W. BLAKE AND G.M. HOPKINS

BIOGRAPHIES:

W. Blake was born (1757) and died (1827) both in England. He wasn´t only a poet but also a painter and a mystic. He didn´t success in his time but he did it later. He is considered as the "total artist". We have to consider equally important his poetry and his paintings in order to understand his art.

His family was part of the Dissenters, a well-known sect and it is because of that why his work is influenced by the Bible.

He was taught by Basire and after he took part of the Royal Academy in order to complete his studies.

He married Catherine Boucher but he hadn´t got any sons or daughters.

G.M. Hopkins was born in 1844 and died in 1889 in Dublin so he was very young at the age of his death. He is considered as a Victorian poet because he succeed later than his work appeared. His innovations were the sprung rhythm which consists on a structure around feet with a variable number of syllables, generally between one and four syllables per foot, with the stress always falling on the first syllable in a foot. He was a little bit confused about his sexuality. In reference to religion he converted form Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism and he wrote some music for church occasions. He lived as a Jesuist. He worked as a teacher but he was not so effective. Referring to his work, it was influenced by erotism and the use of vocabulary was rich because of the use of rethorical figures such as alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and rhyme.

What are the similarities between these two poets in general aspects?

Both of them were so much interested in painting. Hopkins was more interested in music but his brothers were painters. G.M. Hopkins wanted to imitate Dante Gabriel Rossetti but it was Christina Rossetti who was a big influence for him.

Any of them had children, Blake and his wife couldn´t have children and in the case of Hopkins, his condition in that time didn´t allow him to be a father.

Blake based his poems in avoiding slavery, equality of both sex and race and the rejection of imposed authority and Hopkins´ works were affected by his state of depression.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins

What about Romanticism?

Romanticism is an artistic, political, social and ideologic revolution so much important that some of its principles such as freedom, nacionalism, democracy,...still persist nowadays. It appeared between 1770 and 1800 thanks to all the revolutions taken place in that time; the Industrial revolution, the French revolution and the American revolution.

Beauty in nature is the most relevant aspect but not the only one because we can also find funereal reasons as well as supernatural ones in this period.

For romantics, love to nature can determine their own personality and mood. Nature is always present in their emotions and pains.

Romanticism is different depending of the country, each country has its own bases and detailed ideas about Romanticism.

Modernism arrives with Romanticism.

Romantics oppose themselves to the division of reason and feelings and between reality and unreality.

Nature for these Romantics poets was considered the link between humans and God.

The arguments more used in poems written by Romantics were: Egocentrism, freedom and love and death. Innermost psychology was the real theme literature of this time is going to deal with.

http://www.monografias.com/trabajos6/roma/roma.shtml

What about Victorian Age?

Victoria Age is a term used to define Queen´s Victoria reign (1837-1901). During her reign there were lots of big changes in all these aspects: Politics, culture, economy, industrial and scientific.

There were also social changes which affected women in a possitive way; women rights permitted them to divorce as well as having their own possessions.

Culture and modernism were strongly linked at that time.

Some purposes which had just been fought in Romanticism were obtained during Queen Victoria´s time. (Purposes related to slavery and nature).

In England, during these centuries, prostitution was a frequent activity, but not only women prostitution but also homosexual one.

The most important developments in this time were in political and also in cultural aspects.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89poca_victoriana

“SPRING”

By William Blake

Sound the flute!
Now it's mute!
Bird's delight,
Day and night,
Nightingale,
In the dale,
Lark in sky,
Merrily,
Merrily merrily, to welcome in the year.

Little boy,
Full of joy;
Little girl,
Sweet and small;
Cock does crow,
So do you;
Merry voice,
Infant noise;
Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.

Little lamb,
Here I am;
Come and lick
My white neck;
Let me pull
Your soft wool;
Let me kiss
Your soft face;
Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.

http://poemaseningles.blogspot.com/2006/04/william-blake-spring.html

Comments about the poem:

As we can see after having read the poem, the most general aspect William Blake as a romantic poet has based his poem on is nature, a very common theme as we can see in the definition of Romanticism.

Vocabulary reflects this statement. We can clearly distinguish one semantic field as there is animals and we can observe also words related to hopefulness.

For example: Animals: Birds, lark, nightingale, cock, lamb.

Hopefulness: Merrily, joy, sweet, kiss, soft, welcome.

By reading this poem we can easily recognize which period it comes from because of the main subject. The title, "spring" which is a beautiful season indicates us that it is going to talk about changes in environment (weather and animal´s way of life). On the other hand we have to notice the publication of the first sentence in which the author writes about an instrument, a flute, making reference to another important aspect of that time, music, which was also extremely special for the author, William Blake loved it.

Last sentence in each stanza is the one which defines what spring is for the author, the welcome in the year, when flowers start to appear and everything is colourful.

People enjoy this spring time, the importance is in nature, nature can change people´s mood and makes everything different. This statement can be proved in everyday life, when it is rainy or cloudy we are sad, angry,... and when the sun is rising we are happy, funny,... isn´t it?

“PIED BEAUTY”

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

http://poemaseningles.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html

Comments about the poem:

In this poem it is clear how Hopkins was influenced by God. First of all he starts in a direct way by thanking God for all what he did. The author is grateful for nature, he loves all the details he finds in animals such as cows, finches,... not in people.

Both Romantic and Victorian poets are interested in the creation of nature, and because of that in God, who was its creator. These authors who comprise Romanticism and the Victorian Era consider nature and supernatural things more important than personal aspects. What for the majority of us is insignificant and usual, for instance: "a brinded cow" or a "trout"; living creatures, for the author are marvellous beings that we have to admire.

The second and last stanza of this poem is like a summary of what do we have to thank for and also the way these things can be.

Hopkins´ poems are very closely related to God and things like that, heaven, perfection, wedding,... we can find it in the titles he uses for his poems. For instance: "Heaven—Haven", "At the Wedding March"...

Similarities between these two poems in relation to the periods in which they were written.

Conclusion:

William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins have been two well-known poets but both of them have been recognised after their death. Only by observing the title of some of their poems we can notice that nature is present.

"Spring" is a word that describes a period of time comprising some months of the year in which environment changes and the author makes use of it to explain how beautiful things are, specially in nature and how people feel when spring arrives, how an immaterial thing which you can´t touch can affect so much people´s mood.

"Spring" is the title of one of Blake´s poems, the one I have chosen to do the paper. In this poem we can find words related to nature at the same time that we can take into account the importance of music. Everything seems to be more marvellous if we have got music.

On the other hand we have got Hopkin´s poem, the one that is also related to nature but it is nearer to religious aspects because of its influence in Hopkin´s life.

This poem, "Pied Beauty" is too direct. It is perfectly addressed to this divinity called God, the Creator. First of all, the poet gives an explanation of how things are thanks to God, and after that, through that list of words, Hopkins is making a summary of everything we can find in our way, things that haven´t got a price, things that we have and we should respect.

It could be difficult to distinguish poets because the themes treated were the same, they were leaded by the same canons of the time, and the poems used to be possitive: beauty of nature, hope in religion,... completely different from nowadays that we have lots of controversial themes to write about: bad treatment, contamination, politics,...

The aspect that I want to highlight after having read these two poems is that nowadays people is not as conscious as they were at that time. We don´t admire nature because we have artificial things that can replace what the Earth gave us one day but lots of problems are deriving from this state of couldn´t-care-less-attitude such as contamination,... and not so far from here we won´t be able to stop.