Exercises

Directions: Insert the linking sentence(s) after the topic sentences for the following paragraphs. Use the starters for help.

Exercise #1:

While Blake comes to answer the Romantic question through attaining an “organized innocent” perspective, Wordsworth takes a similar, yet different path. Explaining nature's restorative power, Wordsworth writes:

My heart leaps up when I behold

and a rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The child is father of the man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

(lines 1-9).

In the excerpt above Wordsworth explains that when his life began he was thoughtlessly one with nature, God, and himself. He starts off his poem by writing, “my heart leaps up when I behold and a rainbow in the sky:” (lines 1-2). The visual image of the rainbow in the sky symbolizes the innocence and oneness with nature that one has as a child. As a result, this image helps illustrate how a child sees world: colorful, innocent, and thoughtless. When Wordsworth writes, “So it was when my life began; So it is now that I am a man;” Wordsworth shows us that this perspective is still relevant when one reaches adulthood. In other words, in order to be one with nature, God, and the self, you must value the innocent oneness that a child has.

Exercise #2:

Now that the truly optimistic innocent point of view has been defined, it’s polar opposite can be articulated. This is the perspective in which a person sees the world through a cynical, irreverent, and disillusioned lens. Blake writes:

O rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm,

That flies in the night,

In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy,

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

This poem exists in Blake’s Songs of Experience as an accompanying poem to “The Blossom.” This excerpt communicates the message that the rose is being destroyed due to many forces in nature, which include a worm, the weather and natural decomposition. The worm seems to enjoy its ability to eat away at and destroy the rose. In the opening line of the poem, the rose is personified as “sick.” This personification guides the reader into seeing nature’s demolition of itself through decay and disease. These forces, which attempt to kill the rose, are usually unnoticed by humans. Furthermore, the connotations of “bed” in the second stanza are a flowerbed and a human bed. These connotations improve the correlation between a human and the rose. The word “bed” also allows for the interpretation that a woman’s virginity or innocence (often symbolized as a rose) is being taken by man’s “dark secret love.” The visual image of the “flying worm” and the auditory imagery of the “howling storm” intensify the feeling that the destructive forces in the world are dominant and fervent. This poem expresses the Blakean experienced perspective because it sees a world controlled by loss, destruction, decay and disease without any hope or optimism. Different from “The Blossom” there is no sense of renewal or procreation in a world enthusiastic about destroying beauty and innocence. To put it bluntly, this perspective focuses only on the evil and sinful parts of nature.

POSSIBLE ANSWERS:

Exercise #1:

While Blake comes to answer the Romantic question through attaining an “organized innocent” perspective, Wordsworth takes a similar, yet different path. It is instructive to look closely at Wordsworth's short poem "My heart leaps up" because it develops the "innocent" notion that nature can return man to the childlike oneness between nature, self, and God. Explaining nature's restorative power, Wordsworth writes:

My heart leaps up when I behold

and a rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The child is father of the man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

(lines 1-9).

In the excerpt above Wordsworth explains that when his life began he was thoughtlessly one with nature, God, and himself. He starts off his poem by writing, “my heart leaps up when I behold and a rainbow in the sky:” (lines 1-2). The visual image of the rainbow in the sky symbolizes the innocence and oneness with nature that one has as a child. As a result, this image helps illustrate how a child sees world: colorful, innocent, and thoughtless. When Wordsworth writes, “So it was when my life began; So it is now that I am a man;” Wordsworth shows us that this perspective is still relevant when one reaches adulthood. In other words, in order to be one with nature, God, and the self, you must value the innocent oneness that a child has.

Exercise #2:

Now that the truly optimistic innocent point of view has been defined, it’s polar opposite can be articulated. This is the perspective in which a person sees the world through a cynical, irreverent, and disillusioned lens. To illustrate this "experienced persepctive" it is helpful to analyze the companion poem to the "The Blossom"-"A Sick Rose." Blake writes:

O rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm,

That flies in the night,

In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy,

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

This poem exists in Blake’s Songs of Experience as an accompanying poem to “The Blossom.” This excerpt communicates the message that the rose is being destroyed due to many forces in nature, which include a worm, the weather and natural decomposition. The worm seems to enjoy its ability to eat away at and destroy the rose. In the opening line of the poem, the rose is personified as “sick.” This personification guides the reader into seeing nature’s demolition of itself through decay and disease. These forces, which attempt to kill the rose, are usually unnoticed by humans. Furthermore, the connotations of “bed” in the second stanza are a flowerbed and a human bed. These connotations improve the correlation between a human and the rose. The word “bed” also allows for the interpretation that a woman’s virginity or innocence (often symbolized as a rose) is being taken by man’s “dark secret love.” The visual image of the “flying worm” and the auditory imagery of the “howling storm” intensify the feeling that the destructive forces in the world are dominant and fervent. This poem expresses the Blakean experienced perspective because it sees a world controlled by loss, destruction, decay and disease without any hope or optimism. Different from “The Blossom” there is no sense of renewal or procreation in a world enthusiastic about destroying beauty and innocence. To put it bluntly, this perspective focuses only on the evil and sinful parts of nature.