William Blake Essays (1390 words) - , Term Papers

William Blake William Blake (1757-1827) William Blake wrote during the Romantic period which was a span between 1785 - 1830. Other great writers during this time were Mary Wollstonecraft, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and others. Some said that the Romantic period was the fairy tale way of writing through symbolism and allegory and also an age for individualism. A crucial point by Romantic theorist referred to the mind, emotions, and imagination of the poet (Abrams, et al 5). In comparison to Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience Northrop Fry's distinction between the imagined states of innocence and experience is stated as thus: world of innocence: unfallen world/ unified self/ integration with nature/ time in harmony with rhythm of human existence. world of experience: fallen world/ fragmented divided self/ alienation from nature/ time as destructive, in opposition of human desire (Feldman). This can be seen in ?The Lamb,? and ?The Chimney Sweeper;? from Songs of Innocence and in Songs of Experience ?The Tyger,? and ?The Chimney Sweeper,?. Blake was little known as a poet during his lifetime. His reputation became established late in the 19th century. Blake's first book of poems was Poetical Sketches. This book of poems showed his dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic tradition and his restless quest for new forms and techniques (Abrams, et al 19). Blake was said to write symbolist poetry in which things such as a cloud, a flower, or a mountain was presented as an object imbued with significance beyond itself (Abrams, et al 8). Blake along with other poets explored visionary states of consciousness that are common among children but violate the standard categories of adult judgement (Abrams, et al 10). This can be seen in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In Songs of Innocence the speaker is often a child and in Songs of Experience the speaker is often an adult (Mack, et al 184). This could be due to the fact that children thought to be of what innocent adults have already ?experienced.? Blake experimented with partial rhymes and novel rhythms and employed bold figures of speech that at times approximate symbols. One of the strongest features in Blake's philosophy was his belief in imagination as an active force. He attacked rationalism, authoritarianism, industrialization, and organized religion as destructive of creative and spiritual energies(Feldman). Blake said that the two group of poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience represent the world as it is envisioned by what he calls, ?two contrary states of the human soul,? (Abrams 19). In the Songs of Experience, such as ?London? and ?The Tyger,? Blake achieved his mature lyric techniques of metaphor and symbol which explode into a multiplicity of references (Abrams, et al 19). The Song of Innocence is almost full of brightness, cheer, and peace yet, the Songs of Experience is depicting a world worn and full of miserable human beings (Mack, et al 785). Blake's works range from simplicity and lyrical style as in the Songs of Innocence and Experience to more elaborate style such as in The Four Zoas. For some, Blake's works can be difficult at times. One reason is that the reader is reading Blake's visions in Blake's own terms (Dover). Blake said that, ? The Nature of my Work is Visionary or Imaginative.? What he meant by this is often misinterpreted; on that note Blake said, ?that which can be made Explicit to the Idiots is not worth my care?(Abrams). Even the introduction song to the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is a good example of not only Blake's views of the role of Innocence and Experience in regeneration, but also the complexity of the seemingly simple songs (Magill, et al 208). Some symbols in the poems are for instance the lamb in the Song of Innocence. The lamb is a symbol of Christ and his pureness and innocence. The poem, ?The Tyger,? has a few symbols also one of which is the lamb again and the tyger itself. In the poem Blake says, ?did he who made the lamb make thee?(line 20)? This represents the purity of the lamb and the beast in the tyger and Blake is wondering how something so vicious could be created by God. The poem ?The Lamb,? and the

Critically compare Socrates and Descartess Essays

Critically compare Socrates and Descartess Essays Critically compare Socrates and Descartess Paper Critically compare Socrates and Descartess Paper Descanters essence is the inherent substance to which physical properties are built upon. Socrates forms are also cannot be destroyed, and as his notion Of a soul is akin to the forms, the soul also cannot be destroyed. Comparatively, Descanters essence has no defined lifespan, but is rather simply better known than the body. Both Socrates and Descartes, in accordance to their Substance Dualism, believe that their respective form or essence has causal control over the body as part of either the mind or the soul. Socrates notion of Forms is fundamentally flawed, as it raises many objections which lead to absurdity. Primarily, if there is to be a true form for everything in the physical world, would that mean that the forms in themselves are imperfect? For example, there may be a perfect form of banana for all bananas, but yet the perfect form of fruit is that of an apple. Is that to say that the perfect form of banana is somehow less perfect than the form of an apple because it is only the form of a banana and not that of a fruit? Or does it somehow bear thinking that a banana is therefore not a fruit, r that simply, the notion of perfect forms which correspond to the material we encounter every day is inapplicable. In the context of the soul being akin to the forms, would the problem of perfection with Socrates Realm of Forms then lead us to believe that there is a perfect form for each person, and that some people s souls or forms, are more perfect than anothers soul? Therefore, Socrates conception of forms leads to making itself invalid, for as there is a perfect-ere form of all perfect things, there could equally mean that al materials things are therefore perfect manifestations of the form of rotten yellow Cavendish Banana with five spots near the stem. When these self-contradictions are considered, the Realm of Forms seems improbable, if not impossible. Considering now Descanters notion of the essence, which is perceived through his intellect and has no discernible sensory qualities, it can be found that, apart from being vague, the notion of the essence is flawed. Descartes has extricated the secondary properties from primary properties Of an Object, tit the secondary properties being the sensory manifestations, and the primary properties being the time and space the object occupies. In saying that there is an essence to all things that is there even when what is normally considered the properties of the object is, goes against Bundle Theory. Bundle Theory operates on the idea that humans are a collection of sensory input, but nothing exists behind this. Descartes attempts to rationalist that the essence is also the spirit of all things, and within the human it is the soul or mind.

Did Prohibition Succeed Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Did Prohibition Succeed - Research Paper Example This was shown already in the states that were already dry – some of the states issued permits for people to bring alcohol from one state to another, and there were 34,000 of these permits issued in Washington state, a state where there was, at the time, only 44,000 registered voters. Before the ratification of the amendment, Michigan was a dry state, and Ohio was a wet one, and the highway between Michigan and Ohio was so convenient for the smugglers that the highway became known as the â€Å"Avenue de Booze† (Okrent, 2010, p. 102). This meant that there would be an underground avenue for people getting booze, long after Prohibition was enacted, and this is exactly what happened. Part of the problem is that, as Sinclair Lewis brilliantly noted, during this time there was an overall change in the American landscape. The people were coming from more of a prairie lifestyle into one that was becoming more and more industrialized, and, with this came both disillusionment an d rebellion (Lewis, 1922, p. 56). This was the overall wrong time to try to outlaw booze. The generation had just came from war, or at least seen it or known people who have been in it, and they were coming into a period of increasing change. Alcohol becoming forbidden would be a way to rebel, if the people of the twenties engaged in it, while, at the same time, alcohol could be seen as a way to soothe the nerves of the people who are undergoing this powerful change. So, in this way, Prohibition could not have come at a worse time. In the years that followed the ratification and enaction of the 18th Amendment, there was considerable evidence that the Prohibition Amendment was nothing but a sham. For instance, in February of 1920, which was the year that the Prohibition Amendment actually took effect, Leo J. Grove seized three barrels of homemade wine from the basement of an Italian grocery store, and this was only one of many examples of people who still supplied alcohol to the mass es (Okrent, 2010, p. 120). In that first year, there were 900,000 cases of liquor that came from Canada and made its way to the United States – and this was just in the first seven months of 1920, which was considered to be a â€Å"dry-but-wet year† (Okrent, 2010, p. 124). In New England, the alcohol came from ships that were anchored beyond the three mile limit, and these were ferried to shore. These were the more professional endeavors, but there were also countless moonshiners that would make the alcohol, some of them in their bathtubs, and would distribute them (Okrent, 2010, p. 125). Worse, Prohibition led to crime on a wide scale. The first alliances were between the gangsters, such as Capone, Torrio and Lansky, and these alliances were the first signs of a crime syndicate that had gone across the United States. Moreover, these mobsters had respectability. They took part in anti-Ku Klux Klan campaigns, and they were considered to be glamorous. Longy Zwillman was dating actress Jean Harlow, and there were many mobsters who owned popular nightclubs. Another gangster had an affair with actress Mae West. Al Capone was involved in charities for the poor (Okrent, 2010, p. 274). The reason why there was so much crime, and that these mobsters and others were seen as glamorous was because there was so much money in selling alcohol underground. There were some annual sales of $3.6 billion nationally by 1926 –