William Blake
(1757-1827)
O thou who passest thro' our valleys in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,
Oft pitched'st here thy golden tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.
Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard
Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car
Rode o'er the deep of heaven; beside our springs
Sit down, and in our mossy valleys, on
Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy
Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:
Our valleys love the Summer in his pride.
Our bards are fam'd who strike the silver wire:
Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:
Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:
We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy,
Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,
Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.
What struck me when I first read this poem by William Blake is the poem’s use of a strong and powerful imagery to characterize summer—that is, summer is depicted as having “fierce steeds” from whose “large nostrils” “flames” of “heat” come out. This depiction is further strengthened by summer’s other characteristics like “ruddy limbs” and “flourishing hair.” Reading the poem again, however, made me see that this strong and powerful imagery is present only in the first stanza. In the second stanza, summer’s strength is gradually downplayed by attributing to it such action as “sit[ting] down,” “throw[ing its] silk draperies off,” and “rush[ing] into the stream.” In this second depiction, summer itself seems to have settled and relaxed. This downplaying of summer’s strength finally becomes most apparent in the third stanza, in which only one phrase related to summer, “sultry heat,” is given; what is actually given emphasized in the third stanza is the joyful effect that summer, now settled and relaxed, has on people: poets are more inspired, the young men more courageous, and the young women more beautiful. Moreover, in this “sultry” summer state, there is no lack of “songs, nor instruments of joy/Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven/Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.”
Apart from imagery, this change in the depiction of summer may also be seen in the dominant length of words and vowel sounds in the first two stanzas and in the last stanza. In the first two stanzas, there is a dominance of long words and long vowel sounds (e.g., “valleys,” “fierce,” “steeds,” “flames,” “nostrils,” “golden,” “flourishing,” “thickest,” “noon,” “river,” “draperies,” etc), which somehow suggests summer’s rather overwhelming effect when it is in its full strength, while there is a dominance of short words and short vowel sounds in the last stanza (“bards,” “bold,” “songs,” “lack,” “sweet,” “clear,” “heat,” etc), which evokes a joyful and light feeling. The repetition of the ‘nor’ structure in the last three lines of the third stanza (e.g., “We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy/Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven/Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat”) seems to add to this joyful and light feeling as well, probably because of the rhythm such a repetition creates.
Apparent in this characterization of summer is the literary device called personification, in which human attributes are assigned to an inanimate object such that the object is made to behave like a person. In this poem, summer is personified not only through the use of personification (e.g., summer is described as having the ability to “sit,” “throw,” and “rush”), but also through the capitalization of the word ‘summer’ (e.g., in the third line of the first stanza, “thou, O Summer,” and the last line of the second stanza, “Our valleys love the Summer in his pride”). Since what capitalization does is it turns common nouns into proper nouns, through capitalization, summer is invested with an identity, a name, which personifies it further. Interestingly, too, summer is addressed as “thou” or “you,” an uncommon thing, since the pronoun ‘you’ is usually used to address people. The use of “thou” or “you” then works further in personifying summer; more than this personifying effect, however, the use of “you” is again another literary device called apostrophe, which has the effect of addressing an inanimate object or a concept as if it were a real person or entity present at the time of the poem’s utterance. An apostrophe is said to give the persona the chance to think aloud. It also a literary device commonly used in the English Romantic tradition (e.g., in Blake’s other poems such as “To Winter” and “The Sick Rose” and various odes of this period). I find it interesting though that an apostrophe also works to set up some kind of conversation between the persona in the poem—that is, the person assumed to be talking in poem, who is not necessarily the author, but is oftentimes conflated with the author—and the object being addressed.
What I think is interesting in this conversation between the persona and summer, which has been set up through the use of the literary device of apostrophe, is that it gives the poem an overall frame in which the gradual downplaying of summer’s strength becomes possible. By this, I mean that the conversation between the persona and summer allows the persona to acknowledge summer’s power and strength while, at same time, requesting it to lessen its heat (as seen in the lines “curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat/That flames from their large nostrils”) and enticing it to settle and relax—or rather ironically, cool down (as evident in the lines “Sit down, and in our mossy valleys, on/Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy/Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream”). Finally, the persona tells summer of the joyful effect it will have on people if it does not expend its full power. Implicit in this whole conversation then is summer’s power and strength about which people can’t do anything. Thus, there seems to be a need to talk to it and convince it not to unleash its full strength. In this poem then, the image of joy, ripeness, celebration, and life that summer takes is eventually dependent on whether or not the season itself will allow it. In the end, this depiction of summer seems to lead to a more general depiction of the four seasons, and nature, for that matter, as strong and powerful entities that human beings should entreat. This way, they will not release their full power and strength, and human beings can live joyful and peaceful lives.
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