William Blake as a Critic of His Time
Blake took an active role in exposing the corruption taking place in his society. Prime targets of his criticisms were the institutions that remained silent in the faces of injustice. Blake stands agains the institutions that allow human oppression. Three of his poems from Songs of Experience present his views on the matter: "The Chimney Sweeper," "The Garden of Love," and "London."
In "The Chimney Sweeper," Blake takes his stand against the the calamities brought upon children by those supposed to protect him. Innocence comes to an end for the child when he is exposed to the horrors of sweeping chimneys . His sadness can be felt when he says : "They clothed me in the clothes of death/and taught me to sing the notes of woe" (Blake, 6-7). The child is telling society that his pain is being caused by those in whom he put his trust— his parents. Even more disconcerting is to know that his parents do nothing to stop his horrors. They abandon him and go "...to praise God & his Priest & King" (Blake, 11). Perhaps they do this , because on the outside their child looks happy and they probably think that they are helping him more than anything: "‘ And because I am happy, & dance& sing,/ They think they have done me no injury," (Blake, 9-10) . In the meantime, the church is also playing a part in his misery. How? Because it allows the parents to come inside its building to pray when they should be protecting their child from all harm: "‘They are both gone up to the church to pray'" (Blake, 4). ".....a heaven of our misery" (Blake, 12) finally emphasizes to the reader once more those who are responsible for the child's pain and sorrows . He hopes that, somehow, people would tak...
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...sily seen how Blake stood against the suffering of human kind and used his poems to expose the corruption of the world that surrounded him. He clearly critized the society and hoped that people would take action to change things for the better. The problems in Blake's society aren't very different than the ones in today's world. People should take a good look around them and take action to better their surroundings.
Works Cited
Blake, William. "The Chimney Sweeper" (SE). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams, et al. 7th edition. Vol 2. New York: Norton, 2000. 52
"The Garden of Love." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams, et al. 7th edition. Vol 2. New York: Norton, 2000. 56
"London." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams, et al. 7th edition. Vol 2. New York: Norton, 2000. 56
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Jokinen, Anniina. "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. N.p., 1996. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. http://www.luminarium.org/
M.H. Abrams, et al; ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume I. W.W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1993.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton anthology of English literature. 9th ed., A, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Pp
Blake was angered by what he saw in his homeland as other countries started fighting for their independence and equality whilst his country stayed dormant, even though he felt that there was a serious need for serious action. Even though Blake wasn't a typical romantic writer, he too possessed the same. beliefs of fighting for what one believes in, and the urge to be. liberated from the oppression of society. So, by being a writer of the romantic period, watching a controlled and restricted society not showing an intent to break free and fight against the monarchy.
The Chimney Sweeper is divided in six stanzas; the first stanza of this narrative poem starts off with the young chimney sweeper, the persona, explaining naively his cause for being a climbing boy. It is widely known in history that the chimney sweepers used to announce their service by bellowing the word "Sweep!" on streets so when we read this first stanza it is deduced that this boy was sold by his father to a master sweep at the time that he could not have been older than 6 years old. In the third verse the boy says that his tongue "could scarcely cry " `weep! `weep! `weep! `weep!" ", meaning that he did not have the ability to speak such a word. He was obliged to start working and to live in inhuman conditions; for when Blake wrote "and in soot I sleep", he again was precise. Chimney sweepers sometimes endured more than 3 months without cleaning themselves, having to be forced to sleep in the soot of the chimneys they had cleaned.
The poem opens with an introduction of the speaker: “When my mother died I was very young, / And my father sold me while yet my tongue / Could scarcely cry ’weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” (ll. 1-3). The speaker’s pathetic circumstance is stressed here, and he quickly wins the sympathy of the reader; Blake makes this possible by quickly relating some but doubtfully all the previous sorrow that the speaker has endured. First, his mother died when he, and perhaps she, too, was quite young, a common occurrence in Industrial Age England, given the dismal shape of the inner city, which was host to such problems as over-crowding, poor hygienic practices and sub-par means of sanitation—all of which ultimately led to the deaths of thousands. Second, his father apparently sold him, or, more likely, forced him to work to supplement the family’s income. Child Labor laws had yet to be enacted in England in 1789, s...
Blake’s poetry focuses on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision is reflected in his creations. Blake was against the Church of England because he thought the doctrines were being misused as a form of social control, it meant the people were taught to be passively obedient and accept oppression, poverty, and inequality. In Blake’s poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell, he shows that good requires evil in order to exist through imagery of animals and man.
I think that William Blake is an important person because his poetry worked to help people find a way to express themselves about how they feel about war. His poetry also helped people see how the kings dominated the people. This world is different because William Blake lived because he made up two new movements like the “Romantic movement” and the “Pre-Romantic movement.” Knowing about William is helpful in my life because he taught me that determination and want will take you far. He also taught me that you don’t have to change the way you do things in order for people to like it as long as you like it yourself. In my point of view William was one of the best poets of his time with not that much recognition.
Abrams, M. H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, & Co. 1993. 200-254.
Blake is now revered for his poetry as well as his artworks. Allen Ginsberg's life was changed by an overpowering vision of Blake (it's kind of sweetly pretentious in a way, isn't it?) in a Lower East Side apartment. Ginsberg now often includes a chant from a poem as part of his poetry readings; you can read it here.
Abrams, M. H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
In the Garden of Love Blake talks about how the green, the place of childhood play has been corrupted by a repressive religious morality. Blake describes the Garden as being ‘filled with graves and tombstones’, this confirms his criticism of restrictive conventional morality. Contrary to the view that pleasure leads to corruption, Blake believed that it was the suppression of desire, not the enactment of it that produced negative effects. Blake hated organised religion, and the Garden of Love explores some of the restrictions he saw and det...
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Greenblatt, Stephen, eds. The Norton Anthology English Literature. 9th ed. Crawfordsville: R.R. Donnelley & Sons, 2012. Print.