Raging With the Truth
Condemnation and Concealment in the Poetry of Blake and Hill
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14760249 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emily Taylor Merriman (San Francisco State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 83-103 |
| Publication date | 2009-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9795.2008.00376.x |
| OpenAlex | W1974737198 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 5 |
An analysis of Geoffrey Hill's lyric poem about William Blake illuminates the relations between art, prophecy, and imperial politics across more than two centuries. Hill's poem responds to David V. Erdman's argument that Blake was resolutely, if ineffectually and sometimes secretly, opposed to war. It also establishes Hill's own cryptic but definite resistance to contemporary war and warmongers, while it mourns poetry's public powerlessness to halt the violent competition for material resources. Ignored by the majority, poetry fails to bring about the ethical social change that poets often envision. The layering of perspectives (Hill the poet and scholar writing about Erdman the scholar, who is explicating Blake the poet and artist) allows for a multidimensional interpretation of the role of poets and prophetic poetry. Despite their fury at society's deafness and greed, and frustration at their own incapacities, poets—because if they are great poets, they are prophets, too—continue to speak to their audiences about the problems of this world and about the better worlds that can be imagined. Hill's text obliquely teaches how the small success of a great poem can provide a minor note of consolation as it objects to terror and tyranny
Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Consolation · Interpretation (philosophy · Literature · Poetry · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Moravian Church and William Blake · Philosophy · Poetry Analysis and Criticism
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2013 (5) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |