William Blake's Attitude Towards the Poor

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William Blake's Attitude Towards the Poor

William Blake was born in 1757 and of an early age he wrote poetry, soon enough he became well known to the Church and also the wealthy. Blake was very critical towards the Church despite being a firm believer of God. He thought that the Church were overpowering the poor side of the Country. Blake would get his message through to others in the use of poetry, if people studied the poems they would get a clear idea of Blake's views. William Blake wrote two books which included some of his poems, they were called 'Songs of Innocence' and 'Songs of Experience.' Songs of Innocence was written in 1789, five years earlier than 'Songs of Experience'. This book contains poems of trickery, I say this because if you just read the poems you would think that he is writing about happiness, but if you look harder at each line individually you would see that he is trying to state the unhappiness in the world, the darker side of the poems. The other book 'Songs of Experience' contains some of the same titles of poems but with different contents. If you compare the two books you will see that this book contains the truth about the world, with the misery.

Everyone was certain in thinking if they work as what they are and work hard at it, they will go to heaven. People on the poor side thought going to heaven would be freedom. Blake doesn't just get his message through to the Church but also the wealthy, he wanted the affluent people to know the damages they have caused in the direction of the poor. Blake died in 1828, at a grand age of 71, in is time he had made a huge range of poems from Short to Long. William Blake just wanted everyone to know what he clearly saw in life.

The poem 'The Chimney Swe...

... middle of paper ...

...espondent occasion when the poor get married.

William Blake chose to criticise the Church and the wealthy, including

the priests and the King. Blake chose to criticise the priest and King

for not noticing and accepting the bad environment the poor are living

in. Blake doesn't like the Priest and Church for not caring for the

poor, even though they worship God and the Priest, it is unfair. Blake

thought very highly of children, he felt sorry for the children who

became chimney sweeping. He states this many times in his poetry. He

thought that the children were the future and that they shouldn't be

treated like dirt. They shouldn't get starved for hunger, the wealthy

should have looked after the children, but they didn't. The children

didn't get any importance then. Blake wanted the rich to know the

suffering and pain they have put the poor side through.

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