Category: William Blake

I believe that William Blake was a religious seeker and a fantastic artist whom was known for not only his literary work, but also his artistic skills. This can be best seen in his poems like “the Lamb” and “the Tyger” that are riddled with religious connotations. In Blake’s poem the Lamb the speaker answers his own question: “I know who made you.” If you have any sort of upbringing or are familiar with the Christian faith you know that Jesus is the Creator of all things. So the answer of who the maker is, it is the Lord God, Jesus Christ, who also has been known by the name of “the Lamb”, i.e. “Agnus Dei” or “Lamb of God”. At several points in the New Testament, Jesus is called a lamb which is historically very symbolic in the Jewish culture, in John 1:29, John the Baptist, upon seeing Jesus, proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The lamb metaphor returns in Revelation 9-12 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God. from every tribe and language and people and nation, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Revelation 13:8 “And all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” The Shephard’ poem also spreads a similar message emphasizing the love of God.

The imagery of shepherd and sheep is used throughout scripture to describe a relationship between God and those that follow Him. One verse i think would tie into that point very well is when Jesus says to Simon Peter ‘Feed my sheep.’ another verse that came up while typing this is when Jesus says ‘My sheep know my voice.’in John 10:27. In Blake’s poem “the Tyger” He goes in a completely different direction and gives a vague resemblance and allusion to Satan. Blake uses words like steel, fire, and chains. The Lamb is definitely a more light hearted by comparison. The word ‘meek’ in the second stanza recalls Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the Earth” (Matthew 5:5). In the first stanza on the first and second line “Little Lamb who made thee” “Dost thou know who made thee” is actually a really common question that we still wrestle with today. A universal question is who made us? I believe personally and in upholding to my own Christian beliefs that God made humans and the earth and everything that we see (and some things that we don’t see) was created by Him. Eventually this poem reassures this question with the answer that in fact, “We are called by his name. Little Lamb God bless thee. Little Lamb God bless thee.” I believe that this poem is very simple to read and digest and is beautiful in symbolizing the innocence of a child realizing that God made them, or at least that is what I got from reading this. This poem is actually very straightforward in its approach and is written in a trochaic meter in rhythm, almost like a nursery rhyme, crossed with a riddle, crossed with a religious catechism. I think that this poem is timeless and is helped by the traits I echoed in the previous sentence. The poem makes its meaning by finally answering the question of who exactly made the sheep. The Lamb’ bears many similarities with Charles Wesley’s old hymn beginning with ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,’ from Hymns for Children, Blake actually borrows the ‘meek and mild’ line and mimics this hymn’s simple AABB rhyme scheme. These two stylistic points are common to many hymns.

A lot of Blake’s writings center on a religious context and you can see it in the way he writes and in the context of his poetry. Little Lamb is understood as being used as alliteration which is common throughout almost each line in the two stanza poem. This makes it easy for not only children, but, also adults that may be illiterate or mentally disabled to be able to enjoy at face value without having to critically think about the analysis of the poem. This is proof that sometimes poetry does not have to be something you overthink, but simply enjoy and maybe recite to your children, grandchildren, or students throughout many different grade levels and moments of life.

One thing that also separates Blake’s Work from others is the fact that he was also an artist. You can see his artwork and painting abilities in this collection known as Songs of Innocence and Experience. When Blake was a child reported that he had visions of angels and of monarchs that have passed away. Yes poem garden of love could be drawing on those experiences he has a child and he would see these anomalies in different places, one of those being a garden. I think it would be helpful to further understand this by taking a look at the poem itself.

I went to the Garden of Love,

And saw what I never had seen:

A Chapel was built in the midst,

Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,

And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;

So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,

That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tomb-stones where flowers should be:

And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,

And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

One way that this poem can be interpreted is when a child is young they have a vibrant imagination and look to maintain memories of good things and this can even be the case with having a connection between a place with a memory attached to it. Seeing that a chapel is over the place where he played it as a child makes him sad because now his memory has became a bit faded due to the fact that he has been covered up. The phrase “Thou shalt not” has a negative connotation morally in his head. This is further exasperated by the presence of priests.

The last two lines sum up what Blake saw as threat and feared losing an innate innocence that we all have and the creativity that goes along with it that really makes a child innocent but also perplexing and unique. Blake was born in 1757 and was in the midst of unrest politically and in some forms religiously mostly because of the ever changing beliefs between Protestants and Catholics.

Many of these songs are marked by this political radicalism that Blake was familiar with, but this work of his also bears the hallmarks of the Romantic movement in poetry. In his poem The Human Abstract Blake analyzes the four virtues of traditional Christianity those being peace, mercy, pity, and love. One commentary I found online said this about the piece, “This poem asserts that the traditional Christian virtues of mercy and pity presuppose a world of poverty and human suffering. By implication, if this is humankind’s understanding of God, then he, too, seems to desire or accept such poverty and suffering.” This can be seen as an almost attack on those that like to experience these things, but yet do not follow up with some of the after affects that generally happen if one is sincere. Blake is very adamant that these people are trying to deceive themselves into thinking that they can do good and just be totally fine and high and mighty after. This is actually one of the things that split up the Protestant Reformers from the Catholic Church, because when it came to tithing the Catholic Church would ask for pendants I believe is the right word, in order to get the soul of a family member or loved one out of purgatory. This was something that Blake opposed fervently and actually suggested that the people who have created a social order or hierarchy have created a “God” that they are comfortable with and so with humans being fallen creatures prone to sin have created a divided selfhood. Blake also echoes the Apostle Paul when he says in Philippians 3:8-10 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Then again in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Blake held that humility meant to believe in yourself as nothing, just a speck of dust in comparison to God.

Blake was actually very underrated and under appreciated in his life as an artist and writer, it was not until his death that people started to appreciate how genius and creative he actually was! The Literary Chronicle, described him as ‘one of those ingenious persons … whose eccentricities were still more remarkable than their professional abilities.’ It actually was very common in many literary movements that writers and artists or really any person with skill and a creative mindset did not ever see the fame they would acquire posthumously. Blake was no different in this case because no one really knew who he was besides just another guy who could do some really cool stuff. That is actually really sad when you think about it, because it shows that many people are too preoccupied or ignorant that it overshadows the big accomplishments that one would celebrate in life, Blake and many other creative minds like him most likely had to celebrate small victories like getting published or having someone accept the request to look at their work to small fan fare or even just themselves. I believe this is significant to note because there are so many people who deal with that same dilemma today because they don’t fit a cultural or societal mold.

One thing about Blake’s life growing up was that his parents were always supportive of him and helped try to improve what talent he did have. At the age of ten, Blake expressed he wanted to become a painter, so his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. Two years after that at the age of fourteen he started an apprenticeship with an engraver. It was after this and probably a lot of trial and error later that Blake started creating that literary works we still enjoy to this day!

Works Cited.

1. “Textual History.” It.info, crossref-it.info/textguide/songs-of-innocence-and-experience/13/1457.
2. “William Blake .” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/william-blake.
3. SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/section8/.
4. “William Blake.” Biography , Google, Dec. 202AD, www.google.com/amp/s/www.biography.com/.amp/writer/william-blake.
5. Tearle , Oliver. A Short Analysis of William Blake’s ‘The Lamb’. 16 Oct. 2020, interestingliterature.com/2017/07/a-short-analysis-of-william-blakes-the-lamb/.

The year was 1757. A boy was born in Soho, London, into a working class family. But his destiny was to become a famous poet and painter. The times were exciting and romantic. The period between 17 and 19 century in Europe is called “Enlightenment” and it is a new era, marked by incredible development of science, technology and machinery. The Enlightenment was promoting ideas “centered on the sovereignty of reason and the evidence of the senses as the primary sources of knowledge and advanced ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government.” Wikipedia

The arts were reflecting on the ideas and ideals of the time. The artists were amazed by the new scientific discoveries and the new freedom of expression. The period of the late 1700, when William Blake flourished as a poet and painter, is called Romanticism. Although he was humble enough to never refer to himself as “a poet and a painter”. He preferred to call himself “a craftsman” and he thought all painters should call themselves craftsmen and not think of themselves as any better than that.

As the other romantic artists, he was equally fascinated by the nature and by the human beings in their material, but also emotional, psychological and spiritual expression.

Blake was influenced by the Bible since he was very young and this strong influence always remained a source of inspiration for him, bringing spirituality into his life and works. When he was only 4 years old, Blake started to have visions, and his friend and journalist Henry Crabb Robinson wrote that “Blake saw God’s head appear in a window when Blake was 4 years old”. He had another vision, of the prophet Ezekiel, who was under a tree ‘filled with angels.’ Blake’s visions always played an important role in the process of creating his visual art and poems.

The Age of Enlightenment was a time when science started to explain a lot about the world, but Blake was worried that science would explain everything and then people might stop believing in God. His belief that the imagination is the most important element of human existence opposed to Enlightenment ideals of rationalism and empiricism. Due to his visionary religious beliefs, he didn’t share the Newtonian view of the Universe. Like his peers in the world of Romantic literature – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelly. Blake never liked the contemporary culture of the industrialization, neither the mechanization and intellectual minimalism, brought by that culture. Blake thought that imaginative insight was the only way to reveal the reality, otherwise wrapped up in the vale of the rational thought, stating that ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.’

A very strong believer in liberty and freedom for all, especially for women, he created controversy with his views on Church and state. Blake’s childhood was marked by his unusual spiritual visions, but at the age of 14 he followed a usual path as an engraver’s apprentice. Also around the age of 14, Blake started to collect prints of artists who were not very popular at that time, such as Durer, Raphael and Michelangelo. In the catalogue for an exhibition of his own work in 1809, nearly 40 years later, in fact, Blake would criticized artists ‘who endeavour to raise up a style against Rafael, Mich. Angelo, and the Antique.’ He didn’t accept 18th century literary trends, and preferred the Elizabethans (Shakespeare, Jonson and Spenser) and ancient authors instead.

Blake’s first book, Poetical Sketches, written between 1769 and 1777, was never published. Copies of the book were printed with the help of his friends. From then on, he published his books with his own engravings. In 1779, at age 21, Blake completed his seven-year apprenticeship and became a journeyman copy engraver, working on projects for book and print publishers. Also preparing himself for a career as a painter, that same year, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art’s Schools of Design, where he began exhibiting his own works, but he didn’t fit in, as he disagreed with the ideas of Academy’s founding members.

Blake’s influence and ideas are very strong, even to present day but nevertheless, it was difficult for him to make a living from his work. In 1782 he married Catherine Boucher, whom he thought to read, write and paint. She became his companion and helped him to accomplish his projects.

Through his paintings, prints and writing Blake created a real mythical world similarly to Dante and his Divine Comedy. Blake is an unique artists not only among the artists of the 18th century, but also amongst the artists of any time, because he had the ability to amalgamate his writing and his painting together into a unique creative process. He used innovative creative techniques to combine image and text in single compositions. Blake was an amazing visual artist but also one of the most radical poets of the early Romantic period. Through original techniques such as his ‘illuminated printing’ He was able to adapt his craft to meet the demands of his creativity.

In his poems and paintings Blake created his own mythology; his imagination gave birth to deities such as Urizen,Los,Enitharmion and Orc. In his view the destiny of the humanity in the era of the great revolutions depended on and was determined by the battles between reason and imagination, lust and adoration, chaos and order represented by the deities, brought to life by his imagination.

Of all his siblings (there were 5 of them in the family who survived infancy) Blake was particularly close with his brother Robert, who suffered from tuberculosis and died In 1787 at the age of 24. Blake was devastated by the death of his beloved brother, but he allegedly saw the ascending of his brother’s spirit at the moment of his death and this was a joyful and a very special spiritual moment, which had a huge influence on Blakes later poems.

Next year Blake saw a vision of his brother who gave him a new printing method, called by Blake “illuminated printing” and used by him for the printing of his further works. The method allowed him to control every aspect of his art production. Blake was already an established engraver but he started receiving orders to paint watercolours, for example he painted scenes from Dante, Shakespeare and the Bible

In 1800, the poet William Hayley invited Blake to move to the little seaside village of Felltham and work for him. Blake accepted the invitation. Later the relationship between Hayley and Blake worsened and in 1804 Blake and Catherine moved back to London. William Blake created his own printing technique called relief etching. Relief etching is a method of etching in which the parts of the design that take the ink are raised above the surface of the plate rather than incised into the plate (as in conventional etching). The design is drawn on the plate in an acid-resisting varnish.

Jerusalem is one of the prophetic books written and illustrated by Blake. He worked on it from 1804 to 1820 and it is the poet himself believed this was his masterpiece. He also showed work at exhibitions (including Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims and Satan Calling Up His Legions). Unfortunately, his art was not understood at that time and there were no many reviews published. In one of them, which was extremely negative, the reviewer called the exhibit a display of ‘nonsense, unintelligibleness and egregious vanity,’ and even called Blake ‘an unfortunate lunatic.’ Understandably, Blake was disappointed in the lack of attention and the negativity of the critics and as a result he withdrew more and more and didn’t expect to be succeed.

From 1809 to 1818, he engraved few plates (there is no record of Blake producing any commercial engravings from 1806 to 1813). He also sank deeper into poverty, obscurity and paranoia. In 1819, however, Blake began sketching a series of ‘visionary heads,’ claiming that the historical and imaginary figures that he depicted appeared and sat for him. By 1825, Blake had sketched more than 100 of them, including those of Solomon and Merlin the magician and those included in ‘The Man Who Built the Pyramids’ and ‘Harold Killed at the Battle of Hastings’; along with the most famous visionary head, that included in Blake’s ‘The Ghost of a Flea.’ Remaining artistically busy, between 1823 and 1825, Blake engraved 21 designs for an illustrated Book of Job (from the Bible) and Dante’s Inferno. In 1824, he began a series of 102 watercolour illustrations of Dante—a project that would be cut short by Blake’s death in 1827.

In the final years of his life, William Blake suffered from recurring bouts of an undiagnosed disease that he called ‘that sickness to which there is no name.’ He died on August 12, 1827, leaving unfinished watercolour illustrations to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and an illuminated manuscript of the Bible’s Book of Genesis. In death, as in life, Blake received short shrift from observers, and obituaries tended to underscore his personal idiosyncrasies at the expense of his artistic accomplishments. The Literary Chronicle, for example, described him as ‘one of those ingenious persons … whose eccentricities were still more remarkable than their professional abilities.’

When William Blake began orchestrating his first solo exhibition in London in March 1809, showcasing what he thought were his most important works of art, he hoped the world would instantly hail him as a British Raphael or Michelangelo. But it was a career turning point of a very different kind. Blake’s art show, at his brother’s shop in Soho, was a critical flop which precipitated a crisis of confidence. Only one critic turned up to give it a stinking review and even his friends were baffled by the 16 works on show. The opening night was such a blow to Blake’s ego that he retreated from public life and became very depressed because of the state-of-the-art world. Martin Myrone, curator of William Blake: The 1809 Exhibition, said the impact on Blake’s self-confidence was devastating. ‘In putting on this show he wanted to present himself as a painter like the great Renaissance fresco painters, with ambitions to paint large scale. He imagined that some of these small works would eventually be reproduced as 100ft-high images in palaces and on altar pieces in cathedrals.

He and his work could have been entirely forgotten because he was very different from every other artist at that time. But the Pre-Raphaelite artists, who came to prominence in the mid–1800s, loved Blake’s work and thought of him as a true visionary. Since then he has become an important figure in British art.

Ancient of Days is a name for God in the Book of Daniel. It is published in 1794. The Ancient of Days is made by etching with Indian ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, it is 23.2 × 17 cm. It shows Urizencrouching in a circular design with a cloud-like background. His outstretched hand holds a compass over the darker void below. The Book of Daniel, also called The Prophecy of Daniel, a book of the Old Testament found in the Ketuvim (Writings), the third section of the Jewish canon, but placed among the Prophets in the Christian canon. The first half of the book (chapters 1–6) contains stories in the third person about the experiences of Daniel and his friends under Kings Nebuchadrezzar II, Belshazzar, Darius I, and Cyrus II; the second half, written mostly in the first person, contains reports of Daniel’s three visions (and one dream). The second half of the book names as author a certain Daniel who, according to chapter 1, was exiled to Babylon. The Ancient of Days is quite a dark and gothic but also visionary painting. It’s also a print and is composed of warm colours with a dark hue. When it comes to the composition, the old man in the print who represents god is in the centre of the print as he is the main focus.

Newton was made in 1795 and repainted in 1805. It is 46 cm x 60 cm. Newton is a painting and print made by etching with Indian ink, watercolour and gouache on paper. In this work Blake portrays a young and muscular Isaac Newton, rather than the older figure of popular imagination. He is crouched naked on a rock covered with algae, apparently at the bottom of the sea. His attention is focused on a diagram which he draws with a compass. Blake was critical of Newton’s reductive, scientific approach and so shows him merely following the rules of his compass, blind to the colourful rocks behind him. The most dominant colour in this painting is blue with a black hue. The young man who represents Newton is in the centre of the painting as the main focus.

This painting is created in 1786. Pencil and water colour were used to create it and it is 48 cm x 68 cm. This illustrates Titania’s instruction to her fairy train in the last scene of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Hand in hand, with fairy grace, Will we sing and bless this place. Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the fairies, are on the left. Puck, the perplexer of mortals, faces us. The fairies Moth and Pease blossom are easily identifiable. Unlike a lot of other works of William Blake, this one is dominant in light colours and doesn’t have one person in the centre of the image as the main focus but has multiple people or perhaps fairies taking up the majority of the space in the image.

The exhibition does a good job of connecting to the cultural and social themes of that era. He was working-class, the son of a shop owner and there is a good reason for identifying him as a part of the English tradition of working- class protest and the emerging class-consciousness of the late-18th and early 19th century: an artist version of the Socialists. He lived at the time of the French and American revolutions when in England thinking radically could get you arrested. He was never successful. His belief in mental freedom would certainly have got him into trouble if it was more well known.

One problem with the exhibition however is that William Blake’s work is all about atmosphere. There is an intimacy to Blake’s paintings which means his work is not meant to be presented on the massive scale of the Tate show. One good thing about the exhibition is that the walls were painted in a dark vibrant colour and the lights were dimmed which is how William Blake’s paintings are supposed to be presented. Another thing that was done wrong in the exhibition is that the curators put their focus on making the audience know about Blake’s business practices and the life in that era far more then helping the audience understand Blake’s way of thinking, because ultimately that’s what’s most important as it helps us understand what messages he was trying to convey through his art.

William Blake was underestimated and not understood as an artist and as a poet during his life time and his contemporaries proclaimed him mad for his views, Nowadays he receives his due recognition and was announced by Johathan Jones: ‘far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced’. His visionary approach to art and writing made his name known far beyond the borders of his own time and country. His ideas sound up to date more then ever before and his art inspires many contemporary artists.

Introduction to Blake’s Diverse Perspectives

William Blake is one of the most uncommon and most hard to understand poets in the Romantic era. His outlooks about religion, art and society are often considered to be anachronistic. Blake’s visions compare to no other poets being that he has come from a lower-class family, his personal spiritual beliefs and his interest for visual arts. However, Blake does have an interest and many opinions about important issues concerning the French Revolution, abolitionism, and visionary imagination. In Romantic literature, it is important to recognize Blake’s contributions and influences as well as his diversity. His work ties into many ways of with literary art and evolution of his time, also including his views on gender and racial equality.

Blake’s Confrontation with Slavery and Abolitionism

Blake wrote many poems about his concerns with slavery and abolitionism which started in his Songs of Innocence. Blake focused on his true feelings and thoughts upon these topics, and going further to explain his concern by using his poetry and art. While talking about his concerns of slavery and abolitinism, I will use the poems “ The Little Black Boy” from songs of innocence and “Visions” from visions of the daughter of albion. These two poems tell an abolitionist message, the truth about religion, and morals and social expectations telling how they have created issues between human relations. Although Blake’s poetry in it’s time was more progessive, it still gives a message of how women and racial were inferior. Blake was good at exposings the problems in the religion of the British, but his spiritual outlook and his mythological vision makes his poetry and message less effective to the changes that could take place in society.

Exploring Blake’s Artistic Greatness and Criticisms

Blake achieved greatness in several different fields. He is worthy of academic attention and there is indeed an overwhelming amount of criticism of his work. David Erdman’s article “ Blake’s Vision of Slavery”, has given me a great deal of information about abolitionism in Visions. Susan Fox indicates Blake’s anachronistic role within the Romantic era, but she argues that Blake utilizes women as metaphors for failure in his work. Anne Mellor argues the Vision of Blake’s work, criticizing his spiritual beliefs, because of the British morality destroying the meaning of true spiritual union. My analysis of abolitionism within the poems will argue that Blake’s interruptions of slavery have a deeper meaning in adressing injustice and false spiritually of power relations in British society. In the poem “The Little Black Boy”, tells Blake’s beliefs concerning the power that parents have over children and racial status. While in Visions, indicates his ideas about gender equality and sexual relations. Other than his judgement upon equal rights and abolitionism, Blake has much diversity of his time. His complex mythological views, has an effect on his artistic political messages.

In the readings Songs of Innocence and Experience, Blake explores and portrays an “age when God is fully manifest in man” and feels a spiritual connection with god (Matlak). Blake’s poetry has a message that is profound to encourage equality in society based on love and freedom. His poetry is not expressed through his artwork, they actually complicate and sometimes contradict his poems. This challenges the readers to give relations between the writings and visual arts. Blake’s artwork is very original and considered to be anachronistic with the English artistic tradition.

Spiritual Equality and Racial Injustice in “The Little Black Boy”

The poem “ The Little Black Boy”, from Songs of Innocence, illustrates the spiritual mind of a child who believes in God’s promises of love but it also indicates the spiritual equality of humanity. The boy expresses the lessons his mother has taught him about the afterlife he will njoy through words of song. The afterlife of heaven he will experience the joy of life, but with the white English boy. The poem gives knowledge of humans spiritual equality alluding to the Christian argument against slavery of his time. “The Little Black Boy” indicates the boys spiritual dignity and how much equality the boy has which gives him much value. Blake does this in a way through the opinion of the religious belief in heaven where everyone is equal. The boy is taught, while in heaven he will be released from injustice and created equal to the white English boy and will be loved by god. The boys spiritual education gives him hope while stating the equality in heaven. Blake also promotes the boy’s dignity by referring to his mother and what she has taught him. The boy’s relationship with his mother (lines 7, 21) illustrates his youth and innocence, but also portrays him as more human and loving. The boy learns diligently from his mother, who represents age and wisdom. The spiritual growth of children, which is given credit to the older members of society. This also illustrates how Blake’s positive aspect about womanhood is represented as natural and motherly. Matlak describe this as, “In Blake’ aesthetic world, the female is identified with nature, the physical body or matter, and the realm of the domestic.

Blake’s positive females give birth, raise children, and offer sexual delight and supportive compassion to Blake’s males” (Matlak, 274). This gives a deeper meaning to the poem’s message that learning is essential in a childs life, and that childeren learn from adults around them. This constructs the authority that adults have, while also stating the positions of the children. Blake’s concern for the boy’s equality in the poem, has amny prolems. The boy’s early indroduction to racism, is a result of his belief in religion, which is a problem because of his acceptance to racial discrimination and indicates there is no need for social change. The poem focuses on God’s power, creating a symbol of Love, while using racial images of blackness. In the third stanza it portays a clear understanding stating, “And we are put on earth a little space, / That we may learn to bear the beams of love, / And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face / Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove” (lines 13-16). Blake indicates the boy’s spiritual goodness, along the same racial lines, by linking his soul with whiteness; “And I am black, but O! my soul is white” (line 2). This imagery reveals the mindset of Blake’s time to include physical darkness with corruption. Blake argues against the discrimination the boy suffers on earth, stating that he will experience a spiritual union with God in the afterlife. This vision is highly problematic because despite Blake’s efforts to promote the equality of the little boy, the injustice he experiences on earth is defended by the ideal vision of future equality in heaven. The boy reflects back to the injustice he experiences on earth as a result of his mother’s teachings. He believes his mortal mind that taught him, stating in lines three and four, “White as an angel is the English child: / But I am black as if bereav’d of light”. The boy focuses on the afterlife and hopes for a union with God, believing that he will be loved then.

The last lines of the poem state, “To lean in joy upon our fathers knee. / And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair, / And be like him and he will then love me” (lines 26-28). The importance of the word “then” is used to emphasize that he is not loved by God in life on earth. Blake presents a complicated argument for racial equality that seems to silence the injustice experienced on earth. By telling the boy’s belief and hope for afterlife, Blake presents cruel morality and society reality of religion. Another important message of the illustration is the use of light, this is significant throughout the poem. The sun is a setting to the poem, foreshadowing the darkness that appears in the picture. This seems to suggest a role in the heat and light of God that is portrayed in the poem. Finally, the overall ideal imagery portrays black boy standing behind the white English boy, who actually touches God. This important factor, along with the fading sun, indicates the value of the black boy even in the afterlife. This is not explained within the poem, but one possible explanation is the typical belief of religion. “The Little Black Boy” indicates how important the people were concerned race and racial equality back in Blake’s time. Although Blake strongly illustrates the spiritual equality of the afterlife, this is limited because it seems to offer a justification to the racial injustices of English society, including the slave trade and slavery.

Visions of Power Relations and Unnatural Relationships in “Visions”

Blake’s important poem, Visions, also demonstrates his ideas about power relations and unnatural relationships. This poem describes Oothoon’s victimization by Bromion’s rape, and Theotormon’s belief that she is defiled and unacceptable, despite his love for her. Oothoon is enslaved by her condition as a useful woman. The poem begins, “Enslav’d, the Daughters of Albion weep a trembling lamentation”, immediately connecting slavery to the women in English society. Visions portrays the resut of society and religion’s warped control over human interactions, addressing several different power relations, including the dominance of men over women, master over slave and organized religion over society. David Erdman states, “…love and slavery prove to be the two poles of the poem’s axis” (Erdman, 242).

This poem promotes a more equal treatment of women by indicating Oothoon’s sadness and extreme despair. She grieves, “Are both alike: a night of sighs, a morning of fresh tears” (Plate 2, line 39). Her exploitation is obviously condemned in an interesting way because this oppression connects her to horrors of the institution of slavery, including sexual abuse and emotional despair. Blake presents quasi-feminist and abolitionist arguments against the sexual and economic exploitation of humans, because it distorts freedom and natural relationships. Institutionalized subjugation and enslavement does not simply destroy the victimized, such as Oothoon, but the entire society because it warps all human interactions. Bromion becomes enslaved by his violent act, while Theotormon is enslaved by his jealousy and inability to love Oothoon after she has been defiled. He is trapped by the standards of conventional religion and morality, specifically the notions of marriage.

The frontpiece to Visions of the Daughters of Albion serves as a dramatic visual representation of the poem’s portrayal of mental and physical bondage. Oothoon is shackled to Bromion, facing opposite directions from one another. Bromion faces out towards the sea with a look of horror, while Oothoon directs herself towards Theotormon, bending downwards in despair andresignation. Lukacher states that, “her jealous and inhibited lover cowers and withdraws into himself on the cavernous ledge about the enchained figures” (105). Theotormon’s body language indicates his self-entrapment and despair because the social restrictions he believes in prohibit him from being with the woman he loves. This composition utilizes Michelangelo-esque nudes and opposing body languages to contain and reduce the complex drama of the poem. The landscape also conveys the bleak tone of the literary work. The entrance to the grotto frames the figures and the background including a bleak sea, clouds and a darkened sun.

Visions clearly argues against the subjugation of women and the institutions that promote economic and physical exploitation on human beings, most significantly slavery and marriage. Blake promotes, instead, love as a equal spiritual and physical union. This notion of free love rejects the standards of Christian marriage in England, promoting an equal union between man and woman. The composition, Circle of the Lustful, exemplifies this notion well. This illustration portrays Virgil standing over the fainted Dante. Dante envisions his Paolo and Francesca released from purgatory and re-united together in the luminous orb. A whirling vortex of punished lovers rushes out of the river of purgatory. Blake liberates the lovers, freeing them from the sin that society condemns them for. The figures are mostly androgynous, indicating Blake’s vision of the ideal human form as containing both the male and female genders. This composition promotes free love, asserting the goodness of spiritual love, while also overturning Dante’s tradition that imposes strict moral and sexual codes on society.

Blake’s work, like Visions and Circle of the Lustful, deals with subjugation and exploitation as distortions of power and human relations. Blake condemned those who abused and exploited others through the misuse of power. His portrayals of this exploitation prompted Saree Makdisi to promote the reevaluation of his time. A specific example of Blake’s condemnation of the powerful is The Ghost of a Flea, a composition that portrays the profane spirit of this powerful man as a reptile-like creature. The comet indicates a supernatural event and the dramatic, stage-like setting emphasize the evilness of this creature. Although this composition is a specific condemnation of English industrialists, it demonstrates Blake’s view of the powerful that exploitNand subject the rest of society. Blake’s mythological vision asserts their impending punishment.

Visions condemns the mental and physical bondage promoted by the institutions of slavery and marriage. The poem is not, however, highly effective in promoting any real change. In a similar manner as “The Little Black Boy”, Visions addresses too many issues to be efficacious in directly promoting the feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft or the abolitionist cause. The poem is also rendered ineffective because the definition of slavery is blurred and turned into a multifarious term that applies any lack of freedom. In fact, the poem seems to deal more with spiritual and mental enslavement than with the political and economic practices of the slave trade and slavery. Blake concerns himself most greatly with the condemnation of the sexual limitations and moral codes of conventional religion. Susan Fox claims that Blake’s feminist agenda in Visions is ineffective because Oothoon lacks real assertiveness. “No woman in any Blake poem has both the will and the power to initiate her own salvation – not even the strongest and most independent of his women, Oothoon” (Fox, 513). Blake presents gender and sexuality in a similar way as many artists of his time; although he promotes the dignity and worth of women, the representation ultimately affirms feminine inferiority and lack of agency.

Visions’ large and far-reaching messages about slavery, power relations, sexuality and religion addresses many issue in a liberal and progressive way, but these multifarious and complex issues render the poem unable to directly confront any one issue to prompting real change. Blake is most successful in directly promoting abolitionism through the illustrations of actual events and atrocities of the slave trade, such as A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to the Gallows.

Conclusion: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Blake’s Messages

These etchings are politically subversive in a direct and real sense, because they specifically address the institution of slavery’s violation of human dignity. These images are clear criticisms of the atrocities committed by the slave trade, calling for real political action. These illustrations, however, are very simple artistic constructions that portray one figure’s suffering, asserting their humanity and dignity. Although they are not artistically complex or important, they do serve to directly promote the abolitionist cause during his time.

William Blake’s paradoxical poem “Auguries of Innocence” is described as “prophetic” (Rix, 2005). Contemporarily, Blake was inspired by political and social revolutions such as the aftermath of the American Revolution as well as the French Revolution (1789-1803) and the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). The concept of modernity plays a significant role in the poem as it can be perceived as a social commentary on the social class divide that was increasing due to the rise of Capitalism in Nineteenth Century Britain as well as condemnation of slavery – The Abolition of Slavery Act was passed in 1834, thirty years prior to the publication of the poem (1863) (Henry, 2019). The period of modernity which began in the mid-Seventeenth Century and is presumed to have ended in the mid-Twentieth Century encompassed changes to family structures, the economy, social beliefs and thought processes. The period of Enlightenment which occurred in the Eighteenth Century can be identified through Blake’s imagery in the poem as it played a significant role in his work.

In relation to the aspects of modernity, the poem focuses on aspects of the Enlightenment project and forward-thinking, logical thought that was established during this time period. The ‘age of enlightenment’ refers to an intellectual movement that occurred during 17th Century in Western nations, notably in France. In Britain, the ‘age of reason’ is said to have begun with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. King Charles II returned from exile as Oliver Cromwell created a commonwealth to combat the autocratic rule of King Charles II. Upon King Charles II return to court, politicians and social thinkers began to question the social structure as his autocratic rule continued despite the exile. During the restoration period, King James II ascended to the throne and played a vital role in colonial trade which links to Blake’s poem as he focused on the slave imagery (Britannica, 2019). In terms of the poem linking to logical thought, the first four lines of the poem appear contradictory in a literal sense but make sense in a metaphorical sense. He creates the image of capturing the impossible within what is perceived as possible and tangible. William Blake, through these lines, highlights the significance of appreciating the little things within life and the wider aspects. For example, although it is unrealistic to ‘hold infinity in the palm of your hand’, metaphorically this line can suggest that there is so much potential with what your hands can accomplish and therefore what was seemingly impossible is now feasible. Similarly, ‘eternity in an hour’ is another comprehensible concept when the length of time is considered. Within an hour, there are minutes, seconds, milliseconds etc. and therefore, there are many little components that comprise this time period. Since there is no named narrator for the poem, it can be assumed that the speaker is Blake himself and he is expressing his own ideas and opinions. In the poem, there is a contrast between Enlightenment and religion (‘Heaven in a Rage’) because as a result of logical thought becoming more widespread, the influence of religion declined and became secularised. The setting of the poem is ambiguous and presumably this was Blake’s intention as the setting becomes the reader’s mind as they attempt to conceptualise these large ideas. Blake strings contrasting proverbs together in a bewildering succession, perhaps suggesting the spontaneity and freedom from rules that characterize his vision of innocence. An example of such proverb is the first line ‘To hold a world in a grain of sand’ (Brewer, 2019). In terms of Enlightenment on a global scale, the impact in France was far greater than on any other nation. Blake was influenced by the French Revolution as he critiques social injustices and the Revolution was impacted by the Enlightenment period as it called in to question the structure of French egalitarian society (Duignan, 2019). The Bourgeoisie were in power through the royal family and this was sharply contradicted by the increasing poverty of the lower social classes leading to the revolt to overthrow the government. The French Protestors were motivated by the success of the American Revolutionary War as they were able to successfully gain independence from British colonisation. The tone of the first stanza is more light-hearted compared to the rest of the poem which deals with political and social topics whereas the first four lines focus on intellectuality and the quatrain outlines the basis of what the rest of the poem will be about: the big picture.

William Blake presents modernity through highlighting the effects of slavery that created a divide between social classes as the ruling higher social classes, known by Marxists as the Bourgeoisie have a greater perceived power over what Marxists refer to as the Proletariats. Although slavery has existed for centuries, Blake was inspired by the historical, transatlantic slaves – thousands of African slaves were brought to the United Kingdom and used as manual labourers (Lewis, 2018). In line five (‘A Robin Red breast in a Cage’) reinforces the slave imagery as it represents the confinement of freedom. As a romantic poet, animal imagery is a common trope. The use of animals creates a sympathetic response from readers and Blake is using this notion to appeal to the reader’s sense of justice and morality. The image of the ‘Robin’ links to humans due to the censoring of speech to some extent due to social taboos as well as laws prohibiting certain actions. Linking to the period in which the poem was written (early Nineteenth Century), Blake was surrounded by political turmoil in terms of The Napoleonic Wars, The Haitian Revolution and the aftermath of the American Revolution. Therefore, the imagery of the bird in a cage is perceived as a political protest against the lack of freedom and slavery within society. Similarly, in the subsequent lines (lines 7 and 8), the animal imagery is repeated (‘doves’ and ‘pigeons’). The animal imagery is one of the examples that William Blake uses to emphasise social injustice and it implied that even the smallest actions can have great consequences. Blake makes a biblical comparison between heaven and hell and according to the Bible, God created man to be free and as this has been restricted, there is a universal outrage against enslavement on a global scale. However, in terms of time, slavery was socially accepted, mainly in Europe as African nations were colonised by the British, French and Arabs and it became recognised as immoral once the slave rebellions were becoming more violent and direct and this led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (Henry, 2019). In Blake’s London, the working and living conditions of the poor were becoming more widely recognised leading to social reforms such as changes in hygiene and medicine (Lincoln, 2014). According to Rix, Robert W., “the purpose of Blake’s ‘prophetic’ is to be a public word of caution, based on social observation” and “Blake’s ‘London’ contributed to a mounting anti-war sentiment.” (Rix, 2005) Which emphasises the impact of Blake’s poetry to the literary world. Contextually, Blake was born into a moderately wealthy family and therefore his social stance can be seen as contradictory because he is a known supporter of the French Revolution which aimed to overthrow their monarchy (Contributors, n.d.). Therefore, the incorporation of his support can be seen through the imagery that is used as the depictions of enslavement in relation to animals and people is expressed through a tone of anger and resentment towards the captors.

Thematically, Blake focuses on the social implications of capitalism that created a social divide. Capitalism refers to an economic system in which institutions and businesses are owned and controlled privately by the Bourgeoisie and the workers are working-class who depend on the Bourgeoisie as a means of survival (Britannica, Capitalism, 2018). In the poem, Blake expresses the power control through animal imagery. The rhyming couplets in lines 9-12 suggest a political statement against oppression and the effects of industrialisation through the imagery of the starving dog. There is an image of hierarchy that is portrayed as dogs are loyal animals to their masters similar to the workers and the employers. The dogs could be a metaphorical representation of homeless people, soldiers or sick individuals who have no cure. This image signifies that without adequate help, people will lose faith in their governments or the country as a whole and this may in turn, lead to crime which forewarns ‘the ruin of state’. Blake expresses through the concept of starvation, there will be a social uprising and the oppressed majority (Proletariats) will seek vengeance and retribution against the wealthy minority (Bourgeoisie). The notion of animal abuse is continued into the following rhyming couplet and there is the use of the alliterative ‘H’ and it creates the image of workers being mistreated by their employers and this could link back to the concept of slavery as they pray for revenge against their enslavers. The biblical imagery reflects how in times of need, individuals turn to religion to resolve their woes.

‘Auguries of Innocence’ is a romantic poem that focuses on the aspect of change. Blake analyses the social and political climate of his time to create a thought-provoking proverbial poem. Blake’s overall argument is that in an ever-changing modern society, every action has a consequence and that individuals have to take responsibility for their actions. The poem focuses on the importance of freedom, logic in an age of enlightenment and how power leads to greed.

Blake’s biggest fear is the city or industry engulfing everything. Most of his poetry revolves around politics, philosophy and religion. Blake’s works show that terms like Innocence and Experience are antithetical terms and contain within themselves their own opposites. He unsettles established oppositions and makes us see the world in new, imaginative and liberated ways; innocence to experience, good to evil, God to devil, white to black, pure to impure, child to adult, nature to city and human to God.

Blake believes in good and evil and he is highly fanatical about God but because of his dissenting background, he does not believe in orthadox religion.He disagrees with the concept of good evil which is supported by the church. Blake retains a hatred for all institutions, the church being a massive institution, amidst his religious beliefs. He believes that they manipulate the idea of sin. His series of contraries state that goodand evil, innocence and experience, reside in us at the same time. Without contraries, there is no progression.

Innocence, an image of how things could be and perhaps they should be, also which is something that is celebrated, gradually changes and turns into experience. Blake believes that whilst it is said that innocence and childhood is lost, experience and adulthood is a lot worse than it should be because of institutions and material of things like the church and the government and how they oppress us.

His hatred and opposition for all institutions and authorities becomes very distinct once again when describing Sir Joshua Reynold’s art. Reynolds would divert to classical art in an effort to elevate the portraits of those of the wealthy class however Blake believed that this was absurd and his style was sterile. “This man was hired to depress art.” (William Blake) He also goes on to say that “I spent the vigour of my youth and genius under the depression of Sir Joshua.” (William Blake) It is evident through the production of his art and how it looked that he does not belong to any contemporary space. “I must create my own system or be enslaved by another man’s.”(William Blake) This line is key to understanding the figure of William Blake and his hatred for institutions.

Blake’s big fear in the Songs of Innocence and of Experience is that industry is engulfing everything in every possible way. Songs of Innocence and of Experience shows us the two contrary states of the human soul. Blake disdained the Industrial Revolution anyway he held expectation this may change. This expectation was significantly apparent in one of his sonnets that he distributed, this being ‘​Jerusalem’​. While he grasped and had confidence in the morals of the French Revolution, ‘​Jerusalem’​ shows how expectation despite everything remains. While not being in Songs of Innocence and Experience, ​’Jerusalem’​ uncovers how Blake loathed the modern transformation and how the French Revolution’s standards ought to be the way to deal with life. Jerusalem speaks to the great side of Blake, who utilizes it as an asylum and a position of bliss. ‘Nor will my sword rest in my grasp till we have manufactured Jerusalem in England’s green and charming area.’ He is denouncing the mechanical transformation right now. Blake asserts that his displeasure will be activated reliably and will consistently battle until the innovative revulsions end and England is cleansed from treachery. The Promised Land is spoken to by Jerusalem. Blake did this to demonstrate that in spite of the fact that he thinks the mechanical unrest is horrendous, the future despite everything has trust.

Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) compares the honest, peaceful environmental factors of earliest stages with a grown-up universe of persecution and suppression; in spite of the fact that poems, for example, ‘The Lamb’ mirror a mild temperance, ‘The Tyger’ show opposite, darker forces. Consequently the entire arrangement talks about the significance and downsides of two distinctive world standpoints. A significant number of the poems break into sets, in this way a proportionate situation or question can be at first observed and afterward be experienced through the crystal of blamelessness. In particular, he censures authoritarian government, harsh philosophy, sexual suppression, and systematized religion; his extraordinary understanding is the manner by which these various types of intensity work together to impede what is generally heavenly in humankind.

Most definitely, the character of individual confidence is less worried than with the body of the Church, her political job and her social and social outcomes. “The Lamb Copy T”​ is one of Blake’s most childish poems. The voice of a child is automatically rendered in this. It seems natural that the child is engaging with the animal, in this case the lamb. The theme of the innocence of childhood is also rendered here. The lamb, which is a representation of a child, is depicted as being innocent. Because they are innocent however, Blake does not mean that they are ignorant or completely divorced from the setting of Experience. We see that young boys and girls get lost in the poems. Blake believes that innocence clearly is a visual of how the world should be. There is a bright, welcoming element to this poem as the pure door is open and there is a dove on the door which represents innocence and purity. There is nothing didactic in this poem. There is no anger in this poem as it is bound up with light heartedness instead. The child may not retain any knowledge or opinion of their surroundings thus showing there is a lack of hatred in ‘​The Lamb Copy T’.

In Songs of Experience, the images are different. The atmosphere is darker, the flowers are sic and there are oppressed children and chimney sweepers speaking about the power structures that oppress them. ‘​The Tyger Copy T’​ portrays a different tone and atmosphere however. The tyger is a symbol of something beautiful yet ferocious however their lack of ferocity is instead being presented. This poem instead interrogates the act of creation instead. Tygers, which are usually depicted as intimidating animals, are instead smiling and are ‘teddy-like’ therefore this image belongs to the Songs of Experience. The images therefore clearly reflect the tone of the poem. The speaker of the lamb believes that the universe is benevolent. And that the contrary states exist together.

Two contrary states also exist together between ‘​The Chimney Sweeper​’. This can be depicted as a radical poem of social protest. Innocent children at this time are being exploited and are sold at the young age of four. “It is you who deceive children with this false morality, just as it is ‘your chimneys’ (verse 1, line 4) that are responsible for having boy sweeps in the first place.” Some choked inside the fireplaces they were attempting to clean. Others grew up hindered and twisted, kicking the bucket at a youthful age from malignant growth or lung illnesses. The biggest horror of the poem comes in the subsequent stanza, where the boy says it was ‘Because I was happy’ that his parents condemned him to this early death. Blake has purposely given us a sentence which doesn’t bode well so as to give us how absolutely wrong it is to abuse the immaculateness of the youngster. There is a contrast of the reality of confined life to the dream of freedom. The real world is black. Blake uses the voice of the child to attack this horrible myth hence the reason why he despises organised religion and institutions.

In the Songs of Experience, Blake implicates the institutions and the parents of these children for colluding with them. He celebrates childhood and advocates innocence. Blake’s furious social protest and anger at the increased industrialisation of society is again evident in the ​‘London Copy T’​ where he advocates the importance of spiritual vision while expressing his horror of what people have become in the city of London, which he now sees as a mechanised industrial city. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience are clearly poems of furious social protest, and anger at the increased industrialisation of society and he laments this in the poems aforementioned above. He consistently shows us the two contrary states of the human soul.

References

1. Bloom, Harold. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. http://www.blakearchive.org
2. www.poetryfoundation.org
3. http://www.blakearchive.org/
4. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

Thesis Statement: In combining irony, symbols, rhythm, and disturbingly dramatic imagery, William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” criticizes society’s indifference “toward” social injustice. According to (https:// “www.goodreads.com), this” story is such a sad and disturbing poem about the abuse of little children who were forced to become sweeps by their parents in this era. Blake has described the misery that was faced by the children of London, who’s poor and impoverished parents sold them for a small amount of money, to become chimney sweepers. Putting their little lives at stake and their fears of dark were enhanced, which is very common with little children, because they were made to climb the chimneys and clean them even on severely cold days.

Outline:

• I. Introduction
  • A. “The Chimney Sweeper” is an outlook on the life of a chimney sweeper.
    • 1. The poem’ appears to express anger and resentment.
    • 2. The poem’s mood is depressing.
    • 3. Thesis statement.
• II. Stanzas 1and 2
  • A. The poem has a dramatic opening.
  • B. In stanza 1, the author expresses disdain toward society’s indifference.
  • C. The author’s choice of words in stanza 2 gets stronger with the perceived horror of what’s to come.
  • D. Stanza 2 ends with an ironic sense of optimism.
• III. Stanzas 3and 4
  • A. Stanzas 3and4 effectively use imagery to build up on the expressed optimism.
  • B. Tom appears to be oblivious to the full meaning of his dream.
  • C. In stanza 4, the author expresses that Tom’s only true hope is death.
• IV. Stanzas5and6
  • A. Stanzas 4and5 make use of slant rhymes, which serve to enhance the perception that something is not right.
  • B. Stanza 5continues to use imagery, but now expresses that even the hope of death is conditional.
  • C. The poem’ sending is filled with tragic irony, as the very job Tom hopes to do well doing ultimately is responsible for taking his life.
• V. Conclusion

A. By making use of pauses to create rhythm throughout his poem, William Blake is able to keep the readers wanting to know what happens next.

In the chimney sweeper the theme of the poem seem to be about the inevitable loss of a child’s innocence. It describes, from the point of view of a young, innocent chimney sweeper. The chimney sweepers, once innocent and happy children, are now tainted with experience. In stanzas 1 the story opens with the poet telling its audience how his mother died when he was young. When my mother died I was very young, and my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry “’weep! ’Weep! ’Weep! ’Weep! “So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep – (William Blake 1757-1827). It may have been a foster father who convinced the boy Tom by selling him to a Master chimney sweeper. “There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head that curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved, so I said, “Hush, Tom! Never mind it, for when your head’s bare, you know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair” – (William Blake (1757-1827). Tom was called ‘Dacre’ because had belonged to Lady Dacre’s Almshouse, which was between St. James Street and Buckingham Road as stated in (https://poemanalysis.com/). As I read stanzas 2-4 the poet tells the reader more about his childhood and as it so happens his father sold him before he could speak. When it states: “And my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry” (William Blake 1757-1827). When the author of the poem uses “tongue” he is using it in a way to help the reader understand the voice of the speaker of the poem. Back in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most chimney sweepers or people who cleaned chimneys were very young boys, because they were small enough and could climb up the chimney with no problems like getting stuck. So I’m thinking that the boy’s father sold his child to someone who ran a chimney-cleaning business. Because when the reader reads the poem, the poet tells us that because his father sold him, he sweeps chimneys, and sleeps in soot (https://www.shmoop.com/). If I may add children during Blake’s time were treated unfairly because no one care for the poor children. There was a lot of taxation because of the government, donations for leaders of the church and loans pay by poor people to rich people. This is the reason why the child in the poem sorrowfully says that the church has made up a heaven of their misery. In stanza 3, a change happens in a way that portrays hope and the potential escape for the young children when tom has a dream about his fellow sweeper dying and placed in a black coffin. However, it’s not the chance that we would expect to happen with these children because the “coffins in black” that all the children were locked into that the author is referring to in stanza 3 represents the miserable fate for the chimney-sweeping children (https://owlcation.com). In stanza 4 it is filled with more hope as it pertains to the coffin as the poem says that the children will be set free when they die and go to heaven were they are happy and would feel no more pain. In stanza 4 there is also mention of the unlocking of coffins by an angel and being washed clean in a river. As a reader of the poem one can interpret this as Christian allusions to Christ’s resurrection and baptism. The beginning of the fifth stanza mentions the boys in the dream were “naked and white, all their bags left behind.” Naked and white suggests innocence and purity. Baggage denotes sin and the cares of the world as it states in (https://www.brighthubeducation.com/). ‘Then naked and white, all their bags left behind, they rise upon cloud sand sport in the wind; and the angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, He’d have God for his father, and never want joy’ (William Blake 1757-1827). In conclusion the dream that tom had was not real. It was however or may have been a religious man who came to them and told the children about the bright future in the afterlife. Tom and his friends can look forward to being at peace in heaven even though the hope of death is disturbing. The sound and the cadence of the poem sounds sweet and innocent, like the narrator himself. However, it is important to listen to what the poem and the chimney sweeper are saying. His parents do not hear his “weep” (https://schoolworkhelper.net/).

References:

1. Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi (eds.). ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy L, object 7 (Bentley 12, Erdman 12, Keynes 12) ‘The Chimney Sweeper”. William Blake Archive. Retrieved 11/20/2019.
2. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt, ed. (2001). The Norton anthology of English literature (7th ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0393973042.
3. Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi (eds.). ‘Comparison of Songs of Innocence’s ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ (of Innocence)’. William Blake Archive. Retrieved 11/20/2019.
4. Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi (eds.). ‘Comparison of Songs of Innocence’s ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ (of Experience)’. William Blake Archive. Retrieved 11/20/2019.

I will be diving deeper behind the words in the poem ‘Chimney Sweeper’. The power of poetry lies between words, as it “makes us realise and appreciate the world around us” (Osborne, 2016). ‘Chimney Sweeper’, written in 1974 by William Blake, a biblical poet and painter who aimed to change social norms and status quos, composed a series of verses containing profound social commentaries. William Blake was extremely successful in conveying the themes; hope, death and woe. Additionally, it teaches us to approach each adversity with hope. The ideologies were portrayed through careful selection of discerning diction like symbolism, metaphors and effective use of powerful imagery. This problem regarding child labour not only remained in the eighteenth century, but it also remains relevancy today, as this can be seen in factories and mines in less developed countries, such as; Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia.

Now let’s now talk about symbolism, it’s evidently illustrated in several stanzas that help portray emotions and messages about children’s visions and experiences. During the second stanza, we come across to line 2, where it states that a little boy (Tom Dacre) ‘curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved’, this is an evident example where it incorporates the use of symbolism. As we know, a lamb depicted in a Bible is usually an association with the terminologies; innocent and youth, notwithstanding, a lamb is an also a connotation for being a vulnerable sacrifice to acts of malevolence, hence, proving that symbolism was effective in describing the realities of children. Moreover, Blake efficaciously used historical links to add credibility to his portrayal of children, by being ‘shaved’ recounts actions taken so hair couldn’t be burnt off or have vermin and soot infestations. Thus, showing the underlying themes of misery. Following the stanza, it becomes apparent that the narrator, a boy, goes into a dream, where he describes it as ‘a green plain’, this infers to a land where there’s freedom and fertility, something that all the children wishes to have. This is a juxtaposition of reality verses their hopes and wishes, in their normal world, it’s monochromatic and filled with boys who cry because of their current living conditions. With all these symbolic inferences, they all successfully combine to convey the main themes of misery and oppression that young boys carry through their lives. Also relating back to the thesis, it encourages them to be hopeful and will get freedom in return if they work hard enough.

William Blake encompasses diction in order to communicate with audience members to gain sympathy and exploit the social unjust through songs of social protests. Even the title lays the initial hidden themes, ‘Chimney Sweeper’ is an effective way to phrase an entire workforce of children, in fact, ‘thousands of sweepers’. The narrator places himself as a representative of all. The play of assonance begins to lay out the foundation of the theme, as his interpretation of the undeveloped speech of children can be heard as ‘weep, weep’ as they are so young that they can’t even pronounce sweep. This evokes awareness and sensory abilities so the audience can relate and comprehend whilst adding more context into his poem. It’s evident that William Blake takes his inspirations from the bible and platonic philosophies. To elaborate, the quote ‘wash in a river’ is from the revelation 1:18 and is interpreted as a sign of purification and healing. Additionally, ‘he’d have God for his father’ links to the holy connection and shows that God is the father figure of the narrator to fulfil the empty position his father left. It’s apparent that through biblical references and diction, William Blake effectively depicts the themes of hope and asserts how imagery plays to depict the thoughts and wishes of children.

On the note of hope, the narrator uses imagery to take us through his dream of being liberated, carefree and childish. As imagery plays in, it’s illustrated with the words ‘naked and white’ and ‘their bags left behind’, this could be interpreted as being cleansed after their wash in the river, free of soot and being white, which is leaving behind the blackness they are surrounded in real life. The imagery of ‘rising upon clouds’ signifies the boundaries of the boy’s breaking free and rise in the social classes. Similarly, the phrase ‘we rose in the dark’ has two meanings, both literal and metaphorical. It can refer to rising despite the darkness of their life or rising after his dream. Either way, both works to put a clear image into our heads of children slowly accepting their fate yet approaching adversity full of hope and faith, which is one of the central themes.

‘Chimney Sweeper’ by William Blake was successful in portraying the degradation of children and themes of misery, hope and woe by effective use of symbolism, imagery and metaphors. Furthermore, it reminds us, especially to those who still continue to experience child labour over the world to always maintain faith. Now this concludes today’s segment of Literature round table, thanks for listening and we’ll catch you later on our next series ‘Still I rise”. Until then, see you later!

The Age of Enlightenment brought about the Industrial Revolution and societal changes which greatly influenced the discourses of the time. With the Age of Reason, otherwise known as the Enlightenment, there was a change into a focus on reason and progress led to the movement of people into built up cities, with common discourse ultimately favouring those within the capitalist and theological institutions of the time. Poets such as William Blake greatly despised this change, and are notably great writers of the Romantic revolt against the Enlightenment, and all it stood for. The works of Blake in his poetic collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789) critique the changes caused by the Enlightenment. Seen with aesthetic poetic devices where he forms a representation of his ideological ‘fancies’, Blake connects the artistic nature of his poetry with his personal beliefs and values. Blake achieves this intrinsic relationship through the use of poetic techniques and stylings, along with biblical discourse, in his critique of not only the reason and rationality of the Enlightenment, the power of the institutionalised Church, but most importantly on the restrictions and limitations placed on society through the ‘mind forg’d manacles’ which they are bound by.

With heavy emphasis on the base of reason and the mechanisation of industry, the period of Enlightenment valued the rational and productive, in such a manner that transformed the social norms of the 18th Century. The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Period of Reason, contributed to the illumination of human intellect and scepticism with notable figures including Voltaire and Isaac Newton bringing major scientific advancement. In the ‘forward march of human reason’ it left behind many in the venture of populist avenues, with not only women, but minorities and the lower class, left behind. This combined with the heralding of a new system of egalitarianism sparked the beginnings of a literature movement rejecting the new way of life, yearning for an idealised simpler past. As a movement within both literature and art, “the Romantics sought to engage with their society with a significant rejection of “modernity,” yet this opposition was the basis for re-energizing their own times.” Rejecting the oppression of industrial civilisation, writers of the Romantic period critiqued the favouring of reason and rationality over the exploration of the whimsical and freeing ways of imagination often using visionary figures and extended simile to embody the ‘natural’ liberation of man. This key characteristic of Romanticism was not only an empowering juxtaposition to the imprisonment of instruction and legislation, with many political revolts against the regimentation of society being linked to Romantic writing and the people of the Romantic reform. Blake, whilst often regarded as a pre-Romantic poet, held a particular interest in the Romantic ‘fancy’ of childhood. Throughout his poetic collections, a common discourse and appropriation of mechanical reason and the power of the Church appear throughout his poetry, key to the aesthetic and ideological styling of the Romantic period of literature and his personal ideologies. [0: ]

Often seen in his aesthetic appropriation of natural landscapes and beings, Blake places ideological emphasis on the emotive path of imagination and dreams over pursuing reason, particularly in using an extended metaphor and imagery. Summarised in Bowman’s ‘William Blake: A Study of His Doctrine of Art’ “… Blake’s aesthetic theory are his contentions that the imagination does not operate in terms of natural appearances – that the senses even limit and obscure the imagination – and that systematic reasoning as opposed to inspiration or illumination is an obstacle to the revelation of truth”. Within his poetry, Blake explores this idea of imagination and the revelation of a ‘natural’ truth, culminating in the portrayal Blake’s personal ideology (contrary to the common discourse of his time). In a time of great scientific discovery and a transforming philosophical understanding of the world, Blake presents an aesthetic response to the commonplace of the Enlightenment in his analogous approach to “the living power and prime agent of all human perception”. Directly seen through his extended metaphor of ‘shade’, and the repercussions of its limitations on the human mind in a systematic approach to understanding and reason, Blake presents reality in a new sense. This is seen in his poem ‘A Dream’ (from the Songs of Innocence) in which “Once a dream did weave a shade/ O’er my Angel-guarded bed” hints at the restriction of the persona’s dreams by the ‘shade’ of societies pursuit of strict, logical reason. Within writing of the Enlightenment period, and under the rationale of its concurrent train of thought, they believed imagination to show life as people wish, or dream, it to be – disempowering the Romantic fascination with the unbound man. The title, ‘A Dream’, notions to the revelation of man in his pursuit of personal aspirations and desires in the form of free thought (imagination), an ideology in which Blake favoured in his alignment to early Romanticism. The ‘shade’ woven by the dream of progress – easily linked to the Enlightenment in the restriction it places on Blake’s idealised freedom of thought and favouring of imagination – confines the “Troubled, ‘wilder’d, and forlorn,/ Dark, benighted, travel-worn” persona to the “tangled spray” of society, in which they have lost not only themselves, but their revelation of truth. In using metaphor and imagery, Blake links the aesthetic discourse of ‘shade’ and ‘dreams’ to the restrictive nature of society. Forming an emotive connection to the revelation of truth – found through Blake’s idealised imagination – Blake presents an alternative to his contextual discourse. [1: ] [2: ] [3: ] [4: ] [5: ]

The appropriation of a biblical discourse, seen throughout Blake’s poetry in its use of allusion and intertextuality, creates an aesthetic blend of the known and explored. Exploring familiar ideas linked to the teachings of the Church, Blake’s poetry uses direct allusions to verses of the Bible and the direct assertions made about the God of Reason, Urizen. A man of reputable madness, Blake was “a Christian who hated the churches”, particularly the exploitative nature of its giving to the misfortunate, believing that God – a being of man’s creation – stood for protecting children in particular. In both his poems ‘A Dream’ and ‘The Angel’ Blake opens the first stanza in direct allusion to Psalm 91, “For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go”. The symbolic nature of Angels as both messengers of God and the protectors of man is not dissimilar it uses to the teachings of the Church in a manner as to problematise the reality of the ‘messengers’ of God found in the Church of man. [6: ] [7: ] [8: ]

“And I wept both night and day,

And he wip’d my tears away,

And I wept both day and night,

And hid from him my heart’s delight.

So he took his wings and fled”

Inconsistent with the passage of the Bible alluded to in the opening lines, the Angels of the Church rather force the persona to hide from God their delights, arguably their dreams and truths. This problematises the reality posed in the Bible which suggests that God would delight with you in your joys and “shelter you with his wings”. Whilst the notion of the female persona weeping is aesthetically displeasing, it builds upon Blake’s understanding of faith in a God who sends the Angel to guard the youthful nature of innocence. Within Blake’s time the Church undertook many actions that would go directly against the assertions of religious gatherings posed in both the Bible and historical discourse – this change encompassing many perversions of the Church that began to form during the late 18th Century, including the Swedenborgian Church which Blake was a former member until he cited inconceivable differences between his personal ideology, and that posed by all other religious institutions. The differing Churches of the time are all presented in ‘The Angel’ by the Church and its workings within society posing a rift between man and Blake’s man-created God in the persona’s abandonment as the Angel “took his wings and fled” from the heart’s delight. Blake appears to portray “the angel as a negative symbol to castigate in the name of religion” signifying the toxicity of the Church’s disdain of personal journeys into faith and religious understanding. In understanding Blake’s personal journey through faith, we can understand that he places emphasis on God and his angels as presented through religious teachings as a perversion of the true God he sees as man-created. As eloquently stated by Helmstadter, “Blake…, throughout all of his writings, regarded religious institutions with suspicion”. This idea is significant in his poetry “with ten thousand shields and spears,” Blake arms readers with a knowledge greater than that given by the Church in the acceptance of his truth, signifying the journey that must be taken outside of the Church to find, and re-gain true angels. Rather than furthering the gap between yourself and God, Blake rejects the teachings posed by biblical discourse and condones a personal journey exterior to the power and influence of the corrupted Church. [10: ] [11: ] [12: ] [13: ] [14: ]

Both the limitations on imagination and religious pursuit of knowledge lends itself to Blake’s key ideological focus found in underlying tones within each of his poetic collections. Blake’s use of extended metaphor, allusion and meter is used aesthetically to convey the ‘mind forg’d manacles’ which Blake argues restricts man not only in his reasoning and faith, but in the exploration of self. During the 1790s there was greater restriction on the people of England due to the growing threat of revolt against the British monarchy following the French Revolution. With greater restrictions on political opinion, many writers of the time explored the limitations of the Enlightenment as a train of thought, and these new political limitations. Similarly to his metaphor of ‘shade’, Blake uses the metaphor of ‘mind forg’d manacles’ to discuss the liberation of characters such as the Emmet and glow-worm as a metaphor for the people of his time who are lost and oppressed within this push for reason. The character of the Emmet, seen in not only ‘A Dream’ but also in Blake’s ‘Auguries of Innocence’, links to the restrictions imposed by the ‘shade’ in his pursuit to find the true version of himself “That an emmet lost its way”. This is seen in [15: ] [16: ]

“The Emmet’s Inch & Eagle’s Mile

Make Lame Philosophy to smile.

He who Doubts from what he sees

Will ne’er Believe, do what you Please” [17: ]

in which the emmet has broken free from the doubt that reason places on imagination, liberating himself from the restrictive institutions that are presented within the poem such as the Church and the education system. In his poem ‘The Land of Dreams’, whilst the Emmet is not directly alluded to, the journey of the Emmet is clear in the journey undertaken by the persona of the poem. A father concerned for the wellbeing of his son, the persona is freed from his self-inflicted ‘mind forg’d manacles’ when his son describes “The Land of Dreams is better far,/ Above the light of the Morning Star” where he meets his mother walking “Among the Lambs, clothed in white”. Blake not only alludes to Emmet and his journey, but introduces connections between biblical teachings (the Lamb, a metaphor used in the Bible to describe Jesus and his sacrifice made through the resurrection) and reason in the restrictions imposed on the persona. The persona’s inability to get to the other side of the Land of Dreams not only cites the restrictions imposed on thought and opinion – particularly important given Blake’s context within the late 18th Century with the Enclosure Acts and Treason Trials of which imprisoned many writers and thinkers of the time – but includes the man’s own inability to realise the truth affirmed through imagination and self-discovery. The liberation of man from his ’mind forg’d manacles’ is a particular ideology in which Blake holds independently on many writers within his time, presented through use of aesthetic throughout his poetry. [18: ] [19: ] [20: ]

With an understanding of both Blake and his context within the Enlightenment, we can see that the application of discourse and poetic techniques lends itself to the ideological values and beliefs of an author. As an advocate for many social changes, Blake places great ideological value on the alleviation of reason in order for the flourishing of one’s imagination, seen through his application aesthetic metaphor and imagery within his poetry. This not only compliments, but builds on the appropriation of both biblical and social discourses Blake alludes to in the freedom he supposes outside of the institutional nature of the Church and the Industrial Revolution. Blake, a Romantic poet and man of many ideological fancies, applies aesthetic techniques to the empowerment of all people in their pursuit towards self and true revelation in a time in which was restrictive and vindictive, suggesting that our own liberation is found when we can free ourselves from the ‘mind forg’d manacles’ in which we bound ourselves.

Bibliography

1. Abbs, Peter. “William Blake and the Forging of the Creative Self”. The London Magazine: A Review of Literature and the Arts, June/July 2014 Issue. London, June 2014. pp. 58-59. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/lrc/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=76b325e9-1c40-4a72-94e2-768ef4274d32%40sessionmgr4008
2. Ankarsjo, Magnus. William Blake and Religion: A New Critical View. McFarland and Company Inc, North Carolina, pp. 77
3. Blake, William. ‘A Dream’ from “Songs of Innocence”. The Portable Blake. Viking Penguin Inc, USA, First Published 1946. pp. 96
4. Blake, William. ‘Auguries of Innocence’ from “Verses and Fragments Second Series”. The Portable Blake. Viking Penguin Inc, USA, First Published 1946, pp. 150-154
5. Blake, William. ‘London’ from “Songs of Experience”. The Portable Blake. Viking Penguin Inc, USA, First Published 1946, pp. 112
6. Blake, William. ‘The Angel’ from “Songs of Experience”. The Portable Blake. Viking Penguin Inc, USA, First Published 1946, pp 106
7. Blake, William. ‘Land of Dreams’ from “Verses and Fragments Second Series”. The Portable Blake. Viking Penguin Inc, USA, First Published 1946, pp. 161-162
8. Bowman, Marcia Brown. “William Blake: A Study of His Doctrine of Art.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 10, no. 1, 1951, pp. 53–66. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/426788
9. Essick, Robert N. “William Blake, Thomas Paine, and Biblical Revolution.” Studies in Romanticism, vol. 30, no. 2, 1991, pp. 189–212. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25600891.
10. Helmstadter, Thomas H.. Blake and Religion: Iconographical Themes in the “Night Thoughts”. Studies in Romanticism. Vol.10, No. 3, Summer 1971, pp. 199-212. Boston University Press, USA. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25599804?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A2095c8541662600e23d640d52f5c7c68&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents
11. Kazin, Alfred. ’Introduction: The real man, the imagination’. The Portable Blake. Viking Penguin Inc, USA, First Published 1946, pp 1-55
12. Marks, Cato. “Writings of the Left Hand: William Blake Forges a New Political Aesthetic.” Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 74, no. 1, 2011, pp. 43–70. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/hlq.2011.74.1.43.
13. O’Reagan, Keith. Towards a Productive Aesthetics: History and Now – Time In Blake and Brecht. University of Toronto, Ontario, Oct. 2017. Taken from pp. 76. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10315/34486/O_Regan_Keith_A_2017_PhD.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
14. Sandler, Florence, and Joseph Anthony Wittreich. Modern Philology, vol. 77, no. 2, 1979, pp. 228–234. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/437519

In what way has a particular aspect, theme or text of Blake’s been adopted by at least one later artist, writer, filmmaker or musician?

William Blake was a complex character and his works are renowned for being near impossible to decipher, yet one fact we are sure of is that Blake was not a nationalist; he was a revolutionary. Yet when we look at the reception that ‘And Did Those Feet In Ancient Times…’ received, a noticeable patriotic theme emerges, with the preface to the longer prophetic poem, ‘Milton’, being heralded as the ‘unofficial’ national anthem. Whether this is creating the opportunity to include the working class in the Olympic Opening Ceremony, an expression of the distinctly ‘British’ nation, or simply alternative to the dreary, depressing ‘God Save The Queen’, it is not what Blake intended for his work.

Blake lived in relative obscurity and poverty, with his works mainly recognized after his death in 1827. He was home-schooled as a child, his eccentricities proving too difficult to manage around his peers, and in 1772, he was apprenticed to the engraver James Basire for seven years, at the end of which he became a professional engraver. Whilst there is no record of any disagreement between Basire and Blake, Ackroyd notes that Blake added Basire’s name to a list of artistic adversaries, and later crossed it out1 Peter Ackroyd, Blake (London: Ardent Media, 1995), p. 93. ; it is suspected that this is due to Blake’s resentment of Basire’s instruction of line-engraving rather than the modern mezzotint styles, and this was detrimental to receiving recognition for his work in later life.

Perhaps the greatest influence on Blake’s work was his visions, the majority of them biblical; Henry Crabb Robison states in his diary that “[Blake’s] faculty of vision, he says, he has had from early infancy”2 Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence, ed. by Thomas Sadler (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 21.

Gilchrist describes Blake’s first vision as such:

“On Peckham Rye (by Dulwich Hill) it is, as he will in after years relate, that while quite a child, of eight or ten perhaps, he has his ‘first vision.’ Sauntering along, the boy looks up and sees a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars”3 Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, ‘Pictor Ignotus'(London: Macmillan and Company, 1863), p. 7.

Blake’s visions would continue to influence the work that he produced and develop a life-long fascination with religion and how it is perceived by others. Blake was further influenced by the death of his brother, Robert Blake, when he saw Robert’s spirit ascend through the ceiling, a moment which upon entering William Blake’s psyche, would greatly influence his poetry. In the year following Robert’s death, he appeared to Blake in a dream, showing him a new method of printing, which Blake dubbed ‘illuminated painting’.

Whilst ‘And Did Those Feet…’, more commonly referred to as ‘Jerusalem’ in modern culture, went largely unnoticed when Blake published it in 1804, it gained popularity in 1916 when Hubert Parry adapted Blake’s famous stanzas to lyrics, to become ‘Jerusalem’, the hymn. Parry used a two-stanza format, adapting the poem at the request of now Poet Laureate Robert Bridges, and was written for the ‘Fight for Right’ movement, a group created to sustain the resolve of the British Armies and population during the First World War. Parry handed the manuscript to Walford Davies, Parry’s former student, and Davies recalls that “We looked at [the manuscript] together in his room at the Royal College of Music, and I recall vividly his unwonted happiness over it”4 Jeremy Dibble, C. Hubert H. Parry: His Life and Music (Wotton-under-Edge: Clarendon Press, 1998), p. 32. .

However, Parry began to take issues with ‘Fight For Right’, and wrote to Sir France Younghusband in 1917 to withdraw his support. Concerns arose over the scrapping of the song entirely but were put to rest by Millicent Fawcett of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The song was taken up by the Suffragists in 1917 and when asked by Fawcett if the song could be used at a Suffragist Demonstration, Parry responded that:

“I wish indeed it might become the Women Voters’ hymn, as you suggest. People seem to enjoy singing it. And having the vote ought to diffuse a good deal of joy too. So they would combine happily.”5 Dibble, p.38

Parry assigned the copyright to the NUWSS, and when that organization disbanded in 1928, the copyright was reassigned by Parry’s executors to the Women’s Institutes, remaining there until 1968 when it was released into the public domain.

Parry’s ‘Jerusalem’ has frequented popular culture, with many churches adopting ‘Jerusalem’ as a recessional hymn on Saint George’s Day. However, some clergymen of the Church of England have stated that the song is not technically a hymn, as a hymn must be a prayer to God6 ‘Jerusalem: An Anthem For England, dir. by (BBC, 2007). , therefore it is not sung in some churches in England, though it was sung during the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, somewhat disputing the Church’s claim.

Upon hearing the orchestral version of ‘Jerusalem’ for the first time, King George V was said to prefer it over the national anthem at the time, ‘God Save The King’. The irony of the situation is that Blake was charged with making seditious remarks about the King and Army; therefore, on paper, ‘And Did Those Feet’ certainly was not a candidate to become a national anthem. Despite Parry’s attempts at using an upbeat tempo, assisted by Edward Elgar’s orchestration, William Blake’s original words are rife with resentful irony, comparable to that of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony.

Blake asks four fundamental questions throughout the prelude, and the answer to each is ‘no’. Did Christ’s feet ever tread in England? It harks back to the legend of Jesus walking on “England’s Mountains Green”, part of the Medieval legends about King Arthur. Legend states that following Jesus’ crucifixion, Joseph carried the Holy Grail to Glastonbury, proceeding to establish the first English church. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of Church History, describes the legend as “Totally implausible. It obviously didn’t happen.”7 BBC, ‘The strange myth in the song Jerusalem’ BBC News [Online] 13 January 2016 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35304508 Accessed 15 January 2019, Paragraph 7. So why would Blake use this myth? England, specifically London, at the time, was not somewhere Blake wished to live. He describes the “dark satanic mills” of the Industrial Revolution; England’s “green and pleasant land” is a distant memory.

Blake asks four questions throughout ‘And Did Those Feet’; we know that Jesus did not walk through “England’s mountains green”. The other three questions asked follow a similar suit; Was the Lamb of God seen on “England’s pleasant pastures”? Did “The Countenance Divine” shine upon our clouded hills? Was Jerusalem built among the “dark satanic mills”? We know from looking at MacCulloch’s answer that the Lamb of God did not meander through the Cotswolds, was not spotted in the London smog, and there was most certainly not a sense of Jerusalem in industrialized London’s “satanic mills”. Consequently, the fantasy of a New Jerusalem being built in England is a striking parody of Napoleonic Era Nationalism.

Rather than present a united patriotic front, ‘Jerusalem’ highlights Blake’s fears surrounding the suppression of individual spirit. The famous “satanic mills” could refer to the Albion Flour Mills; large mills near Blake’s home in London, which were burned down following anonymously following a threat to put smaller mills out of business. If we took this as true, a strong Napoleonic image resonates with the reader. However, when Blake wrote about ‘mills’ in other works, he generally used the word as a metaphor for institutionalized religion, which similarly to Marx, who followed after him, he considered the natural ally for capitalism and monarchy.

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes that were more efficient, beginning in 1760 and ending around 1840, and presented a large turning point in history. A selection of economists argue that the revolution was the first time that the standard of living increased consistently. Despite this, Blake strongly opposed the ‘dark satanic mills’ he wrote about in ‘And Did Those Feet’. Many romantic poets, including Wordsworth, were opposed to the Industrial Revolution, with Blake expressing his distaste for child labour, particularly through his work “The Chimney Sweeper” from ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’. Blake writes “Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand until we have built Jerusalem”, harking back to Bulwer-Lytton’s famous words – “the pen is mightier than the sword”8 Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Richelieu, Or, The Conspiracy: A Play in Five Acts (Michigan: Baker, 1896). . By passionately writing this, Blake is declaring his opposition for the industrial revolution, his distaste for the “satantic mills” that ruin England’s “pleasant pastures green”. He is vowing to, with the support of other romantic writers he encountered – he was known to have met Paine, Fuseli and Wordsworth at Joseph Johnson’s house – attempt to combat the ‘impurities’ contaminating his potential ‘Jerusalem’.

When considering Blake’s apocalyptic vision, ‘Vala’, we see why ‘Jerusalem’ is not designed to become a national anthem of any variety. Throughout nine successive nights, Blake has visions of the universe unravelling, and the ninth night, mystery is removed from the world, with “the dark religions [departing] and sweet science reigns”. The spirit, Tharmas, declares:

“Art thou she that made the nations drunk with the cup of Religion?’ declares the spirit Tharmas. ‘Go down, ye Kings and Counsellors and Giant Warriors…Go down with horse and Chariots and Trumpets of hoarse war… Let the slave, grinding at the mill, run out into the field. Let him look up into the heavens and laugh in the bright air.”

What we can take from this passage is that Blake’s views on Royalty, Organised Religion, and Mills – previously discussed as a metaphor for industrialization – are not positive. This highlights the irony of Parry’s work to turn ‘And Did Those Feet’ into a nationalist anthem to rally patriotic support; Blake harboured a distaste for everything that represented nationalism. Following his trial for high treason, in which a drunken soldier caused a fight in the garden of his sequestered cottage, with the red coat boasting about being ‘the king’s soldier’, to which Blake replied, “Damn the King, and you too”9 Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, ‘Pictor Ignotus'(London: Macmillan and Company, 1863), p. 173 , showing that Blake’s original intentions were not for his words to be used as a way of supporting the King and Country.

Whittaker and Whitson state that “Blake, himself, in many respects, failed to recognise the full significance of the text he composed”10 Roger Whitson, Jason Whittaker, William Blake and the Digital Humanities: Collaboration, Participation, And Social Media(Oxon: Routledge, 2013), p. 73-74. , and it only appears on two out of four copies of ‘Milton’ (Copy A and Copy B). ‘And Did Those Feet’ was aimed at finding a wider readership for Blake, yet Essick and Viscomi explain that, when confident that the preface would find a wider readership, “[that confidence] Blake may have lost by the time he collated the two later copies”11 William Blake, Milton, A Poem: And The Final Illuminated Works, ed. by Robert N. Essick, Joseph Viscomi (New Jersey: Princeton University press, 1998), p. 40.

Bentley states that “William Blake was a visionary”12 G.E. Bentley, The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001). , and whilst the simplicity of the statement may incite devoted critics, it is nonetheless true. Blake conversed with angels and his deceased brother and following the previously discussed ‘Peckham Rye’ vision, he continued to have visions throughout his life that drove his creative works. Blake was reportedly suspicious of memory, with Rowland stating that “[memory is] the mere repetition of that which was received without that enhancement of that which has been received through the creativity of the visionary imagination”13 Christopher Rowland, ‘Blake and the Bible: Biblical Exegesis in the Work of William Blake’, International Journal of Systematic Theology, 7.2, (2005), 142-154 (p. 143). . Blake viewed himself as in the same league as Prophets, if not one himself; combined with his visions, in the Preface to Milton, he quotes Bible Verse 11:29 – “Would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets” – suggesting that he himself was some form of a modern prophet. Blake has a sense of insight and prophetic vision equipped in order to provide an explanation as to the meaning of the current events he experienced. Blake continued to recognize the prophets of the bible as interconnected beings; he dines with Isiah and Ezekiel in ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’.

Blake creates his own idiosyncratic faith, the major hero of which is Los, who’s figure as a prophetic role is exponentially explored; Blake can manipulate the prophet’s style and prophecies. Blake explains in 1798 that his prophecies were not intended to predict what would happen:

“Jonah was no prophet, in the modern sense, for his prophecy of Nineveh failed. Every honest man is a prophet; he utters his opinion both of private and public matters… A Prophet is a Seer, not an Arbitrary Dictator”14 William Blake, Annotations to Richard Watson, An Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters Addressed to Thomas Paine, reprint edn (Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press, 1984), p. 392.

The prophecies propose the bare bones of the dynamic history of revolution, highlighting the potential for positive change marred with the corrupt impulses that humans possess. The optimism that Blake potentially harboured towards the end of the eighteenth century is forced to compete with his desire to explore the complex nature of human nature and the probability of succumbing to the ‘dark delusions’ of the world. Europe was to be briefly lit with the flame of revolution, yet with the failure of the French Revolution, the continent is seen as sleepy and immune to this spirit of change15 See L. Tannenbaum, Biblical Tradition in Blake’s Early Prophecies: The Great Code of Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 168; C. Burdon, The Apocalypse in England: Revelation Unravelling 1700–1834 (London: Macmillan, 1977), pp. 180–208; and M.J. Tolley, ‘Europe “to those ychaind in sleep” ’, in D. Erdman and J. Grant, Blake’s Visionary Forms Dramatic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970). , entangled with religion and an ethic that resists any form of revolutionary change.

In the preface to ‘Milton’ we find a selection of the recurring themes in Blake’s works: his campaign against an education based solely on memory, and Rowland showed us that Blake is suspicious of memory, rather than inspiration. According to Goslee, Blake possessed the “conviction that the domination of classical culture had quenched the vitality of biblical inspiration.”16 N. Goslee, ‘“In England’s green & pleasant land”: The Building of Vision in Blake’s Stanzas from Milton’, Studies in Romanticism 13 (1974), pp. 105–25. . The idea of a ‘New Jerusalem’ presented in ‘And Did Those Feet’ was not a far-off dream nor as remote as it seemed, but a possibility of a better England, something purer and without the mechanical influences of the industrial revolution; something built to represent England’s “green and pleasant land”.

When exploring Blake’s poem, ‘And Did Those Feet’, and the reception it received, we see that Blake’s history and his intentions for the preface were morphed through Parry’s setting of the preface to music. Whilst minor revisions of the poem had been made beforehand, none had the consequences of Parry’s. Both the preface and the poem went unnoticed in Blake’s lifetime, therefore Blake’s feelings on how his work was adapted will never be definitively known, however, we can draw some conclusions. Following his arrest and attempted charge of high treason, we can conclude with reasonable certainty that Blake would not have been a supporter of ‘Jerusalem’ as a national anthem. Despite this, there is still significant calls for ‘Jerusalem’ to replace ‘God Save The Queen’, so much so that it is used before England National Team Rugby and Cricket matches as opposed to ‘God Save The Queen’, a fact that supporters of these sports are quite passionate about.

‘And Did Those Feet’ has taken on more modern adaptions as well; a popular Netflix animated TV show, ‘Neo Yokio’, uses ‘Jerusalem’ as it’s fictional country’s national anthem, replacing ‘England’ with ‘Yokio’. This provides an interesting point surrounding Blake’s intentions for the preface; not only was it used long after it was first published as a national anthem, a rallying cry of sorts, centuries on it is still being adapted as a fictional national anthem. This suggests that while Blake did not intend for this purpose, the ‘death of the author’ principle has taken over, with the opposite of what Blake wanted becoming the main use for his work. Unlike Neo Yokio, however, is the 1981 film ‘Chariots of Fire’, which takes it’s inspiration from the line “Bring me my chariot of fire”, a film which embodies the beliefs that Blake and his wife, Catherine, held.

This essay was started exploring the patriotic themes of Blake’s ‘And Did Those Feet’, and whilst it was not written with the intention of stirring up patriotic pride, it did so anyway, adapted by the Suffragette movement and many other organizations throughout centuries to create national pride, whether fictional or realistic. Despite its unintended uses, critics cannot dispute that whilst its effects were unintended, ‘And Did Those Feet’ remains one of Blake’s most poignant works, despite its status as merely a preface to a larger poem.

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