Literary Criticism
What is literary criticism? How do I find it?
Literary
criticism is the evaluation, analysis,
description, or interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the
form of
a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered
literary criticism. Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or
may
look at an author's writings as a whole. Finding literary criticism can
be
challenging. This pathfinder is designed to help students in researching
and
writing a paper that requires sources of literary criticism. Read the
following literary criticism and study the tendency of the writing
method and try to produce the best critics for the given anthology of
"The English Vision Programme "
The Garden Of Love
William Blake
(1757-1827)
I went to
the garden of love,
And saw
what I never had seen,
A chapel
was built in the midst,
Where I
used to play on the green.
And the
gates of this chapel were shut,
And “thou
shalt not” writ over the door,
So I turned
to the garden of love,
That so
many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw
it was filled with graves,
And
tombstones where flowers should be,
And priests
black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding
with briars my joys and desires.
William Blake could be
classified as a romantic poet. Blake had no particular tendency to follow any
specified direction. Swinbarn called him “the only Poet of supreme and poetic
genius”
Blake’s poetry usually dealt with rather psychological problems.
His rhythm patterns simple brining out meaning. And he generally varied the
rhythm pattern giving weight to the word, and the repetition of words giving
emphasis to the meaning. In this poem “The Garden OF Love” Blake recalls to the
day, he went to the garden of love and his extreme surprise seeing a chapel
built in the midst of the garden where he used to play. The gates to the garden
were shut with the words “Thou shalt not writ over the door”.
The poet had but one choice that is to turn to the Garden of
love that so many sweet flowers bear”.
The poet seems to be emotionally disturbed when he saw “the
graves” and “tombstones where flowers should be” To the poet “Where where
flowers should be” and Tombs taking the place of the flowers is a surprising
situation “Tomb flowers”.
The Poet’s consciousnesses of the Nature’s gift the flowers,
tender, beautiful and fascinating and the contrasting situation Tombs where
flowers should be.
“That so many sweet flowers bore And I saw it was filled with
graves.”
The image of priests in “Black Gowns were walking their
rounds. And binding with briars my joys and desirs.”
The image of the flowers suggesting serene beautiful, tender
silky setting and the contrasting image of priests in “Black Gowns” walking
their rounds. The colour Black suggesting the sad situation existing.
“And binding with
briars my joys and desires.” Blake’s diction style is simple and unique, with
exquisite wording. Blake maintains the rhythm and rhyme keeping the them alive;
Blake’s poetry is rather related to “moral problems” he uses symbolism to
highlight his intense feelings making his readers share with him. His view and
ideas.
“And I saw it was filled with graves,
And
tombstones where flowers should be,”
“Blake’s quality as a powerful poet is best seen in his
shorter poems”(Angela Hussein)
“Sensitive and perceptive analysis of the ideas” in this
poem. The structure, the simple rhythm pattern varying in logical manner to
bring out the meaning.
“And I saw It was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be,
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires”..
And tombstones where flowers should be,
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires”..
