Holy Thursday (Experience) - William Blake Flashcards
When was Holy Thursday (Experience) published?
1794
What major event was Going on at the time?
The Industrial Revolution.
What did the IR symbolise?
-Growth of commercialism
-City’s = corruption of the soul
What Gen Poet was William Blake?
1st gen
What does the radical Rousseau say about emotions and feeling?
“man is born free but everywhere is in chains”
Did Blake believe in organised religion?
-No but he was still spiritual
-Believed worship was private and intimate
Which prophet did Blake believe he saw as a child?
Ezekiel
what is pathos?
inducing sad emotion
What is the significance of switching the Iambic rhythm to the Trochaic rhythm?
-Iambic > youthful, nursery rhyme-like> innocent
-Trochaic > harsh, destructive and grave
-Uses this shift to destroy the ideas of this ‘fruitful land’ and dissolve the facade > Stress on the negative aspects creates disrupted stanzas
What is the significance of the elongated vowels?
- Stresses significance
-Presents the issues of the poem to be stretched over too long a period
-creates a sorrowful tone
What is significant about “In a rich and fruitful land”?
-the idea of a place of beauty turned to destruction
-Biblical allusion to the Garden of Eden > Sin will consume
What is significant about “Fed with a cold usurous hand”?
-Rhetoric metaphor > questioning greed
-Juxtaposes the hungry children
Why does Blake use the 3 rhetorical questions in stanza 2?
-Creates a questioning tone of society
-Wants to make the reader think
What is the significance of the anaphora of ‘and their’ in stanza 3?
-Creates a feeling that these problems are unescapable
What type of plosives are used in stanza 3?
alliterative
What is the effect of the alternate rhyme scheme in stanza 3?
-Creates the idea of an alternate reality which is free of all this suffering and greed
-Reality vs hope
What is significant about “Not poverty the mind appall.” and the use of “Sun” and “Rain” in the last stanza?
-Wishful metaphor
-Embraces the natural world > with natural aspects the world would be free of this poverty
