Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Blake and Kipling

Was just pondering Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" when I was struck how similar a lot if the sentiment is to Kipling's "If".

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

or

The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so:
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.


for example.

I wonder if there was a conscious echo or influence.

Just as Blake's wanton boy that kills the fly channels Shakespeare's as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport.

Very different emphasis in Lear though.

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