Literature Entry Week 8 - The Auguries of Innocence
Its week 8 already, and so much has been handed in and there is still a lot more to do, I have to say though that this semester is going really fast, it’s almost unbelievable, before we know it, it will be the end of semester, and the end of our 3rd year at uni for most of us…
So this week we looked at ‘The Auguries of Innocence’, and I must say what a huge poem! At first I was overwhelmed by the poem, and I wasn’t sure how to grasp the concepts of the poem as well. It went a little over my head for some of it, but the tutorial discussion helped me to understand the material a little better, I am still struggling with some of it, so I will talk about the sections that I did understand.
When we read through the whole poem there was a lot there that I didn’t understand, but there was some sections that I did. I think that the whole poem in itself seems kind of like a riddle and I think that it would take someone years to crack the inner meanings of the poem. Blake has really captured a lot about the time period of his life in the poem, and I think that that may make it harder for us to understand in that aspect because the world that we live in now is so much different from the one that he lived in. Someone in the tutorial brought up the notion that it is like the reflection of the state of a nation, I think that it very well could be because of all of the aspects of everyday life that he has put into it.
Not only is it a reflection of the nation but some it seems like he is saying - ‘if you take this action, this consequence will occur.’ There is also the aspect of moral guidance in the poem; he puts morals in as well I think to help emphasis the action/consequence aspect of the poem. I think that it strengthens the poem and helps to make it a strong message about how Blake saw the world. My favourite part of the poem is:
‘To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.’
Ok so I am going to start with the parts of it that I did understand and made some sense to me.
‘A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.’
This first part of the poem, I think that Blake is saying that it is criminal in a way to keep something so beautiful in a cage, because it wasn’t created for that purpose; it was created to show the beauty of nature and the beauty of things in nature. The next part that I found interesting:
‘Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh’.
This reminds me of some of the Buddhist principles to living, because in a way it is saying that if you kill the beautiful things in this life, you will be judged on that when judgment day comes. It is interesting to note that he has included the moth which we don’t see as beautiful as the butterfly, I think that he has chosen the moth because it isn’t so beautiful but it also needs to be protected from mans wrath.
‘A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent’.
I like this one and I think that this one is more a moral judgment rather than anything else.
I think that it also has an aspect of truth to it as well, if you tell something with bad intent it always comes back to bite you eventually, because you have told it in spite rather than with good intentions. We always talk of karma in this day and age and I think that in a way this is Blake’s way of saying karma will eventually catch up with you, so do what it moral and what it right rather than do things in spite to hurt others for your gain.
I liked looking at this poem, because it is helping me to look and see Blake a little more clearly than I was when we started looking at his work. There is so much more to look at and explore in this poem, I look forward to unravelling it some more.