09-26-2021, 07:08 PM
I could have written The Lamb. You could, too. Most of us here can. Not to diminish Blake's power or anything, but at their most basic words are just words. I think the power and the skill comes from the moment -- being a monkey on a typewriter that actually writes what one writes at the right time, in the right place, to the right audience, with the right feeling, etc. So I think most of us could have written The Lamb, but only Blake could have written *The Lamb*, nah mean? He wrote at the romantic period in the heart of a nascent colonial power, he was impoverished enough not to be a pompous ass but privileged enough to be able to illuminate his manuscripts, he was either mad or a proper fool-for-Christ, etc. I think, aside from the simple choice of words and meter, those things are what make this poem. And if there are any lessons for us here, it's keep things simple, keep things political, religion and madness are not things to be discarded, and don't be a butthole xD