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Social and Political Protest - Blake Themes Summary
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Summaries of themes in Blake's Innocence and Experience Collection for Elements of Social and Political Protest Writing Paper. Using quotations and context.
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In what way are children presented as pure in Blake’s poetry. (covers nature and religion)Within the collection, Blake explores the relationship between child and the outside world that it
occupies, whether this be through parental figures or that of religion and either an existing or much
needed ignorance of the corrupt system in which children were so often exploited. Blake works to expose
the oppression of children through Innocence and Experience, as well as the intrusion of adults and
organized religion on the life of children, a life that should be pure. In the Echoing Green, we saw what
Blake implores as the purest relationship with God, when man becomes synchronized with nature. The
children are described as ‘many sisters and brothers, like birds in their nest,’ the simile demonstrates that
man is in tune with nature, this indicating that their relationship with God is untainted. The Garden of
Love’s intrusion of the chapel that was ‘built in the midst,’ where the narrator ‘used to play,’ is an
obvious example of the physical chapel, a representative of organized religion, that has interfered with
man’s relationship with nature and therefore – God. The chapel is illustrated as ‘binding with briars my
joys and desires,’ the metaphor suggestive of the oppression and constriction of the church, that with
organized religion, children who are born with a pure connection to God are slowly pried away from this
with the indoctrination of the Church that they no longer know ‘joy’ or ‘desire.’
Blake’s protest with that of the adult world corrupting the purity of the lives of children is not confined to
that of the church, but those of the corrupt employers in The Chimney Sweeper or Holy Thursday. The
‘wands as white as snow,’ that lead the children on the procession of Holy Thursday are dichotomous in
themselves, the ‘white’ suggestive of purity but ironic, like the children’s ‘clean’ faces,’ in that this is
only for this one celebration, aside from this day – the children and the system that has exploited them are
far from pure. The ‘cold and usurious hand’ of their employers is indicative of the oppression by these
adults, perhaps this phrase a very literal metaphor for life and Blake’s world of ‘Experience,’ that is
merely a place where your innocence is abused as a child, and in the cyclical life of the juxtaposed
‘marriage hearse,’ the child then in turn becomes corrupt. The confused rhetorical question of ‘Is that
trembling cry a song?’ is summative of the corrupt nature that the adults of these children are exploited
by, that the falsity of this celebratory day is evident – the children are ignorant to it. Blake states bluntly,
‘It is eternal winter here,’ the metaphor implies the harshness of the children’s lives, the connotations of
‘winter’ being that of sterility and the ‘cold’ way in which the children have been treated. Overall, what
Blake tries to capture is that children should be pure, but ultimately this becomes unachievable when they
are born ‘striving against (my) swaddling bands,’ and unchangeably oppressed by the corrupt until they
are enforced to become corrupt themselves, and no longer pure.
To what extent is Blake’s protest ultimately about creation, within religion and society? (covers
religion and nature)
When it comes to Blake’s protest, creation seems to be at the center of his argument; with the
indoctrination of the church and organized religion becoming a controlling force in the lives of those he
voices in his poetry. In the Divine Image, Blake depicts the creations of the Church and the irony of their
origins, ‘Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love,’ are a devised truth by the church, constructions of religion that
Blake argues only exist because of the oppression of the church. Without oppression, and therefore
suffering or plight – we would not need these constructions of ‘Mercy,’ the capitalized letters to suggest
their constructed nature. This creation of truth by a religion that has ‘thou shalt not writ across the door’
of a place that is supposed to connect man and God are clearly intent on infringing upon that relationship,
to the point where people become manipulated and oppressed. Another creation, but this time purely
made by God, is that of the metaphors, ‘the Tyger,’ and the ‘the Lamb.’ In both these poems, Blake’s
voice questions these two contrasting creations, disbelievingly asking, ‘Did he who made the lamb make
thee?’ It is the doubt by Blake, that of what these represent – the bad and the good – that God has had the
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