Poetry: British Literature after 1800
Blake: From Poetical Sketches (1783)
Notes on:
Song: How Sweet I Roam'd. . .,
Song: Memory, Hither Come. . .
General notes: This is the only of Blake's books originally set in print; later, he used a special kind of process to etch his illustrations and poetry--backwards!--into the brass plates themselves.
These poems of "Poetical Sketches" are generally free from the exaggerated archaism of the later poems, using more normal spellings and grammar. However, "To the Muses" (not on the PhD Reading List) is more archaic, using spellings like "chrystal" and "antient." According to Norton, the poem uses the "diction of later 18th-century poetry." --well, it IS a later 18th- century poem!
According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature 5th Ed. Vol. 2, p. 21, in this book Blake "experimented with partial rhymes and novel rhythms and employed bold figures of speech that at times approximate symbols." I note some of the rhymes and rhythms below.
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1. "To The Evening Star" (Show the Poem)
unrhymed iambic pentameter--some irregularities. One line ends with "the," which is typically never accented, and thus never suitable as the end of a line of iambic meter.
Narrator is speaking to the Evening Star, Venus (the planet, of course; also, related to the goddess of love) calling her the "fair-hair'd angel of the evening"
Romantic, idealized, charming: pastoral.
Suggests that when Venus leaves--"Soon, full soon, dost thou withdraw, then the wolf rages wide, and the lion glares thro' the dun forest." Suggests that the narrator might represent a shepherd (lending some pastoral flair) --but the sheep, protected by the dew leeft by Venus and influence may be safe.
References not to the Christian God, but to pagan, classical 'gods'
The end part of the poem has a sudden change in tone that is also used in the other two poems from this book.
2. "Song: How Sweet I Roamed. . ." (Show the Poem)
Four stanzas of iambic tetrameter, abab
Cupid. . .pastoral again--field, flowers. . .
Eye-rhyme (?) "Brow" and "Grow"--or did they rhyme in 1783?? Maybe this an instance of the rhythmic experimentation Norton is talking about.
[Note, by the way: Even though words like "brain" and "again" haven't really rhymed for centuries, modern songwriters continue to use that as a rhyme, not even bothering to pronounce them similarly, such as Paul McCartney. . .a cultural force of habit?]
First part is about Cupid giving the avian narrator (?) flowers, etc... Then Phoebus catches the bird with a silken net and deposits it into a golden cage, elegant torture to the bird, as Phoebus (related to light) "mocks my loss of liberty"
So there's a change in tone again at the end! It seems as if we have the introduction, the development, the crisis; but no conclusion, like an unfinished story.
3. "Song: Memory, Hither Come. . ." (Show the Poem)
Iambic trimeter (getting briefer and briefer lines!) Two stanzas: xaxabbcc; ababccdd. Line 4 of each verse is in iambic dimeter (e. g. even briefer!) Merry notes--but the end is melancholy! Again, a "happy" one with a "sad" ending. This trick is a bit overused! Tone is rather pastoral again, a bit like friend Burns.
End of notes on "Poetical Sketches." Next: "Songs of Innocence"!
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