Contemporary anxieties about childhood have often fuelled the incentive into historical research on the subject, with childhood enjoying a high status in our social, political and cultural debates. This has been reflected in what can be described as a ‘lively field’ of historical investigation , aiming to give us a wider perspective on the changing conceptions of childhood, and an understanding of the experiences of children through time. The publication of Philippe Ariès’ L’enfant et la vie familiale
different social concerns. This enabled the authors to hint towards different concerns in their writing, but not come directly out and state their concerns. Three great examples of authors like this include: William Blake, Robert Burns, and Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Each of these authors had unique concerns that they were able to get across in their own way. Blake wrote two poems with entitled “Chimney Sweeper.” One version was found in his ‘Songs of Innocence’ and the other was found in ‘Songs of Experience
Thomas Nashe’s “In Time of Plague (Adieu, Farewell, earth’s bliss)” demonstrate. As the Romantic period dominated literature, death was an escape to a better world if God chose to bring you to heaven, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Epitaph” and Anna Lætitia Barbauld’s “Life” reveal. Finally, the Modern period brought about a gradual change to a secular society, illustrated by Emily Dickinson’s “Going to Heaven!” and Edgar Lee Master’s “Yee Bow”. Over the ages, society becomes more and more secular