William Blake is a Romantic poet well known for his radical opposition to 18th century society. In particular, he found the religious and political nature of the time to be both restrictive and oppressive and so he created art in an effort to free people from the grasp of contemporary morality. Blake created art in more than one form; he would etch his poems onto copper plates and then combine them with illustrations because:
“He believed that teaching ‘man to think he’s a free agent’ was perhaps a chief goal of his art. That is, his art constitutes a verbal-graphic strategy that, imaginatively grasped, can liberate the reader from the tyranny of orthodoxies of various kinds.”¹
He used both forms of art in Songs of Innocence and of Experience which were originally published as separate works: Songs of Innocence(1789) and Songs of Experience(1793). It is important that these books were combined as it makes clear Blake’s criticism of society and focuses on the impact society has on the lives of the innocent, specifically children. In fact each half of the book contains sister poems and the use of these clear contrasts highlight “A process of ‘education’ that results in a fall from the state of innocence to experience.”² William Blake kept a notebook in which he wrote, A Motto to the Songs of Innocence and of Experience that he did not publish with the collection and in the final stanza of this piece Blake states,
“The good are attracted by Mens perceptions
And think not for themselves
Till Experience teaches them to catch
And to cage the fairies and elves”³
This shows that innocent minds become imaginatively imprisoned when they ‘think not for themselves’. Blake wants to teach his readers to think independently, thereby freeing themselves from the constraints of orthodox religion, contemporary morality and social conditions. The sister poems: The Chimney Sweeper, Holy Thursday, Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow are being studied to show Blake’s criticism (of religion, morality and social conditions) through his use of language and poetic techniques. Also to show a comparison of the effect these factors have on the speakers in Innocence and Experience.
Blake has become associated with the Romantic period and
“To call a writer a ‘Romantic’ has thus traditionally been to signal an interest in such categories as genius, nature, childhood, and imagination, perhaps along with some assumed response to the French Revolution.”⁴
Romanticism was influenced by the French Revolution and many Romantics supported the desire of an uprising against the economic inequality of the time. Blake, one of the most extreme Romantics took inspiration from the Revolution and believed that a change in the whole political system of Britain was necessary to solve the social problems of the time, which indeed have an effect on Blake’s writing of childhood and imagination. In the poem The Chimney Sweeper from Experience Blake’s political opinion is made clear when he writes, “praise God & his Priest & King”⁵. This trinity was used to incite the French Revolution and also frequently implemented in propaganda to entice supporters. His stating of this phrase reveals his favour towards revolution, marking him as one of the most radical Romantics. As well as revealing his political influences and criticism of the periodic politics in Britain, it also adds impact. The repetition of ‘&’ and the rule of three serve to add effect to the poem and create an impression on the reader in order to make them understand his negative view of society. This statement also highlights the oppressive nature of a society controlled by religion. Blake believed that the overwhelming culture of religion left people paralysed in poor living conditions and they cannot do anything to change it as the government was controlled by the church. In his work Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion Blake writes, “I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s.”⁶ This shows Blake’s negative attitude towards the political system and also shows that he believed society was being oppressed by groups of people who held power over 18th century Britain (mainly the Church and the Government).
In Infant Sorrow, Blake is again seen to comment on the enslaved nature of British society. The poem centres around a newborn child who is commenting on the “dangerous world”⁷ that he has been born into. The baby describes itself as “struggling in my fathers hands”⁸. The word choice shows the immediate difficulty and restriction people are faced with as soon as they enter the world of experience in comparison to Infant Joy from Innocence where there is no mention of repression or struggle, instead the word “joy”⁹ is repeated throughout the piece creating a happy, cheerful tone. In Infant Sorrow the father could be representing an oppressive figure of society, such as the government. The narrator later goes on to say “Bound and weary”¹⁰, creating an image of a weak prisoner which could represent the lack of control British people had over their lives in the 18th century with their whole lives being run by the government. There also seems to be a repetition in the word choice of the poem: at the beginning; “My mother groand! my father wept”¹¹ and at the end; the narrator describes themselves as “weary”¹² and begins to “sulk”¹³. The repeated connotations suggests that the child is mimicking his parents actions and emotions which shows the restrictive nature of a society where people learn only from received interpretations. In fact when the speaker says, “Like a fiend hid in a cloud”¹⁴ it could express the child having to suppress its real desires in order to live in a world of experience, controlled by an oppressive system.
Blake’s great dislike of the government within Britain was due to the fact that he thought the Church seemed to hold control over the government and therefore the whole country: “In a time of intense political agitation he came to believe that a radical transformation of the nation’s religious consciousness was the first prerequisite to serious political or economical reform.”¹⁵ This is why religion was a key influence in his poetry, however, his religious texts completely contrasted the positive style of religious poetry at the time. Blake’s criticism of orthodox religion was mainly due to two reasons. The first is that he believed priests were exploiting the power they had in order to manipulate British society and this is seen in many of his texts. In Infant Joy, the overly cheerful tone could be related to a lack of religious influence on the child. The narrator in the poem says “I am but two days old”¹⁶ and later says, “Joy is my name”¹⁷. The reference to the baby only being two days old is very important – During the 18th century babies were usually baptised and named on the third day after being born so at this point in the poem the baby has been untouched by religion. The fact that the baby is ‘called’ Joy at this point could suggest that without the influence of misguided Christianity, the lives of the British people would be a lot better.
In The Chimney Sweeper from Innocence the effect of a manipulative power is seen on a young chimney sweeper named Tom. At the beginning of the poem Tom is distraught because he had his hair, which “curl’d like a lambs back”¹⁸, shaved. A lamb is often associated with innocence, however it is also a religious image. This paints Tom as the innocent victim in a world of corrupt religion. As the poem goes on the innocence within Tom and other chimney sweeps is clearly manipulated by an “Angel”¹⁹ who frees them from their dire situation so “Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run/And wash in a river and shine in the Sun”²⁰. The image here appears to describe Paradise which suggests they have been released from the cruel world of poverty but in Blake’s poetry angels are sometimes portrayed as self-serving. This is seen in the second half of the poem when “the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,/He’d have God for his father & never want joy.”²¹ Although the tone of the second half of the poem is much more cheerful it is clear that the angel tries to convince Tom that a naive religious belief would compensate for his suffering. It is ironic that Christianity is offering false happiness and success instead of salvation to ensure that we remain subservient which highlights just how corrupt religion in Britain had become.
The restriction placed on society by the priests and other religious establishments is also seen in Holy Thursday from Innocence. This poem describes children from charity schools walking to church where they sing to the benefactors of the schools. In front of the children “Grey headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow”²². “Beadles” are officers of the church who appeared to carry white rods with them. The simile compares the colour of the rods to snow. Snow is icy and bleak which could represent the chill religious establishment lacking in pity and feeling. The poem refers to the children “walking two & two”²³ before being “seated in companies”²⁴ which seems to imitate a military structure and order. The military is commonly thought of as being very strict and uniform which highlights the oppressive and restrictive nature of religion in the 18th century. Another way of looking at this image is that the children are part of an army for the church. These children, who are again referred to as “lambs”²⁵, represent innocence which emphasises how the innocent are easily manipulated by the church into carrying out whatever they are told to do. Blake shows how even the most apparently good-natured associations have another side to them and those who may be seen to do good, such as the priests, have another self-serving side to them. The dangers of religion are also portrayed in the poem: “Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song/Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among”²⁶. The storm imagery conjures up ideas of a darker side to a society which gives such a positive outward impression. However, the storm also relates to the voices of the children which could imply the powerful voice and force of British society – a voice which Blake wishes to put into use to carry out both religious and political reform.
Blake lived in a time were religion was so important, people relied heavily on the church and listened to the priests devoutly and as a result, were easily taken advantage of – Blake used his poetry to try and convince people that religion had become a weapon controlling them rather than helping them.
“The difficult mission that Blake undertook was to combat the deformed Christianity that had become the national religion of Britain, to take religion back from the priests who had subordinated it to the political, economic, and cultural agenda of the ruling classes and to make it a truly revolutionary force in society.”²⁷
While the poems in Innocence seem to partly conceal Blake’s stance in society, Blake makes clear his dislike of a world in Experience and the corrupt groups that make up this world. In Chimney Sweeper from Experience the poem is narrated from the perspective of a young child whose parents are “both gone up to the church to pray”²⁸. The fact that the poem is narrated from a child’s viewpoint emphasises the hypocrisy of orthodox religion – one which is meant to care for and protect all people, yet has caused the maltreatment of the most vulnerable. At the end of the poem, the child states that their parents have “gone to praise God & his Priest & King/Who make up a heaven of our misery.”²⁹ The oxymoron here highlights Blake’s criticism and shows the negative effects of orthodox religion. The fact that a child is narrating with such sorrowful tones makes clear the damaging impact experience has on society. In comparison to the sister poem from Innocence although Tom is in the same poor situation as this narrator, he is easily convinced that religion will save him whereas in Experience the narrator makes clear that he blames religion for his problems. This could represent Blake’s situation in society. He could perhaps see his community as being innocent and so are therefore being manipulated by the church they devoutly follow. Whereas, Blake, although religious, was experienced in the corrupt side to 18th century Britain so could see the self-serving side to the Church and therefore supported change in the French Revolution and worked hard to weave messages of change into his poems.
He tried to convince society of his beliefs and in Holy Thursday from Experience, he questioned the very foundations of British society in an effort to influence change. Rhetorical questions are used throughout the poem many of which are a direct attack on the Church and priests such as, “Can it be a song of joy?”³⁰ Here, Blake is referencing the hymns sung in services and questioning the real meaning of religion. He is wondering whether the children are singing because they enjoy it or they are singing in order to please the Church in the hopes that they will be rewarded with the charity they need to survive. Blake uses descriptive language effectively in this text to invoke tone and emotion. His language relating to winter creates a bitter tone showing Blake’s hatred towards orthodox religion. It reveals the harshness of societal conditions in a world run by a greedy and oppressive organisation and the dreadful lives children led in the 18th century.
In Infant Sorrow, several references are also made to oppression and the overbearing power of some organisations but Blake also brings up the idea of concealment. Previously in this poem it was stated that “Like a fiend hid in a cloud.”³¹ could represent society suppressing its true feelings and beliefs however this statement is ambiguous and could also represent a darker side to the organisations holding the power in Britain. The strong word choice of “fiend” has connotations of something wicked and cruel whereas a “cloud” is thought of as fluffy and soft (particularly by children, one of which is narrating the poem). The use of a young perspective to create this image highlights the naive and innocent beliefs which are so easily manipulated to make children mature into the world of experience, such as the child in this poem. The image could represent the hidden side to the church. Orthodox religion puts out a front of kindness and care but behind this veil lies the true beliefs of the Church, one which is greedy and corrupt and abuses the society which has put so much trust into their faith for their own gain.
This abuse put upon the naive and blind society led to extreme conditions of poverty and oppression in the 18th century, which Blake highlighted in his poems. This could be a reason for his lack of popularity in his time as people had been so blindsided that they could not see how Blake could write such harsh comments when in fact he was just being truthful. Blake put across messages of poverty, maltreatment and manipulation and “Many poems in Songs not only reflect but criticize aspects of eighteenth-century life – social, political, religious, economic, philosophical, sexual, and familial.”³²
In The Chimney Sweeper from Innocence, Blake reveals the economic failure of a society which sends its children out to work as chimney sweepers for poor salaries resulting in life threatening injuries and illnesses. At the beginning of the poem the narrator talks about being made to work while he was so young that he “Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep.”³³ This highlights the poor conditions which children grew up in in Britain. The repetition of “weep” highlights the magnitude of despair the boy feels. The use of word play is very clever as “weep” echoes the sweeping actions that are part of the boy’s job which emphasises the hard labour put upon young children. The narrator also makes clear, “So your chimneys I sweep”³⁴ The use of second person is directly addressing the reader which makes the reader feel guilty for what they are asking the boy to do. Blake has used this technique on purpose to firstly emphasise the conditions the reader at the tine was encouraging if they had a chimney sweep and secondly he probably hoped that this would impact people enough to make them realise the problems within society due to their lack of care for their children which would make them revolt against the Church and the Government. The poem goes on to describe Tom’s dream in which “thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack/Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black”³⁵ The use of names makes the piece more personal which should have more of an emotional effect on the reader and
should encourage them to raise an awareness in the terrible conditions. The metaphor here makes clear the life threatening situations children are in as a result of 18th century society. The coffins represent the chimneys to which children are sent, therefore Blake is suggesting that by agreeing to child labour we are sending the children to their deaths.
In The Chimney Sweeper from Experience, the problems of a society which encourages child labour are also brought up. The poem starts off with “A little black thing among the snow”³⁶, the contrast of black and white highlights the extent of the poor situation . “Thing” dehumanises the child which shows the gross behaviour of 18th century society. Blake tries to make people feel outrage at the disrespect towards the child to make them see their wrongful attitude towards the economic situation. Similarities can be seen between the sister poems of The Chimney Sweeper from Innocence and Experience. This text also uses repetition of “weep, weep”³⁷ to mimic the actions of the child labourers which makes the situation more real for the reader. The poem then goes on to say, “They clothed me in the clothes of death,”³⁸ which is an ambiguous metaphor. Symbolically, this represents the inevitable death of the chimney sweepers whereas literally death is associated with a blackness, so this represents the sweepers blackened clothes as a result of the soot from the chimneys. This is a very effective image which would create sorrow for the readers which Blake has purposefully done so they acknowledge the misery within Britain.
The problems within 18th century society are also explored in the sister poems of Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow. In Infant Joy Blake repeats the words “sweet joy”³⁹ throughout the poem. This repetition shows that the narrator is almost begging for the happiness that the child feels to continue. Blake is highlighting the importance of this state which is only possible when living from an innocent perspective and he is aware of how the factors of religion, social conditions, morality etc. can banish this state, as seen when comparing the text to Infant Sorrow. The language used in this text is a direct contrast to the positive language used in the sister poem. The word choice is incredibly depressing and negative which shows what life was like in the times of oppression and poverty. The fact that the narrator of this poet is a baby and yet even they can see the horrors of society would hopefully impact the reader and make them realise the extent of the miserable situation which has been placed upon them by the power-wielding organisations.
The terrible living conditions of Blake’s society are made clear through the study of the sister poems. These sister poems also highlight the impact of people’s perspective on whether they live in a world of innocence or experience, and whether they enjoy their life or live in misery:
“Innocence and Experience are contrary states, different ways of seeing and dwelling in the world. Individuals in a state of Innocence are generally neither ignorant nor unaware of the darker aspects of life, but are sustained by the confidence in the redemptive presence of the divine, perceived as both sympathetically human (often like a loving parent) and somehow nearby. Those in Experience are often acutely conscious of the limitations of fallen life and its sorrows, often cripplingly so, and for them the divine may seem inhuman, inscrutable, impossibly distant, and cruel,”⁴⁰
This statement is incredibly important as, from first glance, the poems of Innocence may seem positive but as you read more in depth the messages of oppression weaved into the poetry by Blake are revealed. In Chimney Sweeper from Innocence, Tom develops a positive outlook on child labour after another chimney sweeper talks to him. The boy tells him that having his hair shaved was good as “You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”⁴¹ This cheers Tom up which shows how easy it is to manipulate the innocent which then leaves them submissive and unaware of the extent of their misery. Whereas, if you study this text alongside the sister poem from Experience, it is clear that the child is fully aware of the cruel nature of his world. The narrator is also critical of religion and blames the Church for his harsh existence, unlike the poem from Innocence where Tom believes that religion is saving him. In Innocence, the Angel tells Tom that if he does what he is told then God will look after him “And, the poem insists, such an imaginary non-sequitur has the authentically real effect of making Tom “happy & warm” despite the cold morning.”⁴² This makes clear the manipulation of the innocent however, it also highlights the power of imagination which is able to comfort Tom in such difficult times.
In The Chimney Sweeper from Innocence an Angel saves Tom and the other chimney sweepers and leads them to Paradise where they are described to “down a green plain leaping laughing they run/And wash in the river and shine in the Sun.”⁴³ However, by studying this poem it is clear that Paradise can only be reached either through a change of perspective, through death or through retiring into your own imagination. The imagination is a key aspect of the contrast between Innocence and Experience. Blake has used imagination in Innocence as it shows how imagination is essential in order to feel any sense of happiness and he believes that imagination is being repressed by the government and the Church. The idea of Paradise is contrasted in the poem Holy Thursday from Experience, where Blake describes the living conditions of British society stating, “And their sun does never shine./And their fields are bleak & bare.”⁴⁴ This direct contrast to the environment from Innocence highlights the relationship between imagination and our outlook on the world. Blake believed that if imagination was not restricted, the world could be completely transformed from one of oppression to one of freedom.
The contrast between the Holy Thursday sister poems makes clear the reality of the world that is hidden from the innocent. In Innocence the quality of the writing is almost hymn-like and has a mellifluous rhythm which emphasises the influence of religion and also the peaceful nature of the innocent world which has hidden away its darker side. However, in Experience the lines are much shorter and full of questions and exclamations, as a result the poem has lost its rounded rhythm. This shows the detrimental effects of experience where one is taught to see the world as it really is and block one’s imagination, which makes the view of the world, although honest, much harsher.
The importance of perspective is also developed in Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow. In Infant Joy the language used is very positive compared to Infant Sorrow. When these poems are compared, Blake’s perception of the factors which allow people to grow up in childlike innocence are seen. In Blake’s view, the retention of innocence can only be achieved in a certain environment. From Infant Sorrow the baby is brought up in poor conditions so the only hope for the child is if it develops an imagination. However, the foreshortening of the poem prevents any independent thoughts from being developed and so the baby will grow up experienced in the cruel ways of the world. In Infant Joy, the narration from the mother states, “Thou dost smile./I sing the while”⁴⁵ This makes clear the importance of freedom of expression. The narrator is highlighting the necessity of having poetry and song in life. This represents Blake’s opinion that art should be expressed in more than one form in order to inspire imagination. Blake also believed that the world is neither good nor bad, it simply depends on how we view it. If, for example, we grow up and the only perspective on the world we receive is that of our parents, like that of the child in Infant Sorrow, then we have little chance of escaping the negative view of the world and our imagination will never be unleashed. The world of experience is one where imaginative development has been frozen and as a result, the damaging world of experience will forever exist and is inescapable.
In conclusion, Blake uses a wide variety of effective language and poetic techniques to portray his criticisms. His view of orthodox religion, contemporary morality and social conditions are explored and developed in the sister poems of each half of the book, through his use of imagery, perspective and structure. William Blake also provides evidence of the poor living conditions in 18th century society and shows how the innocent, although happy, are blinded – by religion and the government – from the harsh world, whereas, those who are experienced are fully conscious of the detrimental effects orthodox religion, contemporary morality and social conditions have on Britain.