The Fly
- William Blake
William Blake was a English poet , painter and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now Considered a Seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry has led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced".
The poem stars with a simple, everyday ecperience. In the first stanza , a human being brushes away an annoying fly, brushes it away with a "thoughtless hand." That is to say , the movement is so insignificant that the person doesn't give it a second thought. But poetry specializes in finding large meaning in small moments, so the story doesn't end there.
In stanza two the person who has waved the fly away pauses to contemplate the moment from a larger persective. In the great cosmic scheme of things, is the human being really any stanza three elaborates on the theme of stanza two. All human beings are moratal we're all going to die someday. So we're all just going about our lives dancing ,drinking , singing ,etc... until some unseen hand strikes us down.
Stanzas four and five offer one possible reason for all beliving that a human life may matter more than the life of fly. We are capable of thinking about the meaning of our lives. That's what separatez us from files and other unthinking creatures.That's what separates us from files and other unthinking creatures.That's whatakes it possible for us to be happy even in the face of our own mortality.
The theme of "The Fly" is man's extreme weakness in comparison to GOD/death/fate. The poem also uses a common theme of Blake's innocence and experience.The Fly is totally inncent and powerless. The speaker realizes that human beings are powerless in the same way , and this passes him into the realm of experience.
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