Evening all,
Could I briefly revive this 11-year-dormant thread to post something? I was reading some Blake today and I observed an interesting item in the
Poetical Sketches:
Quote:
TO WINTER.
O WINTER! bar thine adamantine doors:
The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark
Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs
Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.
He hears me not, but o'er the yawning deep
Rides heavy; his storms are unchain'd, sheathed
In ribbed steel; I dare not lift mine eyes;
For he hath rear'd his sceptre o'er the world.
Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings
To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:
He withers all in silence, and in his hand
Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.
He takes his seat upon the cliffs, the mariner
Cries in vain. Poor little wretch! that deal'st
With storms, till heaven smiles, and the monster
Is driven yelling to his caves beneath Mount Hecla.
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I'm not trying to draw too strong a link, but are there not a few minor similarities between the figure of Winter here and that of Melkor, especially as he occurs in very early texts such as
The Book of Lost Tales? Again, I must stress that I am not perceiving
strong links here by any means.
I believe the figure of Winter in this poem may have connections to Blake's later mythological figure of Urizen, who has some comparability with certain conceptions of a Gnostic deimurge, but I'm not up to that yet. I'm interested in exploring this further as I continue to read Blake's works.
Just to be absolutely clear, I am
not trying to draw strong links here ("Tolkien was clearly inspired by Blake!"), just making an observation.