William Blake Poetry Paper

Hey everyone,

I have a poetry term paper to write on William Blake, and I don't know where I'm going with this. I initially thought I should focus on just the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, but I'm not so sure. A topic I was thinking about was his views on Christianity and humanity.

Basically, we have to analyze about 30 pages (double-spaced) of his poetry and make a statement.

From our assignment:
How do you construct a paper that analyzes poetry?
-That depends on the poetry. But overall, you should be making a statement about what the poet(s) says and how he/she says it. So in your body paragraphs you should be addressing both what and how.

-Don't base a paragraph on a single poem. The ideas you develop should be based on as broad an array of evidence as possible.

-You don't have to completely analyze all the poems you include. Your points could draw on just one stanza or even one line of a poem.

The paper has an intro, 6 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Thanks in advance.

Even if you focus on just the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, there is enough work there to really analyze. In fact, there might be too much to do in just six paragraphs.

William Blake was a very spiritual man, but he did not like organized religion (especially the Church of England). He claimed to see angels throughout his life (I believe that the first time was as a toddler). It might be interesting to analyze his views on religion. Even his seemingly simple poems like "The Fly" have deeper religious meaning.

He also wrote quite a bit about the ordinary and every day. You could analyze that as well.

Or . . . how his poetry ties into his Enlightenment thinking (where it does . . . and where his writings seem to be in opposition to Enlightened thinking). Blake was ahead of his time when it came to equality for people of color and for women-many of his poems deal with this theme.

Blake was an accomplished painter/artist-how did that affect him as a writer?

It might not be what your teacher is wanting, but I find the influence Blake has had on modern culture in the areas of music (his poems have been recorded as songs by many people including Bob Dylan), graphic novels, and art to be very interesting.

I think that you need to decide on a theme (Christianity and humanity, as you mentioned, are good ones) and then work on finding stanzas that support your theme.

Good luck with it! I'd love to see it when it is done. I find William Blake to be very fascinating. One the one hand, his poetry comes across as simplistic and almost childlike (a little like a Beatles song), but on the other hand, the man had a great depth and constancy that showed in his writing.

Hey, TheAnswer, thanks for all the great help you have been giving people. I saw very thoughtful insights from you today.

Google this: poetry analysis

It will teach you SO much!! You can have sections where you talk about the poet's intended meanings, about literary devices, about the effect the lines had on you... there is SO much.

Remember that this is a way to ENJOY literature. It is not work.

If you read 30 pages of Blake, you will definitely have something to say about it. When youget to a part you do not understand, google it. See what it means by reading articles.

At the end, reflect on what personality type Blake seems to have. Or reflect on the main message you got from him. Really enjoy this process. Do you have any specific questions? Post some of your progress! :)

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?

You are off to a good start. I'd worry a bit about this, though:


These don't seem to fit together particularly well. You might want to focus purely on his conception of spirituality versus his views of organized religion. This guy wrote 160 pages on the topic:

books.google.ca/books?id=hcq6NA6_GJAC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA 111&dq=William+Blake+Innocence+Experience+Spirituality+Churc h&source=bl&ots=MerYVjPI6S&sig=567g3t1tQpel7O8UMOObUQMAhWU&h l=en&ei=Z-QVStKaLcq6mQesnuX5DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result &resnum=2#PPA157,M1

You can probably manage seven paragraphs. Good luck.

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).

Work with "Little Boy Lost." The kid is being guided by a priest through this treacherous world, but the priest leaves the boy behind. Blake used poetry to criticize religion, but he was spiritual.

Hey, I found the perfect thing for you:

associatedcontent.com/article/147442/_william_bla kes_a_little_boy_lost.html?cat=38

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!

Perhaps you might refine your thesis a bit more to talk about what exactly Blake has to say about religion and spirituality. Perhaps it has something to do with true spirituality being about energy and imagination, whereas organized religion tends to be about the suppression of those things. Consider, for instance, the description of the tyger in the poem of the same name, versus the trusting voice of the speaker in its song of innocence counterpart.

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.

Ah, your thesis is looking more like the sort of thing you could argue in a 6 paragraph essay. I'd alter it a bit to make it flow better, though, like this:

"In his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, William Blake doesis not simply make anironically contrastbetween good and evil, but rather reflects onhis perspectivethe nature of Christianity, ultimately arguing that whereas organized religion tends to suppress the power to reason and imagine, true spirituality comes from such qualities."

As for the topic sentences for the last two paragraphs, you might want to think about how energy and imagination lead to true spirituality, or how the simplistic structure of his poems reflects his beliefs (perhaps they work within a standard metrical framework but sometimes subvert that framework in some way?), or on what explanation Blake might give for the Church, which is supposed to cultivate spirituality, acting in ways that actually suppresses it.

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 :( ...)

Ah, crap. Yeah, it should be "reflecting" and "contrasting." I has that originally, but then altered it for some reason. The html code can make reading text with strikethrough and red lettering a pain. This is how it should read:

""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 to reason and imagine, true spirituality comes from such qualities.""

For energy, see the Tyger, which is described through a series of furnace metaphors. Spirituality for Blake is all about creative energy, which makes sense, I suppose, for a poet. You might also want to read "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" which, while not a song of innocence or experience, is extremely relevant to your topic.

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.

Great sentence! I think you should put a comma after "that": ultimately arguing that, whereas...

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.

Well, what if some of the "Major" statements were to become "Topic" statements that you then backed up with new "Major" statements. That should give you, let's see, up to five more topic sentences to join the couple you already have . . . you might lose one or two in the transition, I suppose, which would give you . . . . let's see . . . about six, I believe.

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.

Sounds pretty good. You seem to have found some research on Blake you can draw on, which is always helpful.

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.

This is a coherent and carefully argued exegesis. I notice that Blake's way of phrasing things seems to have influenced your own style in this piece, which is different than your style in the other piece of yours that I've seen.

I'd like to see a stronger conclusion. I'm not sure what "the power of imagination
and creative energy must transpire beforehand" means, exactly. Also, the very last sentence seems an odd note on which to end the piece.

I see that you have done some cutting. I'd like to see you be even more ruthless, forcing yourself to punctuate those long, flowing sentences with at least a few concise sentences that go straight to the point. That will make the piece more readable, as people tend to tire of reading the same kinds of sentences over such a long piece. Also, the short sentences will have greater impact, so use them to make (or reiterate) your most important points.

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 :)

You might want to introduce the idea that Blake presumably viewed God as a creative force Himself, one who had made humans in His image. Thus, it is man's proper nature to take joy in his creative energies. Whereas, the Church of his time was desperately trying to force people to stay within the bounds of tradition, to view all pleasure as a sin, and generally to be as dull and unimaginative as possible. You sort of imply this throughout your essay, but stating it explicitly up front might unify your essay a bit more strongly.