The Mental Traveller Poem Analysis - 1272 Words

Finally, the darkest and most complex view of motherhood comes from Blake’s poem â€Å"The Mental Traveller† wherein an Old Woman (acting as a de-facto mother) and the infant she cares for are stuck in a cycle of suffering, torture, and dependency. Unlike â€Å"Infant Joy† and The Book of Thel, the mother in â€Å"The Mental Traveller† is not a caring or nurturing figure at all, but instead tortures the child in her charge and feeds off of his suffering, portraying a more disturbing image of motherhood. Rather than depicting the birth of the child as a purely joyful event like the previous two poems, â€Å"The Mental Traveller† immediately emphasizes the pain of birth when the baby is described as having been â€Å"begotten in dire woe/ Just as we Reap in joy the†¦show more content†¦The next line states that the Old Woman â€Å"Lives upon his shrieks and cries/ And She grows young as he grows old,† revealing that the suffering of t he child is valuable to the woman because it keeps her young and an active member of society rather than being a lonely old woman. Like the mother in â€Å"Infant Joy,† the Old Woman chains down the child to keep him innocent and prevent him from fulfilling his desires that are considered socially inappropriate, allowing her to rely on his innocence and youthful energy that she can no longer experience herself. Unlike the previous two passages which subtly complicate the idealistic perception of motherhood, this poem depicts motherhood as a sinister relationship where the mother tortures her child for her own gain until the child eventually rises up and takes revenge on her, trapping mankind in an endless cycle of suffering that they may never break out of. However, although the Old Woman is vastly different from the mother in â€Å"Infant Joy† and the Clod in The Book of Thel in that she abuses her child rather than caring for him, she also shares some disturbing simi larities with the more gentle and loving mothers, illustrating a darker perception of the idealistic image of motherhood. For example, while the mother in â€Å"Infant Joy† and the Old Woman in â€Å"The Mental Traveller† vary greatly in their treatment of their children, both also oppress their children in different ways. TheShow MoreRelatedStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening1900 Words   |  8 PagesPoems are defined as being a piece of writing in which words are chosen for their beauty and sound, and are carefully arranged. Through a poem, special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. Poems that are considered as a form of literature are referred to as poetry. Different types of poems can have a range of effects on certain people. They use devices such as emotive words and symbolism to establish this connection. Through this,Read MoreWalking in the City Essay4064 Words   |  17 Pagesa writer such as Walter Benjamin found in the nineteenth-century leisured observer or flà ¢neur. â€Å"Walking in the city† has been very influential in recent cultural studies just because of the way that it uses both imagination and technical semiotic analysis to show how everyday life has particular value when it takes place in the gaps of larger power structures. Further reading: Ahearne 1995; de Certeau 1984; Harvey 1985; Lefebvre 1971; Morris 1990; Rigby 1991. I WAL KING IN THE CIT Y 127 Read MoreSantrock Edpsych Ch0218723 Words   |  75 Pagesunit, students re- very child-centred approach in my classes. The enacted the Day of Confederation. They came Froebelian approach encourages teachers to con- dressed in costume, made oral presentations, and sider students’ emotional, spiritual, mental, physi- participated in debates using language that was cal, and social experiences when planning lessons or consistent with the 1800s. They also created activi- assessing student learning. ties and games that were representative of the era.Read MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagestheory focuses attention on the human issues in organization ‘There is nothing so practical as a good theory’ How Roethlisberger developed a ‘practical’ organization theory Column 1: The core contributing social sciences Column 2: The techniques for analysis Column 3: The neo-modernist perspective Column 4: Contributions to business and management Four combinations of science, scientific technique and the neo-modernist approach reach different parts of the organization Level 1: Developing the organization