William Blake Archetypes

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One of the first romantic writers was, William Blake, he had two very well-known passages of poems, Song of Innocence and Song of Experience. In, Song of Innocence, Blake wrote several poems, but the ones that most intrigued me was, The Lamb and The Chimney Sweeper. Then on the other end, The Tyger and Infant Sorrow, were what caught my eye. Like any other romantic era writer, Blake starts at a very basic idea, like a lamb, then has he continues he is able to connect it to a more philosophical ideas. Although, Blake has his own personal style as well, his use of archetypes. An archetype is a constantly reoccurring symbol or motif in a piece of literature and Blake uses this perfectly. In the poems; The Lamb, The Tyger, The Chimney Sweeper, and Infant Sorrow William Blake uses the concept of archetypes to create some of the most important poetry in the history of literature. When reading, The Lamb, it is obvious that Blake intended this poem to in the collection of Song …show more content…

This is, by far, the most powerful eight lines the William Blake has written. He takes a very natural thing, child-birth, and looks at it in another view, the child’s view. He is very familiar to the issue that poor families are having children and can’t afford to raise them correctly. “Poverty as a social problem is a deeply embedded wound that permeates every dimension of culture and society,” (Phil Bartle) this problem was not only a problem back then, but also a problem in today’s world. When the child comes out crying born to a poor family he is crying because he knows he or she won’t be able to do what they want to do and that life is hard, so instead they try to hide. William expresses this, “Bound and weary, I thought best to sulk upon my mother’s breast.” (Ln. 7-8) He expresses this problem and knows that it is up to society to fix