Blake & Burns Poems

1. Robert Burns is known as the national poet of Scotland; how does Burns incorporate/
honor is Scottish heritage in the poems “Auld Lang Syne•” and “John Anderson My
Jo”?
In the first poem he talks about the friendliness of the Scottish people and how they can have a good time and in the second poem he talks about the true love that two Scottish people shared.

2. What idea concept is being praised/honored in “Auld Lang Syne”?
How is this same theme extended in “John Anderson, My Jo”? How do these values reflect the values of Romanticism? How do they contrast with the values of the Age of Reason?
He is showing the that Scottish people are people who enjoy life and live for the moment by enjoying a drink and remembering old friends, then how the two loved each other in the second one. This reflects romanticism because it shows how they live for that moment and are "flying by the seat of their pants" so to speak, while it contrast the Age of Reason by thinking with their hearts instead of their heads.

3. What does the metaphor of the hill in the second stanza of John Anderson, My Jo
represent?
It represents life and all of life's troubles and hard times and how they have gone through them together.

4. Explain how William Blake•s upbringing/worldview influenced the type of poetry he wrote.
When he was younger he had visions of celestial bodies so when he wrote in incorporated these visions into his writing and wrote a more visual and spiritual ties, which were unconventional at the time.

5. How are “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” similar to each other? (Read “About the
Selection” on p 679) What two sides of the human soul do the animals represent?
Why did Blake it equally important to understand both sides? In a religious framework, what do the two animals represent?
The two have exactly the same rhyme scheme and are wrote almost identically in structure. The lamb represents innocence while the tyger represents experience. It is equally important to understand both because they are both key parts of human nature and life. The lamb represents Jesus in a religious framework and the tyger represents evil made by God (eden).

6. How do William Blake•s three poems celebrate the untameness of nature and reject the urbanity/structured society? How does this reflect Romanticism?
He looks at normal things in an abstract view. He also looks as though things are in nature and not like the normal hustle and bustle of a big society. He also gives the pieces and what they talk about a more religious view instead of a normal more conservative, logical view.