Essay on William Blake

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

The Constraints of the Church

William Blake throughout his poems’ in Songs of Innocence and Experience emphasizes freedom and his sympathy for rebellion. In a lot of Blake’s poems the emphasis on freedom and sympathy for rebellion is against one his most central themes in the book, which is social institutions, mainly the church. Blake emphasizes freedom of thought, which the church confines and rebellion against the restrained teachings of the church. To a certain extent this opinion is a valid evaluation of Bakes views in Songs of Innocence and Experience in the poem “A Little Girl Lost”. However, some of Blake’s poems also implicitly advocate a patient, even passive, acceptance of injustice and suffering to the church. The “Garden of Love” conveys that the church’s restrains are silently followed. In addition Blake also conveys both emphasis on freedom of thought and rebellion against church and passive acceptance of injustice and suffering in the same poem. “The Little Boy Lost” conveys both opinions. Blake in Songs of Innocence and Experience conveys specific poems that emphasize rebellion and freedom against the church, but also in other poems conveys a passive acceptance to injustice and suffering that the church advocates.

In the poem “A Little Girl Lost” Blake emphasizes rebellion against the teachings of the church and freedom of thought and love. This is conveyed through the use of multiple speakers and juxtaposition of metaphoric colors. In this poem a girl rebels against the church by choosing to love and engage in sexual relations before marriage, which is forbidden in the teachings of Christianity. Blake chooses to start the poem with speaker number one who directly addresses the readers. “Children of the future Age, / Reading this indignant page; / Know that in a former time, / Love! Sweet Love! was thought a crime.” (Blake, 1967, a.ll.1-4) This speaker directly talks to the audience and conveys to them that the freedom to love was inadmissible back in the day. From the beginning Blake conveys to the audience that the fact that love was condemned was appalling by suggesting that love was “sweet love” and was thought of as a crime. The second speaker then narrates the story of a girl who rebels against the church and does fall in love despite it being thought of as a crime. “Parents were afar: / Strangers came not near: / And the maiden soon forgot her fear.” (Blake, 1967, a.ll.19-21) By using the two speakers Blake emphasizes freedom of love and thought because he takes the time to point out to the readers through speaker one that love was thought crime and then through the second speaker describes how this injustice was rebelled against. The story of how the little girl rebels against the church expresses Blake’s sympathy for rebellion because through the first speaker he conveys that not being able to love freely was amiss and therefore the actions of the girl are justified. Another way Blake emphasizes freedom of thought and love is through the juxtaposition of metaphoric colors. In the poem he points out the color green, through the garden in which the two lovers meet and juxtaposes the green with the girl’s white father and his hoary hair. The green in this poem is a metaphor for nature and freedom. In the garden the girl has the freedom to love and engage in sexual acts. “Once a youthful pair / Fill’d with softest care / Met in garden bright.” (Blake, 1967, a.ll.11-14) However Blake chooses to associate the girl’s father with the color white, which acts as a metaphor for God. “O the dismal care! / That shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair.” (Blake, 1967, a.ll. 37-38) The green and the white are juxtaposed against each other to show that the girl is closer to green which is freedom and rebels against her father who is associated with white and is a metaphor for God. The father is closer to the God and church while the girl rebels against the church’s restrictions. Through the use of multiple speakers and juxtaposition of metaphorical colors Blake conveys his emphasis on freedom of love and thought and rebellion against the church’s restrictions.

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In the “Garden Of Love” however, Blake conveys a passive acceptance to the injustice brought by the church. In this poem similar to “A Little Girl Lost” the freedom to love is being condemned by the Church. But unlike in “A Little Girl Lost” where the girl goes against the church and loves anyways, in this poem there is a passive acceptance to the constrains of the church. This is conveyed through juxtaposition. In this poem a Chapel replaces the Garden of Love that once used to be existent. “I went to the garden of Love. / And saw what I never had seen: / A Chapel was built in the midst, / Where I used to play on the green.” (Blake, 1967, b.ll.1-4) The place where the person used to freely love described through playing on the green, is now unfeasible due to the Chapel. The Garden of Love acts as a metaphor for the liberation of love, which is censured by the church. There is also juxtaposition between the Garden, which was free to love, and the Chapel. “ So I turn’s to the Garden of Love, / That so many sweet flowers bore, / And I saw it filled with graves / And tomb-stones where flowers should be:” (Blake, 1967, b.ll.8-10) The Garden of Love bore new births, which is described through the bearing of the flowers whereas the Church is just increasing deaths. However, even though the speaker goes through so much injustice and suffering he still does not rebel, he just passively accepts the changes brought by the Church. “And binding with briars, my joys & desires.” (Blake, 1967, b.ll.12) The conclusion of the poem conveys that the speaker’s joys and desires are bound without any revolt.

In “A Little Boy Lost” Blake conveys both rebellion against the church for freedom of thought and passive acceptance of the injustice brought by the church. Similar to “A Little Girl Lost” the rebellion against the teachings of the church is done by a youth. In this poem the boy condemns the church by loving himself more than God, and loving God equal to everyone else. This rebellion of the child is highlighted through the use of a different speaker to convey the boy’s feelings. The first two stanzas when the boy is speaking use a different speaker. “Nor is it possible to Thought / A greater than itself to know: / And Father how, can I love you, / Or any of my brothers more?” (Blake, 1967, c.ll.3-6) However this rebellion leads to the death of the child, because the church burns the boy for loving himself more than god, and not following the teachings of Christianity. The passive acceptance to this injustice and suffering of the boy’s death is conveyed through the actions of the boy’s parents. Even though the boy is about to be burnt for just having his own thoughts, which is injustice, Blake expresses that the parents of the child do nothing to stop this. “The weeping child could not be heard, / the weeping parents wept in vain:” (Blake, 1967, b.ll.17-18) The parents do not stand up for the child, but instead accept what is going on. Therefore in this poem Blake conveys both rebellion against freedom to think, and passive acceptance of the church’s teachings.

William Blake emphasizes freedom for thought and love and sympathy for the rebellion against the church in “A Little Girl Lost.” He also shows passive acceptance to the injustice and sufferings of the church through “The Garden of Love.” Blake also integrates the two opinions in “A Little Boy Lost.” These two contradicting opinions are present throughout Songs of Innocence and Experience and it is not possible to conclude which opinion Blake more heavily emphasizes.

Bibliography:

Blake, W. (1967a). A Little Girl Lost. In Songs of Innocence and of Experience (plate 51). New York: Oxford University Press.

Blake, W. (1967b). The Garden Of Love. In Songs of Innocence and of Experience (plate 44). New York: Oxford University Press.

Blake, W. (1967c). A Little Boy Lost. In Songs of Innocence and of Experience (plate 50). New York: Oxford University Press.