I reflected upon this poem by william blake and i was wondering if anyone agrees or am i nuts?

[AlexJ]

SongMemory, hither come,And tune your merry notes,And while upon the wind,Your music floats,I’ll pour upon the stream,Where sighing lover’s dream, And fish for fancies as they pass,Within the watery glass.I’ll drink of the clear stream,And hear the linnet’s song;And there I’ll lie and dream,The day along:And when night comes, I’ll go,To places fit for woe,Walking along the darkened valley,With silent melancholyWilliam Blake (British Poets 26)The poem Song by William Blake is quite complex to say the least, however, the vocabulary used in this poem conveys meaning and affects the reader’s emotions. From the title I interpreted the poem to be based around a song, but from the poem the song I heard was not typical, it was the song of the writer’s life. Throughout the poem he relates to the tune of the song “Memory come/ and tune your merry notes” and I feel that the tune of the song (the song representing his life) was downbeat and melancholy. The main clue that led me to believe that the song he was writing about was indeed his own was when he told his memory to come and tune the notes, this wording allows me to interpret the words as if he is laying and listening to the melody of his own song (i.e. pondering his life) because he is having his memory tune it. This poem, through its diction, makes me feel as if the writer lived a disheartening life: “And when night time comes, I’ll go/ to places fit for woe/ walking along the darkened valley/ with silent melancholy” from this excerpt it is easily pulled out that he had lived a woeful life given he roams the “darkened valley”. From Blake’s diction and choice of negative and down words I get a feeling of depression, however, the vocabulary, as it is properly used, shows how the man’s song was not a joyful one. Even though this poem has many different lines in it that say different things I feel that they just go to enhance the point that I feel Blake is trying to make. One main thing this poem does is shift emotions in the middle, in other words the poem goes from a melancholy vocabulary to a quite peaceful one and finally back to the gloomy word choice. I feel the poem conveys the meaning that life is a song, we have our high notes and our low notes, life is neither up or down it is a combination that is what makes a beautiful song. I feel as if my interpretation of the poem is very different from the normal interpretation because I took the emotion of the words and I took the diction and I saw Blake’s song. This poem opened my eyes because now I can look at a poem as if it is a song. A song, given its notes, allows the listener to interpret a poem in new ways to find a deeper and more personal interpretation of the text. I also feel that the poem had a very smooth tone to it, a very slow tone, and finally a sad tone which allowed me to interpret the poem the way I did. The overall message I received from this poem is that life is a song, and that song creates a beat that not only reflects upon the person but the listener of the song as well. Life is a song, the song is life, the notes give the life, and we control the song, the song we call life.

[prenzie]

It's true the world's earliest poems were believed to be lyrics put to music, but I would not overload the title of this poem with too much meaning. Loads of Romantic era poets called their poems SONG for lack of a better title. Plenty did not even bother with titles at all and were later given one by the publisher,usually the first line. Don't discount SONG as a good title 'tho. I think your reflections are intelligent. My take on the poem is the unhappy musings of a man haunted by memories of happier times, to be brief, 'tho that is oversimplifying. Your thoughts on Blake's poem are insightful and well expressed. You have a real talent for this. Are you an English major? -that's what my B.A. is in. Forgive my laziness in poetry analysis now. I was not being critical of you, and by the way you are far from sounding "nuts". Enjoyed reading your comments.

[KevinS4746]

I think you're correct in assuming that the "song" is his life, but I think you may have misunderstood his intent when he says, "and when night comes"; I believe "night" is his metaphor for death, not just sadness. The earlier part of the poem is upbeat, asking memory to "enhance" all the good times while he lives, to drink from the stream and think of fanciful things...but "when night comes", when death arrives, "I'll go, to places fit for woe." In other words, life is too short to waste in melancholy, that there will be time enough for walk "along the darkened valley with silent (hear the word...."silent") melancholy." meaning he'll leave melancholy reflections for when he's dead. This is the sort of insight a mature man might make when the days ahead are far fewer than those behind...that's when you realize how precious each day becomes and how little you want to waste them.That would be my take on it.

[FionaL]

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[juliasanchez33]

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