William Blake, Tiriel

David Punter (University of Bristol)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1789

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

Blake wrote Tiriel in or around 1789. It can be seen as poem of lamentation, and the figure of Tiriel, an aged king who has been exiled from his own land, as a version of King Lear. Here, however, the resemblance stops, for the reader is not expected to sympathise with Tiriel in his plight but rather to see it as an inevitable outcome of misrule and arrogance. Tiriel has enslaved his brother Zazel and cursed his own children; small wonder, then, that his attempts to find solace – in, for instance, his visit to his own parents Har and Heva – meet with no success. In the poem Blake is clearly depicting the fate of tyranny in terms that readily connect with themes of exile and wilderness drawn from biblical sources.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

129 words

Citation: Punter, David. "Tiriel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8366, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Save this article