Romantic Circles |
| When William Blake's poetry first appeared in print, it was self-published in books that contained both images and text. Each "plate," as scholars now refer to the individual printings, contained a combination of words and images that spoke to and/or against each other in ways that dramatically affect our understanding of the poem. As you encounter Blake's work, it is important to understand not only how text and image speak to or against each other but also to ask whether or not different symbolic forms (text, image, music, etc.) communicate different kinds of knowledge. Could Blake have communicated his message using only text? Or only Image? Or do these different symbolic forms communicate different modes of knowledge about a subject or artifact? If there is a difference in the kind of knowledge that can be communicated by different symbolic modes, what are the implications for our society which is dominated by image and music at the expense of text? The following activity is designed to help you understand how Blake would have answered these questions and then to answer them for yourselves. |
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Step One Here is a link to an electronic facsimile of an original plate of William Blake's Poem The Lamb which you have already discussed in class. Spend some time visually examining the plate and re-reading the text of the poem. After you have thoroughly reviewed the poem in this graphical form, write a few notes on paper or using a wordprocessor about how the text and image on the plate interact with each other. Do they say the same or contradictory things? Do they enhance or detract from each other's meaning? Are they in sympathy with each other or is there a tension created by the juxtaposition? After considering these points, note whether or not your understanding of the poem has changed as result of seeing it in its original graphical form. If the answer is yes, take note of how and why. |
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Step Two Here is a link to an electronic facsimile of an original plate of William Blake's Poem The Fly from which the text of the poem has been removed. Using your knowledge of William Blake and what you learned from the exercise above (Step One) about how text and image work together in his poetry, write some notes on a piece of paper about the kind of poem that you think Blake might have written to accompany this image. What might its subject matter have been? Would it have been serious or comical in tone? Would it have been in sympathy with the image, or would it have worked to create a sense of tension in the reader by juxtaposing itself to it? Be very specific in your notes, outlining specifically what you think the poem would be about. The first line of your notes should read something like, "This poem is about a .......who......." |
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Step Three Using your notes from Step Two, write a poem on paper to accompany the graphical plate of William Blake's The Fly. Your poem must consist of two four line stanzas (eight lines total), each with the following form:
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Step Four The next stage of this assignment is to convert your poem into an on-line edition. Read these instructions thoroughly before you attempt to publish your poem to the MOO. If at any time during the process you need help, use the "Window" or "View"drop-down menu of your browser to return to this screen. Click on the "Object" button in the top navigation-bar and a new window will open containing the "Xpress Object Editor". Click on the "Create Object" button of the top frame of the Editor, and a list of available parent objects will appear in the narrow left hand frame of Editor. Find and click on "Generic Thing". When you click on Generic Thing, a page titled "Making New Thing" will load in the right hand frame of the Editor Enter your first name and the first two letters of your last name (Example, Carl Stahmer = CarlSt.) into the text input area labeled "Name of New Object" and then hit the "Create" button.
After you hit the "Create" button, a new page will appear telling you that your object has been created. The title line of this page will look like this: Viewing In addition to information abut your new object, the creation confirmation page contains an "Edit Object" and a "Recycle Object" button. DO NOT CLICK ON THE " Recycle Object" button. This will permanently delete your object. Do click on the "Edit Object" button. When you do, you will be transported to another page which lets you set various configurable aspects of your object. Scroll down this page until you get to a text input area labeled "Description". Type your poem into this area and then scroll down the page and click on the "Save General Options" button. A window will appear telling you that your option has been saved. Click the "OK" to make this window disappear and then click on the "Close" button in the top frame of the editor. The window will be closed and you will be returned to MOOspace. You are now virtually holding your first MOO Object. For others to see your object, you must first place it somewhere in MOOspace. Navigate to The Fly room by clicking on its link in your teacher's classroom. Once you are in the room, drop your object by typing drop #object number (where object number is the number that you were told to write down when you created your object, including the number sign) into the communication text entry area in the bottom left frame of your browser and hitting "return". The MOO will tell you that you have dropped your object. You must refresh your browser window to see your object in the room. To do so, simply click on the "Look" button in the navigation menu. Your object will appear and you can view it by clicking on it. As a final precaution, you should lock your object in The Fly room. This will prevent other MOOers who might become enamored of your poem from picking it up and running off with it, thereby preventing your getting a credit for this assignment. To lock your object, simply type @lock #object number with me into the communication text entry area in the bottom, left frame and then type return. You will get a confirmation message from the MOO telling you that your object has been locked. |
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Step Five If you are done with your poem and other students are still working, you might want to consider jazzing up your poem by adding an image to it or by linking it to an external website. For help on these functions, click on the "Help" button in the Navigation menu. You might also want to do some MOO exploring, and see what and who else you might find. There are many treasures in the MOO. Some are easy to find, but some require a creative mind. NOTE TO TEACHERS: WHEN THE UNIT ABOVE IS COMPLETE, BLAKE'S ORIGINAL PLATE, INCLUDING THE TEXT OF THE POEM, "THE FLY," CAN BE ACCESSED FOR COMPARISON AND DISCUSSION HERE: RCHS HOME | PARTICIPANTS | RCHS MOO | HYPERTEXT READER |