THE ANGEL (William
Blake)
I dreamt a dream!
What can it mean?
And that I was a maiden Queen
Guarded by an Angel mild:
Witless woe was ne'er beguiled!
And I wept both night
and day,
And he wiped my tears away;
And I wept both day and night,
And hid from him my heart's delight.
So he took his wings,
and fled;
Then the morn blushed rosy red.
I dried my tears, and armed my fears
With ten thousand shields and spears.
Soon my Angel came
again;
I was armed, he came in vain;
For the time of youth was fled,
And grey hairs were on my head.
William
Blake
Songs
of Experience
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=3026&poem=17553
According to the title of the poem, we can suppose its meaning in relation
with the poem. “The angel” is the mythical character who appears in our
best dreams and looks after us avoiding our fears during the night when
we can’t defend ourselves. We know the angels don’t exist, but everyone,
when you are child, has felt the sensation of having someone. However, if
we read the poem, we realize the first impression that I have had only reading
the title; it’s no far to the real meaning. In the first stanza we find “Guarded
by an Angel mild” so we know already that the main character has an angel
who is looking after the author. But is it an angel or a human?
William Blake is an author who gives more importance to the sensations
than opinions, because they can be manipulated and the sensations are pure.
Here we can find the feelings of someone who is lovesick. The poet writes
about the life and the different feelings. How the Man goes from childhood
to adulthood.
Now,
we are capable of answering the question. The angel, which the author talks
about, is the lover. A lover who left and when he came back everything was
changed. The time goes through and everything is changing, we can’t stop
the time and our feelings. “Soon my Angel came again; I was armed, he
came in vain”
In my opinion, the author narrates a story about a young love, a teenager’s
love. During this period everything is beautiful, you are on cloud nine.
Although the author knows that the lover must leave, the author isn’t capable
of breaking the feelings and starts to suffer inside himself. “Witless
woe was ne'er beguiled!” But everyone grows; the author becomes an adult
and starts to forget. When the lover’s back “the time of youth was fled,
And grey hairs were on my head.”
First of all, we can see in the first stanza an important element which
is common in Blake’s poetry: Vision and Dreams “I dreamt a dream!”
Also, through these verses we can find the use of the first personal pronoun,
so we realize the author is the main character of the poem “I was a maiden
Queen”. The use of the first personal pronoun is also used in the following
stanzas.
In
the second stanza, we find alliteration “night and day”. The author wants
to emphasize the fact that the suffering can take place not only during
the night, when everything is quiet, but also during the day when it’s noisy.
The author gives to the heart the sensation of having delights. The author
uses a personification; it is the way through which the author expresses
the suffering about lovesickness.
In
the third stanza, we find a poetical term “morn” that means morning.
We also find a personification “I dried my tears, and armed my fears,
With ten thousand shields and spears” the poet expresses using this personification,
the process of becoming an adult. When you are an adult, you have acquired
more experience about life; you have surpassed some situations that have
made you stronger. However, maybe you live during your life some experience
which took place before, but now thanks to your knowledge gained from the
experience, you don’t suffer. This is the main idea we can find in the fourth
stanza. But also the last stanza is the conclusion of the poem; it is a kind
of moral lesson. William Blake tries to teach his readers that everything
has an ending and you should live your life because there is only one and
you can’t lose your time. Another interpretation could be that the distance
makes the oblivion.
In my opinion the author seems happy when we read the first stanza, happiness
is the feeling of the author when he is remembering the period when they
were happy. However if we continue reading the poem, we can perceive a tone
change in the forth verse. Here there is a melancholic tone. Sadness is
the feeling which invades the author’s heart. But in the third and fourth
stanza we observe the author’s ambition, because he wants to surpass the
bad feelings and try to be happy although it costs some years.
The poem reflects exactly how the feelings are along our lives. People
experiments these kinds of sensations sometime in their lives and they have
passed the bad moments. In the third stanza, when the author makes reference
to “the Morn” it means when a new day comes, where everything starts
again. It is like a new opportunity which life offers you to renew your feelings.