Analysis And Comparison Of "The Lamb" And "Pied Beauty"

Analysis and Comparison of "The Lamb" and "Pied Beauty"

God's presence is apparent in the beauty of nature. The world created by God is a perfect home to all living things. God has created an intricate world that is astonishing in its variety. In William Blake's 'The Lamb' and Gerard Manley Hopkins' 'Pied Beauty,' the poets illustrate the theme that the beauty of the earth proves theexistence of a benevolent creator.

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28, 1844. He was the first of nine children. He grew up in a family of writers and artists. At grammar school in High gate, he won the poetry prize for 'The Escorial' and a scholarship to Balliol College in Oxford. While there, he began to struggle with his Protestant faith and in 1866, Hopkins joined the Roman Catholic Church.This distanced him from his parents and even more when he joined the Jesuit order and was ordained a priest. As a young man Hopkins experienced conflict between his desire to write poetry and his religious commitment. When he attempted to publish his first poem it was rejected. Hopkins died at age 44, of typhoid fever. 'His poetry will always be among the greatest poems of faith and doubt in theEnglish language' (Gerard Manley Hopkins: An Overview).

William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in London. He was the third oldest of five children. Blake went to school long enough to learn how to read and write. He then worked in his father's hosiery shop until the age of fourteen. His father then apprenticed Blake to an engraver when he saw his talent for drawing. William Blake marriedCatherine Boucher at the age of twenty-five. He taught her to read and write in order to help him in his work. Blake was an artist, a poet, and a visionary. 'His work was so incompatible with the taste of his day that his contemporaries could not appreciate his accomplishment' (British Literature). Some looked at him as being inspired but irrational, while others claimed him to be mad. During hislife he witnessed visions of angels sitting in a tree to messages from his dead brother. He thought these to be interactions with God, and this was inspiration for his poetry and art. In 1789, Blake published his first major piece of work, Songs of Innocence and later added a group of contrasting poems titled Songs of Experience. 'Blake died three months before his 70th birthday, confident of thevalue of his work but still relatively unknown, his stunning originality as a poet and artist not to be recognized until well into the 20th century' (British Literature).

Both William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins were influenced by their historical time periods. Blake's life (1757-1827) spanned two time periods and reflects both. He lived at the end of the Enlightenment or eighteenth centuryand the beginning of the Romantic Period. The historical events that influenced him were the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Agricultural Revolution. Blake was a pre-romantic poet who 'reacted against the emphasis on reason and the intellect' which was popular in the eighteenth century (Prentice 506). Like other pre-romantic poets, Blake 'disregarded the tastes of the timeand reestablished the lyric'(Prentice 506). Blake's poems are closer to romantic poetry because they appeal to both, the reader's emotions and reason, they contain ordinary language, and in them, man and nature are closely related. Hopkins (1844-1889) lived at the end of the Victorian Period. He lived at a time when England was the world's richest and strongest country. He was influenced by themiddle-class beliefs in social responsibility and the work ethic. He became a Catholic priest to serve the poor. Like many Victorian writers, Hopkins expressed optimism in his poetry. He paved the way for Modern writers by experimenting with rhyme and rhythm. 'He developed what he called 'sprungrhythm.' This is a system of versification in which accented syllables are grouped in emphatic patterns...