Concept Of Energy In Works Ofblake

Dr Carrol

English 467

April 24, 1 995

DISCUSS THE CONCEPT OF "ENERGY" IN REPRESENTATIVE WORKS OF BLAKE.

Blake's concept of energy reflects the ideas and the historical context of his

times. The Age of Reason 'had put emphasia on the intellect, on what was 'rational'

and had despised anything that dealt with passion, so it was inevitable that sooner or

,'

later the roles w o u l d ~ h i f t w f ?

"Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and

Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence." Plate 3, which is the

argument of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is fundamental in order to understand

Blake's concept of eAergy, because it starts to define it. Energy then is the opposite of

1 I

r~ecacsoo3r da inndgto it Bisla imkep, dchoanntrt atroie sh uamrea cno esxmisitce fnocrec ebse tchaaut speo ilta fraizveo rhsu man life But how? and therefore .cte - -7

to be seen in every hdividual. These o osites a,wor k 'np?o sitively( because they don't

destroy each othe*ng to prevaiI@Mth ey act in com@entary directions. They 3

balance each so that every person contains the two contrari@G&at -7

t

the title suggests,G%dbe a marriage. The contraries that

Blake is referripp to in particular are "energy", as the desire for creation and .reasom

,,.as the need to give form and order to energy.

In Plate 4 the voice of the devil explains that people are wrong in believing that

energy, which is also called evil, comes only from the body, while good comes from

t*w,&e soul and that God will torment man in eternity for following his v- energies. It is ,&portant therefore that man does not repress either one of the two forces bekuse

. .C 1 1 . 4

Valentina Andreetta

English 467 P

?' t h e e n c e each other: "Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is

the bound or outward circumference of Energy." (Plate 4) The worst thing that man

ll Cb-.

txdd do, according to Blake, is repressMenergy, because, he explains in Plate 5, if

w

reason restrain- energy or7 desir it can make it totally passive. Blake

brings this issue up several times. especially In the 'Proverbs of Hell", condemning

that kind of behavior: "He who desires but acts not, br6eds pestilence" (Plate 7),

'Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desiresv (Plate lo), are

examples. At the same time, while condemning one side, the poet praises the other,

by encouraging people to let themselves go: "Dip him in the river who loves water"

(Plate 7), "No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings." (Plate 7).

Blak ive a lot f importance to energy, because it i on it that all the creative

pZyYb/ life is ba (A& d proved was once only imaginGt1Everything possible

. to be b e l i M s an image of truthswhen thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of

Genius; lift up thy head!" (Plates 8, 9) are only a few of the proverbs in which Blake

praises that kind of creative energy that is unique to man: imagination. So denying or

seeking to destroy energy means losing the imagination. Blake also identifies the

imagination with the Holy indwelling Jesus. He goes deeper in the

subject and starts plate, how all gods are human creations,

'mental' gods projected by those poets who could perceive things differently compared

to the rest of the world. "The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or

Geniuses, calling them by names and adorning them with the properties of wood,

rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations and whatever their enlargd & numerous senses

could perceive.

Valentina Andreetta

English 467

And particularly they studied the genius of each city and country, placing it under

its mental deity" .

Ezekiel explains that the God the ancient Jews invoked was the 'Poetic Genius',

which means that all nations derive their gods from the original 'Poetic Genius', the

human imagination, the energy. The ancient Poets Blake was referring toE o uld have a different