Introduction (Experience_

Question 1

Summarise Introduction (Experience)

Answer 1

Introduces a prophetic voice (the bard) who perceives the continuum of time and calls upon the earth to awaken from spiritual slumber

Question 2

What does Introduction(E) set the scene for?

Answer 2

for the fallen world Blake portrays throughout experience

Question 3

How does Introduction(E) contrast Innocence?

Answer 3

instead of a cheerful piper there is the voice of someone who trancends time and was present at the fall of man in the garden of ened

Question 4

What does the speaker issue in Introduction(E)?

Answer 4

a command to the reader to listen to the bard and what he ahs to say

Question 5

What does the piper from Innocence become in Introduction(E)?

Answer 5

a bard

Question 6

What does the bard in Introduction(E) call on?

Answer 6

the earth to return to the way it was before the biblical fall of man as the world has become too restrictive and needs liberty

Question 7

What does the fall in Introduction(E) refer to?

Answer 7

the fall from imagination and insight to the use of physical sight

Question 8

What does Introduction(E) comprise of?

Answer 8

4 quintains (5-line stanzas)

Question 9

What is the rhyme scheme of Introduction(E)?

Answer 9

semi regular - musical but not entirely predictable

Question 10

what do the quick middle lines in Introduction(E) suggest?

Answer 10

a feeling of claustrophobia and restriction, echoing the idea of earth imprisonment

Question 11

What do the exclamatory sentences in Introduction(E) do?

Answer 11

they command out attention and create a sense of importance and lamentation

Question 12

What does the enjambment in Introduction(E) do?

Answer 12

adds to a sense of urgency as the reader waits for earths response (which is not supplied at the end of the poem)

Question 13

“slumberous mass”

Answer 13

• soul is in a state of experience and is exhausted and unable to summon freshness of vision which characterised a state of innocence

Question 14

“Break of day”

Answer 14

• “Starry floor” and “wat’ry shire” are given for a brief time until the “break of day”
• this suggests that the time of materialism and revision is nearly over
• The time of true creativity and spirituality is near

Question 15

“Turn away no more”

Answer 15

• Bard commands with imperative then changes tack to implore with question

Question 16

“hear the voices of the bard”

Answer 16

Imperative ‘hear’ initiates an invitation and emphasises the importance of listening to the bard

Question 17

What does the lanaguge of control in Introduction(E) link to?

Answer 17

the language of “weeping” “worn” “slumberous” according to which the soul in a state of experience is asleep and exhausted, unable to muster freshness of vision which has characterised the innocent perspective

Question 18

What does the bard show in Introduction(E)?

Answer 18

*we are in a different world to that of innocence
*questions the narrative positions and how as the reader we begin to experience them differently
*can we trust him to expose the evils of experinced?
*is the bard truthful to the experinced views of the world or has he been contaminated by it?

Question 19

“holy word”

Answer 19

*implies a direct encounter with divine revelation/ wisdom
*blends the spiritual with natural
*not the voice of God but of a false creator who wants man to be satisfied
*Blake often used ‘holy’ to mean secret instead of sacred
- biblical illusion to the tree of knowledge
- Blakes main critique of the priesthood is that it tries to hold truth to itself rather than share democratically with others

Question 20

What is the tree of knowledge?

Answer 20

• is one of two specific trees that God makes grow in the Garden of Eden.
• consuming the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the original sin committed by Adam and Eve that led to the fall of man in Genesis 3.

Question 21

“calling the lapsed soul”

Answer 21

• repetition of lapsing = adam and eve who were the original sinners descended from the world of innocence/paradise to the world of experinced
  *suggests humans need to break away from confines of materialism and realise true imaginative/spiritual potential

Question 22

“O earth, O earth return”

Answer 22

Epizeuxis - the bard is calling to personified earth to arise from darkness

Question 23

“Evening dew”

Answer 23

Repetiton from little boy lost and found

Question 24

“Present past and future sees”

Answer 24

*Cosmic awareness to mystical persona
* connection with time

Question 25

“that might control”

Answer 25

*Suggests aspiration to regain sense of order, reason and spiritual guidance
*also presents how the bard (E) is different from the piper (I), as he preaches a language of control, not revelation

Question 26

“The starry pole”

Answer 26

Blake beleived every inividual contained inner infinity

Question 27

“And fallen, fallen light renew”

Answer 27

Aligns with notion of restoring a lost state of innocence
*In Blakes philosophy, each individual contained an inner infinity and the only thing stopping them from reaching this was the corrupting industrial revolution and the fact people fell prey to science

Question 28

“Waiting shore”

Answer 28

• conveys a boundary/ restriction
• biblical book of Jeremiah where god tells humanity it should fear him is a biblical illusion and suggests a cruel/vain old testament and presents the idea that all institutions that support this idea of god are also cruel

Question 29

“rises”

Answer 29

Image of daybreak is a call for metaphoric sleeping masses to awaken from sleep and move away from materialism