What style is this?

[rayheinrich]

This is one of the problems I have with this kind of poetry, not this "style". The ambiguity level is so high there can be many interpretations.

For the record: I didn't think "I Saw I Dreamt Two Men" was "this kind of poetry".

It is the lack of anything definite that keeps it a mystery and that fascinates people, causing them to mistake fascination with good poetry (I can hear milo screaming already).

Add my screams as well.

It is the same with Shakespeare's sonnets.

More screams.

... Does this make them good poems? No, it simply makes them fascinating.
Many people mistake this for poetry that is multi-leveled, or Blake's fourfold vision if you will. A poem having depth is different than a poem that simply engenders fascination.

Yes, but you leave out poems having neither or both. False dichotomy dude.

Of course 99.99999% of the public is untaught when it comes to poetry, or for that matter most of the other arts. One must be educated in order to appreciate what is being shown. Of course these days the same type of ignorance is endemic throughout our society, not just in the arts. The is a lack of appreciation for people who have spent years learning a skill. "Oh I can do that, no need to pay that guy $$$, I saw how to do it on you tube." So it should come as no surprise that people cannot tell the difference between merely fascination and what is truly good poetry, and in fact prefer the first to the latter.

You're old, you're cynical, you're an elitist, and you're jealous and resentful
of those no-nothing piece-of-shit assholes who are getting paid good money to
re-spout the last brainless fungoid they read on twitter.

We're in hell, yes; but at least we got here without a handbasket.

Which is why the introduction to Blake's "Vala" or "The Four Zoas" (see below) will not be chosen as the UK national anthem so that something other than "God Save the Queen" can be played at football matches (If anyone has heard of the outcome please let me know, the chance is slim, but I can always hope).

Jerusalem

" And did those feet in ancient time
...
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land."

I refuse to be lured into any discussions involving Margaret Thatcher

Just in case anyone has ever wondered about these lines in "Tyger"

"When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee? "

It means that humankind had matured enough that the spirits of the stars no longer needed to goad humans into doing the right thing, for now they (humanity) had awakened and saw they should do what is right, simply because it is right. They wept because it was such an odious thing to have to punish them, just as it is painful when a loving parent must punish his/her child. So they weep with joy and throw "down their spears" because they will not have to use them ever again.
Or so that's what Catherine told me one night in a dream, as it's meaning had bother me for many years.
dale

This reminds me of a "discussion" I had about the Tyger poem.
I said that any intelligent designer who made sheep would make tigers to control
the sheep's population or, supposing the tiger was the object, would make sheep to
provide food for the tigers. I was then informed that "the Lamb" was Christ.
So, I said, you're saying that Blake's asking if Mary made tigers? Maybe Mary found
the manger a bit boring and thought a tiger might liven things up?

Which gets into communication requiring context and if you don't got it (say, knowledge of
the Bible), it don't happen. (Not to mention that "context" is always a plural.)

Ray