Below you will find a copy of the page for "Tyger" that is a good example of how the pages from Songs of Innocence and Experience looked. What do you make of the interaction between text and image here? How does the image contribute to the poem? Why do you think it was important to Blake that his poetry and engravings be considered together?
Explore the web for other examples of Blake's artwork. Can you find any examples that change your understanding of the poems you read? If so, share them here.
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| Songs of Innocence and of Experience: The Tyger (Plate 42), 1794/ca. 1825 William Blake (British, 1757–1827) metmuseum.org |
I'm not the best at interpreting poetry, but when I first read The Tyger I envisioned a very powerful beast and a much more powerful God that created him. Seeing the picture softened this mental imagery. I think Blake included the pictures because he wanted both sides of his artistic desire (written and sketched) to be displayed. Maybe that was the image of the tiger that he saw while writing the poem.
ReplyDeleteI also looked up images for The Chimney Sweeper. These pictures reinforced the desolate and bleak images I had in my head of a small child on his own and covered in soot.
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ReplyDeleteThe imagery adds value to the text while aiding the reader in understanding the many messages hidden in the poem. Combining image and text creates a more unique complete message. The message Blake intended to leave. The tree symbolizes life, and it is looming over the tiger. The poem generalizes the bondage attached with submitting to the selfish temptations that the tiger must triumph over in order to preserve deserved nobility. An image Blake implies is not to be held by the weak-willed. After the stars and a chained fate surrender to the unbreakable will of the true tiger, he is allowed to proudly burn bright for all to see.
ReplyDeleteThe image of the tiger helps bring the subject of the poem to life. The image probably served an even bigger purpose for the audiences of Blake's day, considering many of them probably had never been able to see a tiger. This engraving probably also helped with the contrast between the poems of "The Lamb" and "The Tyger." The image of a soft little lamb and then the big hard, bright lines of a tiger in this image, adds greater comparison and contrast to the poems. It also emphasizes the question brought up in the poem: "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
ReplyDeleteI think that The Tyger is intended to compliment the poem The Lamb through contrast. The images within the poem The Lamb are very soft and vulnerable. It feels as if the narrator is addressing his child, while in The Tyger the narration is slightly detached.The Tyger is acknowledging that God also created this creature that is beautiful, self sufficient, and dangerous. I was drawn to the legs of the tiger in Blake's engraving. Many of the lines in the engraving are angles and there is an emphasis on the muscles within the tiger's shoulders. This engraving and the descriptions in the poem work together to solidify the makeup of the tiger and how powerfully it is built. I looked up the engraving for the poem The Lamb. It just reinforced the contrasting images within these two poems.It shows the similarities between the innocence of childhood with the image of a lamb.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that the imagery adds to the poem as well as the contrast between it and "The Lamb." The sharp angles of the image to add to the hardness felt in the poem. The imagery I got from reading "The Lamb" was very soft with field and flower imagery. The image here shows a powerful, large tree that adds to the background of the piece and adds the power shown in the tiger.
DeleteMany people find pictures more engaging than words, and this why we start literacy in children by providing them with picture books. As discussed in class, this revolutionary time period included the rise of printing. With print becoming a more prevalent medium, people who had never even seen a book now had the opportunity to own one. The new innovations in printing led to an increase in literacy. Blake's engravings for "The Tyger" and the "The Lamb" both have soft colors, extensive illustration, and nursery rhyme-like appearance. Perhaps these engravings were to appeal to the new audience available. Together, the poems and the pictures could not only further Blake's popularity, but also solidify the interest of the newly literate peoples.
ReplyDeleteI strongly believe that Blake not only wanted to show his skill as a poet and an artist, but also wanted to create mental images or set a certain tone for his poems regarding why it was important for each to be considered together. In'The Tyger', I see the tree symbolizing the concept of what made the tiger because it towers over and is so much bigger than the tiger. I think that puts emphasis on how small this ferocious animal is compared to what made it.
ReplyDeleteI found a picture online of 'The Little Black Boy' on this url: http://www.thehypertexts.com/images/William%20Blake%20The%20Little%20Black%20Boy.jpg
It did not necessarily change my understanding about the poem, but it emphasized the last stanza tremendously for me.
Kelsey Jackson
Blake's unusual combination of poetry and art complement each other well. In "Tyger" the artwork looks like a jungle background colored with orange like a tiger. It adds a depth that words alone could not convey. Graphic novels of today emulate this combination of words and art to enhance the reader's experience. The poem "London" (p. 132-133) is accompanied by a picture that depicts several of the images mentioned in the poem: the Man walking, the blackened church, the young child or infant. Once again, these images add to the reader's enjoyment of the poem.
ReplyDeleteI think that image and poetry coming together are important to Blake because he wants the reader to see what he envisioned himself as he was writing. The imagery also brings to reality what the poem is trying to convey. I agree with What Teresa Buretta said about the poem "London". The image helps bring the poem to life and to give the reader a better view of what Blake is trying to say. Also i think it helps set the mood for the poem.
ReplyDeleteAs with any piece of creation, the creator wants the audience to understand the thoughts that back it. Many times the arts are enhanced with another type of art, writing combined with art and art combined with music are both examples of this. Blake is trying to convey not only what he is writing, but also where he is coming from; and he is adding another aspect that makes his poetry different from others. As Nikki Dickerson mentioned, the image portrayed with "The Tyger" allows us, as the audience, to gain a character to connect with the poem that we may not have otherwise imagined. I also looked up "The Clod & the Pebble," the image was more calm and serene than I expected, since I was imagining it to be harsh and very matter-of-fact, changing the overall mood of the poem when I read it again.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about it giving us a character to connect with the poem that we might not have imagined. That makes sense. Maybe he wanted to be clear on what he envisioned so he drew it out for us instead of us guessing.
DeleteThe fierce orange color interacted great with the words. The image of the tree separating the paragraphs helped the poem flow and brought life to it. It definitely made the poem more vivid and I believe that was his reason he wanted them to be considered together. If I would have read the poem without the imagery it wouldn't have been the same. The colors grabbed my attention and made me want to read the it, and it brought the image to life.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “The Tiger” by Blake speaks with authority in a being fiercer and greater than Blake himself. The illustration of the Tiger also represents this same greater being. The greater being is religious and specifically a god-like quality.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite poems was “The Chimney Sweeper” plate shows a small child covered with soot. This plate shows a slice of life during Blake’s time period. The boy is seen as the innocent who’s lost his innocence. The plate pared with the poem evokes Blake’s audiences an emotion due to a child has been abused by adults. Then he has had to live and work as an adult.
Does anyone know if we are supposed to respond to one of the comments above today?
ReplyDeleteI though we were supposed to blog about the Wordsworths' poems, but she hasn't posted anything. I e-mail her and asked, but I haven't heard back from her.
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