Critical Appreciation of ‘To Summer’ of William Blake

Introduction

William Blake the famous pre-romantic writer wrote a beautiful poem ‘To summer’ which is comparatively considered as lesser known poem of his. Blake has personified summer and showed its effect on nature and human alike.

Central Idea

Poet has tried to present summer as goddess who brings bounty back in the nature. How summer becomes omnipresent and reflects it’s effects everywhere is shown in the poem. Poet has directly written that his country is abundant in everything from fairer maiden and bold youth to laurel wreaths and indirectly indicated that this summer (eternal Sunshine) should be present over the country as they are superior than rest of the world.

Themes

1. Power of Summer – In a country like England where winters are considered as adversity looks towards summer for relief. Here in this poem poet has presented summer as a goddess who is both scorching and allaying public. Poet along with fellow people enjoy its effects. It fills nature with prosperity. From valley to river everything is experiencing its presence.
2. Colonialism – In the last stanza poet is presenting his country’s man and matter superior to southern ones i.e. third world or other world. This shows Blake has advocated indirectly that Britishers were superior and deserves to have eternal summer and sun should never set on his country.

Figure of speech

1. Apostrophe – Poem is started with addressing summer hence it’s apostrophe.
2. Alliteration – ‘While we’, ‘Bank beside’, ‘southern swains’ etc. have repetition of consonant sounds /w/, /b/ and /s/ at the starting of the words. Hence it’s alliteration.
3. Metaphor – There are metaphors such as ‘golden tent’ used for sunlight, ‘fervid car’ for heat and ‘silk draperies’ again for sunlight.
4. Anaphora – There is repetition of ‘Our’ and ‘Nor’ at the starting of every line in last stanza hence it’s a case of Anaphora.
5. Personification – Summer is presented as a goddess who is riding on its horses. Hence its personified.
6. Simile – ‘waters clear as heaven’s has simile as water is compared to heaven’s purity.

Colonialism

William Blake’s indirect likeability for colonial mindset is reflected in the third stanza. It shows that poet considers man and matter of his country superior to other countries. European countries were searching and capturing various colonies at that time. England was certainly the leader in that.

Imagery

There is an apt image of a mother or the mother earth when poet describes summer having ‘ruddy limbs and flourishing hair’. As summer has trait of fecundity and flourishing body parts shows prosperity hence it is an image of a mother or mother earth.

Traits of romanticism

Although romantic age was ushered after publication of Lyrical ballads in 1798 and Blake belongs to both pre romantic and romantic age and matured features of romantic age are clearly visible in his poetry. His imagination and image creating ability such as summer riding on steads presented as goddess who has shown its omnipresence by her ‘golden tent’ is well applied. Description of nature during summer times, lack of focus on knowledge and inclination towards senses.

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