PL9fwy3NUQKwYGN66V9CL-c7DFnG0_Swb2/QlfEp8o_JEI.srt

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Assalamualaikum and good morning from Gaza. This

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is English poetry at the Islamic University of

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Gaza. Today we move to do something perhaps a

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little bit different from Neoclassicism. But don't

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be mistaken, this is not that much different from

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Metaphysical poetry or the poetry of John Donne.

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Unfortunately, when we read many English

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literature books, English poetry books, they will

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tell you that the real Modernist movement started

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with the Romantic poets, with the likes of William

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Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. This is true to

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some extent, but sadly this erases the likes of

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John Donne, who himself was practicing this

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probably 100 years before the Romantics. We've

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seen how John Donne categorically refused the

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rules of decorum, how he put meaning over rule,

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how he didn't like the collective idealistic

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poetry of the Elizabethan age. But with the

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Romantics, we speak about totally, also in a way,

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totally different poets and their sensibility and

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their approach to individualism and the universe,

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nature. If I want to draw a timeline, a random

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timeline, of Neoclassicism, I usually claim that

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this is where perhaps John Donne was writing

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poetry. He was writing poetry during the heyday,

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the peak of Neoclassicism, when people, the giants

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like Samuel Johnson and later on, the great names

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50 years later, 100 years later, like Ben Jonson,

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Samuel Johnson, John Dryden, and Alexander Pope

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later on, were dominating the scene. For John

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Donne, it was swimming not against one current,

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but swimming against currents of giants, people

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who were already loved, who were writing some of

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the greatest literature, poetry in English. So it

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wasn't easy for him. And that's why this is the

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reason why he, to a great extent, was

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negatively framed, like we explained before.

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He was largely kicked out of the English canon, was not

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taken seriously for many years. If I want to talk about

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Romanticism, probably this is where they were

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writing, when Neoclassicism was already in

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decline, and people had already had enough of the

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same poetry being written in the same way,

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following the same rules, you know, rules of

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decorum, the subject matter, and the form, and the

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language, et cetera. I'm not saying that the

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Romantics, I'm not suggesting that the Romantics

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had it easy; they didn't, because most of the

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Romantic poets, you will be surprised to know that they

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were not famous during their lifetimes. Again,

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there is this connection between them and

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individualism. The four great Romantic poets,

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probably except for Shelley, almost all of them were

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not famous, were not sometimes taken seriously by

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their contemporaries. We'll see this as we go. Today, we

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begin with the one and only William Blake. William

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Blake wrote some of the most beautiful poetry in

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English. Many people like to classify him as a

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unique poet, a poet of his own, in his own

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world. But others like to consider him as a pre-

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Romantic, somebody who started, who pioneered

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this movement, who ushered in this movement, and who influenced

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Wordsworth and Coleridge. So whether he is a

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Romantic or a pre-Romantic, it's not a big issue

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for us, but we'll find so many similarities

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between him and Wordsworth and some other Romantic

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poets, like even Shelley and Keats. Now, I don't

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want to speak much about his background. I don't want to give

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you the background and the context. Let's see his

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poetry and then try to draw some conclusions or

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come up with the features that we might find in

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his poetry. This is a short poem by William

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Blake. Again, you already studied this perhaps or

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read it before.  Small, short, beautiful, cute,

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punchy poem. It's just eight lines, not only

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eight lines. Is it the shortest poem so far in this

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course? Perhaps yes, but also look at the lines.

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Even the short lines, probably if you count the

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syllables, you'll come across about five syllables,

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which is half the syllables we had in the sonnet

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and other poems. So this says, "The Sick Rose," O

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rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm that flies

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in the night in the howling storm has found out

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thy bed of crimson joy, and his dark secret love

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does thy life destroy. Somebody read, please.

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The aurora of the Arctic, the invisible worm that

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flies in the night in the howling storm. Howling

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storm. The howling storm has found out thy bed of

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crimson joy, and his dark secret love does thy

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life destroy. Thank you very much.

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Can you focus on the tone? How would you...? Is this

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a celebratory poem? Is it sad, dark, happy,

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optimistic, pessimistic? Can you capture this in

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the way you read it?

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Okay. So how would you read it? Would

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you read it with this tone in mind?

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Okay. Thank you

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very much. Very good.

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Okay,

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thank you very much, very good readings. Now, if

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this were a short story, a narrative, what type of

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narrator do we have here? First person? Are you

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sure?

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That's not what a first-person narrator is. First-

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person narration uses "I." So there's no "I"

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like "Shall I compare thee..." or "Come live with me..." and

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most of the poetry we studied already uses a first-person

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narrator, whether it is a personal experience like

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in John Donne's work, or a collective personal experience

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like in Shakespeare's works, for example. So

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there is "you" and "your," but basically this is a

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poem that talks about something using the third-

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person pronoun.

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making it a third-person narrative. So the

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speaker is talking to someone; true, there's

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some kind of dialogue with the other being silent,

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but also the persona, the speaker here, who is not

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a character in this text, unlike in

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Shakespeare's "Shall I compare thee...", the speaker is

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a character in the poem. Here, the speaker is not;

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he is basically an outsider to the poem. And the

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second question I want to ask is, who are the

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characters here? Who are the characters? Okay,

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please, okay. Okay, you're saying rose, like

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this,

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Like what? Rose?

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Or rose?  Would it make a

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difference?

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In the title it says—I'm not sure if this is the

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exact title—it says "The Sick Rose," particularly

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"The Sick Rose," but the first line says "O Rose" with

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a capital R.

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So if you're saying rose, somebody said rose, this

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is a name, somebody's name, right?

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The "Rose," with a capital R here could be a proper noun, "Rose," also a

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rose is possible, could be... You say, for example,

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grammatically speaking, "A Mr. Smith is

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waiting for you." So somebody whose name is Mr.

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Smith and you don't know this man before. The Mr.

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Smith, like he's a man and the one and only, in a

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way. So this is the main character, and the worm,

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are you sure? And so okay, we have the worm. The

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speaker...The speaker is usually, in a narrative, if

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it is a third-person narrator, we don't count the

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narrator as one of the characters, most often. So,

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the worm and the rose. That's very good. What

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about the timing? The setting? Before we come to

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talk more about this, what about the setting? The

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setting, sorry. It's taking place at

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night, in the night.

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What's happening during this night? A howling

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storm. So probably this is winter, right? Because

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there is a storm that is not only a storm, but a

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howling storm. Look at the choice of word here. In

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a way, this is onomatopoeic. "Howling." The sound

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that's like a sound a storm could make in a poem,

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if not in real life. So a howling storm, it's

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dark, stormy, and the storm is very strong. The wind

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could be heard through the howling storm.

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Okay, what else is there in the poem?

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What else do you notice? Like other than the

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place, the time, the setting?

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It is in the present tense. Are you sure? Yes.

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Where is the main tense? Grammatically speaking,

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what sentence is it? How many sentences do we have

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here? Two. Two? Where are they? First stanza or

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first line? First line. First stanza is one

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sentence? No, first line. Because here it says, "O

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Rose, thou art sick," the invisible worm that flies in the

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night in the howling storm. Still a dependent

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clause. Dependent clause because we have the

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subject, we have the adjectival clause. So the

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first... please. Two sentences. Where are they? The

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first line is a sentence. Okay. And then there's...

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This is one whole sentence? Three sentences. Three

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sentences, are you sure? Yes. What is a sentence?

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We have a verb in a sentence.

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Are you sure? What is a sentence?

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But this

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is a comma, Raf. But this is a comma. A sentence

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is a group of words with at least one main clause.

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A group of words that begins with a capital letter

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and ends with a full stop. A full stop, a question

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mark sometimes, or an exclamation mark, like in this

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case. So this is one sentence, one simple

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sentence. "O Rose, thou art sick." "Thou art sick."

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"Thou art sick." And I really can't understand

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exactly what... like imagine the situation here

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clearly; like is he talking to the rose? Is the

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speaker... what is the speaker? Is the speaker, like

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because here we have a few saying "rose," and a

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worm, or "the" worm, it's "the" here, right? So is the

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speaker a bird? A tree? Or is it a human

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being? Like observing and saying, does the rose

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complicated, it's the sentence that you say, but

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everything else gets complicated because things

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get inside others. I like how the worm is

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described and yet described again with a phrase

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and another phrase, and then the verb, and then the

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object, and then another prepositional phrase;

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things get inside each other. Interesting. What

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else do you notice? Other things about the poem?

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What do you find interesting, different,

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intriguing? Okay, okay, I'll go to the jump; I'll

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jump to the rhyme scheme. There is sick, a; are

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you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Should it be

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a? This is the /kah/ sound.

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It's always A? Okay, good. Always A. And then

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worm, B. And then night, C. And storm, possibly

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another B. Not one hundred percent, but still. Now

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I know, like I told you before, that people would

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continue with A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, but I like

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doing it differently, where we go back to the

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alphabet with every new stanza, because sometimes

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you have long poems, and then you run out of

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letters, and then what should I do next? Different

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scenarios, okay? So go back again to the rhyme

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scheme. We have here A,

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B? C? Are you sure?

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.

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Joy.

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Okay, so the rhyme scheme is perfect. What else do you

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notice? Please. Thank you very much. Look at the

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simple words. I'm not sure which word you checked

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using; you used the dictionary to check to

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understand. How many words did you check?

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Honestly, those of you who looked at the report.

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That's the word crimson. Okay, and? Howling, even

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if you don't know what howling is, you can always

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guess, because usually we don't say a calm storm;

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usually a storm is windy,

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stormy, strong, powerful, so howling storm, and

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then crimson, possibly. Again, you're not a native

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speaker, so if you don't know one or two words,

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that's still a good achievement, but it means that

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this man is using simple language. Simplicity of

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language. Remember the neoclassicists, who would

273
00:18:59,790 --> 00:19:02,170
always, every couple of lines, they would send you

274
00:19:02,170 --> 00:19:04,650
rushing to the dictionary, checking the meaning, and

275
00:19:04,650 --> 00:19:08,130
even going Googling stuff to understand what he

276
00:19:08,130 --> 00:19:11,250
means by these references and these allusions, and

277
00:19:11,250 --> 00:19:13,610
translating this Latin and translating this Greek,

278
00:19:13,610 --> 00:19:15,650
and understanding why he's intertexting with

279
00:19:15,650 --> 00:19:19,240
Horace and everything. You come to the poem, and

280
00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,200
you stay for the poem. Unlike the NAE classes,

281
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,340
where usually you come for the poem, and then you

282
00:19:23,340 --> 00:19:27,200
rush out to dictionaries and the internet, and then you

283
00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:31,820
come back and go on and on. Simple language.

284
00:19:32,180 --> 00:19:34,060
That's very good. A very good thing to notice.

285
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,680
Please. The number of syllables are not the same

286
00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:37,200
in English.

287
00:19:40,250 --> 00:19:43,370
Okay, I'll come to this, but again, let's move

288
00:19:43,370 --> 00:19:46,830
gradually, Rosanne. What about the words, the

289
00:19:46,830 --> 00:19:50,210
choice of words? Tell me this word is interesting,

290
00:19:50,310 --> 00:19:52,010
for example, or that word; this phrase is

291
00:19:52,010 --> 00:19:53,950
interesting. What things do you find interesting?

292
00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:59,580
We'll come to symbolism, like again it's always

293
00:19:59,580 --> 00:20:02,640
better to work gradually; look at the poem, notice

294
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,260
the shape and the form, and then look at individual

295
00:20:05,260 --> 00:20:09,660
words, so what does every individual word inspire

296
00:20:09,660 --> 00:20:15,150
in you, or what does it connote? And then you go

297
00:20:15,150 --> 00:20:17,110
for, for example, reading the poem, trying to

298
00:20:17,110 --> 00:20:18,950
understand. We'll do this. We try to link

299
00:20:18,950 --> 00:20:22,370
everything to a possible reading of the poem. Is

300
00:20:22,370 --> 00:20:24,490
there one word or one phrase you find interesting,

301
00:20:24,590 --> 00:20:26,710
like we did with, for example, here, the howling

302
00:20:26,710 --> 00:20:31,890
storm, or other words? He's giving a bad image

303
00:20:31,890 --> 00:20:34,670
about what we already know. Again, my question is

304
00:20:34,670 --> 00:20:37,830
one particular word, one particular phrase. We're

305
00:20:37,830 --> 00:20:40,090
not going to comment on the meaning now. We're

306
00:20:40,090 --> 00:20:41,690
working step by step.

307
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:48,920
A worm is beautiful? Do you like worms?

308
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,740
Worms? Ah, that's because you're reading it "warm."

309
00:20:55,840 --> 00:21:00,580
It's not warm. And it's a character. It's a thing.

310
00:21:00,980 --> 00:21:06,480
It's a creature. So is worm good or bad? Positive

311
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:10,870
or negative? It's what makes the rose sick. Thank

312
00:21:10,870 --> 00:21:14,170
you. At least it is, even if worm is good, it is

313
00:21:14,170 --> 00:21:20,330
what is making the rose sick. And the worm is

314
00:21:20,330 --> 00:21:23,950
described as? Invisible. That's a very good word.

315
00:21:24,490 --> 00:21:29,530
So it's not only dark and winter and cold and

316
00:21:29,530 --> 00:21:33,350
stormy and howling. This creature, the cause of

317
00:21:33,350 --> 00:21:38,820
this sickness, is working invisibly. It's not;

318
00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:41,820
it's invisible. What does it mean, invisible?

319
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:47,760
Because it's like, is the worm in disguise,

320
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,520
disguised? Is it a close; is it a family member?

321
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:53,080
Is it somebody you trust, somebody you try, you

322
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,040
seek safety, security, and protection from? And

323
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:59,380
then it turns out that this person, this thing is

324
00:21:59,380 --> 00:22:03,430
the very opposite of what you think. The person

325
00:22:03,430 --> 00:22:09,970
you seek, the person whose protection and stuff

326
00:22:09,970 --> 00:22:14,390
you seek, is the very reason for your destruction.

327
00:22:14,910 --> 00:22:16,650
That's invisible. What does it mean? What does it

328
00:22:16,650 --> 00:22:19,470
indicate? Why is it invisible? Other words, we'll

329
00:22:19,470 --> 00:22:21,170
come back again to wrap things up. What other

330
00:22:21,170 --> 00:22:23,990
words do you find peculiar?

331
00:22:29,420 --> 00:22:34,260
Okay, so we jump to the kind of love. There is

332
00:22:34,260 --> 00:22:40,060
love. Love is good, right? Oh Rose, thou art sick.

333
00:22:40,500 --> 00:22:43,100
Blah blah, night, visible worm, howling storm. But

334
00:22:43,100 --> 00:22:45,920
then there is love. If you look at the poem, *From

335
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,500
Afar*, you see the word love. Could give you a good

336
00:22:48,500 --> 00:22:54,760
impression, against the mostly negative words.

337
00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:59,050
Sick. Rose is good, yeah? But this is a rose that

338
00:22:59,050 --> 00:23:02,930
is sick. There's a worm that is invisible. It's

339
00:23:02,930 --> 00:23:09,130
night. It's stormy, and it's howling. And then

340
00:23:09,130 --> 00:23:11,990
there is love. But this is not an ordinary love.

341
00:23:12,870 --> 00:23:16,910
This is a love that is, number one, first, it's

342
00:23:16,910 --> 00:23:20,870
secret. Is it one-sided, unrestricted love?

343
00:23:24,150 --> 00:23:29,350
But why is it secret? When is love secret? When it

344
00:23:29,350 --> 00:23:33,470
is harming, like destroying its life. Okay. And

345
00:23:33,470 --> 00:23:39,750
the thing is that it's dark. Like say hey to خلصنا

346
00:23:39,750 --> 00:23:43,550
or لا. Why would you say it's dark love, love?

347
00:23:45,990 --> 00:23:51,570
It's a disease. Love is not always good, and not

348
00:23:51,570 --> 00:23:55,280
all kinds of love are good. So you're saying this

349
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:58,680
is; this means unhealthy love? Unhealthy love. For

350
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:02,280
example, the character of the worm. Let's, let's,

351
00:24:03,020 --> 00:24:06,660
for example, consider that; consider the rose as a

352
00:24:06,660 --> 00:24:09,020
woman, and the worm as a man. He could be an

353
00:24:09,020 --> 00:24:11,040
oppressive person if he loves her, but he's

354
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,360
oppressive at the same time. So that's going to

355
00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:17,630
destroy her life. So, the dark secret. Do you

356
00:24:17,630 --> 00:24:20,650
think that toxic people, toxic lovers, understand

357
00:24:20,650 --> 00:24:22,770
this? They know that they're not doing a good job,

358
00:24:22,890 --> 00:24:24,670
that they're being abusive and everything? It's

359
00:24:24,670 --> 00:24:26,610
their nature. They don't know that what they're

360
00:24:26,610 --> 00:24:32,410
doing is unhealthy, but it is unhealthy. That's

361
00:24:32,410 --> 00:24:35,510
why it's invisible. That's why it's invisible?

362
00:24:36,050 --> 00:24:39,370
Invisible to whom? To the rose?

363
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,060
The speaker knows. The speaker is diagnosing

364
00:24:46,060 --> 00:24:49,180
everything. The speaker is all-knowing. He's a

365
00:24:49,180 --> 00:24:52,200
third-person narrator. He knows that there is a

366
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,940
worm that is feeding and that it is invisible. Is

367
00:24:55,940 --> 00:24:59,480
there

368
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,240
an indication in the text that the speaker is

369
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:07,540
guessing? No. Or probably invisible to the rose.

370
00:25:08,470 --> 00:25:10,770
But yeah, these are all valid points. We don't

371
00:25:10,770 --> 00:25:12,990
have, and it's again the beauty of poetry. This is

372
00:25:12,990 --> 00:25:15,690
the beauty of even romanticism. It's an extra

373
00:25:15,690 --> 00:25:18,110
feature we have in romanticism. You can talk about

374
00:25:18,110 --> 00:25:21,770
a poem for a year and have different opinions and

375
00:25:21,770 --> 00:25:25,570
everything. There are many gaps. These are poems

376
00:25:25,570 --> 00:25:29,320
that encourage us to think, to link; try to make

377
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:31,420
up our mind, and then something shows up, and then

378
00:25:31,420 --> 00:25:34,980
yeah, possibly the other reading is, is also, is also

379
00:25:34,980 --> 00:25:39,460
valid, so this is a love that is secret, but it's

380
00:25:39,460 --> 00:25:45,280
also a love that is dark, destructive. What else?

381
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:48,660
There's one word, one key word, that is significant

382
00:25:48,660 --> 00:25:53,840
that you haven't highlighted; there's

383
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:56,460
one word here that is also, other than the ones we

384
00:25:56,460 --> 00:25:58,100
highlighted, a word we didn't highlight.

385
00:26:01,630 --> 00:26:02,270
Okay,

386
00:26:04,970 --> 00:26:11,470
I like that you paid attention to his, yeah. But

387
00:26:11,470 --> 00:26:15,290
you're saying that she's a woman because the worm

388
00:26:15,290 --> 00:26:18,810
is a he; not necessarily, but rose is usually taken

389
00:26:18,810 --> 00:26:21,770
as feminine. I think this is a key word in the

390
00:26:21,770 --> 00:26:25,650
whole poem. He could have simply said "it."

391
00:26:30,230 --> 00:26:36,590
Does it make a difference that the worm is a "he"? In

392
00:26:36,590 --> 00:26:41,630
what sense? He's personifying the worm in order to

393
00:26:41,630 --> 00:26:44,270
show that this… He's also personifying the rose,

394
00:26:44,350 --> 00:26:46,390
don't forget. Yes, okay, but here he's

395
00:26:46,390 --> 00:26:49,410
personifying the rose to raise, let's say, raise

396
00:26:49,410 --> 00:26:53,850
her awareness, to raise her awareness to what she

397
00:26:53,850 --> 00:26:56,890
is facing, but she does not know. Like we're saying,

398
00:26:56,890 --> 00:27:00,250
hey, we're saying here that you are sick, and you

399
00:27:00,250 --> 00:27:02,790
do not know that there is an invisible worm. Why

400
00:27:02,790 --> 00:27:05,780
is the worm a "he"? The worm is here because he

401
00:27:05,780 --> 00:27:09,360
wants to give it the traits of people, of human

402
00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:11,780
beings; like they are deceptive. Why isn't the

403
00:27:11,780 --> 00:27:13,040
worm a "she"?

404
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:25,220
We can consider his return to "worm," because his

405
00:27:25,220 --> 00:27:31,340
return to the worm itself. Yeah, "his" refers to

406
00:27:31,340 --> 00:27:33,220
worm. Do I agree on this?

407
00:27:37,340 --> 00:27:40,940
Because the poet wants to say that his dark; maybe

408
00:27:40,940 --> 00:27:43,840
the rest she doesn't know about this love; she

409
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:47,600
doesn'

445
00:29:48,410 --> 00:29:52,170
a mess like this. He's informing her, please. I

446
00:29:52,170 --> 00:29:55,730
think this poem goes beyond a relationship between

447
00:29:55,730 --> 00:29:58,630
a man and a woman. I think he's actually lamenting

448
00:29:58,630 --> 00:30:01,850
the loss of innocence in any way. But there's

449
00:30:01,850 --> 00:30:04,450
nothing wrong even with taking it on this

450
00:30:04,450 --> 00:30:07,090
particular level, on a man-woman relationship.

451
00:30:09,590 --> 00:30:12,470
As I said, he's lamenting the loss of innocence in

452
00:30:12,470 --> 00:30:15,270
any kind of way. Okay. The warmth is something

453
00:30:15,270 --> 00:30:19,630
that makes you lose your interest. Okay. Now we'll

454
00:30:19,630 --> 00:30:22,750
come now to the symbolism, but somebody said

455
00:30:22,750 --> 00:30:25,730
something about the number of syllables. Okay. How

456
00:30:25,730 --> 00:30:27,230
many syllables do we have in line number one?

457
00:30:27,250 --> 00:30:32,890
Five. Usually, if you have five, it means there are

458
00:30:32,890 --> 00:30:37,740
two feet. Because some feet consist of three

459
00:30:37,740 --> 00:30:40,260
syllables. Yes, most feet consist of two syllables.

460
00:30:40,260 --> 00:30:42,840
But some of them consist of three syllables, so

461
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:47,620
we'll take this as, you know, as a two-feet line.

462
00:30:47,620 --> 00:30:53,620
Number two, how many, how many syllables are

463
00:30:53,620 --> 00:31:03,950
there? You sure? Say again: "the invisible worm." Okay, three

464
00:31:03,950 --> 00:31:10,650
feet. And then, "that flies in the night," five; in

465
00:31:10,650 --> 00:31:16,770
the howling storm," also five; and then, "has found out

466
00:31:16,770 --> 00:31:23,770
thy bed," five syllables; "of crimson joy," four; and

467
00:31:23,770 --> 00:31:30,930
then, "his dark secret love?" And then

468
00:31:30,930 --> 00:31:34,050
finally, "does thy life destroy?"

469
00:31:36,810 --> 00:31:40,850
Of course

470
00:31:40,850 --> 00:31:43,510
it's irregular, going from four to five to five to six

471
00:31:43,510 --> 00:31:49,730
to four to five. Does this make "The Sick Rose" any

472
00:31:49,730 --> 00:31:52,070
less of a poem?

473
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:58,520
It doesn't make it unpoetic; it doesn't lose some of

474
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,400
its poeticality, some of its beauty, because it

475
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:05,860
doesn't conform, it doesn't obey the rules of

476
00:32:05,860 --> 00:32:10,940
decorum. Now, we'll talk about this in a bit, what

477
00:32:10,940 --> 00:32:14,400
the Romantics think about the rules of decorum.

478
00:32:15,260 --> 00:32:18,220
And I'm sure that the likes of Alexander Pope,

479
00:32:18,500 --> 00:32:21,640
methodized and systematized, speaking about rules,

480
00:32:24,270 --> 00:32:26,370
and those people will be pulling their hair now,

481
00:32:26,470 --> 00:32:29,810
that those people are like, "Sorry, this is not the

482
00:32:29,810 --> 00:32:33,090
way we should do poetry. This is the way how we

483
00:32:33,090 --> 00:32:35,950
should do poetry." So what about the symbolism?

484
00:32:36,170 --> 00:32:42,390
What does the poem stand for? What is the key

485
00:32:42,390 --> 00:32:46,430
issue in the poem? Like, thinking of this, thinking

486
00:32:46,430 --> 00:32:49,730
of the words, the negative words, even the

487
00:32:49,730 --> 00:32:54,130
beautiful word here is negative. The rose itself

488
00:32:54,130 --> 00:32:58,290
or herself. That's it. So what do you think? What

489
00:32:58,290 --> 00:33:01,450
does the rose symbolize? Please.

490
00:33:15,470 --> 00:33:17,350
This doesn't apply to William Blake. William Blake

491
00:33:17,350 --> 00:33:20,150
was a Londoner. He lived in London. He stayed in

492
00:33:20,150 --> 00:33:23,050
London. And some say he even loved London despite

493
00:33:23,050 --> 00:33:25,710
the fact that he was severely critical of London

494
00:33:25,710 --> 00:33:29,770
and the life there. So what does the rose in

495
00:33:29,770 --> 00:33:34,150
specific symbolize? Please. I think this word

496
00:33:34,150 --> 00:33:39,070
symbolizes one thing. Stop counting. Do this.

497
00:33:39,990 --> 00:33:45,310
Okay, the rose symbolizes love where one half of

498
00:33:45,310 --> 00:33:48,710
this relationship, love relationship, is sick,

499
00:33:48,870 --> 00:33:51,510
destroyed, and the other half is causing this

500
00:33:51,510 --> 00:33:55,270
destruction. Thank you, interesting. Also, stop

501
00:33:55,270 --> 00:33:58,450
counting, one. So okay, you think that the word

502
00:33:58,450 --> 00:34:02,890
rose symbolizes nature. What is destroying nature

503
00:34:02,890 --> 00:34:05,230
in your sense? What is man? Please.

504
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,680
You know, yeah, sometimes you feel he loves

505
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:18,160
London, sometimes you think he, you realize that

506
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:19,500
he hates London, he doesn't like it.

507
00:34:24,340 --> 00:34:28,140
He, him, oh, yeah, okay. So he's Rose, he's, it's

508
00:34:28,140 --> 00:34:30,740
like, you know, the Da Vinci painting, some people

509
00:34:30,740 --> 00:34:33,540
think that this was a self-portrait, Da Vinci

510
00:34:33,540 --> 00:34:36,400
drawing himself, the Mona Lisa, right? So this

511
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:40,460
could be, oh, Rose looking in the mirror, and, you

512
00:34:40,460 --> 00:34:43,760
know, liking himself and then saying, "It's the city

513
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,660
that destroyed me." I like this. Thank you very

514
00:34:47,660 --> 00:34:53,060
much. Please. This is innocence and this is

515
00:34:53,060 --> 00:34:54,300
experience. We'll talk about innocence and

516
00:34:54,300 --> 00:34:59,640
experience in a bit. Please. The worm is life, the

517
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:04,500
rose is life in general. Please. Stop counting.

518
00:35:04,580 --> 00:35:08,800
One thing. Beauty. So if beauty can be destroyed

519
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,880
by what? What's the worm here if this is beauty?

520
00:35:12,860 --> 00:35:18,160
If this is beauty, what is the worm? Make-up? Or

521
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:28,320
food? Age, thank you. Age. Poetry is the rose and

522
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:33,200
what is destroying it is the... Okay, I find this far

523
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:38,360
-fetched, but also I like it. I like it. If you want

524
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:40,360
to take this... the whole poem is symbolic and also

525
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:49,640
a parody. Toxic

526
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:51,780
because it's repressive and restrictive; it

527
00:35:51,780 --> 00:35:53,980
prevents you from expressing yourself, being

528
00:35:53,980 --> 00:35:58,440
yourself. Rose.

529
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:05,280
rose. Rose. The rules? I think sometimes they do.

530
00:36:06,580 --> 00:36:07,720
Sometimes we do.

531
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,480
That's my opinion. That's your opinion. Again,

532
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:18,760
this is up to you, whether you want to like

533
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:20,500
classical poetry, whether in Arabic or English,

534
00:36:20,620 --> 00:36:23,180
whether you like classical poetry more than

535
00:36:23,180 --> 00:36:26,520
metaphysical or Romantic poetry, free verse, blank

536
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:28,800
verse, or vice versa. This is a personal

537
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:33,600
preference. Please. I think you can also say that

538
00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:38,420
the "howling storm" symbolizes life. Okay. In this

539
00:36:38,420 --> 00:36:40,660
sense, what is the rose? What is the worm?

540
00:36:43,430 --> 00:36:47,650
Okay, so life, innocence, and experience. Now look

541
00:36:47,650 --> 00:36:50,170
at this. Please, finally.

542
00:36:54,370 --> 00:36:59,830
So you're

543
00:36:59,830 --> 00:37:01,870
connecting it with this understanding that this

544
00:37:01,870 --> 00:37:05,650
could be about the repressive rules, the invasive

545
00:37:05,650 --> 00:37:08,690
rules of life, of modern life, of the city

546
00:37:08,690 --> 00:37:11,990
controlling and limiting our imagination. Thank

547
00:37:11,990 --> 00:37:12,110
you.

548
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:23,700
Like what? Okay, what else? Who usually depends on

549
00:37:23,700 --> 00:37:27,560
others in society, in our life? Okay. Oh,

550
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,240
don't say that the rose is students and the worm

551
00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:34,300
is a teacher. Okay. Maybe it's vice versa. Maybe

552
00:37:34,300 --> 00:37:37,480
we are, you know, we are sick because of the

553
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:41,380
invisible worms destroying us. Assignments? What

554
00:37:41,380 --> 00:37:46,040
are the assignments? The "howling storm"? This

555
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:50,680
sense, this oxymoron here, it's like Hamlet says,

556
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:56,100
"tough love," "cruel to be kind." So this is, okay. I

557
00:37:56,100 --> 00:37:59,180
like how this poem is helping you use your

558
00:37:59,180 --> 00:38:04,100
imagination even more. With the Romantics, it's

559
00:38:04,100 --> 00:38:08,420
usually, sometimes you feel that they have one

560
00:38:08,420 --> 00:38:12,640
idea, one thing to teach in a poem; to teach and

561
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,060
delight, right? But with the Romantics, you'll

562
00:38:15,060 --> 00:38:18,640
come to a reality where a poem could mean many

563
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,080
things. And I think all your understandings and

564
00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:24,620
interpretations are valid here. But we can also

565
00:38:24,620 --> 00:38:26,680
take this poem to today. I remember last year, one

566
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:31,280
of the students was saying, "This is women now on

567
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:37,060
social media, sometimes men, you know, take

568
00:38:37,060 --> 00:38:39,620
advantage, try to take advantage of women, of

569
00:38:39,620 --> 00:38:42,540
their innocence, of their, you know, and they try

570
00:38:42,540 --> 00:38:45,580
to destroy their lives." I like this

571
00:38:45,580 --> 00:38:47,640
interpretation. The other day, a student was

572
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:51,340
saying, "La Rose is Palestine, the worm is the

573
00:38:51,340 --> 00:38:54,500
Zionist entity coming to Palestine, destroying

574
00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:55,520
Palestine, and...

575
00:38:58,450 --> 00:39:01,370
That is also valid. But there are two things here.

576
00:39:01,430 --> 00:39:04,630
We don't want to mix things. For William Blake,

577
00:39:04,970 --> 00:39:07,430
yes, this could be taken as some might suggest

578
00:39:07,430 --> 00:39:09,870
that the rose is probably an actual rose. He was

579
00:39:09,870 --> 00:39:12,010
walking down the road, I don't know, somewhere in

580
00:39:12,010 --> 00:39:13,770
London. He found a rose, where there is a woman

581
00:39:13,770 --> 00:39:17,390
that he made a fuss out of all of this. Or the

582
00:39:17,390 --> 00:39:20,330
rose could symbolize nature. It could symbolize

583
00:39:20,330 --> 00:39:22,490
life in a city and how it was destroyed by the

584
00:39:22,490 --> 00:39:24,290
Industrial Revolution and the factories and the

585
00:39:24,290 --> 00:39:27,820
pollution, somebody said here. Or it could mean

586
00:39:27,820 --> 00:39:30,940
some woman, a woman he knows, or women in general,

587
00:39:31,140 --> 00:39:33,840
or children. I expected some of you to say

588
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:37,940
children, but there's not much indication here.

589
00:39:38,020 --> 00:39:41,140
But this could be about, or a child, or childhood,

590
00:39:42,100 --> 00:39:46,400
or innocence and experience, or beauty, or nature,

591
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:48,220
or the countryside and how it's being destroyed

592
00:39:48,220 --> 00:39:54,960
by... Now what is it about? I think it's about all

593
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,140
of these. And I think this is a feature of

594
00:39:58,140 --> 00:40:02,920
Romanticism, imagination. Encouraging imagination,

595
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:08,920
encouraging using your mind, not to think

596
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:11,420
intellectually, to find facts, to create facts

597
00:40:11,420 --> 00:40:12,020
about this,

598
00:40:15,340 --> 00:40:20,380
but to imagine how things could be, how things can

599
00:40:20,380 --> 00:40:23,740
be. The fact that the poem offers so many

600
00:40:23,740 --> 00:40:27,180
possibilities is the very opposite of Neoclassical

601
00:40:27,180 --> 00:40:31,940
literature, where usually there's one main

602
00:40:31,940 --> 00:40:34,900
understanding of the text. This is what it is.

603
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,940
It's like mathematics. In a sense, I don't want to

604
00:40:37,940 --> 00:40:40,740
be extreme. But here, there are so many

605
00:40:40,740 --> 00:40:46,240
possibilities for one poem. So if in your exam I

606
00:40:46,240 --> 00:40:51,460
ask you, "What is the rose a symbol of?", you could

607
00:40:51,460 --> 00:40:54,710
say whatever you like, as long as you support your

608
00:40:54,710 --> 00:40:59,770
argument with things about Blake or things from

609
00:40:59,770 --> 00:41:02,170
the book. But don't go too far to taking it to say

610
00:41:02,170 --> 00:41:07,590
this, "it stands for Palestine or Facebook." What I

611
00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:11,050
mean here is that you could post this poem, you

612
00:41:11,050 --> 00:41:16,560
could have this Photoshop design; put a picture of

613
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,040
the top of the rock or a map of Palestine and

614
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:21,600
write this and it worked and say, "Oh Rose, thou

615
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:26,420
art sick. The invisible worm." You could say this to

616
00:41:26,420 --> 00:41:29,260
somebody who has been in a toxic relationship, like

617
00:41:29,260 --> 00:41:32,420
trying to cheer them up. I don't know, tell them

618
00:41:32,420 --> 00:41:36,420
it has been happening. But remember, I don't care

619
00:41:36,420 --> 00:41:38,620
about the authorial intention. I don't care what

620
00:41:38,620 --> 00:41:42,140
he intended, William Blake. He could have intended

621
00:41:42,140 --> 00:41:47,280
all these things you just mentioned. Now, in the

622
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:49,740
remaining time, I want you to see this other

623
00:41:49,740 --> 00:41:52,340
beautiful poem by William Blake.

624
00:41:55,660 --> 00:41:59,320
William Blake was very famous for

625
00:42:02,130 --> 00:42:06,750
his two groups or two volumes of poetry entitled

626
00:42:06,750 --> 00:42:09,470
"Songs of Innocence," "Songs of Experience," where he

627
00:42:09,470 --> 00:42:13,010
talks about the two statuses of life. Sometimes

628
00:42:13,010 --> 00:42:17,490
the same experience is looked at because he

629
00:42:17,490 --> 00:42:20,870
believes in the fact that the world is our own

630
00:42:20,870 --> 00:42:25,690
perception. We create the world; we create it. How

631
00:42:25,690 --> 00:42:30,070
we see the world is what the world is, and you

632
00:42:30,070 --> 00:42:35,270
see it. I'll quote him in a bit. He says, "Both

633
00:42:35,270 --> 00:42:41,870
read the Bible day and night. Thou saw dark, I saw

634
00:42:41,870 --> 00:42:45,010
light." It's the same Bible, different people,

635
00:42:45,170 --> 00:42:48,760
different understanding and perception. And

667
00:44:39,850 --> 00:44:42,690
Keep going on to play. I have no problem with

668
00:44:42,690 --> 00:44:46,710
that. So this is the nurse first describing what's

669
00:44:46,710 --> 00:44:50,030
going on, and then because the sun is gone

670
00:44:50,030 --> 00:44:56,150
down, come, come. The sun is gone, leave off play

671
00:44:56,150 --> 00:44:59,610
and let us away until the morning appears in the

672
00:44:59,610 --> 00:45:05,110
skies. And then the kids also, this is a quote,

673
00:45:05,990 --> 00:45:10,490
speaking back, talking back. No, no, let us play

674
00:45:10,490 --> 00:45:15,890
for it is yet day. It is still day, Fada. And we

675
00:45:15,890 --> 00:45:20,510
cannot go to sleep. Besides, in the sky, little

676
00:45:20,510 --> 00:45:24,370
birds fly. There are still birds out there. And

677
00:45:24,370 --> 00:45:27,310
the hills are all covered with sheep. So people

678
00:45:27,310 --> 00:45:30,210
are out there; life is there; nature is there. Why

679
00:45:30,210 --> 00:45:34,370
would you take us back home? Well, well, and this

680
00:45:34,370 --> 00:45:37,830
is again the nurse. Well, well, go and play until

681
00:45:37,830 --> 00:45:41,410
the light fades away. And then go home to bed.

682
00:45:42,230 --> 00:45:44,570
That's the end of, again, the speech here, the

683
00:45:44,570 --> 00:45:46,670
dialogue. Look at the dialogue. You will not find

684
00:45:46,670 --> 00:45:50,150
this dialogic thing in neoclassical, this much of

685
00:45:50,150 --> 00:45:56,070
dialogism in neoclassical poetry. The little ones

686
00:45:56,070 --> 00:46:01,050
leaped and shouted and laughed, and all the hills

687
00:46:01,050 --> 00:46:06,890
echoed. Nature is laughing back. Very simple poem,

688
00:46:06,970 --> 00:46:09,890
yeah? It's very simple. Kids playing, come back

689
00:46:09,890 --> 00:46:12,450
home. No, we're not coming back home. There's

690
00:46:12,450 --> 00:46:15,490
still, you know, birds and sheep out there. So

691
00:46:15,490 --> 00:46:19,050
okay, play some more, like one more hour, 30

692
00:46:19,050 --> 00:46:22,290
minutes more, and then when the light fades away,

693
00:46:22,610 --> 00:46:25,710
come back home. Look at this poem, okay?

694
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:36,640
This is the same experience, the same story, from a

695
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:40,560
different point of view, experience. The nurse's

696
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:41,440
song experience.

697
00:46:44,220 --> 00:46:46,800
The first thing is that this is the whole poem.

698
00:46:48,540 --> 00:46:54,280
Two stanzas. It's 50%, it's half

699
00:46:54,280 --> 00:47:00,880
the song of innocence. When voices of children are

700
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:05,400
heard on the green, the very same first line, and

701
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:11,660
not laughing and giggling and playing and sounds

702
00:47:11,660 --> 00:47:17,300
and naughtiness, whisperings. Now there is, why

703
00:47:17,300 --> 00:47:19,880
would we whisper? It's either a secret or there's

704
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:24,670
fear; you're not allowed to speak. You're not

705
00:47:24,670 --> 00:47:26,910
allowed to speak. You shouldn't speak. And

706
00:47:26,910 --> 00:47:31,510
whisperings are in the dale. The days of my youth.

707
00:47:31,610 --> 00:47:33,350
The poem is about the speaker; it's no longer

708
00:47:33,350 --> 00:47:35,210
about the children. That's why it changes from

709
00:47:35,210 --> 00:47:39,030
innocence to experience. The days of my youth rise

710
00:47:39,030 --> 00:47:44,330
fresh in my mind. My face turns green and pale.

711
00:47:45,050 --> 00:47:47,950
Probably an older person. Feels jealous. Feels,

712
00:47:47,970 --> 00:47:54,610
you know, green and pale. Not happy that the kids

713
00:47:54,610 --> 00:47:58,490
are playing; not happy that the kids are, then

714
00:47:58,490 --> 00:48:02,730
it's not even an attempt to strike a dialogue

715
00:48:02,730 --> 00:48:05,330
here, to begin a conversation. It's just taken

716
00:48:05,330 --> 00:48:08,070
matter-of-factly. Then, come home, my children.

717
00:48:08,290 --> 00:48:11,850
The sun is gone down, and the dews of night arise.

718
00:48:12,030 --> 00:48:17,270
Your spring and your day are wasted in play, and

719
00:48:17,270 --> 00:48:19,610
you, yeah, wasted. That's a very negative word.

720
00:48:19,730 --> 00:48:24,750
And you winter a night in disguise. The good is

721
00:48:24,750 --> 00:48:27,890
yet to come; the bad is yet to come. That's the

722
00:48:27,890 --> 00:48:30,510
whole problem. There's no reply from the kids.

723
00:48:31,150 --> 00:48:34,730
They don't talk back; they're not allowed to speak

724
00:48:34,730 --> 00:48:35,450
back.

725
00:48:38,290 --> 00:48:41,770
They're never taken seriously. Kids are muted.

726
00:48:42,170 --> 00:48:46,390
Kids are repressed. And probably two of the most

727
00:48:46,390 --> 00:48:50,250
important English poets who were fascinated with

728
00:48:50,250 --> 00:48:54,500
the concept of childhood: William Blake and William

729
00:48:54,500 --> 00:48:59,340
Wordsworth. Wordsworth says a child is the father

730
00:48:59,340 --> 00:49:03,760
of man. A child is the father. It's paradoxical

731
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:08,240
for what it means. So look at the differences here

732
00:49:08,240 --> 00:49:10,360
in language; look at the differences in

733
00:49:13,240 --> 00:49:16,220
and the size and the dialogue. The most important

734
00:49:16,220 --> 00:49:18,840
thing I like about this poem is the fact that the

735
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:21,620
first, the innocence poem includes the dialogue

736
00:49:21,620 --> 00:49:24,620
that the kids are speaking, having their voice,

737
00:49:24,780 --> 00:49:28,420
representing themselves, you know, asking for

738
00:49:28,420 --> 00:49:31,640
their right to play, to have fun, to laugh, to

739
00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:31,940
run.

740
00:49:34,980 --> 00:49:38,560
And that's why the first poem is, it's a musical,

741
00:49:38,940 --> 00:49:43,120
the positive words; it's not only the kids

742
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:47,160
playing; also nature, the sheep, the birds,

743
00:49:47,260 --> 00:49:50,300
everything is also happy and singing and dancing

744
00:49:50,300 --> 00:49:54,340
with the kids. Is he saying that when kids are

745
00:49:54,340 --> 00:49:56,780
playing and happy, everything around will be also

746
00:49:56,780 --> 00:50:00,220
happy? But in the second poem, because the kids

747
00:50:00,220 --> 00:50:04,850
are not allowed to speak, we destroy them, but also

748
00:50:04,850 --> 00:50:07,370
we destroy ourselves because we don't see the

749
00:50:07,370 --> 00:50:09,950
beauty of the children playing and being innocent

750
00:50:09,950 --> 00:50:15,210
and all we see is green, pale,

751
00:50:17,450 --> 00:50:23,850
wasted, and also disguised. Yeah? Green, I think

752
00:50:23,850 --> 00:50:26,410
like, has two indications here; it is like gloomy

753
00:50:26,410 --> 00:50:28,970
and it's a sad indication, but there it's like

754
00:50:28,970 --> 00:50:32,820
green, the green helps, and you. So the same thing,

755
00:50:32,980 --> 00:50:37,120
thank you for noticing this; the idea is that this

756
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:41,300
is what innocence and experience, like innocence

757
00:50:41,300 --> 00:50:44,540
is usually things viewed from the perspective of

758
00:50:44,540 --> 00:50:48,100
children, mostly of innocence or purity. Experience

759
00:50:48,100 --> 00:50:51,460
means like, I don't know, corruption? Like it

760
00:50:51,460 --> 00:50:53,240
doesn't mean like having more experience; having

761
00:50:53,240 --> 00:50:55,480
something that is negative that's destroying your

762
00:50:55,480 --> 00:51:00,060
life. You being corrupted by age, by life, by the

763
00:51:00,060 --> 00:51:03,040
city, by the fact that you have to compete, by

764
00:51:03,040 --> 00:51:05,660
conflicts you have around, by the hate you have

765
00:51:05,660 --> 00:51:08,020
when you grow up. When you are kids, you would

766
00:51:08,020 --> 00:51:12,240
fight with somebody. But ten minutes later, you're

767
00:51:12,240 --> 00:51:15,380
playing again, your friends again. But when you

768
00:51:15,380 --> 00:51:18,240
grow up, if you hate somebody, sometimes you hate

769
00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:21,740
them forever. Even if you later on realize that,

770
00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:26,120
well, it's been some insignificant issue. It's a

771
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:27,040
silly thing. Please.

772
00:51:36,790 --> 00:51:38,630
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for

773
00:51:38,630 --> 00:51:41,530
bringing up the Industrial Revolution because it's

774
00:51:41,530 --> 00:51:44,570
one reason for why we have the Romantic poets

775
00:51:44,570 --> 00:51:46,670
writing the poetry they wrote. Industrial

776
00:51:46,670 --> 00:51:49,970
Revolution, French Revolution, the American

777
00:51:49,970 --> 00:51:51,610
Revolution. We'll talk about this more when we

778
00:51:51,610 --> 00:51:55,810
speak about William Wordsworth. So the Industrial

779
00:51:55,810 --> 00:51:59,010
Revolution changed life, corrupted life, polluted

780
00:51:59,010 --> 00:52:02,730
life. But the Industrial Revolution also brought

781
00:52:02,730 --> 00:52:08,090
people in masses from the countryside to the city.

782
00:52:10,130 --> 00:52:12,690
And when you go to the city, you go to the city,

783
00:52:13,250 --> 00:52:18,230
why? For the experience? For work, okay? For a

784
00:52:18,230 --> 00:52:22,150
job, to improve your life, for looking, expecting

785
00:52:23,050 --> 00:52:26,490
your dreams to come true. But at that time, when

786
00:52:26,490 --> 00:52:31,030
England was becoming the greatest empire of all

787
00:52:31,030 --> 00:52:33,630
times, the empire on which the sun never set,

788
00:52:37,830 --> 00:52:41,210
The British armies were, and companies and

789
00:52:41,210 --> 00:52:44,090
enterprises, they were bringing raw materials from

790
00:52:44,090 --> 00:52:46,710
the colonies, from India, Africa, around the

791
00:52:46,710 --> 00:52:50,210
world, and bringing most of them to the factories

792
00:52:50,210 --> 00:52:53,110
in London, in Liverpool, in Manchester. And these

793
00:52:53,110 --> 00:52:56,550
factories needed so many laborers and workers, and

794
00:52:56,550 --> 00:52:59,510
they would be leaving the countryside, the rural

795
00:52:59,510 --> 00:53:02,090
areas, hoping for a better life, and they would

796
00:53:02,090 --> 00:53:07,520
end up enslaved in factories. They would end up

797
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:12,440
being controlled, working from six or eight or

798
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:16,200
seven a.m. until six or eight or seven p.m.

799
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:23,060
And thank you very much. And this is, we'll quote

800
00:53:23,060 --> 00:53:27,120
Shelley, describing the situation. Similar to the

801
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:30,760
situation we live in Gaza nowadays. The poor get

802
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,800
poorer, and the rich get richer. And again, we

803
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:36,180
always come back to Bernie Sanders saying the 1%

804
00:53:36,180 --> 00:53:43,660
and the 99%. So the 1%, the richest people keep

805
00:53:43,660 --> 00:53:46,600
getting rich no matter what. And the poor people

806
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,740
are destroying their lives. Look at Amazon and GFP

807
00:53:49,740 --> 00:53:53,380
$180 billion.

808
00:53:56,890 --> 00:54:00,050
There was a story the other day about an employee

809
00:54:00,050 --> 00:54:04,090
at Amazon who died, who just fell. He had a heart

810
00:54:04,090 --> 00:54:06,750
attack and died, and nobody noticed him for 20

811
00:54:06,750 --> 00:54:09,970
minutes. Despite the fact that there are so many

812
00:54:09,970 --> 00:54:15,240
people there. And I think his brother said that a

813
00:54:15,240 --> 00:54:20,380
week before this guy mistakenly labeled a

814
00:54:20,380 --> 00:54:22,800
different product, and within two minutes, the

815
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:26,800
cameras and the computer managed to find this

816
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:30,880
error and mistake. Two minutes. If you make a

817
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:33,180
mistake for a product, for a thing that brings

818
00:54:33,180 --> 00:54:36,260
money, it can be recognized. But when somebody

819
00:54:36,260 --> 00:54:41,120
just falls, dies, has a heart attack, a human

820
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:45,150
being is not as important as a product that

821
00:54:45,150 --> 00:54:50,170
could cost, I don't know, two or three dollars. So

822
00:54:50,170 --> 00:54:54,450
yeah, there is always this in Romantic poetry. The

823
00:54:54,450 --> 00:54:56,210
Industrial Revolution is always in the background.

824
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:02,400
We can't apply the Industrial Revolution to this

825
00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:06,340
because when a man lives in a city and he misses

826
00:55:06,340 --> 00:55:09,620
nature, so when he goes to the countryside and he

827
00:55:09,620 --> 00:55:13,860
values nature more because he misses it and he's

828
00:55:13,860 --> 00:55:15,880
not used to it. But people who live in the

829
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:18,300
countryside, they see these flowers and nature and

830
00:55:18,300 --> 00:55:20,740
beauty every day, so maybe it's the opposite.

831
00:55:21,470 --> 00:55:23,470
You're right, but with the Romantics, even with

832
00:55:23,470 --> 00:55:25,230
Wordsworth and Coleridge, who lived in the

833
00:55:25,230 --> 00:55:28,310
countryside, they loved the countryside. I agree.

834
00:55:28,950 --> 00:55:31,270
They actually talk about this. This is a feature

835
00:55:31,270 --> 00:55:35,530
of Romanticism. They try to defamiliarize their

836
00:55:35,530 --> 00:55:40,530
experiences, to rip the veil of familiarity. When

837
00:55:40,530 --> 00:55:43,630
you live, there are flowers and roses and trees

838
00:55:43,630 --> 00:55:46,390
and cats and birds around campus here, right? But

839
00:55:46,390 --> 00:55:48,470
sometimes, usually we don't pay attention. I

840
00:55:48,470 --> 00:55:51,430
usually say this, like, when is the last time you

841
00:55:51,430 --> 00:55:55,930
looked at the moon?  It's because we live in

842
00:55:55,930 --> 00:56:01,230
concrete buildings. We don't have even a crack to

843
00:56:01,230 --> 00:56:03,570
see the moon. We usually don't see it from our windows

844
00:56:03,570 --> 00:56:07,170
from where we live most often. Very few of us

845
00:56:07,170 --> 00:56:09,510
would just wait for the moon to look at how big it

846
00:56:09,510 --> 00:56:11,030
is, how beautiful it is. Remember when we were

847
00:56:11,030 --> 00:56:14,490
kids; we spent most of our time looking at clouds

848
00:56:14,490 --> 00:56:17,390
and what shapes they make. We don't do this now,

849
00:56:17,770 --> 00:56:20,050
even if you like nature, because we're busy; we

850
00:56:20,050 --> 00:56:21,690
have exams; we have to study; we have reflections

851
00:56:21,690 --> 00:56:23,590
to write; we have classes to attend; we have work

852
00:56:23,590 --> 00:56:27,090
to do; we have, you know, we need, we keep rushing

853
00:56:27,090 --> 00:56:29,710
and this is city, this is new, this is life, this

854
00:56:29,710 --> 00:56:34,050
is civilization. Therefore, the Romantics call for

855
00:56:34,050 --> 00:56:36,630
this thing called the childlike experience. We

856
00:56:36,630 --> 00:56:40,490
have to see everything anew, afresh every time.

857
00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:44,820

889
00:58:38,980 --> 00:58:42,360
experiences. The subject matter could be about

890
00:58:42,360 --> 00:58:44,380
anything. It's about a rose. It's about, I don't

891
00:58:44,380 --> 00:58:47,220
know, it's about children playing. This wasn't the

892
00:58:47,220 --> 00:58:50,500
case with neoclassicism. Childhood is also a

893
00:58:50,500 --> 00:58:54,150
feature. They are fascinated with childhood. I

894
00:58:54,150 --> 00:58:56,370
will say something. I think that decriminalization

895
00:58:56,370 --> 00:58:58,870
appears in the word "spring." Like in "Song of

896
00:58:58,870 --> 00:59:02,410
Innocence," he only says "your spring and your day."

897
00:59:02,730 --> 00:59:06,290
But in the "Song of Innocence," he illustrates more.

898
00:59:06,390 --> 00:59:10,570
And he says, "like hell's sky fly and birds fly and

899
00:59:10,570 --> 00:59:14,910
sheep." So this is how children see spring, while

900
00:59:14,910 --> 00:59:17,590
this is like the word "spring" itself is how adults

901
00:59:17,590 --> 00:59:18,270
see spring.

902
00:59:21,050 --> 00:59:23,530
It's possible, but defamiliarization is basically

903
00:59:23,530 --> 00:59:28,070
making familiar things look unfamiliar. Like when

904
00:59:28,070 --> 00:59:31,290
you read "the daffodils," the thousands of daffodils

905
00:59:31,290 --> 00:59:33,210
dancing and tossing their heads and like that.

906
00:59:33,330 --> 00:59:35,610
That is something like, what's his name? The guy

907
00:59:35,610 --> 00:59:37,710
who draws the sunflowers.

908
00:59:39,610 --> 00:59:47,150
Van Gogh. He drew hundreds of these sunflowers, and

909
00:59:47,150 --> 00:59:50,030
every time you see them, they look different. It's

910
00:59:50,030 --> 00:59:51,790
as if you see them for the first time.

911
00:59:56,370 --> 01:00:00,910
I'm sorry, that Blake was interested in the

912
01:00:00,910 --> 01:00:05,420
childlike vision more than childhood itself. And I

913
01:00:05,420 --> 01:00:08,800
think both. I think both. But yeah, the vision is

914
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:11,080
like, not only the vision, the vision and the

915
01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:15,060
state of innocence. So here we find that the nurse

916
01:00:15,060 --> 01:00:19,960
also has that childlike vision here because she's

917
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,320
telling children to play. Okay, just play. The

918
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:25,240
first one. Yeah, the nurse. You're speaking about

919
01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:28,500
a mature person here, not only the children. She

920
01:00:28,500 --> 01:00:31,140
has a childlike vision; she supports playing; she

921
01:00:31,140 --> 01:00:33,280
thinks it's healthy and it's something that should

922
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:36,520
be done. While the nurse in the other one

923
01:00:36,520 --> 01:00:40,220
experienced that belief that it's a waste of time.

924
01:00:40,660 --> 01:00:44,300
And again, there is no room, no space for kids to

925
01:00:44,300 --> 01:00:46,580
express themselves. So she doesn't have the

926
01:00:46,580 --> 01:00:52,000
childlike vision. That's right. True. And look at

927
01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:54,700
how the kids even, I'm imagining a situation where

928
01:00:54,700 --> 01:00:57,300
the kids are playing, and then this nurse comes and

929
01:00:57,300 --> 01:01:00,260
everybody starts whispering rather than laughing.

930
01:01:00,460 --> 01:01:02,400
So they know here already that she's repressive;

931
01:01:02,720 --> 01:01:07,820
she's going to oppress them. I'll go through and

932
01:01:07,820 --> 01:01:10,200
then finish. I'll go through some of William

933
01:01:10,200 --> 01:01:15,000
Blake's fascinating, by the way, if you Google "top

934
01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:20,890
100 most influential British people of all time,"

935
01:01:20,890 --> 01:01:23,870
"100 most influential British people," Blake is on the

936
01:01:23,870 --> 01:01:28,190
list. Wordsworth is not. Many people you think of

937
01:01:28,190 --> 01:01:30,450
are not on the list. But William Blake is one of

938
01:01:30,450 --> 01:01:32,930
the people because he's a pioneer of this

939
01:01:32,930 --> 01:01:37,850
movement. Look at what fascinating things. If you

940
01:01:37,850 --> 01:01:40,330
are interested in Blake, you could go for more

941
01:01:40,330 --> 01:01:45,070
quotes or things. "Prisons are built with stones of

942
01:01:45,070 --> 01:01:45,310
law;

943
01:01:48,630 --> 01:01:54,040
brothels with bricks of religion." How this man was

944
01:01:54,040 --> 01:01:57,060
anti-establishment. In his poem "London," you should

945
01:01:57,060 --> 01:02:00,620
read this poem. He clearly, openly attacks the

946
01:02:00,620 --> 01:02:03,440
establishment, the palace, and the church; how

947
01:02:03,440 --> 01:02:08,260
they exploit people, exploit their privileges to

948
01:02:08,260 --> 01:02:11,340
destroy people; how the law is turning people into

949
01:02:11,340 --> 01:02:13,900
criminals; how religion here is used to turn

950
01:02:13,900 --> 01:02:17,440
people. "Great things are done when men and

951
01:02:17,440 --> 01:02:23,680
mountains meet," nature. "Both read the Bible day

952
01:02:23,680 --> 01:02:33,020
and night, but thou read black where I read

953
01:02:33,020 --> 01:02:33,380
white."

954
01:02:39,340 --> 01:02:42,980
He says the Bible is different, not because the

955
01:02:42,980 --> 01:02:46,270
Bible is different, but because we are different. If

956
01:02:46,270 --> 01:02:48,610
you are open-minded, if you see things, you know,

957
01:02:49,390 --> 01:02:51,710
you see good things, positive; you look at the

958
01:02:51,710 --> 01:02:54,790
stupid cliché of looking at the half-empty cup and the

959
01:02:54,790 --> 01:02:58,310
half-full cup. So I read, you

960
01:02:58,310 --> 01:03:02,450
read black because of your, you know, your mind,

961
01:03:02,570 --> 01:03:05,230
your perception. I must—I think this

962
01:03:05,230 --> 01:03:07,410
is the most powerful thing you need to learn about

963
01:03:07,410 --> 01:03:10,010
William Blake. I must—look at the "must" here, not

964
01:03:10,010 --> 01:03:14,810
"should." I must create a system; create my own

965
01:03:14,810 --> 01:03:18,530
rules, my own constructs; or be enslaved by

966
01:03:18,530 --> 01:03:21,630
another man's. Or else I'll be enslaved by another

967
01:03:21,630 --> 01:03:28,090
man's rules. The three?

968
01:03:32,370 --> 01:03:37,130
A, B. Possible, it could be common with him. But

969
01:03:37,130 --> 01:03:41,890
different from the A, B, B, A or A, B, A, B. I

970
01:03:41,890 --> 01:03:44,310
will not reason, but again, it's not only about

971
01:03:44,310 --> 01:03:45,930
the rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is just one

972
01:03:45,930 --> 01:03:49,570
indication. I will not reason and compare, like

973
01:03:49,570 --> 01:03:52,330
the age of intellectuality, the age of reason, the

974
01:03:52,330 --> 01:03:55,730
Augustan Age. My business is to create. By the

975
01:03:55,730 --> 01:03:58,690
way, he was a famous painter. If you Google his

976
01:03:58,690 --> 01:04:03,190
poems and look at Google images, he would be doing

977
01:04:03,190 --> 01:04:05,850
these engravings and beautiful paintings for his

978
01:04:05,850 --> 01:04:11,120
poems. They were very expensive. "The tree which

979
01:04:11,120 --> 01:04:15,080
moves some to tears of joy." Again, look at how he

980
01:04:15,080 --> 01:04:19,040
focuses on these two states, how experience and

981
01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:22,900
our perceptions create the world we live in. "In

982
01:04:22,900 --> 01:04:27,800
the eyes of others, only a green thing, only a

983
01:04:27,800 --> 01:04:31,080
green thing could move you." Something that happens

984
01:04:31,080 --> 01:04:33,120
all the time. You find somebody says something, is

985
01:04:33,120 --> 01:04:35,860
telling a story, and some people are like crying

986
01:04:35,860 --> 01:04:39,090
their eyes out, and some people are like, "Nothing.

987
01:04:39,290 --> 01:04:41,170
It means nothing to them." It doesn't mean you're

988
01:04:41,170 --> 01:04:43,830
bad. It means this time, this place is not touching

989
01:04:43,830 --> 01:04:45,170
something new.

990
01:04:47,460 --> 01:04:51,640
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature

991
01:04:51,640 --> 01:04:54,580
is imagination itself. We see this in "words,

992
01:04:54,780 --> 01:04:57,840
words, words." Nature is the theme. Some people say

993
01:04:57,840 --> 01:04:59,680
Shakespeare is using nature. "Shall I compare thee

994
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:02,180
to a summer's day?" He's saying "summer's day," but

995
01:05:02,180 --> 01:05:05,620
he's using nature to ornament his poem, to make

996
01:05:05,620 --> 01:05:10,060
his poem as metaphors. But here nature itself is

997
01:05:10,060 --> 01:05:12,140
the theme. Imagination itself is the theme; it's

998
01:05:12,140 --> 01:05:16,550
not only the medium or the tool. "What is now

999
01:05:16,550 --> 01:05:21,310
proved was once only imagined." Beautiful. What is

1000
01:05:21,310 --> 01:05:24,650
now proved was once imagined in somebody's

1001
01:05:24,650 --> 01:05:28,050
imagination. "Pottery fitted." I love this very much

1002
01:05:28,050 --> 01:05:31,610
again. "Pottery," and this clearly shows how he

1003
01:05:31,610 --> 01:05:34,150
deliberately was saying "sorry" to the rules of

1004
01:05:34,150 --> 01:05:38,310
decorum and classicism. "Pottery fitted." Pottery

1005
01:05:38,310 --> 01:05:42,900
that is restrained, restricted by rules, "fitters"

1006
01:05:42,900 --> 01:05:46,380
the human race. That's an extreme opinion. If you

1007
01:05:46,380 --> 01:05:49,880
control poetry, if you repress poetry, restrict

1008
01:05:49,880 --> 01:05:53,320
poetry, you restrict the human race, our imagination

1009
01:05:53,320 --> 01:05:58,280
and our experiences. "Nations are destroyed or

1010
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:01,780
flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting

1011
01:06:01,780 --> 01:06:05,840
and music are destroyed or flourish." This feels

1012
01:06:05,840 --> 01:06:09,680
like somebody in the 20th century, 21st century

1013
01:06:09,680 --> 01:06:14,010
said. This is how ahead of his time he was. This

1014
01:06:14,010 --> 01:06:17,930
is another extract from a beautiful poem. What

1015
01:06:17,930 --> 01:06:22,370
he's doing, "to see a world in a grain of sand and

1016
01:06:22,370 --> 01:06:26,010
a heaven in a wildflower; hold infinity in the

1017
01:06:26,010 --> 01:06:29,430
palm of your hand and eternity in an hour."

1018
01:06:33,400 --> 01:06:35,740
When I tell the truth, it's not for the sake of

1019
01:06:35,740 --> 01:06:38,740
convincing those who don't know it, but for the

1020
01:06:38,740 --> 01:06:41,820
sake of defending those that do.

1021
01:06:45,100 --> 01:06:49,240
When I tell the truth, it's not for the sake of

1022
01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:52,160
convincing those who don't know the truth, but

1023
01:06:52,160 --> 01:06:54,240
for the sake of convincing those who know the truth or who are

1024
01:06:54,240 --> 01:06:58,350
willing to know the truth. Those who restrain

1025
01:06:58,350 --> 01:07:01,790
their desires do so because their desire

1026
01:07:01,790 --> 01:07:07,230
is weak enough to be restrained. Desires,

1027
01:07:07,890 --> 01:07:11,330
imagination, feelings shouldn't be controlled. If

1028
01:07:11,330 --> 01:07:14,450
the doors—again the perception issue here—if the

1029
01:07:14,450 --> 01:07:18,770
doors of perception were cleansed, everything would

1030
01:07:18,770 --> 01:07:21,610
appear to man as it is, infinite.

1031
01:07:24,800 --> 01:07:28,400
And again, the city life destroys our perception,

1032
01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:32,480
makes everything mundane, boring, repetitive.

1033
01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:39,740
"Without contraries, there is no progression." If

1034
01:07:39,740 --> 01:07:44,300
something is very black, it could sound very black

1035
01:07:44,300 --> 01:07:47,800
when it's next to a very white color, or something

1036
01:07:47,800 --> 01:07:50,180
like this, very short, very tall, and these things.

1037
01:07:50,970 --> 01:07:53,190
And that's why he's focusing on these two states

1038
01:07:53,190 --> 01:07:57,270
of mind. If you don't understand innocence, unless

1039
01:07:57,270 --> 01:08:03,610
there is experience there, and vice versa. And

1040
01:08:03,610 --> 01:08:06,050
finally, this is a very powerful statement, but it

1041
01:08:06,050 --> 01:08:09,850
shouldn't be fixed here. "I care not whether a man

1042
01:08:09,850 --> 01:08:14,950
is good or evil; all that I care is whether he is

1043
01:08:14,950 --> 01:08:23,480
a wise man or a fool. Go put off holiness and put

1044
01:08:23,480 --> 01:08:28,100
on intellect. Don't disguise under an attire or a

1045
01:08:28,100 --> 01:08:33,680
mask of religion or goodness or whatever. All I

1046
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:37,400
care about is whether you are a wise man or a fool. If you are a wise man, like if you

1047
01:08:37,400 --> 01:08:41,680
are a fool.

1048
01:08:41,680 --> 01:08:42,300
I'm stopping here. Okay, I want you to think of

1049
01:08:45,010 --> 01:08:48,390
possible features for William Blake and his

1050
01:08:48,390 --> 01:08:53,600
poetry. Read more poetry by William Blake. Many

1051
01:08:53,600 --> 01:08:57,180
students usually approach me and ask me, "I want to

1052
01:08:57,180 --> 01:09:00,080
write poetry. I want to like English poetry. Where

1053
01:09:00,080 --> 01:09:01,940
should I start?" I usually point to William Blake.

1054
01:09:04,520 --> 01:09:07,420
If you want to write poetry, read his many, many,

1055
01:09:07,420 --> 01:09:09,220
many poems. You're lucky if you're doing also the

1056
01:09:09,220 --> 01:09:12,800
Romantic literature course because you will be

1057
01:09:12,800 --> 01:09:15,180
exposed to more poems by William Blake. Thank you

1058
01:09:15,180 --> 01:09:17,420
very much, ladies. If you have a question, you can

1059
01:09:17,420 --> 01:09:18,040
stay behind.