William Blake Man of the Industrial Revolution - 1680 Words

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution was born in England. With this new growth in industry and capitalism, businessmen recognized the advantage of cheap labor. Children were among the most abused work force in that country s history. William Blake saw this increase of social injustice and was overwhelmed, so he began to write about this hypocrisy of social values that he felt was being carefully hidden from the mainstream. While most considered this unavoidable, child labor was a topic that they did not discuss openly in social groups. Blake wanted to change all of that. As a social critic, he wrote many poems condemning the hypocrisy between these two worlds, for example, The Chimney Sweeper, London, and The†¦show more content†¦. . it filled with graves. That line has such a strong emotional presence. A child is trying to get in touch with his or her inner feeling. The reader can actually feel the whiplash of feelings this child must have felt when seeing this image of the garden being filled with death. Death is symbolizing the inadequacies of the Church during this time. What is most disturbing is that Blake was a renowned religious man: Christianity was beautiful to him. . . accepted even more because it satisfied his love of spiritual beauty. . . (Alexander Gilchrist 13:164). The next line extends the violent imagery of death and decay as the . . .tomb-stones where flowers should be. The last two lines complete the scene Blake is describing: Priests in black robes / binding with briars my joys and desires. Pain has invaded the world of innocence where love was combined with experience and now a garden of death replaces it. Blake sought to expose the social problems and the immorality that were happening around him. The church was filled with hypocrisy because these men talked the talk but did not walk the walk. One critic explains, ?Blake s poems appear the simplest in the world, but suddenly a deeper note, an allusion to hidden sufferings and wounds. . . (Jusserand 5:218). Blake isShow MoreRelated Essay of Comparison between The Tiger and The Lamb, poems by William Blake1506 Words   |  7 PagesEssay of Comparison between The Tiger and The Lamb, poems by William Blake The Tiger and The Lamb were poems by William Blake, a poet who lived in the 18th century. In this essay I am going to compare the two poems and examine links between them relating to rhymes, patterns and words used. Blakes background relates on the poems he wrote, and many of his works reflected his early home life. Blake in his childhood was an outcast, a loner, and didnt have many friends. His family believed Read MoreWilliam Blake Had A Strict Standard On How His Poems Should1431 Words   |  6 Pages William Blake had a strict standard on how his poems should appear. 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Blake had relatively nothing at stake in his opposition to the norm; he had been judged as an insane person for the majority of his life. However, Blake’s resistance to traditional Christian tenets was only part of his socioreligious defiance. Blake spoke against the very mode of popular thought through his writing, a revolutionary style of prose and nontraditionalRead MoreHow Blake and Wordsworth Respond to Nature in their Poetry Essay771 Words   |  4 PagesHow Blake and Wordsworth Respond to Nature in their Poetry What natural influences did Blake and Wordsworth respond to in their poetry? Blake and Wordsworth were under different influences stemming from their childhood. Wordsworths pleasant and simplistic life style in the country, contrasted with the harsh reality of life experienced by Blake in the City of London. This essay analyses how both poets expressed their very different views of London through their use of Read More Analysis of The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake Essay1641 Words   |  7 PagesWilliam Blake was a first generation Romantic poet. Many of his poems were critical of a society who thought themselves to be almost perfect, a society run by, not their own free will, but the use of technology. He wanted people to question what they had always done, and whether it was morally right. He did so by using varying techniques that set up clashes between ideologies and reality. His poems allow us to see into ‘the eternal world of the spirit’ and his dreams of the sacred England