ENGL 3251H Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Evry, Heavenly Host, Urizen
25 Oct 2015
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Lecture notes on william blake"s the marriage of heaven and hell. Prof. l. clark (supplement to thursday sept. 17, 2015 lecture) This poem is an excellent introduction to blake because it shows why he is arguably the most powerful and radical of the english romantic poets, despite his lack of direct influence on his contemporaries. This is for two main reasons: 1. he attacks enlightenment reason in all its forms religious, philosophical, and scientific; and 2. he grapples with the philosophical. His attack on reason is all-pervasive throughout the poem, not least in his confusion of literary genres: it"s a mixture of parables, proverbs, riddles, poetry, prose, and logical contradictions designed to drive reason your reason--crazy! Visually, i suggested that what blake is up to in this poem is best represented by two of his most famous illustrations: the ancient of days and newton. Reason, a villainous character central to his later myth.
