The Argument

'THE ARGUMENT'

Rintrah roars, and shakes his fires in the burden'd air; Hungry clouds swag on the deep

Once meek, and in a per-ilous paht,

The just man kept his course along

The vale of death.

Roses are planted where thorns grow,

And on the barren heath

Sing the honey bees.

Then the perilous path was planted,

And a river and a spring

On every cliff and tomb,

And on the bleached bones

Red clay brought forth;

Till the villain left the paths of ease,

To walk in perilous paths, and drive

The just man into barren climes.

Now the sneaking serpent walks

In mild humility,

And the just man rages in the wilds

Where lions roam.

Rintrah roars, and shakes his fires in the burden'd air;

Hungry clouds swag on the deep.

As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years since its advent, the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! Swedenborg is the Angel sitting at the tomb: his writings are the linen clothes folded up. Now is the dominion of Edom, and the return of Adam into Paradise. See Isaiah xxxiv and xxxv chap.

Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.

From these contraries spring what the religious call Good and Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Rea-son. Evil is the active springing from Energy

Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell from

PARAPHRASE:

Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the gloomy air; hungry clouds swag on the deep. The just man, although the way that he walks through is a perilous way, continues his way. As a result of this effort, roses are planted where thorns grow and honey bees sing their songs on the barren heath. Then, the dangerous path was planted, a river and a spring spread on every cliff and tomb and red clay is produced from the bleached bones. This venture would continue until the villain leaves the comfortable way to walk in dangerous paths and forces the just man into barren climes. Now, the sneaking serpent walks in a soft modest manner and the just man rages in the wild where lions roam. Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the gloomy air, hungry clouds swag on the deep.

INTRODUCTION:

William Blake was born on November 28th, in 1957, in London. He left his school at the age of ten. He served his apprenticeship to Basire as an engraver for seven years. He was a talented boy and had some works on the art of painting and engraver. Then, he became a stu-dent in the Royal Academy in 1778. After this point, his life as a poet has started. During his life, he encountered some failures. His works could not be understood accurately. After finan-cial failure of the exhibition of his works, he alienated himself from society. From 1818 to 1927 he did not produce any poem and made some engraving works. And he was dead in London, in 1827. Most of his writings were about social, political, philosophical and also reli-gious issues of his day. He wrote not only poems but also lots of prose about existing prob-lems of Western world. Thus, we have to consider his thoughts, opinions and general perspec-tive over problematic issues when we are discussing his poems. In his period, in fact, there were harsh and intensive debates about critical issues such as liberty, human rights or roots of Christianity. While he was writing this poem, these debates were at the peak. He wrote sev-eral poems, songs and prose on these issues such as 'French Revolution', 'Song of Liberty' and 'Songs of Experience and Innocence'.

Here, I want discuss another important manuscript of William Blake: 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. It consists of 27 plates. The poem I have chosen to discuss is the second plate of this book that we call it as 'The Argument'. Also, I added the third plate of this book since it, in fact, has a crucial relation with the 'The Argument'. This part, probably, is the heart of this book. It helps us to understand and interpret the other parts of the book better.

Firstly, we have to keep in mind that, this part of the poem is the most difficult part of this book since discussing it without considering the other parts of the book can lead one to make wrong interpretations. However, it allows the reader to make wider interpretations on the poem. Every line is open to discussion and we can observe them from lots of different angles.

In my discussion, I will try to go to macro from micro. That is to say, from the particu-lar meanings and discussions of lines and stanzas to general and wider interpretation of the poem.

SUMMARY: The distinction between introduction, development and conclusion parts of this poem is not clear. It is a combination of harmonious and parallel opinions and stanzas in a well-organized structure. At the first, he describes the atmosphere: 'Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air; hungry clouds swag on the deep' then, he explains general condi-tions of creatures. 'Just man', 'villain', 'sneak', 'lions', 'grasses', 'thorns', 'bees', etc. While he is doing it, he uses a lot of time scheme such as 'then', 'now', 'till', 'and', 'once'. That is to say, he uses these time schemes in a well-organized combination. He uses a lot of meta-phors, and, in fact, their meanings are very intensive. Finally, he gives his main message and makes the poem more explicit. He makes the distinction between good and evil giving some other examples that symbolize them. In this way, he opens the way that