Prose Poem: The Rain Show

The light of the sun slowly fades away as the thick smoky gray clouds hide it away. Then it all starts with a low pitched pitter patter then a louder plip, plop that quickly begins to intensify. Pretty soon the rain starts to pound fiercely against the glass window tap, tap creating a sharp quickening rhythm that’s all its own. The sound of the rain is so strong and over powering that it forces me to listen to its song. I stare out the window watching as the millions of rain drops slide across the glass one chasing right after the other. Puddles begin to form and I can see the rain drops bounce lightly against the water. I start to wonder if it will ever stop raining. In this moment it feels as if the water will keep falling from the sky for all of eternity. Now the wind has joined in, roaring and creating its own music that harshly clashes with that of the rains. Leaves ruffle across the sidewalk, and the tree branches swish violently through the air. It’s like I’m getting my own show right from my window. But it finally comes to an end just like all things, both good and bad. The rain stops, the wind hushes to a soft whistle, leaves settle all across the ground, and the branches start to sway gently to a stop. All those sounds quietly begin to fade away and there’s a feeling of tranquility. The moon glistens behind the now translucent clouds. I look over the dark glazed streets that are illuminated by the light of the golden yellow street lights lined up in perfect order. It’s dark and getting late so I finally let the curtains fall into their place. It’s the end of the show.        

Blogging Community: "All About Blake"

The blog “All About Blake” by Austin Livengood, and Lichelle Garcia is a blog that has a little bit of everything on Blake’s writing. Similar to our blog we share the same goal of looking into Blake’s various works. Their blog features many interpretations on a variety of Blake’s poems.    

The first thing you will see when you go on their blog is a slide show of William Blake’s famous quotes which I really liked. Aside from that their blog features videos of poems being read aloud to go along with some of their posts. There are also lots of pictures, as well as links to different websites. Something I really liked about the blog was that off to the side are listed all of Blake’s poems with links to each one. Their blog has this really cool slide show of some of Blake’s artwork. What I like the most about this blog is that each post has links at the end that allow you to see where they got their ideas from and allow you to do some exploring of you own on the subject. The post on the article, “William Blake's America, 2010” was one that I found the most interesting. I would definitely recommend reading it. It mainly talks about the selfishness of people. It goes on talking about how there can be people who have so much and still want more, meanwhile there are some people who have nothing at all.

This blog would be really helpful to someone who wants to get a better understanding of the meanings of Blake’s poems. On the blog there are a lot of interpretations on Blake’s poems such as “A Little Boy Lost”, “The Tiger”, “Love’s Secret”, as well as others. It can be really helpful to read about others thoughts and opinions on poetry because sometimes someone might see something in a poem that another might have never even thought of. Reading some of those posts can be really helpful for someone trying to make sense of Blake’s poems, or for someone who wants to hear about other persons thoughts.

Check out the blog "All About Blake" here:  http://all-about-blake.blogspot.com/

My Interpretation on "Poison Tree"

The poem, “Poison Tree” seemed kind of creepy to me especially the last line. The reason for why I think creepy is because the poem is describing a human characteristic that is so common, which is anger. The anger described in this poem is one so strong that the narrator obsesses with the desire for revenge. In the first stanza the narrator talks about how he was angry with his friend but by talking with his friend the anger ended. Then he becomes angry with his enemy, but he doesn’t talk about it so his anger keeps growing. The poem then goes on to describe how his anger grows and how he nurtures it with fear, tears, smiles, and “deceitful wiles” he’s planning his revenge. By now the narrator has become so obsessed with getting his revenge on his enemy that is has completely consumed him. At first, in the fifth and sixth line it’s like he thinks about what happened. Whatever it is that’s angered him makes him sad and fearful. Then in the seventh and eighth line he’s starting to plot revenge. By the third stanza the narrator’s anger is fully grown and it’s represented by an apple tree. Now in the forth stanza the narrator finally gains his revenge. His enemy steals an apple from the poison tree. “In the morning, glad, I see My foe outstretched beneath the tree” so the apple killed the narrators foe. I think maybe the purpose of the poem is to warn people about just how ugly anger can get, and to not allow it to get so far. In the poem I don’t think the foe was the only one that was punished, I think that in a way so was the narrator. The narrator lets his mind become consumed with wanting nothing but to get revenge and nothing else matters. He goes as far as to kill his enemy and he’s happy about it.

I think the message is in the first two lines where it says, “I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end.” So I think the lesson here is that a person should work out their problems and not just let them sit in the back of their mind.    

Read the poem here: http://www.blackcatpoems.com/b/a_poison_tree.html           

An Interpretation on “Ah! Sunflower”

I think that this poem is talking about wanting something or having a goal and it’s using the sunflower to represent the human spirit and its desire or goal. The sunflower’s goal is to be able to rise to the sun. In the second and third line it talks about how the sunflower counts the steps to get there and how it’s striving to get to that place. In that last line of the first stanza it says, “Where the traveler’s journey is done.” It is saying that once the sunflower reaches its destination, in sky with the sun it’s journey will be finished. I think that in the poem the journey is not only referring to the sunflower’s travel to the sun but to the sunflowers entire life. Since the sunflower represents the human spirit I think that the sunflower desiring to be with the sun is kind of like the human desire to end their journey in heaven. The significance of the sun being in the sky is that heaven is also associated with being in the sky. Next, Blake talks about how “youth pined” or how life wastes away longing with that desire to end its journey in heaven. In the second stanza the sunflower dies, “shrouded in snow” winter comes and the snow covers the sunflower. Blake uses the word shrouded to make that connection of the sunflower representing a human the sunflower like a human is being concealed with a shroud. A shroud is a burial cloth that’s used to cover a dead body. Now that the sunflower is dead, now that the human is dead, its spirit can rise from its grave and aspire what it has always wanted. The poem comes to an end with the line, “Where my sunflower wishes to go.” Blake is now also referring to himself saying that heaven is where his spirit wishes to go.               

I later found out that the poem “Ah! Sunflower” is actually part of two other poems called “My Little Rose Tree” and “The Lilly” which are part of Blake’s book Songs of Innocence and Experience. The book was written to show the two different sides of the human soul.

Click the link below to read “Ah! Sunflower” and other poems that make up Songs of Innocence and Experience: http://theotherpages.org/poems/blake02.html

Summary on the Life of William Blake

In 1757 William Blake was born in London. Throughout his early childhood Blake was already painting and at the age of 10 he was attending a drawing school, Henry Par's Academy . Education wise, Blake was especially knowledgeable in  both Greek and Latin literature. He all so knew a lot about Milton and the Bible. Robert, Blake’s younger brother was one of his biggest influences.  Later on he also became a huge inspiration for Blake. After Robert’s death in 1787 Blake was said to have seen his brother’s soul. Robert inspired Blake with a special way of doing engraving which he showed him through a vision. Blake not only saw his brother’s spirit but he also claimed to have spoken with the angels, spirits, and devils that he had written about in his poetry. According to the website linked below it is actually said that Blake saw his first vision when he was four years old, what he saw was Gods hand through a window. When Blake was around the age of fourteen he started to do engraving artwork. He started off first as an apprentice to James Basire who he worked with for eleven years. "Joseph of Arimathea amoung the Rocks of Albion" was Blake’s first engraving. Eight years later Blake went to the Royal Academy while he was still working with James.  At the Royal Academy he met a sculptor, John Flaxman and a painter, Henry Fuseli who helped to influence Blake’s work. Blake got married at the age of 25 to Catherine Boucher. Catherine would often help him with his work, while Blake engraved plates she would help him out by painting them. It is also said the she helped Blake with the creation of the “Songs of Innocence”. A few years after his marriage Blake opened up a print shop with the help of his friend John Flaxman, but business did not go so well for him. All the while Blake continued to write. Most of his most famous writing was done around that same time. By the year 1818 Blake was no longer writing poetry but he did continue with his artwork. Blake’s life came to an end in 1827 in his home in London. 

Check out the link below for more about Blake’s life:  

http://web.vu.union.edu/~blake/life.html