William Blake, as being a libertarian and political writer concerned with Romantic values concerning the freedom with the human spirit and liberty, wrote his ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ in an attempt to attack the corrupt personal systems and institutions about at the time he was writing throughout the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment, in his tracks, Blake proposes rebellion against such devices, alongside setting up his best of a Utopia within his ‘Songs of Innocence’, with the virtues of ‘mercy, shame, peace and love’ present in ‘The Divine Image’ aptly summarizing the of Blake’s Utopia, with such benefits being plainly nowhere found in the damaged society which in turn Blake details in his ‘Songs of Experience’ in this sort of poems because ‘London’ and ‘Holy Thursday’.
One particular subject of Blake’s social and political protest within just his ‘Songs of Purity and Experience’ is that of the church, while although he himself was obviously a Christian, he can be seen to attack the twisted version of religion which in turn holds dangerous ideologies that exploit and damage the vulnerable, neglecting the traditional principles of charitable organisation and mercy and instead permitting racism plus the suffering of children, as observe in ‘The Little Black Boy’ and ‘Holy Thursday’ respectively. In ‘The Work Image’, the speaker (presumably either the voice of Blake or voicing Blake’s thoughts), character the virtues of ‘Mercy, Pity, Tranquility and Love’ and states that these are ‘God, the Father dear’, suggesting that God Himself is the representation of these virtues, that these attributes are what we should be aspiring to within humanity, setting up a link among God and humankind because all prayers to ‘Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love’ should be directed not just to God but to ‘the man form divine’, through this kind of, Blake can be seen to stress the superlative importance of these attributes of cardiovascular within mankind and protesting against all those religious supporters who act hypocritically in allowing kids such as those in ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ or ‘Holy Thursday’ to suffer whilst those in power as well as the hierarchical church allow for these kinds of vast inequalities within world.
Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ is visible to set up a Utopia, much like More’s, where the virtues of whim, pity, serenity and like are abounding and then proved to be lacking in the earth described in the ‘Songs of Experience’ which criticize and protest resistant to the corrupt regulators of his day, making a proposal for rebellion to establish a more idealized, liberated condition. In ‘The Shepherd’, for example , the character from the shepherd can be interpreted being a God-like physique as he acts in a similar way towards his sheep as the omnibenevolent Our god of the Bible can be seen to act towards humankind, showing appreciate towards his sheep because ‘his tongue shall be filled with praise’ indicating that he takes a patient and supporting role over his ‘sweet lot’, along with ‘peace’ taking a foreground in the poem as the shepherd is described as ‘watchful’ towards his sheep ‘while they are in peace, /For they know when their particular shepherd is nigh’, alluding to a romance between the shepherd and his lamb where the sheep place faith in the shepherd as their protector and adoring father figure: just like the loving image of God anxious by Blake. In this way, consequently , the benefits of whim, pity, tranquility and love as defined in ‘The Divine Image’ can be seen to learn a role in Blake’s description of a Utopian society fantastic ideal picture of religion being a loving, combined front among humankind and God, which turns lends to set up his proposal intended for rebellion in the ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’.
Blake may further be viewed to explore the benefits of mercy, pity, serenity and appreciate in his ‘Songs of Innocence’ poem ‘The Little Dark Boy’, in which a black kid who has experienced racial prejudice describes a conversation along with his mother who assures him that his ‘soul is white’ and will 1 day go to bliss where Goodness will show him ‘love’. Inside the poem, the child’s mother can be seen to show him all qualities of mercy, pity, peace and love since outlined in ‘The Divine Image’ because the boy describes just how ‘she required on her lap and kissed me’ demonstrating a caring, maternal act which shows pity on the boy who feels that he is ‘bereaved of light’, alluding to God’s like as ‘light’ as a picture is used typically by Blake to refer to the presence of God, suggesting that the boy feels like God does not love him in the same was as well as the English kids around him who will be conversely depicted as ‘angels’, and therefore quickly shown appreciate by Our god. The little son’s mother then goes on to adoring assure the boy that he is as, if not more so , worthy of The lord’s love as other children as he has leant to ‘bear the beams of love’ that have caused ‘the black systems and this sunburnt face’, working to instill a sense of peace of mind inside the child who have before being told this demonstrated distress by being set apart from the ‘English child’ and seen by those since ‘bereaved of light’. The depiction of God presented by Blake through the caring voice with the mother inside the poem shows these benefits further, when he is cited as declaring ‘come out from the grove, my love and care, /And circular my golden tent just like lambs rejoice’, with the picture of a ‘grove’ as a tiny wood telling a enclosed, shaded region where perhaps the oppressed such as the ‘little black boy’ metaphorically reside because they are cast away from the rest of contemporary society, and the kind tone paired with the crucial of ‘come out’ exhibiting the patient, father-like mother nature of Our god as he lovingly, whilst showing pity toward those who have recently been residing n the ‘grove’, invites the oppressed to ‘like lambs rejoice’ iin his ‘love and care’, the image from the ‘lamb’ becoming one identified throughout Blake’s poetry as a symbol of innocence and purity. With racial misjudgment being a concentrate of the Blake’s cultural and political protest, therefore , the interpretation of God as a adoring father figure whom shows shame and like in particular to all or any without respect of their contest as proven in ‘The Little Dark Boy’, provides for a form of protest against the conservative, racist opinions held by the government of his some acts as a pitch for rebellion against individuals who perceive white-colored children as superior to black children just as the eye of Our god, Blake displays, individuals of most races happen to be perceived as the same and are equally as worthy as you another of His appreciate.
Mercy, pity, tranquility and like can further be seen because apt explanations of Blake’s proposal to get his rebellion when looking at his own political ideologies, along with his depictions of these benefits within his poetry. Blake was see a revolutionary libertarian, who admired Thomas Paine and is seen to draw from his ideas about the advocation pertaining to equal personal rights as well as the attacking of hierarchical authorities and monarchy as laid out in his 1790’s novel ‘The Rights of Man’, and also to an level the attacking of the contrary claims organised by the Christian Church in the ‘The Regarding Reason’. These types of virtues happen to be pertinent through his ‘Songs of Innocence’, through, as an example, the narrator of ‘A Dream’ who also describes how ‘Pitying, I dropped a tear’, clearly demonstrating shame towards the emmet who had ‘lost its way’ and in ‘On Another’s Sorrow’ where accord for those using a ‘falling tear’ is provided as the universal individual reaction, whim as demonstrated in ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ as the oppressed fireplace sweep narrator describes just how ‘if almost all do their particular duty, they need not dread harm’, peacefulness in ‘The Echoing Green’ between the pastoral landscape, the kids playing around the green plus the elderly people watching these people play, and love displayed in a variety of the tunes, one example staying in ‘The Little Boy Found’ where a kind of caring, parental love is usually shown equally by the presumed figure of God who also leads the boy to his mother who reveals distress in the loss of her son because ‘her little boy weeping sought’.
In the ‘Songs of Experience’, however , Blake’s awareness of these benefits as a pitch for rebellion turns for the cruel injustice that this individual sees coming from the state as well as the corrupt government bodies of his time, frequently using the expression ‘chartered’ in ‘London’ about depict the restrictive mother nature of the metropolis and using the device of rhetorical question a plethora of instances throughout his songs to be able to address the reader directly and invite those to question the nature of the state of the time- asking in ‘Holy Thursday’ whether it is a ‘holy thing to see’ to get innocent, impoverish children to become treated terribly and ‘reduc’d to misery’, emotively showing the lack of whim, pity, appreciate and peace which is in reality shown by state and the Church to those who are in need. It is usually argued, consequently , that ‘mercy, pity, tranquility and love’ do not make for the fully apt description of Blake’s pitch for rebellion in his ‘Songs of Purity and Experience’, but are used to set up an excellent, imagined state before demonstrating the lack of these kinds of virtues within England through the 1800s, along with his proposal for rebellion lying down moreso in his vivid descriptions of oppression, restriction, and the cruel treatment of those in need to be able to encourage his audience to rebel against such a method, by way of relaxing protest because suggested in his chosen sort of protest becoming through his written songs, his values as a Intimate, and through how he stopped promoting the French Wave despite the aims aligning with his belief due to the fact that it involved physical violence and the time for revolutionaries to tyrannical oppressors themselves.
The 4 qualities of mercy, pity, peace and love because laid out in the ‘Songs of Innocence’ poem ‘The Divine Image’ can be seen, to an extent, to be a great apt explanation of Blake’s proposal for rebellion, when he suggests through his presenting these virtues in his depiction of a Utopia in the ‘Songs of Innocence’ that such are the features he thinks all of mankind should display and that, as seen in ‘The Divine Image’ we should most ‘pray’ to these qualities inside both humankind and Goodness whilst forming a usa brotherhood with such beliefs at the foreground: however , it can be argued that Blake’s proposal for rebellion more lies in his exploration of oppression in the vulnerable simply by those in power fantastic ethos of anti-clericism and anti-establishment lighting to the target audience his pitch for rebellion more vividly than his initial description of an idealized state in the ‘Songs of Innocence’.
