Tyr’s Day, March 18: Chariot of Fire EQ: How did William Blake seek to revolutionize the ways we see poetry, art, and Self?

Welcome! Gather paper, pen/pencil, wits!

New Unit Cover Sheet: “The Romantic Vision”

Opening Freewrite: “And Did Those Feet”

Lecture/Presentation: The Visions and Methods of William Blake

CLOZE

GRADESHEETS

ELACC12RL-RI2: Analyze two or more themes or central ideas of

text ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop ELACC12RL6: Distinguish what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant ELACC12RI6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience ELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames ELACC12SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions ELACC12L1: Demonstrate standard English grammar and usage in speaking and writing. ELACC12L2: Use standard English capitalization, punctuation, spelling in writing. ELACC12L5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, nuances ELACC12L6: Acquire and use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases

from William Blake, Milton: A Poem (1808)“England’s Unofficial National Anthem”

And did those feet in ancient timeWalk upon England's mountains green?And was the holy Lamb of GodOn England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance DivineShine forth upon our clouded hills?And was Jerusalem builded hereAmong these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!Bring me my arrows of desire!Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,Till we have built JerusalemIn England's green and pleasant land.

Freewrite 100 words:

What about this seems odd for a “national anthem”?

William Blake (1757 - 1829)

HUGELY important to both poetry and visual art; maybe ONLY such artist

William Blake (1757 - 1829) HUGELY important to

both poetry and visual art; maybe ONLY such artist

FIERCELY independent: didn’t care if NO ONE “got” it: “That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”

Deeply religious, but believed governments, capitalism, religion – ANY organized system of thinking – worked to destroy Individual Vision

SO – distrusted traditional publishers; famous artist,

but few knew his writing because his method was intentionally NOT mass production.

Blake did not “write” in the “usual way.”To do so would be to bow to conformity. So he did this:

Covered a 5x7 copper plate with wax, allowed wax to set; Etched words, designs, pictures into the wax; Poured nitric acid onto plate to eat away the exposed copper; Scraped away all of the wax, leaving etched/layered plate; Painted designs on the etched sections of the plate; Pressed the painted plate onto printing paper, and hung to dry Washed plate, paints plate, prints again for each new copy – so

different versions exist of “same” “poem” – which therefore is not the “same” – which is the “real”?

After maybe twenty copies printed, threw away copper plate and started over on a new plate to create page 2 of his book.

VERY slow, VERY expensive – the OPPOSITE of “mass production.” COULD NOT be mass-produced, so would ALWAYS be individual.

In other words, the method he used to put his art and poetry before the world reinforced their philosophy. INTEGRITY!

That led to “books” of “poetry” like this: Reunites logos, iconos,

making him forerunner of Graphic Novels, Web Design, etc.

“melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid” – perfect union of poetic mission and artistic method

Dozens of “books”; we will look at two:o The Marriage of

Heaven and Hell (1785)o Songs of Innocence and

Experience (1794)

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1785) is, like Blake’s other works of poetry, also a work of visual art.

There are not “verses” or pages; there are “plates” – literally, the prints made from the copper plates he painted during his laborious process.

There are about twenty different versions of each of Blake’s books – different because of his process: each printed version will look different from every other printed version, and so will “mean” something different.

As you look at each of the following Plates, respond as indicated on the Reading Guide.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: Plate 3

Without Contraries is no Progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From Contraries spring what the religious call Good and Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.

The Marriage of Heaven and HellPlates 7-10: Proverbs of

Hell

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.

Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.

The cistern contains; the fountain overflows. Expect poison from the standing water.

Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.

Damn braces: Bless relaxes.

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.

The Marriage of Heaven and HellPlate 14: A Memorable

Fancy

The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.

For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite, and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.

This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.

But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged: this I shall do, by printing

in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid.

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.

For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.

Turn In Today: Freewrite: “And Did Those Feet”

CLOZE

Pick Up Today: GRADESHEET

S2 is your Semester grade as of 3:00 Monday afternoon

More Blake: http://www.magister.msk.ru/art/blake/blake.htm www.gailgastfield.com/Blake.html

Two different copies of “The Lamb” from Songs of Innocence and Experience

“Newton”

The Spirit of Creativity, from The Book of Los

The Red Dragon

“Newton”

“The Spirit of Creativity”, from The Book of Los

The Red Dragon

The Ghost of a Flea

Turn In Today: Opening Freewrite: “And Did Those Feet” CLOZE and Reading Guide

More Blake: http://www.magister.msk.ru/art/blake/blake.htm www.gailgastfield.com/Blake.html

Freewrite (100 words)

In Essay on Man Alexander Pope says that our ability to think is limited to what we can see, hear, smell, touch, taste:

Say first, of God above, or Man below,What can we reason, but from what we know?

…and that therefore “’Tis but a Part we see, and not the Whole,” and that therefore “Whatever IS, is RIGHT.”

William Blake says in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell that Man has an infinite mind, that the imagination is limitless:

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.

But as a consequence of living in a fallen world, says Blake,

man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.

In short, says Blake, it is Man who has limited Man – not God.

Who’s right – Pope or Blake?

CLOZE: The Art and Method of William Blake

1. Blake is probably the only artist recognized as revolutionary and influential in BOTH

___________________________ and ____________________________.

2. What did Blake say to those who thought he was too independent to be understood?

3. Blake believed that capitalism, religion and government worked to destroy what?

4. Blake’s poetry was not well-known in his lifetime because his process for

___________________ was the opposite of ___________________________.

5. Outline this process:

a) _______________________________________________________________

b) _______________________________________________________________

c) _______________________________________________________________

d) _______________________________________________________________

e) _______________________________________________________________

f) _______________________________________________________________

g) _______________________________________________________________

h) _______________________________________________________________

6. His famous description of his process was “______________ apparent _______________

away, __________________ the ____________________ which was __________.”

William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 1. On Plate 3 Blake declared that “Without _____________________ is no _________________.”

Agree/Disagree (20-30 words):

2. Write down and respond (20-30 words): to one of the “Proverbs of Hell” from Plates 7-10:

3. Write down and respond (20-30 words): to a passage from Plate 14:

Title Your Reaction (20 – 30 words)