William Blake Research Paper

Blake’s Hopes to Sweep Away Social Barriers
William Blake, a seminal poet during the Romantic Era, accumulated countless pieces of poetry which helped change the world, saving the lives of many innocent children from harsh labor and premature deaths. Blake acquired a strong hate for industrialization, therefore he wanted to address the concerns through lines of poetry. Blake’s most notable pieces, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), both include the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”, which highlights the unfairness and brutality suffered by adolescent chimney sweeps during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The two poems contradict each other; the first version is cheerful and optimistic whereas the second version is vicious.

Blake’s religious views involved leaving behind the idea of a controlled religion, which was mainly influenced by Christian dissenters in Britain. Blake felt that the Church and the Monarchy should not be looked at as one due to the strong amount of power they each held separately (Morsberger). Blake looked at organized religion as a tool of ignorance and control. In Blake’s first collection featuring “The Chimney Sweeper”, the children wait for the Angel to set them free and shine light on them. These children, however, are unaware of the unfavorable impacts that the Church was compelling on their lives at this time. In contrast, the poem published in Songs of Experience portrays a chimney sweeper who blames the people he feels are most accountable for the endless work hours he and several other children experience on a daily basis. This child has a different outlook compared to the first poem and blames the Church along with the government for all the misery forced upon the laborers (Freedman). The speaker discusses the negative impact of authority by using words that are harsh and straight-forward, which further exemplifies Blake’s overall feelings towards the corruption of power. At first, he describes how both of his parents have “gone up to church to pray” (4), which reveals a feeling of guilt and regret because they left their son to suffer for the sake of their family.

“The Chimney Sweeper” is just one example of a poem that contains romantic elements. The first poem primarily focuses on a child of innocence, while the second poem emphasizes the child's experience. The children presented in the first poem do not have a clear and direct comprehension of the world. In contrast, the children in the second poem understand the ideas of Blake and see the flaws of both the Church and the State, which have forced them into this menacing lifestyle. After publishing the second poem, Blake waited patiently and remained hopeful that more people would support his views on the corruption of power and mechanization during the age of revolutions. People did not begin to appreciate Blake's poetry that signified the loss of traditional values until after he died in the mid-19th century. Blake embodied what it meant to be a Romantic because he wanted to bring man and nature closer together; therefore he tried to advise the world that industrialization would soon take over pastoral life and lead to a world deprived of morals. Overall, Blake was one of the few people during this time that was not blinded by the new innovations that led to a harsh reality for the