Reading William Blake's The Ni

A detailed Summary of Reading William Blake's The Ni

The worship of nature is a characteristic of the Romantics that is why it is no surprise that we read the voice in The Tables Turn'd telling someone to go out rather than stay inside the house and read books. It is a beautiful day for "[t]he sun . . . through all the green fields has spread / [h]is first sweet evening yellow" and hence, a perfect occasion for observing nature in its pristine state and all its beauty and splendor. The narrator asks the reader why go through all the trouble of reading books as it is but "a dull and endless strife" when one can see aspects of nature for him/herself. Sometimes the reader's perception about things can be wrong with regard to how he/she imagines a particular bird or plant looks. The narrator continues: "clear your looks; / why all this toil and trouble [!]" Why then insist on staying indoors when nature has "a world of ready wealth", waiting for us to see, hear, discover and experience for ourselves and see things as they are. One should then take advantage of his/her faculties while he/she still can and in the process, one is blessed with "[s]pontaneous wisdom breathed by health / [t]ruth breathed by cheerfulness." In

Trees are also mentioned in the poem as great teachers for they "[m]ay teach you more of man, / of moral evil and of good." If we recall, seeds are planted before they grow into shoots, then they grow bigger and bigger. In the same way, man has been planted as a seed by God, and it is up to an individual to become "tall and mighty", by making full use of the talents bestowed on him/her or be weak and useless, so that in the end, one can only shrivel up and die. Meanwhile, if trees are not taken care of, the world is "punished" with floods, landslides and erosion. However, if well maintained, they provide us with shelter and shade, food, and other basic necessities. Man is also the same: he becomes an upstanding citizen if raised by parents with love and in the light of values and principles, and dangerous if he/she grows up without guidance and allows greed to consume him/her.

In the seventh verse, the narrator then goes on to attack Science for "[o]ur meddling intellect / misshapes the beauteous forms of things / We murder to dissect." The narrator here, is referring to man, who in his/her search for how things work, keeps animals in cages, and plants in laboratories, in order to study them, instead of letting them flourish in their natural environment. This is against the principles of the Romantics, who advocate worshipping nature in its pristine state. That is why they take offense with regard to keeping these creatures in artificial surroundings becau

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tables Turn'd, Science Art, , narrator continues, tables turn'd, nature pristine, aspects nature,

Approximate Word count = 995
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English