Dorothy Woodsworth

It appears that Dorothy's poetry is based on her travels with her brother and her life experiences as well. The only thing about Dorothy's personal life that i quite do not understand is why she never married and felt so close to William over her other brothers, I know that they were closer in age. I do wish Dorothy would have written more. However, my favorite poem of Dorothy's was Thoughts on My Sick-Bed. In this poem Dorothy is talking about one of her times she was ill. She was using nature to describe how she felt in her youth to how she felt then in her present state, at an older age. "With joyuful heart in youthful days/ When fresh each season in its Round/ I welcomed the earliest Celandine/ Glittering upon the mossy ground." In this stanza she is expressing how she felt in her youth. " NO! then i never felat a bliss/ that might with that compare/ which, piercing to my couch of rest/ came on the vernal air" She is using spring to describe how she felt in her youth. It must have been hard for Dorothy to have outlived her brother by five years. Especially, seeing as how close they were and she helped raise his kids. My question still remains as to why Dorothy never sought out a life of her own seperate from William. Or why she always referred to herself as Williams sister and did not think of herself as an author. Maybe, she did not want to take the spotlight away from William and wanted him to be successful. I suppose she might have thought she was being selfless and exuding a sister's love.

William Woodsworth

William Woodsworth proved to be an easier read for me. Woodsworth wrote about nature and the common man and their experiences. Seeing as how it was not as political as others we have read like Helena Williams, I was able to enjoy it more. I was particularly fond of his poems from Lyrical Ballads. The poems in this selection were just about men and their life experiences. My favorite poems were Simon Lee and We are Seven. In Simon Lee I liked how Woodsworth described the old man who was barely hanging onto life and his wife and how they could barely take care of the little land that they owned. But, no matter all the odds against him he was still happy and did not let lifes challenges make him miserable. "The tears into his eyes were brought,/ And thanks and praises seemed to run." Even though the old man was the weakest in the town and had no money, when Woodsworth helped him he expressed extreme gratitude and did not hold contempt in his heart for the way that the townspeople treated him. I like this becuase I think that this can be translated into today's society. For example, I was at the airport one day and a lady said that she needed to get home she had no money and she just needed money for a cab. So I gave her forty dollars and she said that was not enough, she was not grateful for what was given to her. However, the man in this poem was happy that someone stopped to help him pull the root out of a tree.

I also liked the poem, We are Seven. This poem was about a young girl who was asked about how many siblings she had and responded seven, although five were only living. "O Master! we are seven/ But they are dead; those two are dead/ Their spirits are in heave/ T'was throwing words away; for still/ The little Maid would havev her will/ And said, Nay we are seven" The girl no matter if they were dead still held on that there were seven of her and her brothers and sisters. I can see where the girl is coming from because she knows they are dead but there will always be seven of them. My interpretation is that even though someone is gone their spirit still remains with you. You do not forget about them and the girl is carrying her dead brother and sister with her. Letting their memory live on.

William Blake

All of Blake’s poems appear to have a religious theme throughout the Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The poems in the Songs of Innocence are merrier than the poems in the Songs of Experience. The poem in particular I liked from Songs of Innocence was The Lamb, The Little Black Boy, and The Chimney Sweeper. They all had the same underlying theme, that God is within everyone and everything and it is he who makes everything alright no matter your situation, circumstance, or race. In the Songs of Experience, it is completely different from the Songs of Innocence in that the poems in the Songs of Innocence have not experienced much so therefore they are not pessimistic like the people and events that transpire in the Songs of Experience. It is as if they have let life’s trials and tribulations deter them from God. Perhaps this is a message that Blake is trying to get across that no matter what happens in life God is always prevalent. For example in The Chimney Sweeper in the Songs of Experience, versus the same poem in the Songs of Innocence in which the little boys were optimistic that better things were to come but in the Songs of Experience it was as if there was nothing better for them.

The French Revolution

I know this posting is a little late... However, here it is:

When reading these authors Williams, Burke, Wollstencraft, and Paine, I noticed that they all were talking about the things going on at the time. There were many issues and opinions of people during the time of the French Revolution. The authors in our readings wrote of many of the same events transpiring, death and execution of King Lewis as well as Marie Antoinette, and the rights of man. The views of Burke and Paine conflicted. Paine wrote a rebuttal to Burke’s opinion on the French Revolution. Paine believed that when man died then his family had no claim to what he left behind. “When a man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease with him.”(65) While Burke believed, “They have a right to the acquisitions of their parents; to the nourishment and improvement of their offspring; to instruction in life, and consolation in death.” (50) As Paine stated, “I am contending for the living, and against their being willed away, and controlled and contracted for, by the manuscript assumed authority of the dead; and Mr. Burke is contending authority of the dead over the rights and freedom of the living.” (65). I believe that Burke is just saying that when people die what they accomplished when they were living just should not be forgotten or be done in vein. In these two writings it appeared to me that Burke was going against what was normal during this time, he was not playing it safe with his views. Where as in Paine's writings he is trying not to upset anyone because during this time people are being executed because of their beliefs, therefore he is more conservative than Burke. “I am not contending for nor against any form of Government, nor for nor against any party, here or elsewhere. That which a whole Nation chooses to do, it has a right to do.” (65)