William Blake and His Poetry: Appealing and Informative

I was wandering through the different blogs of my fellow peers and came across this eye catching blog which was also created around William Blake’s thoughts and life. The blog that I came across was William Blake and His Poetry. This blog discusses his different poems and styles throughout his poetry. What I like about this blog is how appealing and easy it is on the eyes. It stands out just the right amount, without overwhelming you. The annotations are insightful and make you want to read more without becoming bored or flustered. How the pictures and videos were organized in the text made it easy to navigate through the several entries that have been posted. I liked how each of the interpretations was informative and thought out in a way that made it easy to read and interpret. I personally enjoyed the annotation on Ah! Sunflower. How the poem is annotated is extremely insightful and grasping. I after felt the need to read the poem and connect my thoughts to the post and compare. I again enjoyed the organization of the post. What made this blog interesting is how it varies, and how each post is different so you do not get stuck reading the same things over and over again. By reading this blog you will learn the several types of poetry that was written by William Blake and find a new understanding to his words in a way that makes it interesting.
I would recommend this to others because of the information that makes you want to learn more about the poetry that was posted and the massive amount of poems written by William Blake. Other students should take note of the organization in this blog and apply it to their own in order to ease navigation of their own. If you were to read this blog, post by post you would easily learn the many variations of William Blake and what exactly influenced him and when.

True or False?

"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend."
-William Blake

This quote by William Blake caught my eye immediately. The truth just jumps off the screen and makes sense simply without needing to dig deeper into thought. A friend ship is something that takes time to build, and along with that you build trust and a bond that is very hard to break. In the English language friend ship is known as a noun and described as a distinctively personal relationship that is grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other, for the other's sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy. Now an enemy being the opposite does not carry that relationship between the two people. An enemy is one that is antagonistic to another; or one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent. If your enemy were to betray you in any way you’re bound to get over it because you expect it to happen, so you can't be as hurt or betrayed by someone you do not care for compared to your friend. If your friend were to betray you, it would hurt so much more than your enemy. You look to your friend for advice and think of them as someone that will stand up for you not bring you down. It is harder to forgive a friend because you do not expect to be hurt by someone that you love. It takes longer to emend that friendship after what they have done because of the betrayal you feel from that other person. An enemy is easy to come by, it takes only the bit of strength to develop a small amount of hatred towards another person; regardless of what it is they are easier to come by. A great friend is hard to come by though; it takes a lot to develop a close friendship with another person and that bond is hard to break when made. No matter what the circumstance is though it is hard to forgive anyone, but regardless of how hard it is to forgive and forget it is even harder to forgive something someone you love. That is what I think William Blake meant by this quote.

Wordzworth4eva: creative and thoughtful

As I was looking through the many blogs of my fellow classmates, the one that stuck out to me the most is definitely the wordzworth4eva blog created by Alyck, Presley and Keyla. Every post on their blog is creative and very well thought out. I particularly liked Keyla’s description/interpretation of the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Child”. I really like the way she describes the daffodils and their characteristics to be human-like, and the way she imagines how nature connects us all. I got much more out of the poem after reading Keyla's interpretation on it and overall I think she reached a much deeper understanding about the poem than I would have. The way that they have added pictures to each post also really adds a lot to the visual appeal of their blog, and I like how clean looking their blog is as a whole because it helps the reader really concentrate on the material without a lot of distractions. Another aspect of their blog that I really enjoyed would be Alyck’s reading response and the views of Darwin vs. Wordsworth. The opinions of Darwin were strictly scientific and based on evolution, while Wordsworth took the religious stance of creationism in his literary works. The argument between the two is science vs. faith, and opinions on the topic vary based upon ethics. The example given about the Jehovah’s Witness belief on blood transfusions really helps to solidify Alyck’s response to the article.

I would recommend the Wordsworth blog to others because it really presents a whole new point of view on the poetry of William Wordsworth as well as other important people of the era. The thing I like most about the blog is it’s ability to entertain as well as inform the reader, like the “cliffnotes version” of Wordsworth life written by Alyck. It’s a new way to make the reader actually want to learn about Wordsworth and his impact on society, while at the same time not being the type of reading material that makes me yawn and gives me the urge to bust out some highly caffeinated coffee.

The Wordzworth4eva blog page is worth taking a look at.

Contradiction Quote

"Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction." --William Blake


These words once spoke by Blake pretty much sum up Blake’s view on the world. He thought that the world should be shaped by imagination and not by science. Fiction is what Blake was able to base his art and poetry upon, and if he would have based it on science he never would have gotten anywhere. He speaks of contradictions because of his some what cynical outlook on mankind at this point in time, with the hope that the world would some day be shaped purely by imagination. This quote is really saying that we as humans should live the way we want, when we want. (“Do what you will”). Our own fiction/imagination is made up of our own will to do what we want. It doesn't matter what it may be, but Blake really thought that if the mind can believe it, it can achieve it. If our dreams are of the imagination, they are never too big. The world is also made up of contradictions; such as Christianity being a religion about forgiveness, yet those who commit sins that are severe enough can be excommunicated in some religions or churches. Another contradiction I come across all the time would be parents trying to tell their kids what to do. When they were our age, they made just as many mistakes and made the same choices as we do. In some cases, we can learn from the mistakes of those around us. But generally, our parents were in the exact same circumstances that we are and were once faced with the same scenarios that we are faced with on a day-to-day basis. Why should we get punished for doing something that our parents once did? To me, that is a huge contradiction and it goes to show how hypocritical the world can be. We can create what we want out of our lives by using our imaginations and living according to what we really want. The world is full of these “contradictions” anyway, so what’s the harm? Blake was really trying to convey the power of fictions along with contradictions in our lives, and his words make more and more sense as I experience it myself.