EH 101
Hanyang Liu
5/16/2012
The Shepherd – New Historicism, Cultural Studies
Does the work’s presentation support or condemn the event (peace)?
The Shepherd is a poem from Songs of Innocence. The poem is very short and it only has 8 lines. It is talking about the Shepherd is the watch sheep.
The first print of the book Songs of Innocence is in 1789, and the poem The Shepherd was the first one in the book. The author William Blake is a British man. He was a student at the Royal Academy. That means he had a higher education because at that time, Royal Academy was one of the most famous institution of higher learning. In 1780, Blake was forced to join a riot. He is under an accusation, but at the end, he was acquitted. For the reason of the riot, Blake got the hostility from King George III. He had to leave the politics and the government and do the job about writing. Blake married with Catherine Boucher in 1782. After that, he had a few years of the peace life. During this time, Blake was teaching his wife the read and write, and he also wrote a lot of works. The experiences lay the foundation for create Songs of Innocence (Wikipedia).
The poem was praised the peace and charity. At the fourth line of the poem, the shepherd praises the sheep, and at last line, the sheep also thank for the shepherd protect them. The shepherd and sheep are the representation of peace and charity in the Bible (Bible). In 1783, British lost the American Revolutionary War, and thousands British privates died during the war. British signed the Treaty of Paris and lose their biggest colony. American people had their own country and freedom, but British sank in the poor and chaos. Blake hoped for a peace and happy society. It is an important reason to why he wrote this poem.
The poem’s presentation supports the peace because the poem praised the shepherd. The shepherd stand for strong and powerful ruler can protect the peace society.
Work Cited
Bible Meaning Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002. http://www.biblemeanings.info/ web.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, William Blake, 5-16-2012, web.
Lui, I did not really agree with your analysis of the poem. In my own view, Blake wrote this poem considering the relationship between God and humans. In this regard, the essay is more concerned with religion, and Blake wrote this poem considering man as being under the daily protection of God. Moreover, you forgot the chose a literacy theory that applies to your poem, and your introduction did not have a valid source to support your analysis. The essay also lacks a thesis,topic sentences, and it did not follow the formal academic style of research writing. Please you need to consider these aspects when analyzing your next poem.
ReplyDeleteVery good comment Charlotte.
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