Reading Response 3

An Eye Opener to William Blake and His Works

      In the article “Point of View and Context in Blake’s Songs”, Robert F. Gleckner reveals the secrets within romantic poet William Blake’s works, and teaches the reader how to recognize the true meaning of all Blake’s songs. Robert talks about using point of view, context, symbols, organization, and perspective to discover the true meaning of Blake’s poems. He demonstrates how to properly understand a poem by using these concepts in examples of Blake’s work. In My Pretty Rose Tree, Robert exposes the true reason why the speaker gets no reward from his “rose tree”, and teaches how the use of symbolism can make all poems easier to interpret. When Robert compares the Piper and the Bard (two characters within Blake’s works from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience), he displays the use of experience versus innocence, and tells how Blake uses those dualities in all his poems to intensify the irony and significance. He also reveals that all of Blake’s songs should be read in the correct order of Songs of Innocence then Songs of Experience. To explain this Robert writes, “For the serious reader of Blake’s songs, then a constant awareness of the context of state in which a poem appears in indispensable; and since each state is made up of many poems, the other poem in that state must be consulted to grasp the full significance of any one poem.” By this he means that William Blake intended his songs to be read, and remembered in a certain order. If someone reads a random poem from one of Blake’s songs, without any background information, that person would be unable to find the deeper meaning Blake hoped to expose. Throughout the article Robert shows the reader piece by piece how to better understand Blake’s songs, using very vital concepts, he backs all of his teachings up with examples, and information from other authors.

      Robert’s techniques really helped me to understand not only the poems, but also William Blake himself. Because of him I now know how to properly annotate and understand poems, so I actually learn from Blake. I never realized the amount of irony contained in his works, and positively didn’t understand it; his ironic occurrences in poems are similar to jokes, extremely hard to understand if all the background information isn’t known. In the article Robert demonstrated how to detect metaphors and characters within each poem, which helped me to understand what Blake was truly trying to portray in My Pretty Rose Tree from Songs of Experience:

A flower was offered to me,

Such a flower as May never bore;

But I said "I've a pretty rose tree,"

And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

Then I went to my pretty rose tree,

To tend her by day and by night;

But my rose turned away with jealousy,

And her thorns were my only delight.

It would be difficult to decipher this poem if the context, point of view, and symbols were not understood. Before I read Robert’s article, I thought the poem was about a person that was really into flowers. Fortunately I now understand how to interpret the poem. To begin I realized the “flower” is a woman (a temptress), and the “pretty rose tree” is the speaker’s wife. Replacing those symbols alone helps to read the poem. The speaker (a man) is temped by a beautiful woman to commit adultery, yet the man resists the temptation and goes home to be with his wife. Still even though he resisted said temptation, his wife left him because of jealousy. In order to understand why the man's virtuous act of faithfulness had such unfortunate consequences I had to comprehend Blake’s definition of virtue. To Blake ‘virtue’ can mean two different things, depending on the perspective. Blake wrote in two different contexts, he wrote in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience; these two different works define the meaning of the poems inside them. My Pretty Rose Tree was taken from Songs of Experience, from that knowledge alone, I understand that someone in the poem will either be a symbol of experience or learn a lesson in experience. William Blake saw that without breaking the 10 commandments, virtue could not exist. He believed Jesus (in biblical times) acted from impulse, and not rules, and Jesus was all virtue. Concluding that a person of experience, in order to be virtuous, would have to act solely from impulse. In My Pretty Rose Tree the speaker acts from rules, the rule (commandment) “Thou shall not commit adultery”, by refusing the offer of the other woman (sweet flower). Even though the man was faithful to his rose, he still has the same consequence from his wife as he would have if he wasn’t faithful and had seized the opportunity. In Blake’s eyes the poem is a lesson, an example of the known Latin phrase “carpe diem” (seize the day). One who ties himself to a joy will kill the essence of initial happiness. Living in the moment and rejoicing that one was able to take part in the happiness at all leaves more room to enjoy other happy experiences. The speaker passed up a chance of initial joy, to return home to his rose; thus the speaker did not ‘seize the day’. In doing this, the man lost a chance for experience. Without knowing the point of view and context while reading My Pretty Rose Tree, I was unable to comprehend the meaning. Robert taught me to understand that in all of Blake’s writing there are multiple purposes within an individual poem (song), and these must be recognized in order for the poem to be properly understood the way Blake wished the message to be comprehended. Robert also gave me the gift of being able to accept romantic poetry, and appreciate it. I actually have a favorite poem now, Holy Thursday from Songs of Innocence. I like this song because I understand it, and it is not just a blob of complex words and confusing punctuation. Thanks to Robert F. Gleckner, I have ironically learned a lesson from this poem that I once dreaded.