Quiet Rebel Writer

Welcome to the week, everyone! The sun is shining here in Chicago, and I can clearly see the skyline from my office window. No fog, no clouds, no sleet/snow/mist/rain/hail/apocalyptic weather. Progress!

Let’s start the week off with a poem excerpt. As I’ve said before, I’m not a huge poetry fan. I like me my metaphors, lyrical language, and novels that make me work to understand them, but poetry is often too obtuse for my noggin. There are exceptions to every rule, however, and I do have some poems that have kicked me in the gut and the ass and left me truly wowed. A perfect Monday Creative Kick.

So. William Blake. Romantic poet, intellectual, radical. His book, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, is pretty complex.

Boil it down, and it comes to a dissection of conventional morality, religion, and tradition. Check out this excerpt:

The ancient poets animated all sensible objects with
Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and
adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers,
mountains, lakes, cities, nations and whatever their
enlarged & numerous senses could perceive.

And particularly they studied the genius of each
city & country, placing it under its mental deity.

Till a system was formed, which some took
advantage of & enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to
realize or abstract the mental deities from their
objects; thus began Priesthood.

Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.

And at length they pronounc’d that the Gods had
order’d such things.

Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the
human breast.

Pointed, potent, and poetic. All in around 100 words. That’s what masterful writing can do.

Liked this post? You know you did. Tell us about it by posting your thoughts below. Better yet? Subscribe by email or RSS, and see what the QRW will say next…