Blake and Wordsworth

1. Blake and Wordsworth Author’s Purpose

2. Author’s Purpose 3 General Purposes: • To inform • To entertain • To persuade • Blake’s General Purpose? • To inform or educate - Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men • As he continued to write, his purpose became to entertain. • Wordsworth’s General Purpose? • To inform or educate – “[the] understanding of the reader …[should] be in some degree enlightened, and his affections strengthened and purified."

3. William Blake • Specific purpose:to present one particular point of view in order to demonstrate the limitations of the speaker’s state of consciousness. He wants to change the way people see in order to open up new worlds to them. • Poems of innocence: to show the light/childlike quality of faith and how that influences their view of the world. • Poems of experience: to show how the realities of world have influenced or impacted their view of the world.

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13. William Wordsworth • Specific purpose: To present emotional & personal experiences that will enlighten, strengthen, and purify the reader. • Purpose of the “speaker”: What is a poet? A man speaking to men. The speaker is used to convey a viewpoint. (Similarity to Blake!) • Poems of lasting value: are only produced by someone who has thought long and deeply about a topic.