This Blog Really is "The Best of Blake"!

Do you want to understand William Blake better? Do you want to know his work, his paintings and ways that he has influenced the modern world? Then click on this! This blog, written by Becca Gaulke, Kendal Kern and Pang Thao explains everything you need to know about William Blake! The blog itself is very appealing to me. Its colors and organization catches my eye. The introduction to the pages really reels me in and makes me want to learn more about their poet. On the side column of their blog, they have a “missions” list with their goals for the blog. All of their goals have been made. Yes they have made a creative, interactive blog, and yes they really showed their knowledge of William Blake in their blog! The poems that were chose to go on the blogs were something that I enjoyed reading. “Little Boy Lost/Found” was one of my favorites. Pang Thao had the great idea of putting a sad poem with a happy poem. She made a great connection between the poem of “Little Boy Lost/Found” and the song “Amazing Grace”. Her reactions to the poem lead her to create a really great and detailed analysis. Becca Gaulke had posted pictures that William Blake and painted. I was glad that she had posted them because I was interested to see what kind of master piece a poet could make not only with his words, but with images! I also thought that the section where Blake’s only painting pallet was still around was very interesting. Kendal Kern posted a video of a modern day Blake. The video shows a woman talking about William Blake’s famous quote “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”. I really like that Kendal was able to find a video clip of how a romantic poet was able to make a dent in Hollywood. Over all, this blog was colorful, interesting and had great poems to read! I would recommend this blog site to anyone who is interested in learning more about William Blake. Great job everyone! This blog really is, The Best of Blake!

Percy Shelley's View on Death

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s quote “Death is the veil which those call life; They sleep and it is lifted” is suggesting that death’s dark veil covers all life, even in the happiest moments. Every second that is being lived is also a second closer to dying. Chances are taken at all times when exiting your home and facing the real world. Death is everywhere; waiting to carry on a new life into the after world. The two opposites are extremely contradicting, but Shelley was very interested in contradictions of life. They are everywhere in the world, and life and death is just one of the many. Human beings are on this earth to live, but they are living to die. Dying may be one of the greatest things that happen in a life time, depending on religious beliefs. Shelley also mentions that sleeping lifts some things. But what things are being lifted? Burdens, hope or life? The poem doesn’t make it clear. Sleeping can either be momentarily or forever. If sleeping is supposed to represent death, then the burdens of life are being lifted and the soul is resting in peace. But if sleeping does not always mean death, it can be representing the start of a new life. Every night people go to sleep and they’re problems are lifted from them, they can rest without any worries. By the morning time it is a new day and life but also one step closer to dying. I believe that Shelley appreciates the contradictions of Life and Death because both are needed to create a natural life. Shelley seems to look a death as a beautiful and natural process. Just like the leaves die and fall from the trees every autumn, they grow back just as healthy and as beautiful as they were before. The process will continue on forever, just like humans die every day, but in death, more lives are made to complete the life cycle. Autumn is a representation of a death and a new birth. It gives an example of how both human beings and nature are so similar. Percy Shelley quoted this not to long before his death, he was ready to face life’s contradictions.

-Lauryn Hartung

Mont Blanc

Click on here to view the whole poem, Mont Blanc by Percy Shelley.

Reading this poem, Mont Blanc, you can clearly understand the connection Shelley has with the power of nature. Shelley suggests that the natural world holds a inspiring power over his imagination. In this case, the power comes from the mountain. When seeing the mountain, Shelley can feel that its influencing him. Which makes him see things differently either in a positive or negative view. One positive view from the power nature is the human joy, faith, goodness, and pleasures it gives you. But as for the negative side, you see destruction nature can create. For example in the poem, it talks about "glaciers creep like snakes that watch their prey, from their far mountains" and pine trees that symbolize the persistence of human values in the face of obstacles. To me this means that the pine trees are the prey; therefore the glaciers will come down to crush the trees as it creeps down. This right here then stands that we, the humans, are the pine trees and that glaciers are nature. It shows that the power of nature can pass us with its powerful force if we don't pay much attention to it. Shelley also talks about two sets of mind, the individual mind and the universal mind. The individual mind are our thoughts inside and the universal mind are the thoughts outside of our thoughts. With the individual mind we can create imagination; thus giving us power to describe nature differently from others. At same time, the universal mind being nature, can give us imagination too. Making the power of the mind and the power of nature equal. But when the poem ended like this "and what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, if to human minds imaginings silence and solitude were vacancy?" In other words this means if we didn't have silence and solitude it would be hard to create imagination. One reason way I thought of thought of this was because through out the whole poem, the activities in Mont Blanc were silence and solitude, that everything expressed was actually in our minds; therefore not having this would leave the world boring.

-Dulce Roque

The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792. He was the son to a rich land owner. Growing up, Shelley proved himself to be a intelligent student. It later on helped him get accepted into Oxford University in England. Shelley only attended Oxford for a year, due to a explicit pamphlet he created with another student called "The Necessity of Atheism" Shelley and the other student were expelled from the school. The article was only the beginning of his rebellion of law and order. In his earlier poems, Shelley attempted to express his political views in through the poem "Queen Mab". Although his writing was amateur, it contained very mature philosophy. His beliefs were extreme and his writings contained many contradictions. He believed in free love, atheism, vegetarianism and political radicalism. In 1814, Shelley became involved with Mary Godwin. At the time, he was married to Harriet Westbrook. By 1816, Shelley left Harriet and he and Mary got married. The same year, his wife, Mary, created the horror story "Frankenstein." Shelley and Mary spent the summer in Geneva, Switzerland with Lord Byron, John William Polidori and Claire Clairmont. During the stay in a rented house on Lake Geneva, Lord Byron came up with the idea to write supernatural stories. It was that night when Mary Shelley had created the story "Frankenstein." Mary Shelley also had writing talent. Not only was she known for creating one of the most known ghost stories, she also edit her husbands poetry. When the couple returned back to England, Shelley wrote a poem about the extreme ideas of poets and their visions to improve man kind. After being in England, the couple moved to Italy for good. When they arrive tragedy struck his family. His infant daughter had died, and his ex wife committed suicide. Only living in Italy for four years, Percy Shelley died before his thirtieth birthday. He drowned at sea during a violent storm. His wife continued to edit his work, and spread his fame even after his death. Shelley had accomplished many things in his short life, and he is still known as one of the greatest romantic poets.

-Lauryn Hartung