William Blake English Coursework Essay Example for Free

William Blake English Coursework Essay From the poems that you have studied, what have you learnt about Blakes attitude to the treatment of children in his time? How does he try to persuade his reader to empathise with his characters? Which poem (or poems) do you think best achieve this aim, and why? One of Blakes main influences was the society in which he lived in. William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in London. Blake was influenced by events in both the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, by the attitude of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They inspired a new way of looking at the world. Blake thought that imagination was the force of art, and people thought his art was too adventurous and unconventional for that time. William Blake witnessed the effect Britains war with republican France had on society, and he talks about this in London (Songs of Experience) and The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience) He had radical religious and political ideas, which led him to write Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In a lot of Blakes poems, he tackles the issue of child labour. After the industrial revolution, with a rise in population came a rise in the number of children being made to work. An employer could pay a child less than an adult, and children were useful for more jobs, for example when Blake wrote The Chimney Sweeper. In both of The Chimney Sweeper poems, Blake attacks the treatment of children at the time. The first one, in Songs of Innocence, shows a naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve view of how a child at the time felt. The first three stanzas are negative, starting with When my mother died when I was very young, and describing, thousands of sweepers were lockd up in coffins of black. But this poem shows children have a positive outlook on life, with the final three stanzas being positive. It talks about an Angel who set them all free. I think Blake is writing about God, and the children will be set free after being in their coffins and after death, and that all the children are happy in heaven. Blake is trying to convey the fact that the children do not fear death, perhaps because it is better than their lives. In the last stanza, Blake writes, Tom was happy warm, and he says the children are not worried as if all do their duty, they need not fear harm. This is slightly didactic, which is what a lot writing f or children was in the eighteenth century, but this last line also comes across as sarcastic and angry, as if Blake disagrees with what the children have to do in order to feel safe. The Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Experience is a contrast to The Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Innocence. In this version, Blake has taken on the persona of the chimney sweeper, and the chimney sweeper has been influenced by society. He has realised the faults of society that he had never noticed before. It still shows the children making the best out of life, but this time the chimney sweeper is questioning this, saying Because I was happy upon the heath, that They clothed me in the clothes of death. Blake is implying that because the children are happy doing these jobs, that the adults think this is doing them no harm. Religion plays a part in this poem, as it is mentioned a lot in the poem itself, saying his mother and father have gone up to the church to pray and are gone to praise the God his Priest King. Blake is conveying a message that it is hypocrisy; the mother and father in the poem are good religious people, but even so they are still exploiting the children. Another poem where Blake writes about children is The School Boy (Songs of Innocence and Experience). In this poem, Blake has written it to persuade the reader that children should not go to school, and uses phrases like O it drives all joy away! and The little ones spend their day/In sighing and dismay. Blake is trying to make the reader agree that there is something wrong with society, and that they are doing wrong by making innocent children go to school, when they should be free. At the start of the poem, Blake represents the schoolboy as a skylark (And the skylark sings with me). A skylark is associated with the morning and therefore connected to the children, and then connected to the boy himself. The skylark only sings in the sky, and the skylark is often used as a nickname for someone who is doing well, and this is why Blake used this particular bird to represent the schoolboy. Later in the poem, Blake refers to the schoolboy as a flower bud, using a metaphor to say the schoo lboy is beautiful and should be free. In The School Boy, Blake uses a contrast of positive and negative words next to each other to create an oxymoron. He uses phrases like blossoms blow away and the tender plants are stripped to highlight the fact that the schoolboy cannot experience the freedom as it has been taken away from him. The positive words are blossoms, tender and plants, but the contrast is used by adding words like blow away and stripped. The School Boy is similar to both The Chimney Sweeper poems, as Blake is attacking the way people were treating children. Blake believed that children should be free, otherwise The little ones spend their day/In sighing and dismay, and that they should not have to work or go to school (But to go to school in a summer morn,-/Oh it drives all joy away!) but to enjoy freedom and innocence. Blake refers to children in London (Songs of Experience). In the first two stanzas, Blake uses repetition and alliteration to create a mournful atmosphere. In the first stanza he uses words like wander, weakness and woe. This creates the scene of London; making it seem depressing and slow. In the second stanza, Blake repeats the phrase In every to draw attention to the points he is making, that nobody is happy and everyone is fearful. In the third stanza, Blake brings in religion, which is also clear in The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience). Again, he is attacking religion, describing the church as blackning. He also refers to the chimney sweeper, saying How the Chimney-sweepers cry, which is very similar to The Chimney Sweeper and also shows he does not agree with it, by saying the children are crying. Blake says even infants are upset, with the new-born Infants tear. Blake makes the reader feel sorry for the children, by describing them crying, and using words like youthful and new-born, which makes them sound naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve and innocent, and this makes the reader agree that they shouldnt be made to feel fear or be upset. Blake also makes the reader empathise with the children and infants in Infant Joy (Songs of Innocence). Infant Joy represents an innocent baby, who has come into a world where everything is expected to be joyful and well. It is as if Blake has adopted the persona of a mother or father, writing about how the child has come into the world. Blake is saying that all babies are happy, by using phrases like I happy am and Joy is my name. He is implying the baby is joy and expects joy. The reader immediately warms to the infant, because at the time people believed babies to be sinful, but Blake wrote about them as innocent. Blake believed children only did wrong because of the effects on society, and the baby in Infant Joy is represented as not yet part of society as it has no name (Joy is my name). Blake also describes how the baby is not only happy himself, but also brings joy to others around him, by saying Thou dost smile. This is one poem where Blake writes about a child or an infant being happy, innocent and free, as most of the others describe children as being trapped or upset. Infant Sorrow (Songs of Experience) is another example of a poem like this. It is a complete contrast to Infant Joy and it is not seen from a real babys point of view, so it is not a joyful or naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve outlook on life, but it shows a more real view from the baby that is wise. The baby has been brought into a world of suffering, not joy. This world does not welcome the baby, but Blake describes how My mother groand! my father wept./Into the dangerous world I leapt. Both stanzas in the poem use a lot of plosives, like piping and bound, which makes the poem sound abrupt, and makes the reader more shocked. The phrase Like a fiend hid in a cloud, makes the baby sound like a devil in the thundercloud, and that the baby is seen as threatening and unwanted by the family. The reader automatically sympathises with the baby and the way the baby has been welcomed into the world. Many of Blakes poems highlight the treatment of the children, and I think the poems that best achieve this are the ones Blake wrote for Songs of Experience, as these are usually cynical views that draw the readers attention and makes the agree with Blake.