Reading #1 - Blake, Wollstonecraft, Barbauld

I have always liked William Blake's poetry, but I have never examined it from a scholarly standpoint. The "Songs of Innocence/Songs of Experience" collection that I have been reading since childhood has never provided me with much insight - only feelings of joy and sadness when reading the parallel poems. Having studied several of them in great detail in class on Wednesday, however, I found myself able to understand them much better. Knowing a bit about Blake's life helped, too. Looking at the poetic devices and imagery within the poems gave me a better insight into just what Blake meant by "innocence" and "experience."

Moving on to discuss the parallels and disparities between Wollstonecraft and Barbauld proved very interesting. I had no trouble understanding either text, but I found that I liked Barbauld's poem "The Rights of Women" as a response to Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" better. Barbauld's narrator in the poem reminds me of the goddess Artemis, intelligent and strong-willed, needing no man to complete her, and very willing to put on her armor and hunt down the men who are trying to control her. Wollstonecraft's essay, as far as the fourth chapter goes, was easy enough to digest, but I found it lacking in provacative phrases. While I understand that Wollstonecraft wants women to remain women, and not to turn into men, I do not think that we as a sex should have to conform to gender stereotypes and stay at home knitting, even though we are allowed to learn. Perhaps that is just my twenty-first century viewpoint, but I preferred Barbauld's Amazonian call for revolution over Wollstonecraft's passive plea for men to allow us an education.