The poem "A Little GIRL Lost" published in 1794 by William Blake, was written to show the discrimination of women within religion, with a little references to Adam and Eve. He portrays a "youth pair" that "met in a garden" after "the holy night had just removed the curtains of the night", basically describing Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. The "Golden Age" is in reference to the past returning again. Today's generation of youth is nothing like the "Golden Age", where the people knew where they came from and had morals. I feel like the society had a major affect on William Blake's views on women and how he portrayed women in his poetry.
William Blake is discriminating women in a way. What I got from the poem is that a young girl is rebellious until her father puts her in her place. He's saying women can't make valuable choices and decisions of their own. The world is predominantly male dominated, which means women have to play a major role in standing out and proving themselves.
Women are a lot more valuable then what males portray us as. Some men think women are weak and that is what I believe William Blake is trying to say behind the text. Women are very strong individuals which makes us stand out from men; we're more then just a pretty face.
Towards the end of the poem William Blake wrote:
" To her father white, came the maiden bright. But his loving look, like the holy book, all her tender limbs with terror shook. Ona! Pale and weak! To thy father speak, O the trembling fear! O the dismal care! That shakes the blossoms of my hoary."
What I got from that text is that the girl's father is the Lord and the young girl is unhappy. Unhappy with the decisions she has chosen in life; Similar to Eve going against God's word and eats the apple. Because of her unhappiness her father uses his bible to talk and reinforce her. She begins to tremble with fear that she might be punished. While the young girl is talking in her defense her father shows he doesn't care and he gets stressed, from his stress his hair begins to turn grey.
The illustration above is one of the main reasons I believe William Blake is referencing this poem toward Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and how a young girl can make a bad decision that affects others. The tree in the illustration references the tree that the apple came from that Eve ate when she was told not to, by her father... the Lord. The young girl is lost in her own world and needs guidance to learn whats right from wrong.
Sources:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=songsie.b.illbk.34&java=yes
http://www.online-literature.com/article/blake/7394/
http://www.eliteskills.com/c/5110
I disagree with that William Blake is discriminating women in a way.Inversely, I think Blake support with the feminist. In the poem we can know the distake to the father, that means the author satirize but not support the sexism.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting theory-that the poem is actually a satire of gender discrimination. What parts of the text les you to that conclusion? I think these two opposing interpretations are an interesting issue to debate.
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