|
education and studies | english teaching English Literature and Linguistics
|
William Blake - The Book of Urizen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- I. Introducing William Blake
- II. Major Influences
- The Romantic period
- Protestant mysticism
- Political Radicalism
- Neoplatonism
- Freemasonry and Secret Societies
- The New Church
- III. The Book of Urizen
- The Chapters
- Preludium
- Chapter I. - Urizen
- Chapter II. - Prior to Existence
- Chapter III. - Grasping Subsistence
- Chapter IV. - Taking form
- Chapter V. - Foundations of Life
- Chapter VI. - Generation
- Chapter VII. - Chains of Being
- Chapter VIII. - The Material World
- Chapter IX. - The Human Race
Appendix: William Blake - The Book of Urizen
Bibliography
- List of Plates
» Read the full work:
» William Blake - The Book of Urizen .
In my thesis I carry out a close-reading of William Blake’s The Book of Urizen. My analysis observes the accordance between Blake’s work and the hermetic traditions, especially on the philosophical side. In my analyses I draw immediate parallels between Blake’s visionary work and the teachings of various mystic and hermetic traditions and outline the obvious correspondences of the two. My aim is not to find immediate historical or referential links between the poem and the mystic teachings, but to reveal the possible meaning of the visionary epic. I wish to show the connections between Blake's visionary poetry as art and formulated philosophies both depicting the same universal truths. My point is to show the universality of the ideas expressed.
Therefore I draw immediate analogies from the traditions and teachings of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and Greek mythology, the Sumerian and Persian mythology, Hermetic philosophy, Alchemy and Occultism, the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, and some Eastern examples from Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese philosophy. I also draw parallels with the Bible and John Milton's Paradise Lost.
Furthermore, I don't only give a complex analyses of Blake's The Book of Urizen, but also William Blake the visionary mystic. That is why chapters I & II are included. Altogether my work is a tribute to the great master of poetry, William Blake himself – the seer of universal truths.
The Book of Urizen is Blake's Genesis, and the core of his Bible of Hell, re-shaping the Fall and the Creation of the physical universe. It is also the locus for his mythology in 'A Song of Liberty', America, Europe, The Song of Los, The Book of Ahania and The Book of Los, all of which rest on the ideas presented in this poem. Urizen, like Milton's Satan, was an angel enjoying the immoral life, though among democracy of immortals. He is not cast out for rebellion against law, but separates himself by demanding that Law be established. Los, the immortal artist, emerges to define, clarify and make sense of the disaster, by the power of imagination. Blake works in many more allusions. Los becomes Adam, and Enitharmon his Eve. Orc is born to her, like Cain, but also the Serpent.
The storyline of the poem is as follows: Urizen – a god of Reason who separates himself from other Eternals, demands obedience to his self-proclaimed principles, and falls into Chaos – is an abstract, vain and punitive deity. A body is created for him by , 'the eternal prophet' or Divine Imagination. But Los, exhausted, divides into male (Los) and female (Enitharmon). Their child Orc – who represents Rebellious Energy – is born but immediately chained to a rock. Urizen then explores his deadly world, and mankind shrinks up from Eternity. Finally, some of Urizen's children begin an exodus.
Essays
Available in English:
Daniel Tarr : 3 Short Essays on Film : Comedy of the 1920s [(MS Word) « read it ] ; The US in the 1930s [(MS Word) « read it ] ; Harold Pinter - The Dumb Waiter [(MS Word) « read it ] {ELTE DELL}
Daniel Tarr : 4 Short Essays : Bright and Beautiful - Environmental Problems [(MS Word) « read it ] ; Freedom of Speech [(MS Word) « read it ] ; Religion or Faith? [(MS Word) « read it ] ; Capital Punishment [(MS Word) « read it ] {ELTE DELL}
Daniel Tarr : Bias in the Media . [Autumn 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : 'Nam on the Net . [Spring 1996] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Nationalism and National Minorities . [Spring 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Personal Relationships in the U.S. - based on the films "Manhattan" and "When Harry met Sally" . [Autumn 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : William Holman Hunt - The Lady of Shalott . [Spring 1996] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]Daniel Tarr : Applied Linguistics Glossary . [Autumn 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : English affixes . [Autumn 1993] {ELTE DELL}
Daniel Tarr : The etymology of paradise, dough, and fiction . [Autumn 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Heads (Linguistic difficulties of Percolation) . [Spring 1995] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Parts of Speech . [Spring 1995] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Stress in the English language . [Autumn 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Textual analyses of "Intended Lease for Life" (1420) . [Spring 1996] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : 2 Short Essays on Poetry : Poetic Forms [(MS Word) « read it ] ; The Death of Poetry [(MS Word) « read it ] : Margareth Piercy - Unlearning not to Speak ; Naula Archer - Whale on the Line ; Sidney Keyes - The Gardener ; George Barker - Poem XXVI ; William Carlos Williams - Between Walls ; Sylvia Plath - Lady Lazarus ; [Autumn 1995]
Daniel Tarr : Contemporary British Mosaic (5 short essays) : Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day [(MS Word) « read it ] ; Timothy Mo - Sour Sweet [(MS Word) « read it ] ; John Agard - English Girl Eats Her First Mango [(MS Word) « read it ] ; Stephen Poliakoff - Coming into Land [(MS Word) « read it ] ; Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses [(MS Word) « read it ] [Autumn 1995]
Daniel Tarr : The Psychology of Crime in Edgar Alan Poe's writings . [Autumn 1995] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : H.P. Lovecraft - The Cthulhu Myth . [Spring 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Milton's Paradise Lost - The Fall of Man . [Autumn 1996] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) «read it ]
Daniel Tarr : Percy Bysshe Shelley : Ode to the West Wind . [Autumn 1993] {ELTE DELL}
Daniel Tarr : Walt Whitman - The new era of America . [Autumn 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : W.B. Yeats -Purgatory . [Spring 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) «read it ]
Daniel Tarr : William Blake - The Book of Urizen . (MA Thesis) [March 2000] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]
Daniel Tarr : William Shakespeare -Sonnet XCIV . [Spring 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [(MS Word) « read it ]Interested? All written documents are available for reading in the » Library .
Want to know more?
» Check out my Education and Studies and References too.
|
home | biography | education and studies | professional life | reference | archives | art | library | photography
Timewarp: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
Last updated: 10-02-2010