Paper Summary:

This paper compares common themes and imagery in the poetry of William Blake and William Wadsworth. In particular, their use of pastoral imagery to characterize the beauty of the earth and the importance of nature is analyzed. This is juxtaposed against the poets' attitude towards industrialization. The second half of the paper compares and contrasts two poems: "The Shepherd" by William Blake and "The Lamb: Pastoral Poem" by William Wadsworth. The text of both poems is included in the paper.

From the Paper:

"Blake's poem "the Shepherd" emphasizes innocence and simplicity in order to create the image of the pastoral beauty of rural culture. Of all of his works, "the Shepherd" may be the easiest to understand. The Shepherd begins his journey in the book by putting down his pipe and takes hold a crook instead, the sign of his calling. The two stanzas that express this show the relationship of the ewes and their lambs with their guardian, the shepherd. "All in Arcadian peace and trustfulness" (133) is an explicit pastoral imagery because it highlights how the shepherd acts in a simple and yet peaceful manner so that the ewes and their lambs trust him. For Blake the shepherd-sheep relationship and the special world inhabited by shepherd and sheep become the way of representing the characteristic mode of perception in the state of innocence. "

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