William Blake Metaphors

How would you feel being dragged into the harsh ideals of war; being forced to fight and potentially die? William Blake, an 18th and 19th century poet, was easily a rebellious figure who maintained a strong belief in freedom and individuality, in which his opinion of war was communicated strongly in “A War Song to Englishmen”. Blake was known for expressing his own dominant ideologies, where he was highly criticized for contesting common societal beliefs. Perhaps this was why the essential meaning of this poem was shrouded by the narrow minded perspectives of the people of 18th century England.

Poetry is an effective means of text that has, throughout many eras of good and evil, evoked powerful and emotive accounts of topical issues that
Particularly, though, repetition, personification and irony are all essential in solidifying the overarching messages and emotions present within the text. Firstly, the repetition of the word ‘prepare’ is easily visible in each stanza of the text. For example, “Prepare to meet our fathers in the sky..” and “Prepare your eyes to meet a holy God!” are two extremely powerful phrases that collectively reveal to the reader that war is death. By utilizing ‘prepare’ so many times, it reinforces a common idea that war is a risk-induced experience; to ‘prepare’ for death. For myself, repeating this word so excessively creates an eerie and unsettling ambience that reminds me of human tragedy, creating imagery of people dying on top of each other on the battlefront. The exclamation marks constantly placed after ‘prepare’ too support the emotions that are often described when defining war, including anger and pain. The repetition of short and punchy sentence structures also creates a chant-like rhythm, and may justify why the English people of the 18th century confused the poem for a call to war. Furthermore, personification has been strategically utilized in “A War Song to Englishmen”. In line 1 of stanza 2, “Prepare your hearts for Death’s cold hand!” is expressing death as a human feature. In this context, I feel as though Blake has empathised that death is powerful and is closer than what we, as people, truly believe; that human conflict can easily lead to being killed. In my account, he is depicting war as an intimidating experience. Finally, both religious and war related themes are reoccurring within the poem. As such, irony is used in order to view faith and conflict as two subjects that interconnect with each other. In line 3 and 4 of stanza 1, Blake exclaims that “Th’ Angel of Fate turns them with might hands, And casts them out upon the darken’d earth!” Primarily, this is revealing that the