Critical Response
Alexander Gilchrist, Blake's early biographer, believed that "The metallic tinting of the moss-grown crags is rendered almost as successfully as in 'Newton,' and the printing throughout the picture is well carried out, with none of the opaque oily surfaces which occur in some others of the series." Dante Gabriel Rossetti commented: "Crawling on all fours in his shaggy insanity. The tawny beard trails across the left hand: the nails are literally "like birds' claws", and the flesh tints very red and "beefy." The glaring eyes, too, have almost lost their human character. The background represents a thick jungle. A fine wild conception." The image inspired a passage in the poem City of Dreadful Night (1870s) by James Thomson (1834–1882):
- After a hundred steps I grew aware
- Of something crawling in the lane below;
- It seemed a wounded creature prostrate there
- That sobbed with pangs in making progress slow,
- The hind limbs stretched to push, the fore limbs then
- To drag; for it would die in its own den.
- But coming level with it I discerned
- That it had been a man; for at my tread
- It stopped in its sore travail and half-turned,
- Leaning upon its right, and raised its head,
- And with the left hand twitched back as in ire
- Long grey unreverend locks befouled with mire.
- A haggard filthy face with bloodshot eyes,
- An infamy for manhood to behold. -
Read more about this topic: Nebuchadnezzar (Blake)
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or response:
“Probably more than youngsters at any age, early adolescents expect the adults they care about to demonstrate the virtues they want demonstrated. They also tend to expect adults they admire to be absolutely perfect. When adults disappoint them, they can be critical and intolerant.”
—The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, I, ch.4 (1985)
“... the most extreme conditions require the most extreme response, and for some individuals, the call to that response is vitality itself.... The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life.”
—Diana Nyad (b. 1949)