Emma Archangel

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Prof. Hall
English 1183, Section 101
17 May 2016
Final Research Essay Process
The word revision does not apply to my final research essay as much as the word
rewriting does. I say this because my final research essay was based off of a paragraph from
my previous essay about Infant Sorrow by William Blake. In my previous essay, I discussed
how the poem emphasizes the confining forces of society and suggests that this force is
necessary to suppress the inherent evil within the individual. To argue this point, I decided to
discuss the simile Like a fiend hid in a cloud from Infant Sorrow. In my paragraph about this
phrase, I talked about how the simile depicts the infant as evil, as the child is described as a
fiend. I also discussed how the childs evil quality may not be immediately acknowledged, as
the infant is hidden in a cloud, which is white and represents purity, innocence, and Heaven. In
other words, a childs inherent sinful qualities may be masked by the notion that children are
innocent beings. When writing about Infant Sorrow and this simile, I struggled to find a way to
incorporate God and religion, as I thought the words fiend and cloud were extremely
suggestive of themes about God in Blakes poetry. Because arguments about religion did not tie
into my thesis at the time, I did not further examine religious elements in Blakes poetry.
However, this research paper gave me the opportunity to look at concepts of good and evil and of
sin and benevolence in Blakes illuminations and poetry.
In starting my research paper, I decided to look at how God appears to simultaneously
exhibit both good and evil qualities, as this is what I thought the phrase Like a fiend hid in a

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cloud was suggesting. Thus, my final paper departs a great deal from my original paper, as I
focus exclusively on how Blakes poems and illuminations portray God and what Blake appears
to be saying about God as a mighty power. Upon closer analysis of the phrase, I was also
interested in the idea of questioning Gods intentions as a creator or holy being, as the simile also
implies that God is deceitful, or that He himself might be a fiend hid in a cloud. I then decided
to look at religious art to see if I could relate the infant in Infant Sorrow to God (which I did by
comparing the infant to cherubs in a religious drawing). I also expanded on the idea of God being
both sinful and good by looking at The Tyger illumination, The Tyger poem, and the Infant
Sorrow illumination. I was interesting in looking at how the text describing the tyger contrasted
with the illumination of the tyger- they were different in the sense that they portrayed God as a
good and as a corrupt creator. On the other hand, the Infant Sorrow illumination appeared to
say God was both good and evil through the coloring of the infant, which was white and red.
After looking at how God was portrayed as both good and evil, I decided to also focus on how
God was emphasized more as a sinful being than a pure one. I made this the main point of my
paper not only because I thought this idea went against the grain, but also because I thought
this idea was reflected in allusions to Hell in The Tyger and in the depiction of children and
angels in illuminations throughout the book. Specifically, the metaphor of God being a
blacksmith in The Tyger was crucial to my argument, as it alluded to God being a creator, but
also a corrupt one. Even though I thought my thesis went against the grain, I was surprised to
find that several critics who analyzed Blakes work also viewed certain aspects of his poetry as
depicting God as having evil qualities. Overall, my thoughts transformed in the sense that I went
from focusing on society and the inherent evil in the individual, to focusing on what William
Blake is trying to say about God and his intentions through poetry and illuminations in Songs of

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Innocence and of Experience.