Blog Post #3- Bibles and Blake.

I have just finished reading “Song of Liberty”, the ninth poem in William Blake’s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.  I believe this poem mirrors the Bible (and particularly the Book of Revelation) in terms of body structure and language; “A Song of Liberty” can be instantly recognizable to the tone of the Bible.  Blake uses a massive amount of biblical language throughout the poem to give his argument of the prominence towards the scripture.   He uses complex writings and vivid descriptions to bring out his vision.  The imagery of fire throughout the poem represents the marriage of Heaven and Hell in coming together to free the world from autocracy.  The use of this fire imagery is interesting because fire is most often associated with Hell but Blake uses it in an opposite way to describe heaven.  Often Blake will use the opposite of what people are used too reading to grasp our attention. Blake describes, “fiery limbs, the flaming hair, shot like the sinking sun into the... sea,” and “the fire, the fire, is falling!,” which implies falling from heaven. Blake used word like “Eternal Female”  and “groaned” in childbirth.  Blake begins the “Song of Liberty” using imagery of a birth, possibly in order to bring a mental picture of conception and the birth of Jesus.  In the Bible version, a woman named Mary who bears the child of God but in Blake’s poem it is an “eternal female” who is giving birth to a child.  Blake reverses the Bible story could suggest that Blake is describing the birth of the antichrist, the opposite to Jesus.  However, as with every element of his “Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, Blake represents his antichrist not simply as a creature of evil, but as an agent of freedom and imagination.  The importance of a child’s birth in this poem connects “ Songs of Innocence” to the Bible.  Another point connecting the two are in lines 3-5, Blake implores France to “rend thy dungeon” and “Golden Spain” to cast off the rule of the Roman Catholic Church.  Blake is telling Rome to throw away the keys of St. Peter. 

Blog post #2- Rintrah in depth.

William Blake was not only a poet but also an artist.  He would often illustrate his poems into artwork.  In this painting, Blake gave us an image of what Rintrah looks like.  When I look at this picture, I see many characteristics of Rintrah, first off his body.  The way that Blake has sculpted him gives Rintrah a powerful and strong presence.  This is not only mentally but physically too because of the slender length and formed muscles.  I also see his hair length, which is a very distinct description.  I remember in mythology about Hercules and how his strength is representative towards his length of hair.  Blake seems to relate to a critical analysis of the bible.  I found the meaning of long hair through out the bible “Elijah is called a hairy man" (2 Kings 1:8) from his flowing locks, or more probably from the shaggy cloak of hair, which he wore.  His raiment was of camel's hair.  Long hair is especially noticed in the description Absalom (2 Sam. 14:26); but the wearing of long hair was unusual, and was only practiced as an act of religious

 Observance by Nazarenes (Num. 6:5; Judg. 13:5) and others is a token of special mercies (Acts 18:18).” Found at: http://www.bible-history.com/eastons/H/Hair/.  When Blake created this picture there was a lot of injustice going on around him.   The French and England revolution was near it’s ending point and the Romanticism period seemed represent a critical thinking of values and how people should live their lives.  This makes me stop to think that maybe Rintrah was created to represent Blake’s own emotion towards all of the injustice he was seeing daily.  Making the fire in the background and Rintrah represents all of Blake’s own Wrath and fury about the world around him.  Even though this picture Rintrah’s facial expression is quiet and subtle.  This makes me wonder what Blake tried to convey or express in his writings.  He often uses the opposite of what he really wants us to grasp, maybe this quiet and subtle face is really holding back a loud roar.  The hard thing with William Blake’s artwork and poetry is you never really know when you grasp what he wanted you to understand.

Blog post #1- Who is Rintrah?

I have just finished reading through William Blake’s poem “The Argument”; it is the first poem in his series, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.  Blake’s poems are not always easy to understand, I had to re-read several lines to grasp what Blake tried to convey.  I think I finally understand Blake’s argument.  While reading “The Argument” I was stumped after reading the first line “Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;” because I realized that I did not know what a “Rintrah” was.  I then began to do some research to find out “Rintrah” is a main character in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, a major writing of William Blake in late 1790.  Rintrah is mentioned 48 times throughout Blake’s poetry first in MHH, then in Europe, the Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem.  Rintrah is not the first character that Blake created through his poetry.  Blake created a family to Rintrah and they all seem to represent something different.  Rintrah is known to represent wrath, brother of Palamabron who resembles pity, Bromion who resembles scientific thought and Theotormon who represents desire/ jealousy.   Bromion and Theotormon are sons of Los, also known as the sons of Jerusalem.  Wrath is a central facet of Blake's theology; Wrath means to him something very different from the common connotation. We see Wrath as an intense anger but to Blake Wrath is motivated by anger in seeing injustice.  Now that I have a better understanding to the underlines of what Rintrah is and represents, I a looked back at the original poem, which stumped me; “Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air;”  I think Blake tried to get me to understand Rintrah sits in the sky looking down on the world.  I use the word “sky” because Blake mentions clouds and air, which leads me to the assumption that he is in the sky.  Rintrah is angered in seeing all of the injustice going on in the world below him.  That anger creates Rintrah’s wrath, which would cause him to unleash thundering, roars that shake the air around him.  Through my posts I will look further and further into the meaning behind Rintrah and the writing and illustrations from William Blake.

Grief - Prose Poem

I walk to room 201 and knock a weak “knock, knock” on her sterile wooden door as I’m waiting for a response, I notice the sign hanging by a clean brightly shining nail displaying in neatly computer typed font who rests their head here at night, who eats their breakfast in the morning and plays cards in the afternoon.

 I hear the squeak’s of a janitors mop bucket behind me, a curly haired women in scrubs walks by I notice the bags under her eyes as she gives me a look and a forced smile. I hear the faint mumbling as she keeps her frumpy pace.

That’s when I hear a meek yell “Come in”.

I enter with weary as to what I’m going to see, I smell a familiar smell of old photos, musty half alive flowers and Kraft box pudding.  I can see pictures of past life on the walls as I walk down the hallway and a cabinet of dusty china plates that will soon be mine.  The door at the end is open just an enough to see the low glow the TV is making.  Like a light at the end of a tunnel.

I take the last few steps towards the door until it happens, she see’s me and I see her.

Struggling to get out of the chair she calls a bed I grab her left arm, lifting not to hard but just to support this 4 foot 9, pearly white haired women I come to see less and less as the years have gone by. I’m so close to her face I can clearly see a scar on her mouth left from cancer, I see the indents of where her jaw and teeth should be.

 I can’t help but wish I could see her smile again.

She is looking at me; I’m looking at her.

 As we talk I notice she has that twinkle in her eye.

My phone rings and I have to leave. Leaving her twinkle to instantly disappear.

As I get up to leave I feeling her watching me, I feel the sadness creeping in knowing this is the last time we well see each other. The last time I’ll see this remarkable woman, my Nana.

My Neighbor's Blog

For the community assignment, I read and reviewed the blog,  A Teenagers view on the Works of William Blake, from period 4 class. Their Focus is on William Blake’s life and work; this blog is useful, they have information on Blake and his work throughout his life.

Here is the link to their blog: http://ourblogp4.blogspot.com/

When I first came to this blog there were three posts to look through.  One on Blake’s poem “The Lamb”, another on a poem “Songs of innocence” and the last one is on the work that William Blake had accomplished.  I chose to review on the post about William Blake and his work by Jared Thompson because my personal blog is on William Blake.  I thought his post could allow me another useful tool to use and grasp Blake’s underlining thoughts and personal values.  It is also nice to learn new facts from someone my own age and not an adult.  Reading the post was easy.  The author wrote to the point and it was not hard to understand what he was trying to convey.  It was interesting to learn that some of Blake’s work is banned from being read in a few establishments because they are so controversial and influential.  It was also cool to read that Jared likes reading the banned poems and writings of William Blake because it makes them that much more “fun” to read.  After I read the post about William Blake and his work I then went and read over the other two posts.  These posts analyzed two different poems by William Blake, “Songs of innocence” and “The Lamb”.  Jared Thompson also wrote these and went deep into the words of Blake.  I can tell that he really put time and effort into these posts.  The colors used in the blog were a good idea because it really got my attention.  I have looked at some of the other blogs and the colors chosen would make it hard for me to be able to read what the authors were writing.  I wish there were more pictures to add  detail instantly.  The overall appearance of this blog is appealing.  If I were someone who knew nothing about Romanticism, this blog would be great one to start off reading.  Josh starts off telling who the blog is about and then into detail about Romanticism and creating a viable resource for understanding William Blake.   

A Memorable Fancy...Meeting You

Blake imagination, characters from the Bible, and mocks themes from the Bible in his work. His poems can be very hard to understand at first glace. It takes time and effort to figure out a meaning. I had troubles with his poems and then trying to relating them to the Bible because I am not that familiar with the Bible. Art work he created can help the reader understand the meanings to his poems and get an idea of how to imagine his poetry. Something I found interesting in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell was he used characters from the Bible and told stories of his journey and time spent with them.

Such as in A Memorable Fancy, Blake described his night when he dined with Isaiah and Ezekiel, prophets from the Bible. He had asked them questions and they would answer back. Blake goes in detail about the visions or dreams he has. Where he not only dined with prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel but an angel came to him. He spent much time with this angle discussing their view points upon things. Later he meets the Devil. He also has a conversation with the Devil about Jesus and God. The Devil questions Jesus and what he was quoting “Jesus as all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules.” Blake refers to the Devil as his “particular friend” and they would often read the Bible together. There view upon it though is quite different then how most Christians would read it. Blake and his Devil friend would take the words from the Bible and understand them as a reference to hell or evil meanings. They had a Bible of Hell that they would not share with the world.

Blake made a very big statement suggested in his poems during the late eighteen and early nineteenth century, he an issue with the Bible and what it said. That become obvious in The Voices of the Devil when he articulates the three errors that are stored in the Bible. He does give controversies that are true. In The Marriage of Hell Blake gives his interpretations of the Bible. How he thinks it should be taken form the words written within it. This is similar to all his poems and art work. It can be very interesting to read if someone is willing to view his poetry in the way he intended, but yet still use ones own imaginations.

READING RESPONSE: William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature By John Villalobos

The eighteenth century satirical writing of William Blake with “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” created a critical analysis of Romantic Literature.  Blake wrote “Proverbs of Hell” for the Marriage section and delivered a very controversial approach to biblical critique and parody.  John Villalobos analyzed Blake’s satirical approach to biblical religion in 1990 through a paper entitled, William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature.  Villalobos summarized several authors from the sixteenth through eighteenth century who critiqued the bible, specifically Proverbs and the Hebrew-English translation.  Matthew Poole and John Pearson were Protestant reformers and Renaissance critics of the sixteenth century who emphasized, “Proverbs should be admired and studied for the broad scope of information presented,”[1] and praised Solomon for his putative nature.  Solomon is one of the major contributors to Proverbs, which are written in a manner that punishes those who do not conform to the requirements of the bible.  Villalobos indicated Blake is not a fan of Solomon or how Proverbs needs interpreted.  “Solomon is listed with Abraham, Moses, Paul, Constantine, Charlemaine, and Luther, all of whom Blake condemned as figures who emphasized the letter of the law, as opposed to the indwelling spirit of the Word.”[2]  A second major group of authors summarized in Villalobos’ article is Hugo Grotius, Simon Patrick, and John Edwards who wrote in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century about Proverbs and analyzed the Old Testament.  Edwards determined Proverbs “Proverbial Sentences are sometimes Enigmatical, and have a Meaning far different from what the Words directly signify.”[3]  In fact, Edwards and Patrick were friends and it seemed John Edwards used more historical background than Patrick in his writings based on Villalobos’ article.  The development of biblical critique is significant in the eighteen century because of the how influential the church was on the world’s population.  William Blake seemed to know how arguments about Proverbs was written, general guidelines or specific rules to live by along with punctuation usage which changes the context and fictional stories to make a point.  Several biblical critics, John Hutchinson and Parkhurst along with William Jones and Julius Bates indicated issues with punctuation and the theory translating from Hebrew to English may have been counterproductive to grasping the necessary understanding of why Proverbs was written.  It seems Blake used all these issues about Proverbs to create the controversy about his own biblical interpretation. The final major author Villabolos summarizes is Robert Lowth who wrote Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews.  Lowth is instrumental in breaking down the different types of Proverbs and reinforcing the facts of previous critics that breaking down Proverbs into literal interpretations was unproductive.  Blake used Lowth’s evaluation of three types of Proverbs in his “Proverbs of Hell” to develop a common theme, which related to the bible.  Blake uses satire and a shock factor to force people who read “Proverbs of Hell” to critically think about the bible, God, and overall their life.  Good and evil, heaven and hell, appear in our everyday life; how we react to Blake’s creative writing and interpret our own values is for each of us to critically think about how we live.  In Proverbs 19:5 “A false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lies shall not escape,” gives us a example how to not lie about things but Blake uses examples in the reverse to shock our thinking about how we really do live our lives.

“Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
Enough! or Too much.”[4]

“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”[5]

These two different proverbs from Blake’s Proverbs of Hell writings show the “shock” value he portraited through describing a road of excess to a palace of wisdom or Truth is never understood or believed.  These both clearly represent a disbelieve in how most people think or process life.  It is unusual for me to think if somebody drinks to excess they will be led to a palace of wisdom.   In reality, someone who walks the path of excess will never find their palace.  In my earlier blog posts, I wrote about Rintrah who is a character Blake created to represent Wrath, one of the seven deadly sins.  Blake uses Wrath (Rintrah) in similar form of shock value like Truth never goes unpunished.  Rintrah is not Anger but has Wrath at seeing the injustice of the world.  My second blog post describes how I connect Rintrah Blake’s emotional state towards his feeling critically analyzing the bible, French and English revolution, and overall Romanticism believes.  Blake allowed me to look beyond words with definition.  He forced me to critically look between the lines and how it could be perceived with a totally different meaning.  The depth of how William Blake writes is difficult for me to grasp the entire picture but I understand some of his themes and believes about good and evil.  It is important for people to be able to express their values even if we do not fully understand what they are trying to convey.

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[1] John Villalobos, William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature (University of North Carolina Press: 1990) p.249

[2] John Villalobos, William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature (University of North Carolina Press: 1990) p.249

[3] John Edwards, Discourse Concerning the Authority, Stile, and Perfection of the Books of the Old and New Testament (London: 1695), p. 380.

[4]William Blake, specific proverbs from “Proverbs of Hell”, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790.

[5] William Blake, specific proverbs from “Proverbs of Hell”, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790.