Content-Type: text/plain blake-d Digest Volume 1996 : Issue 114 Today's Topics: LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! Re: Unidentified subject! Re: Request for help Re: Unidentified subject! Designing a New Pedagogical Practice for Romantic Studies Re: Unidentified subject! Re:Re: Giles hymn, and more Best Blake collections Re: Unidentified subject! Re: Re:Re: Giles hymn, and more A hymn in honour of William Blake -Reply Re:Golgonooza Best Blake collections -Reply Re: Best Blake collections Re: Best Blake collections Re: LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! Re: Best Blake collections Re: Best Blake collections Re: Best Blake collections Re: Unidentified subject! the hymn The MENTAL Traveller the hymn -Reply Re: Unidentified subject! -Reply Re: LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! -Reply ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 12:03:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Ralph Dumain To: blake@albion.com Subject: LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! Message-Id: <199610141903.MAA12735@igc2.igc.apc.org> LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! I must take exception to the allegation that Blake's "The Lamb" is saccharine. I wish I had to hand a post I wrote a year ago for another list in which I defended "The Lamb." There are many people who cannot take "The Lamb" seriously. I have noticed that many critics cannot respond to the Songs of Innocence without viewing them as ironic, without finding some hidden cynicism or satire in them. Although I lose patience with Pam van Schaik's simplistic religious propagandizing, I have to concur that the critic's aversion to the concept of innocence is a symptom of the pervasive unhappy consciousness that plagues intellectuals. Indeed, "The Lamb" must be unbearable to those who would read or recite it from a psychological standpoint external to its spirit. Its relentless sweet simplicity could be just too much, so sweet as to be sickening, but therein I find the genius of the poem. You cannot recite the poem with any seriousness or conviction unless you enter into the very psychological state the poem embodies. Like a jazz singer, you must become what you sing, or it just won't swing. To recite "The Lamb" you must enter into the state of nearly childlike innocence, and that is the aim and effect of the poem itself. The poem makes you feel that state. This is not the product of a naive mind, but of a very shrewd intellect. The role of the poet is to protect his precious minute particulars, to watch over them and explain them to themselves in a manner congruent to their own state of being. "Little Lamb, I'll tell thee." The poet testifies with words, but he also invites you to clean out your own doors of perception and experience the bleating of sheep or the harmonious thunderings of children raising the joyful noise of pure being up to heaven. "The Lamb" is not poignant like many other Blake poems. Poignancy is a dialectical state, but such emotional tension does not surface in "The Lamb", because there the dialectic is absorbed by the poet in his relation to the lamb: the poet does the telling, whereas the lamb itself is pure, innocent, infant joy. Still, as in his other poems, Blake recreates this experience for adults, to remind us never to forget the unbearable ecstasy of being alive. I wept to hear. (R. Dumain, 14 October 1996) ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 20:14:13 +0000 From: "Gord Barentsen" To: dpvintin@acpub.duke.edu (Giles David) Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Unidentified subject! Message-Id: <199610150013.UAA22051@suntan.ccs.yorku.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT > Joseph > > I think the fool referred to by Tom was I. Whoever...if the fool were to > persist in his folly he would become wise. > > Giles > I guess it's appropriate at this time for me to chime in my two cents' worth. What I am about to say has really no bearing on the overall intelectual content of the Blake list - especially since, due to lack of time, I cannot read 98% of the postings as of late (notihng personal to the contributors). Yet I am truly shocked by the amount of hostility and/or general snarkiness that I seem to find on this list as opposed to, say, the NASSR-L (North American Society for the Study of Romanticism) and other academic lists. Whence cometh such vitriol? At times I have been greatly dismayed at the lack of respect due to fellow Blakeans, as well as, occasionally, the sheer BLOODY STUPIDITY of such malicious comments. Yes, I agree that "Opposition is true Friendship" - but this is ridiculous! Gord Barentsen Dept. of Interdisciplinary Studies, S718 Ross York University 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Ontario CANADA M3J 1P3 gpb@YorkU.CA ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 96 20:35:55 -0400 From: church@utb1.utb.edu (Karen Church) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Request for help Message-Id: <9610150035.AA25612@uu6.psi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Deja vu? Thanks again. Karen Church >>Dear Blake-Listmembers (if anyone *is* out there presently), >> I wonder if someone might be able to come up with a pertinent >>citation or two for a pair of students (mine) who are writing a dialogued >>research paper on Puritanism and "The Mental Traveller." Our library has an >>extremely limited Blake collection--about a dozen books and nothing >>basically on "The Mental Traveller." > >Does your library have Frye's _Fearful Symmetry_? (If it doesn't, make >them order it!) You won't find any entire books on "The Mental Traveller," >but Frye's discussion is a good starting point. Mary Lynn Johnson's >bibliography in _The English Romantic Poets_ (ed. Frank Jordan--another >necessary resource) also lists the following, among others (I don't have >time to transcribe them all): > > John H. Sutherland, "Blake's 'Mental Traveller,'" _ELH_ 22 (1955) 136-147. >It's reprinted in a little paperback called _Discussions of Blake_, but >_ELH_ is where you're more likely to find it. > >Hazard Adams, _William Blake: A Reading of the Shorter Poems_ . > >Morton Paley, "The Female Babe and 'The Mental Traveller.'" _Studies in >Romanticism_ 1962, revised in his book _Energy and the Imagination_. > >Martin Nurmi, "Joy, Love, and Innocence in Blake's 'The Mental Traveller'" >_Studies in Romanticism_ 1963. > >For more recent sources, I would also check the MLA Bibliography if you >have access to it. If you don't, let me know and I can run a quick search >on the CD-Rom. > >Jennifer Michael > > > > > > > > ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 21:43:08 -0400 From: ted ross To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Unidentified subject! Message-Id: <1.5.4.16.19961015014308.63672b78@pop.atl.mindspring.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'd like to applaud Joseph Murray for standing up to the inveterate jerks on the list and to the usually sound Tom Dillingham, who seems to be benighted on the issue of suffering fools versus suffering creeps. I'm glad that other members of the list, esp. Glaudina, have rushed to rescue the good name of the list with a beautifully wrought and constructive hymn (a new take on call and response?). And Joseph M.'s point was well taken : there aren't many would-be poets on the list, or many daring to submit poetry to it. Who would, when there are snipers beadily eying a misplaced apostrophe, ill-stressed syllable or trite (in their opinion) sentiment. I can't imagine Blake tapping into such Urizenic energy to flame another poet. I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form "come in,' she said, 'I'll give you shelter from the storm.' Bob Dylan ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 21:45:52 -0400 From: Bill Ruegg To: blake@albion.com Subject: Designing a New Pedagogical Practice for Romantic Studies Message-Id: <199610150145.VAA29094@ronell.ucet.ufl.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Ronald Broglio and I (both at the University of Florida) have designed a web site that "performs" electronic transformations of Romantic texts (including several Blake poems) and discusses the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the Web for the study of Romanticism. We invite you to visit our site and to give us any feedback you might have (either privately or on the Blake list). The URL: http://www.ucet.ufl.edu/~bruegg/nassr/nassr1.html "I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation." ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 21:52:18 -0400 From: WaHu@aol.com To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Unidentified subject! Message-Id: <961014215216_543191162@emout19.mail.aol.com> Avery, all of Blake is "much better". The Lamb is sublime. An exquisite song. Fella from North Carolina is a bounder trying to sneak into Eden, and I, self-appointed Covering Cherub, will shoot him if he stands still, and cut him if he runs-- to quote Bessie Smith. I dont give a rats behind for his good intentions, the Interstate to Hell is paved with them. Hugh Walthall wahu@aol.com ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 23:33:59 -0400 From: WaHu@aol.com To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re:Re: Giles hymn, and more Message-Id: <961014233357_1480219898@emout10.mail.aol.com> Giles has a sense of humor, excellent. Mayonaisse is mispelled to resemble Lyonaisse or whatever the name of the imaginary land is in the Hardy poem. Hymns are great fun. All Emily Dickenson poems are in a skewed hymn meter and may be sung to Yellow Rose of Texas or Hernando's Hide-away. The Covering Cherub is an important concept in Blake, and he gets his idea for it from the stupendous passage in Pilgrim's Progress where the Dude walks up to the table and says set down my name sir, grabs a sword and whips the angel's butt. As for Golgonooza, I take it to mean skull with a brain in it, punning in Aramaic and greek--and since the greek part of the pun is on the word noos, mind, more an Aristotlean and Plotinean word than a Platonic word, I always figured it was a FALSE ideal city that was being propounded, or, more subtly, one of those pie in sky blather places promised by false prophets and investment planners. (The streets of heaven are paved with pate de fois grois-- the sort of promise you make to a farm boy to get him to enlist, without explaining that that is really goose liver.) Noos means animal mind, it's a tricky word. Check your Liddell & Scott for that one. Golgotha has certain mauvais connotations with Christ's passion, if memory serves. Golgonooza is to me the head of the chicken with it's head cut off. But I ain't sure. There is a lot of macaronic punning in Blake's goofy names. And yes of course I am a physical coward and joyous acolyte of all that is evil in the world. Boy do I have fun. And the work is easy. Hugh Walthall wahu@aol.com ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 21:05:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Carolyn Austin To: blake@albion.com Subject: Best Blake collections Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I thought I'd tap the list's collective knowledge and ask where the best collections of Blake's works are housed, both in the United States and in Great Britain. Many thanks, Carolyn Austin cfaustin@uci.edu ----- Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 23:35:38 -0500 From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Unidentified subject! Message-Id: <96101423353891@wc.stephens.edu> Alas, tis true--the merest whiff of the WaHu wit sends me starkers, truly devoid of all soundness and sense, not a doubt about it. Who, by the way, ever suggested this should be a list for aspiring poets? It's an odd complaint that there is no "original work" especially in the context of a debate over a pastiche (and now two, mirabile dictu, thanks to Gloudina). By the way--which ill-stressed syllables were sniped at? I hadn't noticed such minute particulars in combat. Once again, I suggest a peek at the notebook poems and "Island" for those who can't imagine that Blake was ever other than a saint of franciscan mettle--indeed, one wonders what at all has been read to promote that view. Tom Dillingham ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 01:23:39 -0400 (EDT) From: "Avery F. Gaskins" To: Subject: Re: Re:Re: Giles hymn, and more Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Content-Type: Text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Well, Hugh Walthall, you now know that humor does not always work. As for get- ting Giles's gender wrong, I apologize. The irony I spoke about was in Blake, not in the hymn. My only quibble with tnh hymn is in the use of Christ. Better it be Jesus. Jesus has an affectionate feeling for Blake. Christ is too much a tratitionalist word. Avery Gaskins ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:03:44 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com, izak@igs.net Subject: A hymn in honour of William Blake -Reply Message-Id: I liked Gloudina's message and suggestions, which prompted me to suggest the following few changes, which came to mind re the first two stanzas. In place of `fences' ( a rather mundane image in this context) in these two stanzas, one could continue the idea of the lost dream and say: And do we seek Jerusalem among Earth's deep confusion still... Later, in place of `Bring flame...', you may want to try: I shall not rest from mental fight ............ till earth embrace And every face with joy be bright...... The following stanzas probably still need some work too, but can't help right now. Pam van Schaik, Pretoria ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:21:22 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com, WaHu@aol.com Subject: Re:Golgonooza Message-Id: I've always understood Golgonooza to represent Los's attempts in the fallen world to recreate a spiritual city in the image of the holy city of Jerusalem in Eternity. Being constantly beseiged by Urizenic forces, Golgonooza is a bastion of beauty which constantly needs rebuilding. What do others think .?.. Why not steer straight at what you say is usually avoided in discussion. I don't agree with WaHu's view of it at all. Pam ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:48:11 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com, cfaustin@ea.oac.uci.edu Subject: Best Blake collections -Reply Message-Id: The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England has originals of the Songs but these are in a Reading Room, not on general display, and you will need to write ahead of time for permission to see them. Then there is , in London, the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Pam van Schaik, Pretoria ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:09:55 -0400 (EDT) From: "C. S. Beauvais" To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Best Blake collections Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, Carolyn Austin wrote: > > I thought I'd tap the list's collective knowledge and ask where the best > collections of Blake's works are housed, both in the United States and in > Great Britain. > Many, although not yet all, of Blake's works are available online at http://camel.conncoll.edu/ccacad/english/blake/timeline.html (be warned, the site has recently moved, and not all links may be accurate) Hope that helps, .chip ---|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|----------|---------|--- -4-|---------|---------|---------|---p-p---|---------|----------|---------|--- ---|-p-------|-p-p-p---|---------|-p-------|-p-------|-p-p-p-p--|-----p---|--- -4-|---p---p-|---------|-p-p-p---|---------|---p---p-|----------|-p-p---p-|--- ---|-----p---|---------|---------|---------|-----p---|----------|---------|-o- .chip URL's HOMEPAGE>http://camel.conncoll.edu/ccother/csbea/ BLAKE>http://camel.conncoll.edu/ccother/csbea/blake/timeline.html ARTS & TECH>http://camel.conncoll.edu/ccother/north/at201/test.html ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:23:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Alexander Gourlay To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Best Blake collections Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, Carolyn Austin wrote: > > I thought I'd tap the list's collective knowledge and ask where the best > collections of Blake's works are housed, both in the United States and in > Great Britain. > > Many thanks, > > Carolyn Austin > cfaustin@uci.edu > The complete answer to this question can be found by consulting G. E. Bentley's Blake Books and Martin Butlin's William Blake, but the basic answer is that the best Blake collections in the US are at the Huntington Library, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Houghton Library (and elsewhere at Harvard), the Yale Center for British Art, the Morgan Library, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and no doubt a few others that slipped my mind -- the Getty is getting more all the time. There are Blake works scattered all over the US in places like the Cleveland Art Museum and in a certain private collection in Altadena, but I think the above are the most important. In England the Tate, British Library (and BMPR) and Fitzwilliam have the most Blakes, but the V & A, Bodleian and others have several important works each. Sandy Gourlay ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:34:34 -0500 (CDT) From: Suzanne Araas Vesely To: Ralph Dumain Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Ralph, I have just started planning to write on the Lamb as a foil for the Lockean concept of innocence. I find your remarks on "The Lamb" to be on the mark; Andrew Lincoln's brief comments in the Blake Trust are also very intelligent. Do you have a source for your ideas, or are these your own? And if the latter is the case, why are you wasting your words on the uncertain winds of the list? Suzanne Araas Vesely On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, Ralph Dumain wrote: > LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! > > I must take exception to the allegation that Blake's "The Lamb" is > saccharine. I wish I had to hand a post I wrote a year ago for > another list in which I defended "The Lamb." There are many > people who cannot take "The Lamb" seriously. I have noticed that > many critics cannot respond to the Songs of Innocence without > viewing them as ironic, without finding some hidden cynicism or > simplistic religious propagandizing... I have to concur that the > critic's aversion to the concept of innocence is a symptom of the > pervasive unhappy consciousness that plagues intellectuals. > > ... To recite "The Lamb" you must enter into the > state of nearly childlike innocence, and that is the aim and > effect of the poem itself. The poem makes you feel that state. > This is not the product of a naive mind, but of a very shrewd > intellect. >... "The Lamb" is not poignant like many other Blake poems. Poignancy > is a dialectical state, but such emotional tension does not > surface in "The Lamb", because there the dialectic is absorbed by > the poet in his relation to the lamb: the poet does the telling, > whereas the lamb itself is pure, innocent, infant joy. Still, as > in his other poems, Blake recreates this experience for adults, to > remind us never to forget the unbearable ecstasy of being alive. > > I wept to hear. > > (R. Dumain, 14 October 1996) > ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 13:49:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Tony Trigilio To: blake@albion.com Cc: atrigili@lynx.dac.neu.edu (Tony Trigilio) Subject: Re: Best Blake collections Message-Id: <199610151749.NAA00559@lynx.dac.neu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sandy Gourlay wrote: > the best Blake collections in the US are at the Huntington > Library, the Library of Congress, the New York Public > Library, the National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum > of Art, the Houghton Library (and elsewhere at Harvard), > the Yale Center for British Art, the Morgan Library, the > Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and no doubt a few others Sandy, could you say a bit more on what you know is at the Boston MFA? I have tried to get details on what they have, but all I have been told is that they have a few sketches. These sketches are not displayed in the main gallery, but are stored in archives. My efforts to find out exactly what the MFA holds of Blake have been frustrating. Please elaborate if you can. Thanks. Best, Tony Trigilio atrigili@lynx.dac.neu.edu ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 14:33:48 -0500 From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Best Blake collections Message-Id: <96101514334824@wc.stephens.edu> The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has a collection of Blake's water-color illustrations of Milton's Paradise Lost and Comus, the Shakespeare plays, and some scriptural illustrations. These could be seen in their Print Room when I was there in the 60's. There was also a small catalogue published in 1957, _William Blake: water color drawings_ that included a nice introductory essay by Helen Willard and black and white reproductions of the drawings. They are mostly reproduced elsewhere, by now, including for example the Milton illustrations in Stephen Behrendt's _Moment of Explosion_. I certainly hope the museum still allows access to these magnificent drawings. Seeing them "live and in person" was one of the great aesthetic experiences of my life. The same is true of the prints and drawings at the Fogg Museum in Cambridge--and of the course the Tate and the Fitzwilliam. Tom Dillingham ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 15:40:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Alexander Gourlay To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Best Blake collections Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 15 Oct 1996, Tony Trigilio wrote: > Sandy, could you say a bit more on what you know is at the Boston MFA? > > Best, > Tony Trigilio > atrigili@lynx.dac.neu.edu > Butlin lists about 10 Biblical watercolors, some in two versions, a couple of "allegorical disasters" (Pestilence <2>, Famine), the Butts Comus set, and 9 Paradise Lost illustrations and a set of seven Shakespearean subjects, and I don't know what prints there are except "The Accusers," Canterbury Pilgrims <2>, Cumberland's Card, Lavater Portrait, Christ Trampling on Satan. There's more, too, but that's most of it. The Comus, PL, and Nebuchadnezzar are the stars -- it's close to me so it seems like a more important collection than others that may be larger. There was a small paperback reproducing most of the drawings, but I don't remember who did it. Sandy Gourlay ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 20:25:21 +0100 From: Jen Shepherd To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Unidentified subject! Message-Id: <3263E521.6E6C@bigfoot.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit WaHu@aol.com wrote: > I, self-appointed Covering Cherub Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the 'Covering Cherub' used by Blake to symbolise Selfhood, and the corruption that follows Experience - rather than the guardian of Eden's gate? Jen ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 18:04:50 -0400 (EDT) From: dpvintin@acpub.duke.edu (Giles David) To: blake@albion.com Subject: the hymn Message-Id: <199610152204.SAA10779@jeter.acpub.duke.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" My hymn seems to have stirred up some good old fashioned brouhaha, and it was probably very cheeky of me to throw such an offering at the feet of seasoned and serious Blakeans. To expect it to receive constructive criticism was rash on my part, and I hope I have not demeaned the list by sending in a personal 'creation' in this way. That the song has indeed received generous appraisal - generous in both time and spirit - prompts me to think I have not wasted time, mine or that of others. Humble and heartfelt thanks for all the comments proffered. ...a little background about both the hymn and myself. Firstly, and here I'm quite prepared to make myself more vulnerable: I have to say....I'm way out of my depth! I've never studied Blake, so the rich dexterity of your comments bewilder and intrigue me. I stand at the backdoor of the Temple you have trained yourselves to serve, with my one wee flame aglow...but its glow is strong and proud. Yes, I am 'sneaking into Eden' as Wahu puts it (his style is certainly - how shall one say - bracing - but inviting too, in a curious fashion) I have no experience in literary criticism. Why should I indeed, as I have not attended university formally and have no degree. But there should always be a place for rank outsiders...only hope my work isn't as rank as some have suggested. The hymn was prompted by a challenge - a British theologian had used some of my liturgical writing, and challenged me to think about crafting a hymn on the dilemna of faith in postmodern/postChristian times. And this (the best or worst part, depending on your point of view) is how I set about it... I stayed me up late one night with a good bottle of Talisker, an English hymnal, and the resolve to keep my legs between the desk until such time as there was a hymn that could rise with the lark the next morning! Yes, the result is 'pastiche' as has been said, but I stand by it...no, better... I SING by it! (Thankyou to Ralph Domain for his comment about jazz with reference to 'Little Lamb who made thee'...incidentally Taverner's sublime choral version ain't jazz, but it sure bleaches out any hint of saccharine for me! Wept when I heard it.) I can see now more clearly the weak areas - the pedestrian 'fencing' needs replacing with something more suitable. It does rather evoke the image of a suburban garden. I thank Glaudina and Pam and others for taking the time to suggest such changes. Glaudina's rewrite in particular has been very helpful, and I will explore her thoughts with great care. As to the whole Golgonooza whatsit...I looked it up a little...and liked what I saw. Yes, I am in my small way laying a brick or two for the building of that. Or rather - wishing to take a brick or two off the wall to reveal what Kathleen Raine calls the 'mountain behind the mountain'. And I don't see that as piety skiety...but rather as the recovery of the real at the heart of the world - to learn again and again how to stir the embers of the fire wrapped in world, that Blake and others continually haunt me with in their reveries. Enough...the pasta's reached boil...dinner calls! And after that some REM...the one with the waycool Howard Finster cover. Giles David ----- Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 23:52:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Izak/Gloudina Bouwer To: blake@albion.com Subject: The MENTAL Traveller Message-Id: <199610160352.XAA18461@host.ott.igs.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Karen Church a while ago requested references for "The Mental Traveller." Since nobody mentioned Mark Trevor Smith's excellent chapter on the poem in his "All nature is but Art," I would like to give Karen the details. "All Nature is But Art," The coincidence of Opposites in English Romantic Literature. Mark Trevor Smith Locust Hill Press West Cornwall, CT (1993) What I like most about his chapter is the fact that he looks at a number of different interpretations of the poem, thereby sensitizing one to the fact that a lot of critics have come to a lot of different conclu- sions about what this poem is all about. Mark finally offers his own interpretation. Personally I think Northrop Frye has done everybody a great disservice by indicating that the male figure in the poem ends up as a Urizenic figure. This poem only works for me if one bears in mind the fact that this travelling is "mental", in Blake's sense of the word, and that the cycle in this poem is as mathematically precise as the cycle of the dark and light parts of the moon. If the female in the cycle represents the dark phase of the moon or the absence of the light of the spirit, and is at her most destructive just before the Incarnation, then the male representing the light and energy of the spirit must be at his most potent just before the female babe is born. It is then that the wayfaring mental traveler is fed and he finds the door of the Spirit open. It is there that the roofs and walls are made to ring. Gloudina Bouwer ----- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 08:56:48 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com Subject: the hymn -Reply Message-Id: Dear Giles, I found your letter very eloquent, and `the fire wrapped in the world' is a particularly fine phrase, perhaps suited to the title of a book you could write. It certainly captures the essence of kabbalistic thought in which the divine fire is trapped in husks of matter. I'm writing a book on BLake and the Kabbalah, but am unsure who would publish it - like Blake's own work, it is too radical for the orthodox, both academically and spiritually. I have also been given the opportunity to create a reading course for 4th year students here on the `Spiritual Quest in Literature' which , as it gets going into a Reader and Essay questions, you may like to see, and , as we are a correspondence university here, some of the people you know may like to take the Course via correspondence.??? All the best in your endeavours to illumine the world. Pam van Schaik, Univ. of South Africa, Pretoria. ----- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 09:08:30 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com, zebidee@bigfoot.com Subject: Re: Unidentified subject! -Reply Message-Id: Yes, Jen, the Covering Cherub is a smiling villain in BLake. Pam ----- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 09:05:05 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: LITTLE LAMB, GOD BLESS THEE! -Reply Message-Id: Dear Ralph, I fully agree with all you say re the Lamb, too. I also react badly to those who foist crude irony on the Songs - William Leaderer (?) I think was one of them. I read it many years ago and felt sick at heart. Pam.