Visions of the Daughters of Albion
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In his Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) William Blake, deeply interested in the idea of liberty and spurred on by the events of the French Revolution, demonstrated the extent to which the idea of human liberty needed to be expanded to take in every aspect of human existence. Where the political liberty of the people might be realized through revolution, even deeper sorts of revolutions would be needed to unseat some of the tyrannous ideas inherent in many of the most basic ideas held by people everywhere. The Daughters of Albion are the women of England but they are also every type of person who remains enslaved. Blake goes deeply into the question of the rights of women and he touches strongly on the problem of human slavery, such as the case of the Africans in America. But, as he does these things in the context of extending the argument that has already been made for liberty by the French Revolution, it must also be asked whether he means the Daughters of Albion to stand for all the people of Albion. Does he also mean to suggest that such a revolution should take place in England as well? The poem offers some support for this idea. It was in this poem that Blake introduced the character or concept of Urizen (a pun on "your reason") and, as Paananen notes, "all revolutions are, in fact, directed against Urizen, the jealous law giver and lover of order" (62). The French Revolution was a case of passionate action taken in pursuit of a desirable end and, sinc
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It is also worth noting in this context that Oothoon cannot get any of these others to understand what she is saying -- Bromion and Theotormon are closed off to what she suggests. Just as the characters in the poem cannot understand Oothoon's voice of freedom, so those who might censor Blake, or worse, cannot penetrate the veil he has drawn over his ideas. In a way it is easy to see how the parallel can exist between the frankness of the sexual discussion in the poem and the frankness with which Blake would have liked to discuss his political ideas as well.
Certainly Visions of the Daughters of Albion is a bold poem if it is considered only in the context of the liberation of women and the poet's frankness about sexuality. But this could not be seen just from the opening of the poem. The Argument section introduces the basic metaphorical story of Oothoon's desire for Theotormon and its results. But what sign is there that the metaphor is two layers deep and has a political context as well? This is definitely hinted at in the opening lines of the Visions section. "Enslav'd, the Daughters of Albion weep: a trembling lamentation / Upon their mountains, in their valleys, sighs toward America" (294). Here the poem deliberat
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1583
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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