Community Blog Post

After searching through many of the blogs one caught my attention. The blog “Lord Byron” written by Natasha King, Danielle Henry, Alejandra Hernandez, and Sydney Leliefeld is very interesting. When you first go to their page it say’s right at the top that it will tell you everything that you need to know about Lord Byron which is helpful. Their background is also pretty cool. I like that it’s all about Byron I think he is a very interesting poet. A post written by Danielle Henry was really interesting it was called “Lord Byron: So Much For Love”. I really liked it because it gave information that I wasn’t really expecting to see. I learned a lot about Lord Byron’s personal life and how different of a person he was. The video she put up was very nice as well. Having the choice to watch a video was pretty cool since not that many groups chose to use them. Another post that struck me was “The Life of Byron” by Natasha King. This post let me know more about his schooling and his life in general. It was interesting to see how he became who he was. I would have never thought that Lord Byron would be interesting to read about until now. Learning that he was a bisexual person shocked me and reading how different his personal life was really made me want to know more about his life.if you don’t know anything about romanticism this blog will help. It has many different poems of Lord Byron and personal interpretations of them. If you don’t like poetry this blog is still interesting because it has topics that make you want to read more about like Byron’s love life and how he had a relationship with his own half sister. There’s even a post that has to do with vampires since supposedly Lord Byron was a big inspiration when it came to vampire legends. This blog did a really good job with letting you know everything you wanted to know about Lord Byron and more! They also have an interesting picture about their inspiration for their blog. 

Blake's Paintings

This picture always appears when you search up anything about William Blake and his Europe  prophecy. The picture is very interesting and captivating. At first glance you see an old man down on one knee with his hand extending down, making what looks like a perfect 90 degree angle with his fingers. It also looks like the man is up in the clouds. Looking at it more closely you can see that it’s not a perfect angle and you begin to wonder why Blake made it that way. It also makes you wonder who the old man is and how is he significant to the picture. From my point of view Blake didn’t make the angle perfect because he didn’t believe in science. I believe that the old man in the painting is supposed to be himself. Since the old man isn’t making a perfect angle he messed it up on purpose. Blake was into religion more and he made fun of many scientists in some of his other paintings. He was against most of the connventional thinking he belived in the divinty of things more. This painting was made from a metal stamp. Blake and his wife etched this picture out of a piece of metal first. Then stamped it and used it as an outline for the painting.

The next picture that shows up when searching William Blakes Europe prophecy is this snake picture. The snake is really big and evil looking but that’s usually how most snakes looks to me. The big snake has a small resemblance to a dragon because it has a small horn on it’s head and it has scaley skin. I wondered why Blake chose a snake for this prophecy. When I read the prophecy the snake didn’t have a big role in it. The snake came from “infinite” being changed into a serpent that scared away man. The serpent is obviously bad if it scared away man. I don’t understand how it was that the serpent came from “Infinte”. I don’t really know what Blake wanted “infinte” to be if it was an object or a person. Why would the snake want to scare man away? What did man ever do to the snake or “Infinite”?

Th Other Place

The other place. What is this other place?  

Is it where the wild things are? Is it where the mind wants us to go?

This place, is where my soul can meet his home. Where creation took place. 

I go to this place like a bird leaves for winter. A cycle. That is unbreakable.

This place, the place where kids can run free. Where animals surround every corner.

Where love is all around. Where the air is very distinct. Where family matters, no Steve Erkel.

My love for this place grows and cannot do anything else.

Once there, the air hits me like a snare penetrated by a bear. Hard. Very hard.

The beautiful site, only enhances my eyesight. More and more as I become present.

Every visit only becomes better and better. To both your morals and entertainment.

Last time I visited was unforgettable, truly none can be forgetten here.

Always sunny, dry, warm, and comfortable. Comfortable, but not too comfortable.

A comfortable feeling of familiarity. Where the word its self has what matters most in Spanish.

Familia. Family. Sprechen Zee Douche? I thought so.

This origin of Me. Where I originated. The place, who made me who I am now.

This home away from home is truly and literally another home away from my home in the U.S.

Where my family thrives. Grows. Bonds. Fights. And most importantly, loves.

Fear is afraid of this place. Happiness becomes happy there. And love goes in.

My heritage grew there and will keep on growing for the many years to come.

As a bird does, I return in a cycle, like as if it jeopardizes the matter of life or death.

Forever will I be grateful of this place.

My life started there and my life will end here.

Thank you Mexico.

HIM (Prose Poem)

She hears her alarm go off. She slowly reaches over to grab her phone to turn the annoying sound off. Once the silence comes back she lies down in her bed and covers her head with the blanket creating a small comforting place under there. She unfortunately only gets a small amount of resting time because then her retired army dad bursts into the room yelling at her to wake up and get ready for yet another boring day of school.

Once at school she starts counting down the hours until He wakes up. Today however He ends up surprising her and texts her first earlier than usual. After a while of texting they end up coming up with a plan to see each other.

After school ends she starts getting really nervous and excited for what she will do tonight. At home she acts like normal so her dad won’t suspect anything. She sits in her room staring out of the window waiting for the sky to go black and the moon to come out and cover her lies. She lays immobile in her bed. Never knowing when her dad could come in and rue her day. Her body cold and blazing at once, stiff she waits for the lies to begin. Silence has come to comfort her again. She knows it is time, she loses control. Rapidly she collects her belongings, and reaches for the door handle.  Without a thought, her body begins to move mechanically. As she remembers what she has done many times before. Silently she pulls the door open, hoping not to make a noise she moves her feet swiftly down the hall. She makes it all the way to the front door and stops. Trying to calm herself down she takes a couple of deep breaths, then steps out into the cold, dark embrace of the night.

Once outside she feels like a caged animal finally released into the wild. She sprints to her car and starts driving. At first she forgets where she was supposed to go because of the rush of adrenaline that is running through her body right now. Her car ends up parked on a street under a light. Looking out of her window she realizes where she is and she starts to get scared. She tells Him to come out and meet her halfway.

Stepping out of the car she starts to question herself. Why does she lie for this? What makes Him so special? She knows she shouldn’t be here, but still keeps walking towards Him. Her questions all go away when their eyes meet. Seeing His eyes is never the same. Those eyes are very unique. Deep pools of green, hazel, and blue tints full of acceptance.

Summary of Europe: A Prophecy by Wiliam Blake Part 2

William Blake’s Europe Prophecy is very lengthy and mythological. It has many different characters that form an intricate story. The prophecy jumps around a lot and was a little hard for me to follow.

Once winter starts in the story Enitharmon sees a meeting that is going on with her sons and daughters. Urizen is released and his sons seize all spirits of life out of envy of Los, possessor of the moon.  Orc, Enitharmon’s eldest born is then awakened. Rintrah and Palamabron are also released they are sent to tell the humans that women’s love is a sin and they might have a chance at eternal life. Rintrah is commanded to go and bring more “people” if that’s what they are or more characters. I would like to know why Blake didn’t explain the relationship between the characters better. Also why he didn’t make it more obvious what the characters were if they were monsters? Or gods?  Enitharmon then goes to sleep for a very long time. During the time that she sleeps the story goes into describing that the heavens of Europe are divided.

Albion’s angel leaves. What happens after is a cloud filled with demons crushes a council house that was filled with Albion’s angels. They were buried under the ruins until a fiery king brings them back. “Thought” changes “Infinite” to a serpent whether it’s a character or an object I don’t know, but the serpent scares man away. Eternal forests are divided into earths rolling in circles in space. This is probably talking about how the planets were created. Man became an angel. An ancient guardian then arrives.

Albion’s angel sees Urizen on the Atlantic with a book that has been copied on earth by kings and priest. The book I’m guessing would be the bible since the priest has it. The guardian then leaves driven away by the flames of Orc. Europe celebrates this and Orc is happy as well to hear shadows howling again. But Palamabron shoots his “lightings” at his back. Rintrah and his legions end up in the “nether deep”.

Enitharmon wakes up to find “woman’s triumph” she also calls all of her sons and daughters. They came to meet her but left as soon as the sun was coming up which left Enitharmon sad. Orc released his “light of fury in the vineyards of red France”. All his terrors came on golden chariots and went around with red wheels, dripping with blood. The lions and tigers did horrible things and all Enitharmon did was watch and cry. Los had to come and “call all his son’s to the strife of blood”. I wonder why Enitharmon did nothing but cry why didn’t she try and stop Orc? I also wanted to know why Los came and basically declared war on Orc.

Community Blog (To Austin Shwartz' Unforgettable Blog)

 “The Blake Blog that's Better than the ‘Best Blake Blog’” posted by Austin Schwartz, Erika Hewgley, Veronica Sanchez, and MJ Roy, is a very dependable blog for those who want to learn more about William Blake. This blog is actually able to represent its name because it is packed with so much helpful information. I would recommend this blog to anyone who is looking for interpretations and information on William Blake.

If you want to magically open this amazing blog, click here.

I like this blog because it’s funny but at the same time very helpful. I find it interesting how much information it has about the influence of William Blake’s poetry among our pop culture today. It is very well organized and has a good theme. After looking over this blog, I myself have learned many new things about William Blake that I did not know. I didn’t know that “V for Vendetta” or “The Watchmen” was highly influenced by William Blake’s poetry. Or that the band U2, made a song called “Bullet in the Sky”, that is very similar to “America a Prophecy” by William Blake. This blog is important for someone who doesn’t know about William Blake because it does a very good job of both describing Blake’s poetic ways and the way he has impacted us. The blog will teach them about some of his most famous poems and provides examples of interpretations of his poems. For those who have trouble interpreting what his poems mean. A strong point about this blog is its humor. The name itself is really funny and the sidebar comments on the group members are also very funny. Along with humorous entertainment, it also presents great information. The way it is set up is also very good. Its background, the examples of images and examples of his painting go along with the theme very well. Its organization is very well put together and it is easy to maneuver around the website. I am very glad to have this blog as a part of our community because it has the same subject area as this blog. Again, this is a very great blog and I would highly recommend it.

And Then There Was a Fairy (Posted By: Makenna Childers)

There was a man in an enclosed area similar to an underground cave that has five windows that light him. Each window has a separate meaning:

“..thro' one he breathes the air;
Thro' one, hears music of the spheres; thro' one, the eternal vine
Flourishes, that he may receive the grapes; thro' one can look.
And see small portions of the eternal world that ever groweth;
Thro' one, himself pass out what time he please, but he will not;
For stolen joys are sweet, & bread eaten in secret pleasant.”

And outside this enclosed place, on a streaked tulip sat a Fairy singing and mocking this man. The Fairy did not realize that he could be seen and was being watched, for when he stopped, the man came out of the trees and like a boy catches bugs in a jar, he scooped the Fairy up in his hat. The Fairy knowing he was trapped told the man that he is now his master, and shall do whatever is he is commanded to do. The man said “Then tell me, what is the material world, and is it dead?” The Fairy laughed and told the man that he would write a book on flower leaves. On the way home, the man collected wild flowers. When they got to the house, they went into the parlor and sat at the desk. The man grabbed his pen to prepare to write, and the Fairy dictated “EUROPE”.

              So technically the Fairy is telling the prophecy and all the man really has to do is write down what is being said. Thus, the fairy is the symbol for Blake’s thoughts and emotions, causing me to wonder Why a Fairy? What is the thought process that led Blake to think of a Fairy as the storyteller of the prophecy instead of having him write it? Although Blake is the author, he is not the voice of the story. By doing this, he puts a better image in the reader’s head, a picture of a happy and cheerful mystical creature like a fairy telling this dark story to help make an impact on the reader’s emotions. He just as easily could have kept himself as the writer, the reader would feel like Blake had a way with words, but was slightly insane. But Blake was a visionary and saw the world in a special way, the way most Romanticism poets saw the world, but some may have thought he was crazy. Instead he was a man that stood for what he believed in and let his imagination take him for an amazing journey through life.

Summary of Europe: A Prophecy by William Blake Part 1

The prophecy was written in two parts a preludium then the prophecy. After analyzing the preludium I came to the conclusion that it doesn't sound like it should connect to the prophecy. The preludium sounded like it completely changed halfway through and I don't know why Blake did that, it made me really confused and I ended up with a lot of questions. I didn't know what to expect when I started reading this prophecy, but it definitely wasn't talking fairy's. What I understood from the preludium was how the cave man connected to nature. Demonstrating how man used to be before colonization and the existence of material things. He was amazed by a singing "Fairy" showing how open minded people were before society formed prejudice. The "Fairy" dictates EUROPE while the cave man writes it down. I wonder why Blake made the “Fairy” speak and dictate the prophecy, also why he had to put a “Fairy” in there and not something else.

A nameless shadowy female comes into the story. She starts complaining about being brought to life in this world with other people, because she feels like "Mother Enitharmon" is going to forget about her. “Mother Enitharmon” represents God or some higher power. The nameless female brings evil to the world shown by “all-devouring fiery kings”. They bring horrible terrors to the world devouring everything. Then she realizes what she did was wrong and asks "Mother Enitharmon" for forgiveness and to stomp the evil kings and take them away. By asking for forgiveness it shows that everybody has a good side and everyone has a choice, most of the time its our experiences that make the choices for us. Once “Mother Enitharmon” sees that she is genuinely sorry and really regrets what she did, she pardons her. The shadowy female dies in peace after being forgiven.

I was confused about what this shadowy female had to do with anything and why she had to be a “nameless shadowy female”. Did Blake make her nameless and shadowy so that it would be easier to visualize her as a bad person? Or a person who made a mistake and wanted to take back what they did?

“America a Prophecy” By William Blake

“America a Prophecy” by William Blake is the first of the continental prophecies from his “Lambeth Books” written in 1793. It describes the encouragement of rebellion in the Americas by the birth child of “Los” and “Enitharmon”, “Orc”. In the poem, the king of England is a witness to this rebellion. But “Orc” has a counterpart that is has to get through. “Urizen”, who is like Jehovah, Zeus and other leaders of god, is the creator of religion. “Urizen” is represented as white, colorlessness, atheism and the unknown where on the other hand, “Orc”, is the representation of revolution, blood, rage and passion. Even though they are very different, they are interconnected because “Orc” is the new force in the life cycle and “Urizen” is the old version of “Orc” in the end of the life cycle. Although there is goal of rebellion, there is no actual freedom at the end of the poem.

"America a Prophecy" has a very close connection to the other continental prophecies but it has more to do with “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” by William Blake. In this poem, “Oothoon”, a female character is in love with “Theotormon”, who represents the chaste man filled with righteousness, and is raped by another male character named “Bromion”. After “Oothoon” is raped, neither “Theotormon” or “Bromion” wants her anymore due to the expectations of society. The poem represents “Oothoon” as she is trapped by a philosophical system created by John Locke and no one can hear her pleas other than the daughters of “Albion”.  This is almost a mirror image of how the king of England is scared when “Orc” is spreading its rebellion among the Americas.

William Blake had many expectations about the American Revolution and described it in a prophetic way within his poem. Blake was very disappointed when he had seen no sensual liberation in the Americas and believed that Americans would start treating George Washington as a God. Due to how the French treated Napoleon Bonaparte and the English treated King George III. The belief of an apocalyptic state was still in Blake’s mind but he no longer believed that “Orc” man, the leader of the revolution, would be the agent who caused the apocalypse. But would instead believe that God could only exist in men.

"The Book of Los" By William Blake

The prophecy of Asia is foretold in the “The Book of Los” by William Blake. “The Book of Los” is the last of the continental prophecies and also tells the story of Africa. Africa is the first half of the “The Book of Los” and Asia is the ending half. The story begins in Africa, with “Los” singing of “Adam”, “Noah”, and “Moses” as they were witnesses to “Urizen” granting laws to humanity. The laws involve concepts and ideas being granted to Socrates, Pythagoras, and Plato, gospel being given to Jesus, a bible for Mohamet and a book on war given to Odin, who is the mythological God of war, poetry, knowledge and wisdom. The last of the laws are those of the five senses, which were given to John Locke, a philosopher who believed that all knowledge is created from sensory experience, and to Isaac Newton, one of the world’s most famous physicists who discovered the laws of motion and gravity. In Newtonian belief, the material universe is connected through an unconscious power. That puts imagination and intellectual in the realm of accidental aspects. All of these laws were what bound the mind and caused the world. “The Book of Los” is meant to describe how Newtonian reason and the view of the universe traps imagination.

The end of “The Book of Los” is set in Asia. In this part of the book, “Orc”, which is the birth child of “Los” and his emanation “Enitharmon”, creates fires in the mind that provokes a thought revolution. “Los” is the creator of life systems and of the sexes in the prophecies, which leads to the creation of his partner “Enitharmon”. Eventually, humans are created after consciousness appears and “Orc” is born as an evolution of life. This causes the kings of the world to be startled and an apocalypse of different sorts has begun. “The Book of Los” is the last of all the books and is said to be a revision of “The Book of Urizen.” The book is critical to the ideas of imagination that William Blake believes in. But like all of the other books, it was made to make people partake in the construction of meaning.