Abstract
his study presents a semantic analysis of metaphors employed in last ten poems printed in William Blake’s Songs of Experience (1794) in the perspective of Leech’s theory of metaphor. Leech (1969) theorized four kinds of metaphor namely, the Concretive Metaphor, the Animistic Metaphor, the Humanizing (Anthropomorphic) Metaphor and the Synaesthetic Metaphor. The current study falls in the area of qualitative research and interpretive method has been applied to undertake the research. After categorizing metaphors systematically, the study describes their literal meanings. Afterwards, these metaphors have been analyzed on purely semantic grounds. The findings show that William Blake’s way of perceiving things was different from the general norms of the society in which he had composed poems. It helps us realize the improvements that are needed to make society a better place to live. Most importantly, freedom, love and justice are the three core values that he believes to be the essential needs of every society for human prosperity. The current study may also help to increase existing body of knowledge in the field of literary criticism

Muhammad Hassan Shaikh, , Ghulam Mustafa Mashori. (2020) William Blake’s Songs of Experience:A Semantic Analysis of Metaphorical Expressions, The ELF Annual Research Journal, Volume 22, Issue 1.
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