Analysis and Comparison of The Lamb and Pied Beauty
Analysis and Comparison of "The Lamb" and "Pied Beauty"
God's presence is apparent in the beauty of nature. The world created by God is a perfect home to all living things. God has created an intricate world that is astonishing in its variety. In William Blake's 'The Lamb' and Gerard Manley Hopkins' 'Pied Beauty,' the poets illustrate the theme that the beauty of the earth proves the existence of a benevolent creator.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28, 1844. He was the first of nine children. He grew up in a family of writers and artists. At grammar school in High gate, he won the poetry prize for 'The Escorial' and a scholarship to Balliol College in Oxford. While there, he began to struggle with his Protestant faith and in 1866, Hopkins joined the Roman Catholic Church. This distanced him from his parents and even more when he joined the Jesuit order and was ordained a priest. As a young man Hopkins experienced conflict between his desire to write poetry and his religious commitment. When he attempted to publish his first poem it was rejected. Hopkins died at age 44, of typhoid fever. 'His poetry will always be among the greatest poems of faith and doubt in the English language' (Gerard Manley Hopkins: An Overview).
William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in London. He was the third oldest of five children. Blake went to school long enough to learn how to read and write. He then worked in his father's hosiery shop until the age of fourteen. His father then apprenticed Blake to an engraver when he saw his talent for drawing. William Blake married Catherine Boucher at the age of twenty-five. He taught her to read and write in order to help him in his work. Blake was an artist, a poet, and a visionary. 'His work was so incompatible with the taste of his day that his contemporaries could not appreciate his accomplishment' (British Literature). Some looked at him as being inspired but irrational, while others claimed him to be mad. During his life he witnessed visions of angels sitting in a tree to messages from his dead brother. He thought these to be interactions with God, and this was inspiration...