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William Blake: a dissenter

The social context in which William Blake (1757-1827) lived

does not go unnoticed in the work of the English author. The social
problems of his era are markedly reflected in his poetry as well as it
is his preoccupation of the state of spirituality at the time; thus, he
was close to become a rebel in what his literary production refers, as
he could see the necessity of change. In the collection of illustrated
poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience 1 the essence of a
dissident author is easily found, Blake stated himself against
institutionalized religion or despotic authority. As author Bowra has
pointed out in Songs of Innocence and Experience (1950)," William
Blake:

Songs

of

Innocence

and

Experience:

Casebook,

to

understand the meaning of Blakes poetry is essential to the delight

which the poems give (138); in this sense the importance of his
poetry lays in the fact that Blake embodied his social concerns in his
work. . Blake considered that the problems of his era were human
and general; [and] they need[ed] to be negotiated by every
intelligent human being sooner or later.2 In the collection of his
poems it is assumed that the author performs his criticism in

1 Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Ed. Lincoln, Andrew.

Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991.
2 Mankowitz, Wolf. "The Songs of Experience (1947)," William Blake: Songs
of Innocence and Experience: A Casebook Ed. Margaret Bottrall. London:
Macmillan 1970.

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opposition to all forms of institution. Therefore, this essay aims to

state and explain the reasons for William Blake to be considered a
dissident author of his time.
In the analysis of the poetry of William Blake, is effortless to
find a social critic concerned with politic and social problems but, it
is also easy to encounter a man who is equally interested in the
transcendence of the individual and the human values, that is,
human spirituality. This means that Blake believed that political
change in his time was not enough; he considered that spiritual
change was also needed. It is precisely for this reason that the
author requires his readers to understand what the real problems of
their society were. Blake was against the despotic authority of the
century in which he lived; he found that the restrictive morality or
the institutionalized religion were control modes that destroy what is
most holy in humans. In this sense, Blake does not appeal for a
political or moral anarchy, on the contrary, he expressed the need for
a balance between the two forces. His era was in crisis and
something needed to be done or at least the true reality needed to be
heard.
In the collection of illustrated poems Songs of Innocence and
Experience the author expresses explicitly his viewpoint about the
problems of his time. As author Bowra3 has pointed out: Blake
3,4 Bowra, C. M. "Songs of Innocence and Experience (1950)," William Blake:
Songs of Innocence and Experience: A Casebook Ed. Margaret Bottrall.
London: Macmillan 1970.

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groups his verses under two main headings, and there is plainly a
great difference of character between the two parts (139).
According to Bowra, in the first part (Songs of Innocence) Blake
provides an imaginative vision of innocence from a child's viewpoint,
however, in the second part (Songs of Experience) Blake showed that
experience destroys the state of childhood innocence and instead
many destructive forces take its place. Thus, what Blake intended
with this opposition of the two parts of the book is to show the two
contrary states of the human soul 4. Blake sees man corrupted by the
currents of thought and obviously by experience; these forces do not
allow man to think and therefore he does not see what goes on
around him, so man becomes another sheep of the flock. He found
that there was a lack of moral values precisely because of the
corruption of the most holy in the human spirit.
Despite being a firm believer of God, Blake illustrated in his
poetry his criticism on the abusive power that the institutionalized
church exerted mainly on the poor. This fact is distinctly reflected in
'Holy Thursday' of Songs of Experience. In the first part of the poem,
what can be drawn from it is that the care that these children receive
is far away from what it should be. What Blake criticizes here is that
the cold and usurious hand that nourishes the children is only
motivated by self-interest, rather than from compassion or love as
one may expect it to be. As it could be appreciated in the poem, the
children are participating in a public exhibition of joy but the reality
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is that this does not reflect the actual circumstances of the infants. In
a scene where the kids are, apparently happy, attending church on a
holy day, what is behind their clean faces is another reality: the true
is that they were receiving a painful and precarious care. The public
presentation of children suggests only the hypocrisy of religion
institutionalized; the Christian charity which is presumed by the
rulers of the Church is far away from being compassion for the poor
but only pure appearance.
In the same sense, Blake produced a critique of the urban
poverty and misery suffered by the city of London, a city which at
first glance was developed politically and socially. Therefore, Blake
states that the misery of Londoners was not simply displeasure or
discomfort; he found that it was death following disease, disease
which could not be cured because it was neither acknowledged
socially nor understood. At this point, it is emphasized that the
author wanted to reach the ears of the people to make them aware
about what was happening in the 18th century English society. Blake
wanted to expose the reality of a society that boasted of being so
advanced when beneath the carpet there was only hypocrisy and
ignorance of contemporary social problems. In this sense, in the
poem London he gives his own view of that chartered liberty on
which

his

countrymen

prided

themselves,

and

exposes

the

indisputable, ugly facts5. Hence, Blake talks about the condemned

5, 6 Bowra, C. M. "Songs of Innocence and Experience (1950)," William
Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience: A Casebook Ed. Margaret
Bottrall. London: Macmillan 1970. (151)

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life of the chimneys sweeper supported by the churches or the

demanded death of the soldier by the court, in definitive; these are
the victims of a system based not on brotherhood but on fear.6
In conclusion, it is accurate to declare that Blake can be
considered a dissident and rebel author of his time; he produced a
strong social criticism in his work in an effective manner. William
Blake was conscious of the problems of the society in which he lived;
he was able to see the necessity to arrive to an audience that could
understand the reality of a society that needed a political as well as a
spiritual change.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Ed.
Lincoln, Andrew. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991.

Bottrall, Margaret (ed.). William Blake: Songs of Innocence

and Experience. A selection of Critical Essays. Houndmills and
London. Macmillan Educational Ltd, 1970.

Bowra, C. M. "Songs of Innocence and Experience (1950),"

William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience: A Casebook Ed.
Margaret Bottrall. London: Macmillan 1970.

Mankowitz, Wolf. "The Songs of Experience (1947)," William

Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience: A Casebook Ed. Margaret
Bottrall. London: Macmillan 1970.

ONLINE SOURCES
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-blake

http://www.enotes.com/topics/songs-innocence-experience/criticalessays

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