William Blake’s Opposition to Oppression

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Recommended: Child labor in nineteenth-century literature

William Blake was a romantic poet that used The Old and New Testament of the Bible as the main source material for his poetry. (Merriman) Through his own interpretations of the Bible, he subsequently leaned towards his own style of poetry, particularly, songs of innocence and songs of experience. His focus was set on exposing the evils and cruelty of humankind through a symbolic attitude against oppression. He believed that humans have a spiritual void and try to fulfill their emptiness through their greed, and obsession with materialistic culture. (Ferguson, Salter, and Stallworthy) In most of his poetry, he emphasizes on how the consuming materialistic culture leads to the downfall of society. Blake is stating that eventually humanity will be lost to the suffering of mankind because of oppression and tyranny, which leads to one trying to get ahead of another. Blake symbolically states that this cycle will never cease, until mankind is spiritually renewed through God.

A particular view of oppression that Blake emphasized was set around the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Industrial factories had a high supply for new product, so there was an extremely high demand for labor, so children were used as laborers. The political and social issue of child labor began to spread, due to laborers enduring experiences such as, strict discipline, harsh punishment, unhealthy working conditions, low wages, and inflexible work hours. (Whaples) During the time period many romantic writers and poets focused on exposing the unjust and tyrannical rules of government, in the events, such as child labor and the treatment of the poor working class during the Industrial Revolution. Blake was one of the many poets of the era that emphasized social an...

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...mington Hills, Mich.: GaleGroup.December,2000.http://www.galenet.com/servlet/SRC

Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. "Blake's Legacy." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. University Of Pittsburgh, 2005. Web. 28 Feb 2012.

Whaples, Robert, ed. "Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution." EH.net. EH.Net Reviews, 02/03/2010. Web. 29 Feb 2012. .

Merriman, C.D.. "Romancticism." The Literature Network. Jalic, INC, 2003. Web. 1 Mar 2012. .

Rich, Cindy. "Childhood Lost: Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution." Eastern Illinois University. Teaching With Primary Sources, 2008. Web. 4 Mar 2012. .

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