents,
clergy, and monarch symbolise authority Agents of Urizen. The narrator states,
"They make up a Heaven of our agony."
The
monarchs (who are responsible for the soldiers' bloodshed), social structures
such as loveless marriage, and mind-forged manacles are all emblems of
oppression and tyranny in the poem. Instead of pleasure and delight, the author
detects sadness and tiredness in the faces of Londoners in the poem. —
In every cry of every man In every Infant's cry of fear In every
voice, in every ban
The mind-forged manacles I hear.
"The Garden of Love," "The
Little Boy Lost," "The Little Boy Found," "a poison tree symbolism," and other metaphorical poetry are among them. The
poem "The Garden of Love" is an allegorical poem that criticizes bad
sexual morals. This garden exemplifies natural delight in its purest form. The
priesthood edict "Thou Shalt not" has ruined this garden utterly.
"The Little Boy Lost" depicts a little boy who grows up and succumbs
to Urizen's control. The hope of "The Little Boy Found" is that he
will be saved via Christ's direct intervention. The poem's deeper message is
that aggressive feelings nearly often damage personal relationships.
Angels
are said to be kind and protecting. The chimney sweeper symbolism, the Angel is harmless, but he
appears to have an uncertain function in the poem The Angel, because he gently
but frustratingly protects the maiden from sexual experience. Angels have a
perilous role in Blake's later writings.
Blake
is the highest exemplar of symbolic art in all poetry, notwithstanding later
obscurity in symbolism. Blake saw endless delight as the affirmation of the
immense spirit that was both good and evil, and creating and destroying were
his primary emblems. So Blake's symbols are active, beyond good and evil,
sometimes joyful and flying, sometimes solemn and foreboding, but never
frightened to die contended in the dust, which is immortal.