Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secresy the human dress.
The human dress is forged iron,
The human form a fiery forge,
The human face a furnace sealed,
The human heart its hungry gorge.
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From guest shaista (contact)
the poem he has written on a very true picture of todays people.i really agree with it. it helps people to polish their character. -
From guest Siobhan (contact)
It seems very few of you are reading this poem with knowledge of the context in which it was written behind you. Therefore, despite poems being open to interpretation (which of course they are), you don't seem to understand the true meaning of the poem. Being written on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, it portrays Blake's fear of the great strides humanity was taking, as is displayed in the mechanical characteristics he gives humans in A Divine Image. The poem is the inevtiable opponent of the Innocence counterpart, in which he personifies Man's "virtues of delight" as God's, thus suggesting that man is made in God's image. The counterpart not only represents the fall of humanity in which innocence is lost to experience, but shows the disintergration of a relationship with God as vices and Man's self-importance replace virtues. -
A Divine Image Review
From guest Amanda (contact)
i think this poem is trying to say that a human body is nothing,but the appearance of you. The actualyou is very deep and when yourdead your body will be nothing but sand. So i think its obvious that a human body is nothing and the actual you is your soul. -
I feel guest Rebeca has got it right, this is a poem about hypocrisy.
Blake is saying how the strict dress code (forged iron) covers the infinitely varied human form (fiery forge) and how the 'stiff upper lip' (furnace sealed) conceals the glories and anguish of the heart. -
From guest Reveca (contact)
he was in a different time period where a lot of these things weren't put out in the open and everything seemed to be "picture perfect" so to actually write about things like these back then makes him unique... -
Yes Blake was brilliant, multi-talented, etc
but...
the poem rather speaks the obvious since three of the four traits mentioned are solely human. The only thing of real merit here is in its uncovering of Blake and whatever caused this attitude or mood.
Cruelty, jealousy and I presume secrecy are uniquely human, and I'm not sure how creating pathetic fallacies for them and then wrapping them in hyperbole improves our understanding of what we already know.
It was fun to read but I'm not going to hail it as a seminal work. -
From guest Laura gibson (contact)
it really is inspiring from a students point of view who is studying 24/7 the wonderous works of Willaim Blake, I agree with my friend below, Emily that indeed it is important....sometimes i wonder if my life wuld be the same withut those lovely and inspiring bucolic images... I HEART BLAKE amen bowing of heads -
this is wonderful... i loved it.. so much to get from such a small and meaningful write..
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Its called "auguries of innocence"
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I think Blake wrote beautifully, he managed to pack so much symbolism into very short poems, for example this one ['A divine Image'] and 'The sick Rose'. I found this poem to be a symbol of the time- an evilness in metal, which I see as a symbol for industrialism. This is also an interesting write because the metal could be seen as cold. I found the second stanza better than the first stanza because of all hte symboilism. I like his work a lot.
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this was pretty much how i saw people for a long time. And some times i think i still do see them that way which is what made me stay so detached from anyone for such a long time. Easy to see why he is one our greatest isn't it?
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very true!
made me smile a bit, this one, how true! the ordeals of human nature is truely unexplained ....thus they say, human do have some"jadoo"(magic) of their own!
peace** -
do you think the divine image could be interpreted as the degredation of man kind and the darkness of a mans soal
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Blake is just truly brilliant.
Emily, I agree with what you are saying. It is really important to realise when Blake was writing. The fact that he was a Romantic, and writing at this time makes the content of this poem and the others seem very radical and revolutionary. To make such assumptions about society was certainly not the done thing. -
Blake was writing at time when society was both phsyically and mentally, in his opinion full of filth. The point of this poem, in conjunction with the one in 'Songs of Innocence' is to highlight how the themes of innocence and experience are mutaully exclusive, therefore the image presented in Innocence was always destined to be tainted by the cruel reality of Experience.
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Amazing, as are all his works
I think this poem is blakes views of humanity in a harsh time, like other romantics he writes of his distain for human nature, for the conduct of his country men in the times of political upheaval. It is unquestionably a very emotive poem, which demonstrates his perceptiveness. -
In response to skip.a.beat, the name of your fav poem is Auguries of Innocence. Have fun
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wondering if anyone knows the name of this poem:
"to see the world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wildflower
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and infinity in an hour"
that was my fav poem for years but i never knew its name..help! u can leave a note on my allpoetry diary, .flit
thanx! -
neutral
This particular peice of work is not a companion poem. This is a rejected song of innocence. The companion to song of experience is actually called The Divine Image -
Well, it has to be looked at with "The Divine Image" from "The Songs of Innocence." It's certainly a deliciously cynical examination of the idea that Man is made in the image of the Divine. Like Blake says in "The Tyger": "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" In this poem, I like the structure and how Blake moves from the inside to the outside in stanza one (from the heart to the clothes), and then reverses that progression in the second stanza.
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This seems to speak of Freudian repression, in the 'human face a furnace sealed'
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