One example of Blake's disapproval of changes that happened in his time comes in his poem "London," from his work Songs of Experience In "London," which has been described as summing up many implications of Songs of Experience, Blake describes the woes that the Industrial Revolution and the breaking of the common man's ties to the land have brought upon him. For instance, the narrator in "London" describes both the Thames and the city streets as "chartered," or controlled by commercial interests; he refers to "mind-forged manacles"; he relates that every man's face contains "Marks of weakness, marks of woe"; and he discusses the "every cry of every Man" and "every Infant's cry of fear." He connects marriage and death by referring to a "marriage hearse" and describes it as "blighted with plague." He also talks about "the hapless Soldier's sigh" and the "youthful Harlot's curse" and describes "blackening Churches" and palaces running with blood ("London").
Following on from his views on marriage, which are very strong, he shows just how intensely he feels against the church and what it has done to ‘Love’. His concept was that love didn’t have to be proved by committing for life to rules made by the church, whom he felt manipulated people and young children, but the theme of it and the reality of the true passion was being lost due to the rules the church had enforced on ‘Love’. It was his own perception of religion and his own beliefs that led him to have such passionate feelings about the individuality of people and helped him to put into writing how he felt about people being restrained and manipulated by the Industrial Revolution and The Church.
At the time contemporary attitudes were very open. It was mostly assumed in the upper classes of society that the man of the house was free to sleep with any women he wished and it was the housemaid’s duty along with the work to sleep with him. Obviously the upper class women were also allowed to roam free to have sex with whom they pleased but this contrasted greatly to Blake’s views on civilized ‘Love’. He did not agree with this sort of unpassionate, once off activity. He thought love was a powerful life long passion between one person and another and showed this through various poems such as, The Blossom, a poem about the innocence of virginity and it being taken away physically and mentally, ‘A happy Blossom, hears you sobbing, sobbing, Pretty Pretty Robin, Near my Bosom.’
Another poem but this one in songs of experience shows another side of Blake as he describes the evil worm and destruction love can cause as he describes it like a disease. ‘O Rose thou art sick/ The invisible worm/That flies in the night/In the howling storm/Has found out thy bed/Of crimson joy:/And his dark secret love/Does thy life destroy.’
All of his poems about love I think have a direct connection to his feelings about love and maybe some scenarios have perhaps happened to him thus making him know and feel very strongly about what love should be.
In conclusion to the question I feel that William Blake did not explain to the full what he felt about love but made it possible to see both sides of his argument in his poems as he was able to manipulate his language but his views were very different to the ones of his day and we can see how they still have relevance in today’s society.
