William Blake, The little black boy

Bysshe ShelleyJohn Keats









The Little Black Boy, William Blake









The Little Black Boy, composed by William Blake is a poem of an African child coming to terms with his skin color. A skin color of blake. Blake builds the poem on clear concept of light and dark. Claiming his color within the the first stanza, "My mother bore me in the southren wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white". Claiming his soul to be white . A poem showing the contrast of the child's black skin and his belief in the whiteness of his soul. With white being heavenly and black being devilish. The little black boy is showing he is capable and deserving of perfect love as a white person is.





The child's mother symbolizes a natural and selfless love. She shows a concern for her child's self-esteem, as well as a strong desire that he is knowledgeable of God. "Look on the rising sin: there is God does live, and gives his heat away." His mother suggests that his earthly life is but a preparation for the rewards of heaven. Basically, skin is temporary, your eternal essence is what matters. Skin, which is a factor only in this earthly life, becomes useless in heaven.









The black boy applies his mother's life lessons to his everyday. "Thus my mother say, and kissed me; When I from black and he form white cloud free".The little black boy explains to another white boy, they are equals, but that neither will be truly free until they are released from the constraints of the physical world. He even imagines himself shading and protecting his friend from the brightness of God's love until he can become accustomed to it. This helps show the black boy is more knowledge of heaven and God were mroe advanced than the white boy. Perhaps this sense of understanding is the effect of having dark skin. His mother prepared him with the knowledge of having pride in your skin color not shame. Blake however, did not give a response of the white boy.

The Romantic Period

Positive thinking was a large part of the Romantic Period. Within the era, many profound poets emerged. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were two of the many emerging writers. Lyrical Ballads, -William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was published in 1798; this opened a window for many new poets.



During the Romantic era, western Europe faced many difficult radical life changes. Humans fell to technology, faster and larger quanities were needed. Therefore products began to be massed produced with machines. Hence, the industry world began to take over by technology. Most lower class children were seen as a burden. The children were used as laborers and literally worked to death. Land was being lost and people were out of control. Many famous pieces of work exploring the psychological and mysterious aspects of human life were written and published during the transition. Such as Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Grimm's Fairly Tales, Brothers Grim, and William Blake, Songs of Innocence. A strong vibe behind the words of these writers. Words flowing in as if from a stream with a vibe described; there is nature, and there are human beings to experience nature. Writers in this time, also wrote about connecting to the inner piece, the imagination. And the imagination is a way of desire, a motive which drives the mind to learn and know things it can not learn by rational or logical thinking.



Beginning in the last decades of the 18th century, Romanticism transformed poetry, the novel, drama, painting, sculpture, all forms of concert music, especially opera, and ballet. It was deeply connected with the politics of the time, echoing people's fears, hopes, and aspirations. Romanticism was more widespread both in its origins and influence. It was the voice of revolution at the beginning of the 19th century.

Society was still getting over the aftermath of the Restoration, or the Eighteenth Century. Poems and pieces of Literature helped push more and more people through times of hurt. These writers became legends in the world of words.

Years of Plague in Review

Years of agony, mystery and death crept upon London. Ten of thousands dead every week. Dying from a diease which has many names, yet commonly known as the plauge. Society at the time of the eighteenth century, were most concerned about surviving. There was a day to day chance of gaining a token. A token is also known as a gangrene spot. Stories of the sick and the dying, from A Journal of the Plague Year, written by Daniel Defoe, describes horrific deaths in number, the grief of the people and the hardship of staying alive. "Till they found to their unspeakable surprise, the tokens come out upon them; after which they seldom lived six hours;for those spots they called the tokens",-The Infection Spread. A death which could not be stop or prevented.



Unknowing of the rats and fleas spreading the infection onto humans by the numbers. The prilivaged and wealthy fled to villages and towns surrounding London. "As particularly of person falling dead in the streets, terrible shrieks and screeching of women, who, in their agonies, would throw open their chamber window and cry out in dismal."-Dismal Scenes. Grief and sorrow filled hearts everywhere.





Hundreds and thousands of dead bodies thrown from a cart into a pit added to the massive grave already present. "The common grave of mankind, as we may call it, for here was no difference made, but poor and rich went together", -Burial Pits and Dead. London became a city of worry, and terror. Staying alive was the main focus for anyone near London during the years of the plauge. A diease that can only be discribed as a bomb. A bomb that stuck London directly in the face.

A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe

Word spreads long after many dead, would be a adequate head liner for the daily newspaper. Over ten thousand lives taken per week by the plague. Peaking during August and September of 1665, the plague seemed as if this " mysterious" disease were about to overcome London. The wealthy an privileged moved to villages and towns to try and escape the horrific death.




By 1722, Daniel Defoe had published a journal, A Journal of the Plague Year. Defoe built this journal from his very own child memories, the accounts of family members and others, city records, and research. He would find more helpful information from pamphlets and books written previous years before. With the resources collected, a fictional journal travels though a time of death in number, society broken down, and London at its worst. The people of this time had no clue how or what to do to prevent this disease from spreading."Visitation never perceived that they were infected till they found their unspeakable, surprise, the tokens come out upon them; after which they seldom lived six hours"- The Infection Spreads. Society did not have the knowledge of rats and fleas being the culprit of the infection. So this mystery disease created a border line morbid eyewitness account. However, I find the journal interesting and plausible.









Quarantines were set for anyone who had been in contact with the disease. However, the law was seldom followed. For even the near death would find an escape. "I heard of one infected creature who, running out of bed in his shirt in the anguish and agony of his swelling, ....., snatching the coat from him, he threw her down, ran over her, ran downstairs and into the street...plunged into the Thames"- A Violent Cure. Memories from "survivors" helped create the sense of a realistic journal. Defoe combined history, experience, and memorabilia to have an "authentic" journal. In review, A Journal of the Plague Year, written by Daniel Defoe, was a nicely composed piece of work.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

The beginning of my journey within the book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, began with a quote, "This book is the final word, a brilliant vision, a terrible magnificently funny telling of what happened to this country in the 1960's"-Lucian K. Truscott IV, Village Voice. This quote earged my finishing the book. Also previously, I have saw the movie coinciding with the book. "A savage journey to the heart of the American dream", the soul storyline of both the movie and the book. This journey to fulfil the knowing of the American dream, beings and ends with a drug frenzy. However, twisted, wasted, hopped, basically stoned out of your head, life makes perfect sense. Duke, a young journalist, fresh from the drug culture of the 60s, arrives in Las Vegas, to cover the annual 1971 bikers race out in the desert with his good friend, Dr. Gonzo who is Duke's so called lawyer. Both arrive in a fancy white sports car, dubbed the Great White Shark, zonked out on drugs and intend to remain that way. Later receiving a new assignment to cover the annual Law Enforcement Meeting On Drugs. While "covering the meeting", both men generally scare the tourists, and annoy the natives. Along the way trippy situations occur, usually with our protagonists sniffing, smoking, or chewing something. They pick up a hitchhiker, ruin a hotel room, and harass a car full of poor, old Southern folk. "All under the safety of a fake name, of course." Not once during the book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, was I lost, or uninterested. This book was a wonderful collection for the author, Hunter S. Thompson and marvelous piece of writing incorporating the way of life of an other's point of view.

A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift

"A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick." This is only part of the title of the atrocious proposal of using poor country children as food. The wealthy would be able to barter for the children on size and age. This "method" would help with the poverty level, which were predominantly Catholic. Initially, this proposal was written to monk the government at the time. Proposing the idea of making money off children being sold for food. But of course there would have to be regulations. For example, children of the poor could be sold into a meat market at the age of one. With the children being sold, overpopulation and unemployment would lessen; supposedly sparing families the expense of child-bearing while providing them with a little extra income, improving the culinary experience of the wealthy, and contributing to the overall economic well-being of the nation. What an idea. Swift's form of writing was a form of satire because the idea was completely unimaginable and would never hopefully be considered. it is also described as a satire since he is "blowing out of proportion" or mocking.

Satire

A satire, is a form of mocking or imitating someone or something in an out of proportion way.

Some examples of satire are as followed, Saturday Night Live, MAD TV, Who's Line Is It Anyway, South Park, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Simpsons, and King of the Hill.

The "Glorious Revolution" of 1688

The overthrow of James II in 1688 was the second time during the 17th century that a Stuart king had lost his crown. However, unlike Charles I, his father, James II did not lose his head as well. It was a bloodless revolution, but nonetheless an extremely important one. The kings and queens who have succeeded to the throne since 1688 have all had to obey a set of rules imposed by the representatives of the people, that is, by Parliament. In other words, 1688 marks the end of absolutism and the beginning of Constitutional Government in England.



James the II fled in exile to France when he knew his country had abandoned him. In 1688, a son was born to James the II, but not long after they were forced to leave England. His daughter Mary and her husband the Dutch Protestant prince, William of Orange, began to rule and pursue the Protestant demonation. James II tried to connect both Catholic and Protestant, yet the people of that times were so set in their mind frame he was denied. However, this showed how much power the people had over the people ruling. Society was incharge for once.

Go Ask Alice Review

"A raindrop just splashed on my forehead and it was like a tear from heaven. Am I really alone in the whole wide gray world? Is it possible that even God is crying for me? Oh no, no, no ... I'm losing my mind. Please God, help me." This entry is from Go Ask Alice, a true story of an anonymous girl and her days as a runaway drug addict in the 1960s. This 15-year-old girl comes from a middle class family. Her siblings, Tim and Alexandria, are very supportive and her father is a professor at a prominent university.
On a visit to her old town, she is invited to a party given by people she always wanted to be friends with. At the party she takes acid without her knowledge. It's hard to believe she was unaware of her first "trip." Yet, this was the start of the awful experiences of an innocent young girl taken in by the cruel, awful world of drugs.
During this time, she runs away, sells drugs and survives a group of druggies who are out to get her. On the road to recovery, she meets Joel at the college where her father works; he is someone who really cares about her.
All teenagers can relate to her life, and, after reading it, most won't ever touch drugs; it's a strong and painful story.This non-fiction book is a series of diary entries, well-written, emotional and quite destructive. Several entries discuss her sad attempt to get away from drugs. Will she make it? Or become one of thousands of drug deaths each year. You will have to find out on your own.
If you would like to read a realistic book that really covers how a teenage life can be this is the book to read. Numerous times though out the book, I could relate to the main character Alice. Yet, though everything she tries to keep a positive out look on life and what life has to offer.