HI All, We had a fabulous morning (despite the sound system glitches) on William Blake’s “Contrary States” and then the way this idea is embedded and dramatized in The Songs of Innocence and Experience. We talked about the ways in which these ideas have been taken up by Allen Ginsberg, by the Rock Group The Doors…
Tag: Allen Ginsberg
William Blake’s “Grain of Sand” Alive and Well in 2018
Performances based around the work of William Blake and his legacy in Australia have taken place today in Strathfield (ACU)! What an amazing collection of young voices celebrating the continuing creative power of William Blake and his impact on such diverse talents as Patrick White, Brett Whiteley and Allen Ginsberg. Here are our pre-performance tutorials…
Blake’s Songs and Letters
William Blake wrote many letters to his friends and enemies. These letters give a powerful insight into his experience and his thoughts. Most importantly they invite us in to the Visionary Imagination that was his gift to humanity. A letter like the one written to his friend Thomas Butts on October 2, 1800 gives us…
The Visionary Imagination: William Blake- Innocence & Experience Week 2
We had another wonderful engagement with some of the core ideas underpinning Blake’s vision of the states of the human psyche that are so powerfully dramatized through the contrast between his two books The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. We looked today especially at the two Nurse’s Songs, one presenting the state of containment and inner…
The Visionary Imagination – Week 1!
What a great start to our exploration of William Blake’s transformative visionary imagination! Most of you seemed to grasp really well, through Ginsberg’s celebration of Blake’s poem “The Sunflower”, how Blake seems to provide a gateway to a deeper or heightened vision of reality. Cleansing the Doors of Perception, seems to be what Blake is…
New York Literature and Drama Day 3: Washington Square, Greenwich Village:
Washington Square was the start of our literary tours around New York. This brought Henry James into focus and his wonderful early novel Washington Square which powerfully challenged the ethos of his day and found ways of celebrating those who don’t necessarily shine in the public arena. Catherine Sloper, who lived out her life in…
The Beats, New York School, Postmodernism
What an amazing day we have had exploring, interrogating this group of poets and artists. Perhaps top of the list comes Patti Smith who gigantically carries forward the subversive, passionate impulse of Ginsberg, Kerouac, O’Hara and Ashberry. Here she is singing her heart out, challenging all the heartless stereotypes that infect contemporary America: https://youtu.be/LNnC8hYOmlw Blog Topics:…
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson
The father and mother of American poetry! That is what this pair have been called; see Ginsberg, along with Sharon Olds and Galway Kinnell singing their praises: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M5O3_FYB4A This week we have explored “Song of Myself”, “The Brooklyn Ferry” and a host of poems by Emily Dickinson. The present such an astonishing difference in life-style and…
Literary Tours through Greenwich and East Village New York: what an amazing day!
Introduction by our friendly, highly experienced tour guide! Washington Square was our first port of call. This is the place where Henry James was born, where he lived and from which he composed an early masterpiece which we are studying Washington Square. It is a wonderful novel that champions women’s intelligence and shows the poverty of…
William Blake: The Songs
Blog Topics for Week 3 – Based on Weeks One and Two 1/ Take the first line of any one of Blake’s poems (looked at so far in the unit) and write your own poem celebrating a new insight that you have had as a result of listening to Wiliam Blake. 2/ Present…
The Visionary Imagination Week 1 2015: Seeing through not with the eye.
A great start to the semester! So glad to see the level of interest and attention to these important ideas, to these amazing composite art works of William Blake. Here are the complete visual images of the Nurse’s Songs in The Book of Innocence and The Book of Experience (always click on the image for…
Michael Griffith: Home Page- Literature and Life Summer 2023 
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