William Blake, the visionary who defied Church and State
The 18th-century London, which was marked by social injustice and misery amid the Industrial Revolution, saw the emergence of a visionary poet and artist, William Blake, who vowed to call out the dehumanisation of the working class through his literary artwork. Born into a family of moderate means on November 28, 1757, Blake was one of the most innovative and early Romantic poets. However, he initially started off his career as a painter and engraver, with ‘The Ancient of Days’, ‘The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy’ and ‘Albion Rose’ being some of his iconic visual artworks. Often ignored or (unfairly) written off as insane during his lifetime, his poetic genius gained prominence during the 21st century, when his poetry collections, ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of Experience’, started being highly accredited, eclipsing his reputation as a visual artist.
Besides British imperialism and Industrial Revolution being some of the concerns highlighted in his writings, religion stood out as the main theme and inspiration behind his artwork — whether poetic or visual. Particularly critical of the established Anglican Church, his writings were also harshly dismissive of society as a whole. His works exposed the Church’s wrongdoings and offered no apologies for transgressing what society at the time regarded as inviolable and sacrosanct.
Discovering that the majority of the social problems plaguing England at the time were caused by faulty religious thinking, Blake used comparisons between the industrial sector and the Anglican Church to call out the exploitation of the working class, especially children. Going through his works, one can witness the striking similarities between the atrocities undergone by children at the hands of Bishops and Popes, along with the upper classes, including kings and factory owners, who used authority to oppress them during the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the pairs of poems, ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ and ‘Holy Thursday’, he sheds light on the forced labour that children were subjected to. While ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ is a satire on the parodies of child labour, ‘Holy Thursday’ is a condemnation of Church leaders, who exploited children to make themselves appear holy to the public and trained a generation of impoverished children for labour.
“That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack, were all of them locked up in coffins of black…” Condemning the abuse and torment the children had to endure back then and describing it as the “coffins of black”, the disgruntled poet persistently raised questions on the United Kingdom’s future when its own children were being repressed.
Similarly, religion was the primary focus in his paintings. In the Western literature, only Dante Alighieri and John Milton can match Blake’s accomplishments. Taking his inspiration from Dante, Blake illustrated the former’s ‘Divine Comedy’. It comprised 102 illustrations depicting the three major parts of ‘Divine Comedy’ — ‘Inferno’ (Hell), ‘Purgotario’ (Purgatory) and ‘Paradiso’ (Paradise).
Blake placed a great deal of importance on religion, in a way that is thought-provoking even for viewers and readers who are not religious. Despite being a religious seeker, he was hostile to the Church and the authority. His idea of religion explored the concept of existence as it was more of spiritual experience for him. In his ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’, he asserts, “All deities reside in the human breast.” The poet did not believe that Jesus was the only manifestation of God on earth, but rather that he was a great prophet.
Being a figure who radically opposed the prevailing government and religious authority, Blake is remembered as a Romantic who used his poetic genius to significantly influence the English literature and society as a whole.
