Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Blake's case
In Songs of Innocence/Experience, William Blake likens the transition from childhood into adulthood as one of almost spiritual importance. In Innocence, Blake portrays the unbridled joy of childhood innocence in its most pure form. This, to Blake, is the period in which we are our greatest and even likens children to angels. As children, we are pure because innocence is all we know - we know not of the struggles and sacrifices necessary to maintain a stable life. Given the time period in which he was raised - one of industrialization in Britain - Blake was given the luxury of being able to live as a child for far longer than most lower-middle income children. He only attended school until he was 9 and was pulled out by his parents and home schooled by his mother for the rest of his adolescent years. During this time, Blake was prone to visions and had a very active imagination, which often alienated him from his peers and caused his neighbors and extended family to think him mildly insane. At the age of ten, he claims to have seen God and a gathering of angels in a tree outside of his window. I believe much of the idealism and holiness that Blake writes about in Innocence is a view of childhood reminiscent of his own experience growing up.
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You create a very interesting argument by saying Blake's views of childhood in his poems mirror that of his own childhood. It's apparent that many writers incorporate their own lives into their writing but it's nice that you did the research to lend more perspective towards his poems. Some of Blake's poems are written from the perspective of a child, while others are about children but told from an adult perspective. While the poems are told from different perspectives, they share one fundamental thing: they draw attention to the positive aspects of human understanding prior to the corruption of experience.
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