William Blake Research Paper

“Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.” (Blake, 1827)This is the capability of poetry –its power to change the generation for better or for worse. It’s a common language; a constant bona fide element of society whether it is the Roman Era or the English Romantic Period.

William Blake was a famous English painter, poet and printmaker during the 18th century. His artwork and literature have been largely characterised as part of the Romantic Era and Movement. Although highly regarded for his paintings, Blake’s poetry was highly criticised for by his fellow contemporaries for its distinctive views. However, his international acclaim

Nonetheless, it is the social context of the poem that is highly relevant for an effective understanding of the ideas and messages in the poem. This poem is told through the images and sounds, where the latter set the scene for us. It starts off with familiar noises such as ‘cry’ (lines 5-6) which is entirely a metaphor for the street noise, pedestrians, transport means and the lovely children. It all seems simple enough. Then the sounds progressively become stranger, as seen in the phrase “in every noise, in every ban/The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.” It bluntly exposes the idea that human beings labour in chains of their own making, surreally comparing the pedestrians to prisoners as they are dragged past with shackles around their wrist and ankles. In this case, if the poem’s manacles are forged in our minds –that is if they are imaginary –then they can be broken by a simple alteration of consciousness. Blake connects the social context by a simple phrase ‘in every ban’, showing that these cries of man and infant are present in every social regulation and proclamation. Through implementing the social background in the poem, Blake allows us to delve deeper into the interpretation of the

The phrase “I hear” is used several times throughout the stanza, setting up a sequence of fragile sound effects. The manipulations of these senses are the main reason why we readers have a scene set for us. “The chimney sweepers cry” and it’s a jaunty street call insidiously masking a helpless child’s misery. Blake suggests that it should ‘appal’ the ‘blackning Church’ –or rather it should force the institution into some horrified action measure but it doesn’t. Its metaphorical implication is that the soot staining the church façade is what the sweeps give their lives to scrape away, but all they get as recognition or even acknowledgement is the cleaning brush and a ladder. To be honest with you, it’s not only the soot on the exterior that is literally blackening the Church, but the symbolic interior as well. In Blake’s view, the hijacking of society by rapacious religious interests is a clear indication that the institution is just as corrupt and black as the soot itself. These lines are stemmed from the event that in the case of the acid pollution pouring from factory chimneys and eroding the imperial monuments of Europe, it was the chimney sweeper’s job to protect the institution from