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At this time you should have a great deal of material to work with. You'll likely have several literary devices you've identified, each with varying degrees of frequency and intensity within the text. From among the list of literary devices, choose the strongest candidates. In Blake's The Book of Urizen, you can find allusion, free rhythm, metaphor, symbolism, foreshadowing, paradox, enjambment, anastrophe, etc. Of these, you might decide the most productive are: allusion, metaphor, and symbolism. By looking at the big picture, identifying literary devices and how these are used in the poem, and reading the poem start to finish, you should have some idea of the purpose the author had in writing the poem. It's time for you to put this in words. In some cases, this might be something as simple as "He was trying to show off his abilities as a rhymester." But you will need to use the information in the poem, the words and mechanics, to back up your opinion. Whatever the purpose may be, you are looking for a unifying principle throughout all aspects of the poem, like: the worth of fidelity, love conquers all, the evil of war, the good of man. If the author's choice of words didn't flow, or if his choice of words were truly meaningless, the poem probably wouldn't have been published. How do the words in the poem drive and substantiate the purpose you've uncovered? This will give significant support to your analysis. Blake's choice of the name "Urizen" in The Book of Urizen seems to indicate strongly that the purpose of the poem is to critique human reason and its limitations. His choice of strongly religious diction ("Seven deadly Sins of the Soul" 74, "... and on / This rock..." 75 - 76, "One King, one God, one Law," 84) colors the poem with religious overtones. These factors call into question man's reason, which is generally accepted as a good thing, and illustrates reason as a limitation of the soul in a story that parallels man's fall from grace (or fall into the trap of reason). Now it's time for you to add the few, strong literary devices you choose from the poem to the conversation. How do these specific characteristics add to the purpose of the piece? Can you find any inconsistencies? The symbolism and metaphors, existent throughout The Book of Urizen, serve as a way of talking about "your reason" indirectly. The "Immortal," if it is man before becoming limited by his senses, is a metaphorical judgement of reason, showing that free of it human powers might be almost god-like. The symbolism of Genesis, in particular man's fall from grace, paint the concept of reason in a negative light, which supports the idea that Blake is criticizing it. If the language in the poem and the strong literary devices you've found in the piece don't consistently substantiate the purpose of the poem, you have two options: Revise your proposed purpose of the poem so that it meets and unifies the elements in it. Devise a reasonable explanation, including a counterargument, as to why the inconsistency or inconsistencies exist. This will form the basis of your understanding of the poem. Now that you've discerned the poem on a minute and overarching level and used its own structure and internal elements to support your reasoning, you have accomplished a well reasoned understanding of the poem. If you are reading poetry for pleasure, you needn't propose anything to anyone. After you've come to your conclusion, rest easy knowing that you've applied sound logic to the poem in a way that has expanded your understanding.
Winnow down your suspects. Establish purpose. Consider diction with reference to the purpose. View the mechanics of the poem through the purpose. Reevaluate and adjust. Propose your analysis.