Blake's view of the times he lived in - Part I. Krzysztof Łuszczki

Transcription

1 Blake's view of the times he lived in - Part I Krzysztof Łuszczki William Blake believed that opposites were essential to living. Many of his works were based on opposites and presented how they worked and formed a lively society. Although his writing was not very popular during his time, it became acceptable over the years. His view of differences between opposites, such as innocence and experience, are described in many of his writings. In 1789 Blake published a collection of poems entitled Songs of Innocence. Most of the poems are about childhood, some of them written with simplicity, as if by children, others introducing the prophetic tone and personal imagery of Blake's later work. Six years later, Blake issued a further volume entitled Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, to which he added the Songs of Experience. Some of the poems had identical titles to works in the first collection, but replied to them in a tone that questioned their simplicities, and manifested with great poetic economy Blake's extremely original vision of the interdependence of good and evil, energy and restraint as well as desire and frustration. The poems ranged from fairly straightforward, highly provocative, attacks on unnatural restraint to the extraordinary lyric intensity. One of the poems that appeared at the beginning of Romanticism in the 1789 collection titled Songs of Innocence was a lyric poem "The Lamb". It is the poem which deals existential problems and sets questions and answers which form a kind of lesson. "The Lamb" consists of two stanzas, each containing five rhymed couplets. The first stanza is rural and descriptive, while the second concentrates on abstract spiritual matters and contains an explanation and analogy. To give significance to his literacy work, Blake uses several literary devices. The symbols and images create special atmosphere of the poem, in which the world is full of joy and tenderness. The most common symbols are: the child, who symbolizes innocence, Jesus and the lamb, which represents God's purity, tenderness and love. "The Lamb" is in the form of a child song, where the child expresses its naivety and profoundness. The child asks the lamb about how it came into being and how it acquired its woolly, bright "clothing" and tender voice. "Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life, and bid thee feed;" Although the child's question is a simple one, it drills into the deep and timeless queries that all human beings have about their beginnings and the nature of creation. Actually, the scene of a child talking to an animal contributes to the effect of naivety and emphasizes the importance of searching for the answer. The answer to the question is introduced in the second part of the poem as a riddle or a child's play: "Little Lamb, I'll tell thee: He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb. " By answering his own question, 'the child converts it into a rhetorical one, thus counteracting the initial spontaneous sense of the poem. ' The answer reveals the child's confidence in his simple Christian faith and his naive acceptance of its teachings. It is God who calls himself a lamb and the lamb symbolizes Jesus. What is important, it is not an association with Jesus' sacrifice but rather with his innocence and love: "He is meek and he is mild'" The traditional image of Jesus as a lamb embodies the Christian values of gentleness, peace and modesty. Another image also associated with Jesus is that of a child. In the Gospel, Jesus displays a special care for children, and the Bible's description of Jesus in his childhood depicts him as gullible and vulnerable. The child in the poem feels that the lamb expresses the unity between himself, the animal and the nature. Actually, it can be assumed that the child is a lamb and their unity represents God. "I a child, and thou a lamb, We are called by his name." The world, in which the child and the lamb live, is 'full of happiness and joy because it is protected by God.' 6 Jesus appears here not only as a loving, sensitive God but also pure and vulnerable. The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessing on the lamb: "Little Lamb, God bless thee! Little Lamb, God bless thee!"? The ending of the poem is full of feeling of love. A lamb is just a baby and needs the love of its mother to survive. We cannot ignore the one who gives us life and gives us food. If we are the Lamb; then we must rely on the protection of our Shepherd, God. The poem puts an emphasis on the relationship between the child and the lamb. It reveals the symbolism of Christian teaching. Both are called by God's name because 'they represent the two crucial attributes of God: The incarnation and the passion'.

2 The child is like a teacher who asks and answers questions, but the process of teaching is done through the experience rather than a lesson. Blake glorifies the goodness of the creator of the lamb, and finds in this source such values as gentleness, selflessness and, what is the most important, love. The idea of a kind creator is expressed by the comparison of God to the most gentle creature- the lamb. The poet also questions our understanding of God. He asks people if they can really understand and appreciate the generosity of the creator. Blake explains that God gave people life but they take it for granted without really valuing the gift. What is more, he points that if people are compared to lamb, the very weak and unable to protect itself creature, they must have somebody who would protect them. The answer seems quite straightforward; trust is people's tool in search of the protection. William Blake sees that the individual man is removed from the nature and its creator. It is mostly because of progress in science and people being involved in the process of money making. The world's industry and the politics lead to the loss of touch with what is really important. People see themselves as stronger than any other creatures in the world and Blake reminds them that they are just lambs. People need to realize that the lamb is just a baby and needs mother's love to survive. People, as children of the creator, cannot ignore the one who gives them life and feeds them. William Blake points as well that God who made the lamb is also the lamb. Jesus was crucified during the feast of Passover when the lambs were slaughtered in the temple in Jerusalem. It was believed to take away sins of people who participated in the feast. When Jesus was crucified for sins of all people, he became known as the Lamb of God. William Blake's poem is about God's love portrayed as a care for the lamb and the child. It also shows that God became both when he came as Jesus to this world. "The Lamb" is full of Christian symbolism and reveals Blake's visions and attitude towards God. "The Tiger" that comes from the Songs of Experience may be regarded as a contrast to peaceful and gentle ideas of William Blake evoked in "The Lamb". At the time this poem was written and published it was unusual to expose interest in untamed and wild beasts such tigers. In people's minds these animals were the symbol of great strength and wilderness, mainly because they were exotic and unknown. Through the use of tiger William Blake paints the picture of the world as being fierce and destructive but, at the same time, impressive and admirable. The animal is a part of creation and somewhat challenges the merciful and fatherly vision of God. "The Tiger" lets us contemplate emotional facts and conflicting ideas as to the real meaning of the poem. Its complexity in wandering about the possible answer, expressions of terror, admiration and attempted acceptance lets us share Blake's attitude of awe towards nature. It is important to understand that the poet presents ''the :fierceness of nature?" not through the symbolic object - a tiger - but through the object embodied in particular language. "Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright In the forest of the night,!" The description 'burning bright' may be understood in many ways and have different meanings. Firstly, it could represent a vision of two eyes burning in the darkness, seeing while being unseen. Secondly, the phrase makes the whole tiger a symbol of 'burning' qualities such as wrath and passion. Finally, the word 'bright' modifies the kind of burning suggested and brings a sense of light, a white heat, something glorious and shiny, almost godly. It is essential to recognise the symbolic language as undefined associations and feelings which help us comprehend the world of William Blake and his unformulated visions and feelings. The symbols and images create the atmosphere of the poem. The most significant are images of fire contrasted with the darkness of the 'forest of the night' which represent portraying of Blake as a painter and a visionary, as an artist And this is how he identified God's creative process - by comparing it with the work of an artist and stating that "art brings creation to its fulfillment - by showing the world as it is by sharpening perception, by giving form to ideas"." The poet asks supposedly a rhetorical question: "What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" The answer, however, is not as obvious as it may seem. It seems that it must have been God's hand that created such a 'fearful symmetry'. Blake demands the knowledge of not whose hand it was but what kind of hand made such a powerful creature. He expresses the reason being overwhelmed by the beauty and, simultaneously, by the horror of the natural world. The description of creation sets more questions concerning the reason and interpretation of God's will. The poe~ paints stages of making eyes, heart, brain and the whole process of blending the elements so that the tiger could arise. The poet is stunned by the complexity of the beast's internal structure and is amazed by the greater power that set the heart beating. Blake wonders how it was possible and compares God to a blacksmith: "What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was the brain? What the anvil?" The tools used for creation are heavy, made of metal and suggest a kind of mechanical process of creation which involves a lot of strength and violence. It is reminiscent of the industrial revolution, which was in full swing at the time of writing of the poem. It must have somewhat influenced Blake's writing and could be seen as a comparison of industrial production, full of crushing and powerful noises, to the God's creation. Blake refers to the Biblical description of God looking every day at the work done. The expression 'saw that it was good' that appears in the Book of Genesis is challenged by the poet's wondering whether the Almighty is pleased with the

3 outcome. The speaker of the poem ponders if the creator smiled with satisfaction at what he has made despite the tigers violent strength. The creature is so shocking "that even the stars abandoned their armed formidability and broke down in tears". "The stars threw down their spears, And water' d heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see?" The question remains unanswered creating the atmosphere of mystery. If the creator is satisfied with his final produce it raises another, moral question which tears the speaker's logical thinking. It is not easy to comprehend how the same creator could have made such an opposite being to a lamb. "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" The poem's last stanza is the repetition of the first one because there are no answers to the questions asked before: Who was the creator of the tiger? Who was so brave and dared to create such a terrifying thing "What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?" The changing of the verb 'could' in the first stanza to 'dare' in the last, makes the question even more powerful. The poem does not present so much the tiger but rather an animal which is strange and unknown. Blake imagines the tiger as an embodiment of God's creation: the animal is terrifying in its beauty, strength, complexity and vitality. The animal is impressive with its peculiar pulchritude, almost perfect in the 'fearful symmetry'. The awe and admiration for the beast are expressed by lack of answers to the questions raised and provide a sense of mystery. The making of the tiger is an amazing process beyond human understanding. It suggests God's superior knowledge and that God has the capacity for tenderness and dread. It also suggests that none of these factors is more pleasurable than the other. It could be understood as questioning of the morality of a supreme being - God. The leading metaphor in the description of the tiger is fire: 'burnt the fire', 'seize the fire'. Other images are also related to fire which signifies passion and its consuming power but could also symbolise the creative power of God. Fire could also suggest a hellish and, through the association, sinful beginning of the tiger. The fierce aspects of the beast's life seem to be part of human existence and engraved in the idea of integrity with the cosmos. Fierceness and destructive forces are needed in the universe together with mildness, so that the ultimate harmony, 'the fearful symmetry' can be achieved. The main idea of "The Tiger" is Blake's vision of creative force in the universe, making a balance of innocence and experience. But at the same time the meaning is very complex and the tiger may not be seen as an ordinary animal. It epitomizes the fierce and terrifying side of nature and at the same time it could represent the dark side of human life as it is born out of abyss of our consciousness and fantasy. Throughout history men have been inhumane towards other men. Every culture witnessed some sort of slavery or oppression. William Blake 'depicts the contrast between what the ruling interests preach and what they practise'. What seems to be the most appalling is enslavement of children and "The Chimney Sweeper" deals with such degradation. In two poems, both titled "The Chimney Sweeper", Blake criticizes the unregulated business of chimney sweeping. Chimney Sweeping exploded as a profitable business with the discovery of steam power in the form of coal, and as the Industrial Revolution began in Europe. In this business, children as young as four years old were made to crawl down chimney stacks up to thirty feet tall to clean them. This dangerous job resulted in numerous deaths and injuries, and countless cases of lung cancer among children who were employed in the industry for prolonged periods. In an industrializing society, the simple task of chimney cleaning was the leading cause of industrial death among children until the late 19th century, when ordinances were enacted to curb such accidents and diseases. In the first edition of "The Chimney Sweeper", included in Blake's book of poetry, Songs of Innocence, one of his first published collections, he illustrates the situation of a child sold into indentured servitude to a chimney sweep company. TI1is situation immediately addresses the economic hardships of the time and the lack of empathy by those in charge, who did almost nothing to improve them. Although this poem was included in the usually passive Songs of Innocence, which was meant to be read to children, it contains many dark images. It presents a young boy who lost his mother and is left on his own without anyone looking after him. The boy is doomed to a life of chimney sweeping but is able to deal with this miserable existence through pleasant visions of the afterlife. In the beginning William Blake shows us the boy whose mother died and his father sold him into the life of cleaning chimneys. The boy has no one to love and to take care of him. He is so small in the big world and so lonely: "When my mother died I was very young And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry 'weep! weep! weep! weep!" Beyond expressing the young boy's age, Blake points to the innocence ofthe boy by contrasting the shaven head with white hair the boy had. White as a symbol of purity is set against blackness of soot and seems to be representing loss of innocence. William Blake shows effects of the Industrial Revolution and the consequences it had on people at that time. He presents materialism and selfishness as the main reason behind the situation of many children. The growing poverty and unnecessary waste of human life expresses lack of religious strength and feelings of love and understanding. The poet points human faults and tells people to look at themselves and stop causing pain. Blake tells people to look towards God and do not forget Christian teaching. Just as God told people to love each other, the poet gives the same message. It is a message for the young sweeper, who is oppressed, but will find the hope in words of Jesus.

4 "The Chimney Sweeper" describes feelings and ways of coping with difficult situations. There is an older chimney sweeper who actually gives some advice to little Tom Dacre. He explains why hair has to be cut and he represents experience, which is necessary for being able to cope with such demanding conditions. The older chimney sweeper offers some kindness and comforts Tom. William Blake presents the dream of small Tom, in which all chimney sweepers are lying in coffins. Though, it is very frightening in the beginning, soon an angel appears and sets all sweepers free. They are able to wash themselves and play in the sun, which are two symbolic things for chimney sweepers. There is nothing better than washing after hard and dirty work and play in the bright, sunny day after spending hours in a chimney. Of course, in reality there were no such luxuries for Tom and he was dirty most of the time. Playing in the sun was impossible as children had to work whole day and then had no strength to play anyway. The only feasible thing the boys can achieve is trust in God, who would always take care of them. "And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he open' d the coffins and set all free;" The coffins represent the chimneys in which the boys had to spend most of their time. Although not a reality, this dream represents children's ability to have some hopeful visions of the future, even if the future means death. Tom, in his visionary dream, is able to find strength for another working day. He believes that God will give eternal life, full of joy, as the life of young boys should be. Blake presents hopelessness of sweepers' lives and shows little boys dreaming of death as a key to eternal happiness. In Tom's dream the angel tells him that if he is good, God will always take care of the young chimney sweeper. "And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy He'd have God for his father, and never want joy." Although the situation does not change in reality, little Tom changes his outlook on life and he knows, that if he does what he is supposed to do, he will be taken care of by God forever. "So if all do their duty they need no fear harm. " This is very important because Tom was sold by his father and to have God as a father is something wonderful. Also the process of going to heaven is equally appealing to him. But Blake is ironic in this sentence representing the child's thoughts. Tom and other children don't know that they will die young from an unpleasant death because of their job. The poet shows the world through the eyes of the child. The naivety expressed is cruel but the situations represent the times full of cruelty towards children and false hope that helps them to survive longer. Blake shows that the Church and State preach love acting as 'fathers' and caretakers, are in reality selfish and cruel. They 'teach abstract moral laws but, in practice, are inhuman in their relationship with others'. 23 The social system is cause of evil and of human misery, and is blamed for allowing immoral behaviour and creation of inhumane conditions. "The Chimney Sweeper" is a very striking poem. It shows Blake's anger towards society at that time and makes people aware of suffering children endured. During this time many children were dying being worked to death or from malnutrition. The sweeper's parents are not able to help their own child and represent the starting point in degradation of society. Also people who have no moral problem with employing children are at the core of human destruction. The poem offers clear understanding how the society can negatively shape a child with false stereotypes. It observes to what extent people are stripped of their civil, social and personal rights in societies that flourish with life but are plagued by ignorance and hypocrisy, which lead to the deterioration of human nature. The second version of "The Chimney Sweeper'', this one found in the book Songs of Experience, is a more outwardly disturbing and critical critique of the British government. The poem begins with the image of a boy: "A little black thing among the snow, Crying 'weep! 'weep! in notes of woe!" From the first two lines, it is already evident this poem is going to be sadder than its counterpart found in Songs of Innocence. The reader learns the child is an orphan, as his parents 'are both gone up to the church to pray', and do not return. Blake constructs a back-story for the boy, writing that the boy and his family lived 'upon the heath' in a rural area outside of London, but when the boy's parents died, he was forced to the city and was hired by a chimney sweeping company. The boy says: "they clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe.'' The boy, who acts as the speaker of the poem, goes on to make an insightful remark that "... God and his Priest and King, (... )make up a heaven of our misery?" It means that the supposedly good and righteous God-appointed King George III has not done anything about the exploitation of children, especially of orphans, who became the most victimized group in the Industrial Revolution. By using the boy as the speaker, Blake is able to avoid responsibility for the criticisms of the government, and pass off the poem as simply the story of a young chimney sweeper. One of Blake's favorite social issues to critique was that of human nature and its effect on the human population as a whole. His poem "The Human Abstract" is a critique of the basic social norms that form the popular attitudes of humanity, and their negative effects on the human race. In the poem, Blake describes the four universal Christian virtues - Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love - and the representation of each as an excuse or justification of the behaviors of people.

5 Mercy, he argues, could not exist without unhappiness, Pity without poverty, Peace without suffering, and Love without hate. These four virtues presuppose a world of poverty and human suffering, or else the four virtues could not exist. This is a pessimistic and misleading view, which "bears the fruit of Deceit Ruddy and sweet to eat; And the Raven his nest has made In its thickest shade. " Deceit represents the misleading and hypocritical qualities of the view that the existence of the four Christian virtues renders no obligation to alleviate suffering or create a more just world. In the thickest shadow of this 'fruit of Deceit' nests a raven, a classic symbol of death. At the end of the poem, Blake compares the four Christian virtues and this illogical way of thinking to a tree. He states people have searched for this tree of human nature, or the meaning of life, but will never find it, because "There grows one in the Human Brain". Using the allegory of death nesting in the shadow of discompassion is Blake's symbolic way of stating that people, instead of actively trying to improve their lives and the lives of the disadvantaged, chose to make excuses for their inaction and lack of empathy by claiming to live by the morals embodied in the four Christian virtues - Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love. In "The Human Abstract" Blake tells us that it is false pity and mercy which we, as Urizenic holders of power - be it in the social, religious, or any other sphere- shower on those who are the victims of the very tyranny we ourselves exert. Such pity and mercy are hypocritical. Evil, perpetrated by us, gives us the opportunity to show ourselves in a 'good' light, to be seen to 'do good'. False virtues arise not only from selfishness, but also from fear and weakness. Another social issue he commonly commented on was that of the way children were educated. Blake himself never attended grammar school as a child, because his parents recognized his sensitivity and came to the conclusion the harsh discipline characteristic of such schools would prove damaging to their son. His poem "School Boy" is a critique of the public school system in England during the late 18th century, In it, Blake decries the overly disciplined and imagination-starving conditions of grammar schools, the elemental)' schools of the age. Describing the administrators of such schools, he writes "Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay'' While this is directly a criticism of the unkind schoolmasters and teachers, this passage is also indicative of Blake's feelings towards figures of authority in general. He was not a supporter of anarchy, but believed people in authority tended to overstep their boundaries and abuse their power. This is understandable, as he had the tyrannical King George III of Britain and shopaholic King Louis XVI of France to model his opinions after. Blake expresses anger and annoyance at the stifling curriculum of the grammar schools, asking "How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?" Blake was visibly critical of the public school system of his time, which he believed smothered the imagination and irreversibly dulled the minds of their child-victims. He allowed this criticism to be one of his more vocal and obvious, as the issue of public education was not nearly as divisive as some others of the time. Perhaps Blake's most dangerous social criticisms were those of the government of England. The monarchy of King George III was notorious for its oppression and mistakes. George III suffered the embarrassing defeat by the American colonists in the American Revolutionary War, throwing Britain's future in the New World into uncertainty. However, most of Blake's criticisms were of Britain's domestic policies. He especially took issue with the child labor laws of his ti.me. "London", a poem found in Songs of Experience, is perhaps the most famous of William Blake's writings. It is a ferocious little poem, containing criticisms of both the British Monarchy and the Church of England. The criticisms in this poem are still symbolic and indirect, but were so vivid that they may have raised a few eyebrows even in Blake's time. Blake begins by using the word 'charter'd' to describe the streets of London as well as The River Thames. The use of this word implies the city is so controlled and the laws so rigid that even human nature, represented by the only natural formation mentioned in the poem, The River Thames, has been seized under the control of British Monarchy. There is a reference to children working as chimney sweepers: "Chimney-sweepers cry Every black'ning Church appalls" It means that even the righteous Church has turned its back to the suffering of the city. The reference to 'the hapless Soldiers sigh' that 'Runs in blood down Palace walls' 33 is a criticism of the warobsessed British Monarchy, who cannot seem to solve any conflict diplomatically, and sees war as a first resort. The last stanza is devoted to the public health crisis and immorality of city of London. The immorality passes between people in the form of sexually transmitted diseases, born and cultured in 'youthful harlots.' This is a criticism of the Church's and the Monarchy's lack of interest in helping the city, but also a rare occasion in which Blake directs blame towards the victims as well. In "London" Blake manages to take on the two most powerful institutions in the civilized world and live to tell about it. He can do this only because his criticisms are cryptic and couched in symbolic metaphors and language too complicated for most potential foes to comprehend. Two-hundred years later, scholars of poetry are still trying to decipher his works. In "London," the wandering is not a symbolic expression. In the modern city man has lost his real being, as he has already lost his gift of vision in the 'fathomless and boundless' deep of his material nature. Blake describes one man, himself, in a city that is real, the only city he ever knew - yet the largest in the world, the center of empire. The city stands revealed in the cry of every Man, in every Infant's cry of fear. The wanderer in the chartered streets is concerned with a social picture and, in the face of so much suffering, with the social evil that some create and all permit. The extraordinary abruptness of the poem stems from Blake's integral vision of the suffering of man and his alienation from institutions. His

6 resentment gives him the power of movement; it also leads him into the repetitions which dominate the order of the poem - the 'every' cry of 'every' Man, the Infants 'cry of fear', till his tender intensity swells into the generalization of 'in every voice, in every ban'. 'Every' is magic to Blake. Poetically he cannot go wrong on it, for it carries such essence of glory to his mind, it points immediately to his burning human solidarity, that in using it he knows himself carried along by what is deepest to him. The 'mindforg' d manacles', as central to his thought as any phrase he ever used, follows with a triumphant sweep right after it, and for an obvious reason. For he is one with every voice, every ban, and he can now make his judgment. On this fresh creative impulse he leaps ahead to what is complex, but for him so natural, a yoking of images: "How the Chimney-sweeper's cry Every black'ning Church appalls; " The young Chimney-sweeper is always dear to Blake, especially when he is condemned to get the soot out of the churches - an impossible task. He is the symbol of the child who is lost. He works among the dirt of the Church, itself black with dogma and punitive fanaticism, and his own suffering makes it even blacker. 'Black'ning' is a verb of endless duration in present time for Blake. In his drawing to this poem, the Chimney-sweeper is shown in one comer struggling before a black flame. At the top of the page he stands in defiance before the blind and tottering old man, the fossilized Church, who seems to be pouring out fresh soot. The walls are the stone blocks of a prison. The whole page is marked, like the turn of the hand on a passionate signature, by a fierce black border. Pictorially and verbally it rises to a climax at the word 'appals'. The Church is not appalled by the Chimney-sweeper's cry; the cry of the child, out of the midst of the Church, makes the Church appalling. Blake's thrust is so swift and deep that he characteristically puts the whole burden of his protest, with its inner music, into four words. Every black and blackening Church is appalling, and in every way. The tone carries the image of death, the grief and shame that will not rest. The unhappiness of the Soldier is not that of a man bleeding before a palace of which he is the sentry. Blake means that the Soldier's desperation runs, like his own blood, in accusation down the walls of the ruling Palace. Blake's own mind ran in so many channels at once, his vision of human existence was so total, that it probably never occurred to him that 'blood' would mean anything less to others than it did to him. 35 "Runs in blood down palace walls" is what Blake sees instantaneously in his mind when he thinks of the passivity and suffering of the Soldier. Blake is too much abreast of the reality he sees to use images; be cannot deliberate to compare something to another. And he is equally incapable of using a metaphor with self-conscious daring. He saw the blood running down the ruler's walls before thinking of blood as a powerful image. Blake's poetic urge was not to startle, to tease the mind into fresh combinations, but to make solid some portion of it equal to his vision of the life of man. How swiftly and emphatically he turns, at the first line of the fourth stanza, to "But most thro'midnight streets I hear" 'But most' stands for: What I have described thus far is not the full horror of London, my city; not anything like what I have to tell you! And he then gives back, in eighteen words, the city in which young girls are forced into prostitution; in which their separate from respectable society, like the unhappiness of the Soldier expresses itself in a physical threat to another. The Soldier accuses the Palace with his blood; the prostitute curses with infection the young husband who has been with her; the plague finally kills the new-born child. The carriage that went to the church for a marriage ends at the grave as a hearse. Nothing can equal the bite of 'blights with plagues,' the almost visible thrust of the infection. And thanks to Blake's happy feeling for capitals, which he used with a painter's eye to distinguish the height of his concepts, marriage stands above the rest in the last sentence of the poem, and swiftly falls into a hearse. William Blake was a deeply spiritual visionary whose mysticism was balanced by his practical work as an engraver. He was regarded in his time as very strange, but many of his ideas make sense to the modem reader. No other English writer has so fully explored the relationships between word, sound, colour and image.