Some Paraphrases

Below are some of the paraphrases you came up with in class.

A Paraphrase of William Blake’s “Song”

The speaker is wandering outside in nature and is enjoying the fruits of summer, until s/he sees the “prince of love” in the sunshine. The Prince of Love takes the speaker to his garden and shows the speaker beautiful flowers and other pleasures. The speaker is caught in nets of silk and in a golden cage. His voice is “fir’d” by Phoebus. The Prince of Love likes to sit and listen to the speaker singing, play with him, and mocks his loss of freedom.

A Paraphrase of William Blake’s “London”

The speaker is wandering through the “chartered” streets of London, near the Thames River; and he sees people with weak and sad faces. He hears adults and children crying and in these voices he notices fear and “mind-forg’ed manacles”. The cries of the chimney-sweepers make the churches black, and the sigh of an unlucky soldier is like blood running down the walls of the Palace. The thing he hears most clearly at midnight is the cursing of a prostitute at a new-born baby and this curse/cursing brings sickness and death to a/the marriage.

A Paraphrase of William Blake’s “The Sick Rose”

The speaker tells a "Rose" that it is sick, and that an invisible worm, which flies in the night, during a loud storm, has found out the Rose’s bed of “crimson joy”. The worm’s “dark secret love” destroys the Rose’s life.

A Paraphrase of William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The speaker tells a “Tyger” that it is burning bright in the night, in a forest. The speaker asks what “immortal hand or eye” could outline its symmetrical body. He continues to ask where the fire in the tiger’s eyes come from, and who could get that fire. He also asks what strength and skill is necessary to make the sinews of the tiger’s heart. When the tiger’s heart started to beat, whose hands and feet could stay there? Furthermore, he asks with which hammer and chain, and in which furnace the tiger’s brain was forged and who could have done it. [Incomplete . . .]

A Reading of William Blake's "The Sick Rose", and as performed by The Protagonist

Exercises & Assignments -- Week 2

Exercise 1: Imagery, Symbolism, Simile, Metaphor, Apostrophe and Personification

William Blake's "To the Evening Star"

Mark all the examples of imagery (and their types), symbolism, simile, metaphor, apostrophe and personification.

Exercise 2: Imagery (and apostrophe and personification)

William Blake's "The Tyger"; "London"; "Song"; "The Lamb"; "A Poison Tree"

Identify and discuss the imagery in these poems. Also identify examples of apostrophe and personification.

Exercise 3: Denotations & Connotations

William Blake's "The Tyger"; "London"; "Song"; "The Lamb"; "A Poison Tree"

What is "said" (denotations) and what is "suggested" (connotations)?

Assignment: Symbolism

William Blake's "The Sick Rose"

Discuss the symbolism in this poem.

• Is the poem about England that is corrupted by politicians (the "worm")?
• Is the poem about a prostitute that is infected with a sexual transmitted disease?
• Is the poem about a virgin, that lost her virginity, maybe through rape?
• Do you have another interpretation?

Motivate your answer.