Revision:Blake and Nature

TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > English > Blake and Nature

• we have met various natural landscapes. first there is a general agricultural landscape of 'mead', 'stream' and 'vales', 'green fields and happy groves'. in the design for 'the lamb', an agricultural building like a byre or a cottage stands in the background, and an oak tree adds security. there are birds, trees, 'bud and blossom', but no forests in this landscape. This is the landscape of the world of innocence. Secondly, we have met a contrasting landscape of 'forests of the night' of 'the tyger'. In this dark forest are wild beasts hungry for their prey. Two other landscapes seem to be alternative expressions of nature as perceived from experience: there is the 'lonely fen' and 'lonely vale' where 'the mire was deep' which is soaked in dew; and there is the 'desert wild' with 'pathless ways' and 'valleys deep' through which lyca's parents search for their lost daughter. The 'desert' is also the home of lions, tigers and wolves.

• these landscapes are believable and natural: they are viable perceptions of nature in the songs, and each kind of environment has an undeniable truth: the child's gentle setting, in 'the lamb' is his true experience of life; while the 'lonely fen' from which an illusion of God rescues the lost boy are also symbolic of these states of mind innocence and experience. they are true perceptions of nature, but they are not nature itself.

• these subjective perceptions of nature suffer transformations within the poems. in particular, in 'the little girl lost' and 'the little girl found' we see that they are restricted to the eyes of the different characters. so, lyca is in a 'southern clime' where summer endures permanently, surrounded by 'wild birds' and lying beneath a tree. her parents are in the same landscape, but they see a 'desart wild' will become a 'garden mild'. so, the two contrasting landscapes exist simultaneously in the same place. Vision, or the lack of it, rules how we see nature.

• Wild beasts appear in several of the poems. Blake does not mitigate their wildness, but he does criticise human fear of natural energy. when lyca's parents meet the lion, their natural senses perceive the beast accurately: they perceive his power and size, the magnificence of his mane, and they see that he walks around them and sniffs. In the same way, at the end of the poem, lions still 'growl' and wolves still 'howl' as it is their nature. However, the 'vision' and which is not done with the 'senses' can understand and perceive the essence of nature. We looked at the moment of 'vision' when lyca's parents see both a (physical) lion and a (visionary) 'spirit arm'd in gold'.

• An effect of Blake's focus on subjective perceptions of nature is that nature is that nature itself is enigmatic. We cannot draw conclusions about nature's inherent goodness or evil, gentleness or violence, benevolence or malevolence. In these poems, nature itself simply it: it exists but does not have moral or emotional characteristics. This is a paradoxical effect, since all observers project intentions and emotions onto nature, intensively and constantly.

• people also have a 'nature': natural emotions and desires implies that these should be followed and expressed. We have met the construction, repression and distortion of desire in the poem 'the angel'. the outcome is lies, hostility and a wasted life. We also witnessed the tyranny of distorted and selfish feeling, when lyca's parents attempt to impose their own fear and misery on their daughter, using emotional blackmail.

• The distortion of healthy feelings into negative ones - typically demands for pity, and defensive hostility - often focuses on emotions about sexuality. For example, we noticed that lyca's parents are terrified into submission by they lions display of masculinity, while their daughters uninhibited natural development is accentuated when the lioness 'loos'd her slender dress'. the poem 'a little girl lost' in experience explicitly examines puritan fear and jealousy of sex, and its tragic consequences; but 'the angel' which we have studied also presents a potential love-relationship, destroyed by emotional dishonesty.

Comments

These notes are aimed at A Level English Literature students at A2 level.

Originally written by little one on TSR Forums.