Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]


I was thinking that exactly while writing, but I didn't put much time into trying to rephrase things for easier readability because honestly, I was just trying to get the assignment done.

Thanks for the tips! I'll keep them in mind when I write my next draft.

Btw, my writing here may be different in style because the other was a personal paper, where I had a little more freedom in expressing my thoughts I guess. Or maybe Blake really did influence my style, haha.

Again, thanks for your time and comments :)

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]

Here's a shabby first draft of my paper:
I don't know if I'm allowed to post such a long paper, but if anyone wants to.. here you go =]

Mapping the Soul
-------With the freedom of poetic language, William Blake expressed his
abhorrence of the Church's deep-rooted stance on faith; such a stance on
Christianity was considered blasphemous, but he could not be charged with a
crime. He believed that with true spirituality, the individual could fully
engage in their faith and attain eternal salvation without the intrusion of
organized religion-for the Church is solely concerned with subduing
Christians with an orthodox emphasis on reason. Its rigid practice of
faith, Blake denounced, actually is a restrictive barrier to the stairway
to heaven. He, instead, viewed imagination as the foundation to
spirituality, the bridge between the worldly body and the divine soul;
creative energy, thus, is the simplest yet most direct connection to God.
Readers may initially annotate Blake's set of poems called the Songs of
Innocence and the Songs of Experience as an ironic juxtaposition of the
innocent, pastoral world of childhood against the experienced, adult world
of corruption and repression, but Blake is reflecting something deeper in
meaning. In these oppositely related volumes of Songs, William Blake is not
simply evoking an ironic contrast of good and evil, but subtly reflecting
on the nature of Christianity, ultimately arguing that, whereas organized
religion tends to suppress the power of energy and imagination with the
arrogance of reason, true spirituality comes from such qualities.
----------Through the eyes of children, Blake offers a skeptical look at
contemporary Christianity by examining a docile society that mindlessly
conforms to the practices of religious zealotry. He reveals the
contradictory reality of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity when he
captures the premature thoughts of both innocent, obedient children, and
witty, mischievous children. In the Songs of Innocence, Blake proposes
children as naïve and submissive to the practices of Christianity. When the
narrator in "The Lamb," whom can be perceived as a child, asks, "Little
Lamb, who made thee?", he gives his straightforward answer to the question:
"Little Lamb, I'll tell thee: / He is called by thy name, / For he calls
himself a Lamb" (l.9, 12-14). However, in the Songs of Experience, Blake
depicts children as, essentially, too witty for their own good; In "A
Little Boy Lost," a child offers his premature view on Christianity by
questioning the two greatest commandments in the Law of God: "And Father,
how can I love you / Or any of my brothers more [than myself]?" (l.5-6).
Blake emphasizes this ironic connection between both naïve and mischievous
children with the use of heavenly, joyful images versus dark, morbid
images. For example, in "The Chimney Sweeper," from the Songs of Innocence,
Blake describes a boy with hair that even "the soot cannot spoil" as having
a dream that his friends were locked inside the chimney, but "an Angel who
had a bright key, / ... opened the coffins & set them all free" (l.8, 13-14).
However, from the Songs of Experience counterpart, Blake does not capture
the purity and whiteness of youth but portrays a child as "[a] little black
thing among the snow" ("The Chimney Sweeper (Experience)" l.1). Through the
eyes of children, Blake does not convey parents as a part of a family that
raises their children with love and care, but as a group of individuals who
mindlessly partake in their religious chauvinism. A child in opposition to
attending service in Church weeps, "Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is
cold" ("The Little Vagabond" l.1). When another child is asked: "Where are
they father & mother? Say?", he replies: "They are both gone up to the
church to pray" ("The Chimney Sweeper (Experience)" l.3-4). With such a
skeptical outlook of Christianity, some may perceive Blake's perspective as
a form of his own "religion."
-------Though Blake questions contemporary the values of Christianity, he
also reveals his condemning attitude toward the Church by creating an
ominous and melancholic atmosphere, ultimately asserting that the Church,
supposedly a symbol of purity, is corrupt. He portrays the Church as overly
restrictive and authoritative using physical images of constraint and
limitation. For example, in "The Garden of Love," the narrator sees a
chapel that was built where he used to play, and the gates of this Chapel
were "shut, / [a]nd 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door" (l.5-6). Blake
also captures this sense of restriction in describing the voices of people:
"In every voice, in every ban, / The mind-forg'd manacles I hear" ("London"
l.7-8). By illustrating the "pure" Church with a physically dark hue, Blake
reveals his disposition on the seemingly "white" Church-asserting that in
reality, it is corrupt. In both "The Garden of Love" and "Holy Thursday
(Innocence)" Blake boldly depicts church officials as fraudulent. While the
"[p]riests in black gowns" "[walk] their rounds," Blake believes that these
authorities are responsible for "... binding with briars ... my joys and
desires" ("The Garden of Love" l.11-12). He describes the Church officials
in "Holy Thursday (Innocence)" as "[g]rey-headed beadles" who "[walk] ...
with wands as white as snow"- such a description hints at the irony of the
supposedly holy, but actually wicked and "[g]rey-headed" authorities ("Holy
Thursday" l.3). Although Blake attacked the Church for imposing its
authority over people, he did not attempt to reestablish its principles and
values, but partook in his own form of Christianity.
-------Based on Blake's prospect of true spirituality, the human soul's power
to captivate imagination and energy serves a more critical part to
connecting with God than the body's ability to reason and rationalize. In
his Songs of Innocence, Blake almost worships the childlike state in which
imagination is free to roam and cannot be dulled by the reasoning of the
outside world. For example, in "The Chimney Sweeper (Innocence)," he
portrays a child as capable of interpreting his own dreams, from which he
gains a form of spiritual knowledge: "And the Angel told Tom if he'd be a
good boy, / He'd have God for his father & never want joy / ... / So if all
do their duty, they need not fear harm" (l.19-20, 24). In both the Songs of
Innocence and the Songs of Experience, Blake reflects the significance that
energy has on his spirituality. Evidence in "The Tyger" suggests that Blake
may be capturing a series of furnace metaphors to ultimately create a sense
of energy with the illustration of a tiger:
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? (l.13-16)
In "The Lamb," the question proposed, "... who made thee?" is simple and
rhetorical, leaving the reader the image that God did indeed give the lamb
its "clothing of delight, / Softest clothing, wooly, bright" (l.5-6). But
in "The Tyger," the question is not "... who made thee?" but "What immortal
hand or eye, / Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"-the movement and energy
stirred in this poem suggest a more complex and "experienced" connection
with God's divine mystery of creation (l.23-24). Blake's perception of
spirituality can further be explained with an analysis of its direct impact
on the human soul.
------To Blake, imagination is not only the simplest and most efficient
connection to God, but also the force that connects the gap between the
soul's human and divine natures. The outside, sensory world may initially
seem to have no inherent meaning, but it becomes meaningful through the
contributions of the human imagination. In "To Tirzah," for example, the
"commonplace" is found "contemptible and human affections inadequate or
distasteful, and this may be even when there is a preoccupation with the
divine." The "commonplace" that Blake criticizes is the dishonor of the
human, worldly body that the narrator expresses versus his favor of the
spiritual, divine soul (Gilham 101). The question, "Then what have I to do
with thee?" addresses the material part of him which "[m]ust be consumed
with the earth" ("To Tirzah" l.2, 4). However, with the power of
imagination, he may finally propose this final statement: "The Death of
Jesus set me free" (l.15). Although Blake portrays imagination as a
prevailing quality, he recognizes the social and intellectual restrictions
that exist in reality, which mentally obstruct and limit the mind from
employing its power. In "Holy Thursday (Experience)," Blake puts forward a
subject that relates society to this restraint of imagination. The narrator
clearly describes his "land," where the "sun does never shine, / And their
fields are bleak and bare, / And their ways are filled with thorns"-in
short, "It is eternal winter there" (l.9-12). However, according to Blake,
once the power of imagination is used effectively, the individual gains
freedom from the restrictive bonds of unimaginative thought and ultimately,
realizes the connection between both human and divine natures. In "The
Divine Image," the narrator subtly asserts that "... Mercy, Pity, Peace, and
Love" are not God's characteristics but his substance: qualities embodied
by God Himself (l.1). While most may perceive these as "virtues of delight"
that are unattainable by humans, Blake asserts that with imagination, man
can finally discern such qualities from deep within the soul (l.1, 3). He
claims that these qualities are those that are embodied in humans, and are
recognizable because "Mercy has a human heart, / Pity, a human face; / And
Love, the human form divine, / And Peace, the human dress" (l.9-12). In
"Earth's Answer," Blake also approaches a similar breakthrough of the
soul's confined imagination; "Break this heavy chain / That does freeze my
bones around" (l.21-22). Thus, the soul and body, according to Blake, are
not of separate natures but are directly related.
-------However, Blake asserts that the natural role of knowledge and reason
is trivial-and perhaps detrimental-to the human soul. He believes that the
Church and its role of reason serve to diminish the very nature of
spirituality; the body of the Church and the souls of individuals are
incompatible. In "A Little Boy Lost," Blake illustrates such a mismatched
pair; when a child, as mentioned earlier, questions the values of
Christianity, a priest "[i]n trembling zeal ... siez' his hair" and says,
"'Lo! what a fiend is here! ... / One who sets reason up for judge' / Of our
most holy Mystery [of God]" (l.10, 14-16). Blake also constructs a similar
paradox when he juxtaposes the "healthy & pleasant & warm" "Ale-house" with
an uninteresting and perhaps, boring, Church ("The Little Vagabond" l.2).
With "some Ale, / And a pleasant fire our souls to regale," the narrator
would never "wish from the Church to stray" (l.8). Blake condemned orthodox
religion, in usurping its authority, for attempting to impose self-
limitation rather than giving form to creative imagination. In "Holy
Thursday (Innocence)," for example, Blake depicts the "[g]rey-headed
beadles" as "the aged men, wise guardians of the poor; / ... [who] drive an
angel from your door" (l.11-12). Such church officials seem to enforce
their austerity among any departure from their deep-rooted values-which
Blake proclaims to be the imagination-; "children walking two & two, in red
& blue & green," whom perhaps were ordered to do so (l.2). The soul,
therefore, cannot rely on reason but flourishes in the power of
imagination.
------Blake's ultimate motive in pairing the collections of poems of
"Innocence" and "Experience" is to heighten the reader's awareness of the
two contrary-and seemingly simple-states of human spirituality:
imagination, often expressed in the Songs of Innocence, and reason, often
found in the Songs of Experience. In such a manner, he is able to represent
the human soul as a complex source of spirituality. Many of the individual
poems in each collection show an awareness of the contrary state; while
some poems in the Songs of Innocence hint at the perils of experience, some
in the Songs of Experience resonate with a sense of the absence of
innocence. For example, in "The Echoing Green," a poem in the Songs of
Innocence, Blake captures a subject that would appear in the Songs of
Experience: that when "[t]he sun does descend / ... our sports have an end,"
and "[n]o more can be merry" (l.22-24). In "The Garden of Love," a poem in
the Songs of Experience, he portrays an alternative from "the gates of this
Chapel [that] were shut,": "So I turn'd to the Garden of Love / That so
many sweet flowers bore" (l.5, 7-8). Blake's use of repetition and
trochaic meter, both of which are standard in children's verse, may
initially imply a seemingly simplicity within his work (Price). In "The
Tyger," for example, he repeats the line composed of trochaic meter,
"Tyger, Tyger, burning bright / In the forests of the night," in the first
and last stanzas to emphasize the foreboding mood it creates (l.1, 21).
Alongside these simplistic techniques, however, Blake employs such poetic
devices as paradox and irony to denote the sophistication of his work. When
the speaker in the "Introduction" to the Songs of Innocence says, "And I
made a rural pen / And I stain'd the water clear / And I wrote my happy
songs / Every child may joy to hear," Blake may imply that he dips his pen
in ink, but also uses his writing to make matters, or his thoughts, clear.
Or, perhaps, he obscures the seeming clarity of the water with the pen's
ink. In "Earth's Answer," Blake proposes opposing events that further
create a complicated delineation of his ideas. "Does spring hide its joy /
When buds and blossoms grow?" and "Does the sower / Sow by night, / Or the
ploughman in darkness plough?" (l.16-17, 18-20). Such events are clearly
unnatural, but with their descriptions, Blake captures a rupture of
harmony. Both volumes of Songs denote a more complex examination of Blake's
look at spirituality, which evidently, is highly intricate and complex.
------True spirituality, according to Blake, cannot suffice in a world
where reason arrogates power over the human mind; the power of imagination
and creative energy must transpire beforehand. He accused the Christian
Church for taking advantage over its political power and propagating its
emphasis on reason-to Blake, such a progression is only detrimental to
achieving the state of true spirituality. In the Songs of Innocence and
Songs of Experience, Blake juxtaposes the contrary states of the human
soul, ultimately creating a paradox that captures his perspective of
religion, per se. Perhaps Blake himself had trouble mapping, or
understanding his soul, considering his premeditated execution of such a
complex work of poetry.

Scholarship / Personal Essay - Something I've learned through a personal experience [6]

Here's my final draft, in case anyone wanted to see the result. I still feel like more could have been done =X

----For three songs in a row, all I could hear was that loud, monotonous, and bassy sound coming out of the amplifier. My ears were starting to ring, and it's a shame that I was the one making them. "Oh well," I thought, as I pushed aside my pride and continued to play bass during our practice.

----It was the same with my volunteer work. Over the past few years, I have been serving in an organization that reaches out to those who are in need, whether of food and water, extra hands for labor, or even care and love. I had served in soup kitchens, delivered meals to the elderly, spent cherishing time with children, and even attempted to harvest tomatoes in a patch of uncultivated land. Sure, I felt good about myself for lending a helping hand, but something had been bothering me for a while. I would always think to myself, "Am I doing enough?"

----I asked myself that same question when I first picked up that bass guitar, but that time it was: "Will I be able to do enough?" I had been playing the acoustic guitar for four months then, and I had already grown accustomed to its brighter and livelier tone. Surely the sophisticated strumming on the finely-coated steel strings of the acoustic guitar appeared more impressive than the effortless, cadenced plucking of the dull strings on the bass. Even more so, the bland appearance of the bass could not be matched to a jazzy-looking, finely sunburst color of an electric guitar. I knew the bass was not meant for me-for I had only picked up the bass to play for the church band that was missing a bassist. But I took a deep breath, and I continued to offer what little help I could provide.

----After volunteering for over a year, I slowly developed a mindset that I was just another of thousands, maybe tens of thousands of volunteers out there. I wished I could do something different for them: the hungry homeless, the weak elderly, the orphaned children-but honestly, what could I have done? I knew that every day, new people were barging into their lives with boxes of Campbell's Soup, some more used Barbie dolls and X-Men action figures, and especially that 'I can help change your life' kind of attitude. I thought that maybe my helping hand was just as insignificant to those people as a bass player is to his band.

----Over time, the bass slowly started to appeal to me more than I had expected. As our newbie band played together for almost a year, we improved little by little, enhancing our individual skills, and more importantly, understanding how to work with one another. Soon enough, I realized how imperative the bassist is to his band; while Robin, our electric-guitarist, furiously played those distorted high-pitched riffs with his slick Fender Stratocaster, I learned to fill the lower end of the sound spectrum with a deeper and heavier accent. While complementing the melodies played by the guitar and the keyboard, I would also drive the tempo alongside the drums. The music would then sound a little more "fuller," with a less piercing and tinny tone to the ears, perhaps.

----My outlook on volunteering would also change after meeting Joe. One day, as my volunteer group headed toward the New York Public Library, we met him, the ragged homeless man who was lying across the first row of steps. When we presented Joe a package of Wonder bread and a half-liter carton of milk, we, in a somewhat dull tone of voice, apologized for our meager assistance. To our surprise, however, he replied: "Your help is enough" with the utmost sincere smile across his face.

----That's when I realized that my help, whether it is modest or eminent, is appreciated and is enough, as far as what I can offer. The volunteer I am is not ineffectual to the community, but like the lonesome bassist in the corner who plucks his thick bronze-alloyed strings, can help hold his community together. I guess I really don't have to be the star, the "big deal,"... the electric guitarist. Being the bass guitarist is good enough for me.

Scholarship / Personal Essay - Something I've learned through a personal experience [6]

Wow thank you Simone, that's something I could start with :)
Also, would I need to work on transitioning between each of the "body" paragraphs? I feel that I do

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]

Thanks for your input everybody. Here is the outline that I submitted yesterday night. I took out the minors (list of quotes) that support each major because it would take a while to read through everything.

I felt that my last few bodies were a little unclear and repetitive, but that's what I can do for now I guess =/

Thesis: In his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, William Blake is not simply ironically contrasting good and evil, but rather reflecting on the nature of Christianity, ultimately arguing that, whereas organized religion tends to suppress the power of energy and imagination with the arrogance of reason, true spirituality comes from such qualities.

I. Through the perspectives of children, Blake offers a skeptical look at contemporary Christianity by examining a docile society that mindlessly conforms to the practices of religious zealotry.

A. Blake reveals the contradictory reality of Christian faith and its beliefs by capturing the premature thoughts of both innocent, obedient children, and witty, mischievous children.

B. Blake also ironically connects the differences between naive children and mischievous children by juxtaposing their thoughts with the use of joyful images versus morbid images.

C. Blake does not convey parenthood, a core value of Christianity, as a part of a loving family that raises their children with faith, but as a group of individuals who mindlessly indulge in their religious chauvinism.

II. Blake reveals his attitude toward the Church by creating an ominous and melancholic atmosphere, ultimately condemning the Church, supposedly a symbol of purity, for being corrupt and for imposing political authority over people.

A. Using physical images of restriction, Blake portrays the Church as overly restrictive and authoritative.
B. By illustrating the "pure" Church with a physically dark hue, Blake reveals his disposition on the seemingly "white" Church-asserting that in reality, it is corrupt.

III. Based on Blake's prospect of true spirituality, the human soul's power to captivate imagination and energy serves a more critical part to connecting with God than the body's ability to reason and rationalize.

A. In his Songs of Innocence, Blake almost worships the childlike state in which imagination is free to roam and cannot be dulled by the reasoning of the outside world.

B. In both the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, Blake reflects the significance that energy had on his spirituality.

IV. To Blake, imagination is not only the simplest and most efficient connection to God, but also the force that connects the bridge between the soul's human and divine natures.

A. Blake believed that the outside, sensory world has no inherent meaning, but becomes meaningful through the contributions of the human imagination.
B. Blake recognized reality and its imposed social and intellectual restrictions as a mental obstruction and limitation of experiencing the power of imagination.
C. According to Blake, once the power of imagination is used effectively, the individual gains freedom from the restrictive bonds of unimaginative thought and ultimately, realizes the connection between both human and divine natures.

V. Blake asserts that the natural role of knowledge and reason is trivial-and perhaps detrimental-to the human soul.
A. The Church and its role of reason, according to Blake, serve to diminish the very nature of spirituality; the body of the Church and the souls of individuals are incompatible.

B. Blake condemned orthodox religion, in usurping its authority, for attempting to impose self-limitation rather than giving form to creative imagination.

VI. Blake's ultimate motive in pairing collections of poems of "Innocence" and "Experience" is to heighten the reader's awareness of the two contrary-and seemingly simple-states of human spirituality: imagination, often expressed in the Songs of Innocence, and reason, often found in the Songs of Experience.

A. Equally, many of the individual poems in each collection show an awareness of the contrary state; while some poems in the Songs of Innocence hint at the perils of experience, some in the Songs of Experience resonate with a sense of the absence of innocence.

B. Blake employs repetition and trochaic meter, both of which are standard in children's verse, in his Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, to initially imply a seemingly simplicity within his work.

C. Alongside these simplistic techniques, however, Blake employs such sophisticated poetic devices as paradox and irony to denote the sophistication of his work.

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]

Arg, I am really stuck.. I don't know what I could argue about imagination/energy/reason.

Thesis: In his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, William Blake is not simply ironically contrasting good and evil, but rather reflecting on the nature of Christianity, ultimately arguing that, whereas organized religion tends to suppress the power of energy and imagination with the arrogance of reason, true spirituality comes from such qualities.

Topic S 1: Through the perspectives of children, Blake offers a skeptical look at contemporary Christianity by examining a docile society that mindlessly conforms to the practices of religious zealotry.

Major 1: Blake reveals the contradictory reality of Christian faith and its beliefs by capturing the premature thoughts of both innocent, obedient children, and witty, mischievous children.

Major 2: Blake also ironically connects the differences between naive children and mischievous children by expressing their thoughts with joyful images and morbid images, respectively.
Major 3: Blake does not convey parenthood, a core value of Christianity, as a part of a loving family that raises their children with faith, but as a group of individuals who mindlessly indulge in their religious chauvinism.

Topic S 2: Blake reveals his attitude toward the Church by creating an ominous and melancholic atmosphere, ultimately condemning the Church, supposedly a symbol of purity, for being corrupt and for imposing political control over people.

Major 1: Using physical images of restriction, Blake portrays the Church as overly restrictive and authoritative.
Major 2: By contrasting light colors with dark colors, Blake reveals his perception of the supposedly pure and white Church.

Topic S 3: Blake condemned orthodox religion, in usurping the natural role of reason, for attempting to repress and control rather than giving form to creative imagination.

I don't think I really have anything to say here, considering I already discussed how the Church is repressive

Topic S 4: To Blake, the imagination and the proper use of it was the key to salvation in this world of experience.

Topic S 5: Blake believed that true spirituality came from creative energy. (Something along those lines)

Topic S 6: I don't know..

I really don't know what I can say in Bodies 3, 4, 5, and 6 because I have to prove each statement with what comes from Blakes poems, and so far, I'm having no luck.

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]

Wow, I just googled topics about Energy, and there's so much I could talk about! I think I will follow your idea and use parts of "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" as well.

Here's another edit to my thesis:
In his poems, William Blake is not simply ironically contrasting good and evil, but rather reflecting on the nature of Christianity, ultimately arguing that whereas organized religion tends to suppress the power of energy and imagination with the arrogance of reason, true spirituality comes from such qualities.

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]


Thanks! And did you mean "ironically contrasting"?


To be honest, I don't know what you mean by 'energy.' =P Do you think there's sufficient evidence to talk about this 'energy?' Also, I think my 4th topic sentence already covers how imagination leads to true spirituality...maybe?

Thanks for your input


Which poem..? lol

Edit:
Also, how does this sound as the 3rd major of Topic Sentence 1?

C. Major 3 - Blake does not convey parenthood, a core value of Christianity, as a part of a loving family who raise their children with faith, but as a group of individuals who mindlessly indulge in their religious chauvinism. (I wasn't really sure how to word this :( ...)

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]

That's a great idea! I suppose I could use the first four topic sentences I've already made, but what could I discuss in the last two, considering I drop my points about human equality?

Thesis update:
In his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, William Blake does not simply make an ironic contrast between good and evil, but rather reflects his perspective of Christianity; whereas organized religion tends to suppress the power to reason and imagine, true spirituality comes from such qualities.

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]

Thanks Kevin. I used that to annotate the poem completely =]

So I've been trying to organize my thoughts and this is what I have so far. Tell me what you think =P

Thesis: In his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, William Blake does not simply make an ironic contrast between good and evil, but rather reflects his views on the opposing sides of man's nature, including his abhorrence of the politics of organized religion and his belief in human equality.

Topic Sentence 1: Through the perspectives of children in his poems, Blake offers a skeptical look at contemporary Christianity by examining a docile society that mindlessly conforms to the practices of religious zealotry.

A. Major 1 - In the voice of a child, Blake expresses the premature thoughts of both innocent and obedient children, and witty and mischievous children, reflecting opposing views on Christian faith and beliefs.

B. Major 2 - Blake also reflects the ironic connection between innocent children and mischievous children by describing their thoughts using happy and dark images (yeah, happy and dark is all I could come up with =P), respectively.

C. Major 3 - I kind of wanted to say something about how parents indulge themselves in the idea of the Church, and try to make their children do the same. For example, in The Chimney Sweeper (Experience), the child says, "They think they have done me no injury: / And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King." But I'm not sure how I'm going to put this argument into words... haha

Topic Sentence 2: Blake viewed the Church, supposedly a place of solace and purity, as corrupt, and as a means of imposing political authority on people.

A. Major 1 - Blake portrays the Church as overly restrictive and authoritative using physical images of restriction.
B. Major 2 - With the use of dark and melancholic images, Blake represents the concept of the Church as corrupt rather than pure.
C. Major 3 - Not sure if I have anything to say yet...

Topic Sentence 3: Blake rejected organized religion because it hindered the common church goer's development of the imagination.
I don't have any majors yet.. and I'm not sure if I want to write a body on this.

Topic Sentence 4: To Blake, the imagination and the proper use of it was the only thing that led to salvation in this world of experience.

I don't have any on this either.

Topic Sentences 5 and 6:
I'm pretty sure I'm going to write a body about equality (The Little Black Boy, London)
As for Topic Sentence #6... I don't know yet. Maybe I'll discuss the seemingly simplicity of his songs which are not very simple in actuality.

Thanks guys!

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]


Yeah, I noticed that there aren't enough poems I could work off of to make points about the equality stuff, and that was a little confusing/poorly-written wasn't it, :P

Thanks, Sean.

Edit:
I found it a little difficult trying to organize my body paragraphs to talk about that single topic, "his conception of spirituality versus his views of organized religion." Can anybody lend some help?

*Also a reminder that I need to analyze Blake's poems directly (most, if not all, of my points must be shown/given within his poems).

Poetry / William Blake Poetry Paper [23]

Thank you, Notoman, for sparking some ideas for me, and
thank you, Kevin, for helping me research more about what Blake is trying to say in his poems.

This is a possible thesis statement that I came up with so far,
Thesis: In his Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Blake does not simply make an ironic comparison between good and evil, but rather reflects his views on the opposing sides of man's nature, including philosophies of organized religion and of equality for people of color and for women.

How does it sound? Also, I'm a little afraid that I won't be able to find much on HOW Blake makes such reflections of his opposing views (i.e. images he uses, usage of paratactic syntax, etc.) Are there more things I could analyze?

Writing Feedback / TOEFL Essay-It can be quite difficult to learn a new language. [7]

"If a foreign language has completely different grammar rules from the mother tongue, learning process gets hard"

I noticed that many people learning English forget to include the word "the."
You should say "...the mother tongue, the learning process gets hard."

Overall, this is great

Grammar, Usage / Memorising beautiful phrases to learn English [7]

I would discourage memorizing certain phrases because using them may sound awkward compared to the rest of your writing.