William Blake

William Blake Taylor Downs

Both religion and politics shape each other, without religion there wouldn’t be laws, for nothing would be believed to be morally wrong, and if there were no politics, no corruption, religions themselves wouldn’t have been shaped at all. Throughout history, religion has been a major factor in the decisions of war, of peace; in works of music, of art, and of literature. Many writers have centered themselves on the importance of having faith, or the peace or war in the world; however, one concluded both are mutually important. William Blake’s work was written and published during the eighteenth century, but wasn’t formally recognized for its significance until forty or so years after his death. The views Blake expresses in his pieces, religion aside, are full of metaphors that require the reader to think. To the outside eye, many of his pieces are devoid of a real point, but after analyzing them, one turns up Blake’s real views on his country, on war, on how other humans view humanity. His literary language was what essentially got me interested into his work; Blake draws inspiration from the revolutions and changes in England, France, and America, as well as his own profound faith, to create both engravings and literary works making his work part of the romanticism movement. William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757. Unlike many writers of his time, he was born to a place sitting precariously above workingclass poverty yet below middle class prosperity. His father James was a

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William Blake Taylor Downs hosier, his wife Catherine was a year older than him and gave birth to seven children, only five of which surviving past infancy. As a child he wandered the streets of London, and preferred the quiet country just past it to the city itself. From an early age, Blake believed God sent him visions, “…—at four he saw God ‘put his head to the window’; around age nine, while walking through the countryside, he saw a ‘tree filled with angels’.” His parents did not believe their son and discouraged him from lying; however, they did recognize that Blake was different from other children and did not force him into conventional schooling – something Blake later expressed great gratitude for. (Richardson) He was primarily self taught, though he received instruction in drawing, painting, and engraving. Blake began drawing lessons at the Henry Pars’s academy at the age of ten; by fourteen he was apprenticed to the master engraver James Basire. After completing his apprenticeship at the age of twenty one, Blake enrolled in the Royal Academy, though he quickly realized its theory and practice didn’t suit his artistic ideals and left the academy promptly. By 1780 Blake was receiving commissions for his engravings, one of which being from Joseph Johnson who later became a tie to Blake’s later published writings for children. In 1782 Blake married Catherine Boucher, an illiterate woman who Blake taught to read, write, and draftsmanship; she helped to print her husband’s works. A year after his marriage, the first of his works was published. Poetical Sketches is considered, “a remarkable series

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William Blake Taylor Downs of experiments in various styles and modes, including imitations of traditional ballads…” (Richardson) It is known that Robert was William’s youngest and favorite brother, though he became ill whilst William taught him drawing, painting, and engraving and died in 1787. As he died, Blake says he saw his brother’s spirit soar through the ceiling, and later still believed his brother came to him – in one instance Robert apparently taught Blake the secret of stereotype printing in a dream. Seven years after his brothers’ death, Songs of Innocence and its companion text, Songs of Experience, were printed in 1794. Around this same time, Blake published For Children: The Gates of Paradise, though later he called it only The Gates of Paradise, and never specified it as a children’s book. Though his work is now recognized as extraordinary and prophetic, Blake’s work was not recognized as so in his time and the remainder of his life he spent fighting poverty. He eventually died on August 17, 1826; his wife four years his senior. Before and during his marriage to Catherine, Blake became very political and in 1780 he participated in the Gordon Riots. The Gordon Riots were primarily the uprising of predominately protestant religions in London against the Papists Act of 1778, which was the first act for Catholic relief. By this Act, an oath was imposed, which attributed to Catholics, as that excommunicated princes may lawfully be murdered, that no faith should be kept with heretics, and that the pope has temporal as well as spiritual

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William Blake Taylor Downs jurisdiction in this realm. The act exempted Catholics from taking the religious vow when entering the British military; it was primarily passed because of the British conflicts with France, Spain and America. The American Revolution, which began in 1775, the declaration being signed in 1783, was viewed by Blake as an example of youthful rebellion against the forces of autocratic authority. From the beginning, he supported American over his own country’s monarchy. This isn’t surprising, recognizing Blake’s blatant anti-establishment beliefs. In 1793, Blake saved Thomas Paine when he was risking being arrested by helping him to escape to France. In Blake’s opinion, the war between Britain and France in 1793, and the introduction of laws of civil obedience were additional illustrations of the hold which the Church and State held over the common people. Blake, while being both radical and liberal in his political views, realized the youthful rebellions, which had seemed to usher a change in human consciousness, would soon give way to anarchy, bloodshed, and the imposition of new stricter forms of social control in both his home, Britain, and France. Until the late 20th century, racial, gender, and religious equality hadn’t been reached. Throughout his life, Blake supported all forms, he believed woman were on equal footing as men; slavery should be abolished, and that all religions are alike (reflected in his poem, “All Religions are One”). Romanticism is a style of art, music, and writing that originated in England in the eighteenth century based on the premise of instinct and

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William Blake Taylor Downs imagination. It, however, wasn’t only effected by artistic views but political awareness as well. Many historians agree upon the period being “antienlightenment,” meaning it challenges the fundamentals of the Enlightenment period. On characteristic of the movement was forgetting rationalism and returning to ideals of the medieval period – one main source being God. The six main poets of the romantic period consist of William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samual Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats, who have been said to believe they, “believe[d] that they were reviving the true spirit of English poetry by pursuing the ‘romance’ and the sublime that was lost since Milton.” This theme is later expressed throughout many of Blake’s works, notably, “There is No Natural Religion,” and “All Religions are One.” “There is No Natural Religion” was originally published in Songs of Experience; it has two parts, the first of which explaining that without teachings, there would be no thought of morality, the second being the opposition, saying that everyone is born with the notion of right and wrong. The opening lines of the poem, “The Argument

Man has no notion of moral

fitness but from Education. Naturally he is only a natural subject to Sense,” expresses the first view on the topic – backing up the fact that there is no natural religion. The debate on morality is a harsh one, is each man born with it, or is it molded into him by other men? The excerpt, “Man cannot naturally Perceive. But through his natural or bodily organs,” contrasts with the first line of part

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William Blake Taylor Downs [b] of the poem, “Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. He perceives more than sense (tho’ ever so acute) can discover.” The first refers that naturally, man can only view things the way his own body would sense them, while the second explains that one is born with judgments and perceptions. Blake expresses the idea that man can only envy what man knows, not what they potentially imagine, “Man’s desires are limited by his perceptions. none could desire what he has not perceiv’d.” He then contradicts the view, saying that man doesn’t need to know what he wants, but that man can never be satisfied with the ever-present wish for what one doesn’t have. “If the many became the same as the few, when possess’d, More! More! Is the cry of a mistaken soul, less than All cannot satisfy Man.” Those two lines portray Blake’s belief that there is a problem with how man perceives, something reflected in many of his writings. Blake concludes with his own beliefs that writers and prophets are above followers, “If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character, the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things & stand still, unable to other thanrepeat the same dull round over again.” This theme is expressed his other poems such as “All Religions are One” and “The Divine Image,” as well. Though Blake is proving different aspects in each part, he contrasts each proposition with another. In part [a], he argues that, “’the real man, the imagination,’ and God are all the same.” "He believes that natural

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William Blake Taylor Downs experiences must be looked into in a more imaginative manner to see God, to see religion. In part [b] he argues that to be infinite is the only way to see God, for it is what God sees himself, but that to attain an infinite state, one must be “possessed by the poetic character.” The poem is “romantic” in many aspects, one being the adherent topic of God in the piece – the main subject of religion; for one aspect of the romantic movement was the rejection of “the enlightenment” and scientific thinking. One closely related characteristic also shown in the poem is Blake’s apparent view that man is born with intuition, that they think with feeling and pre-formed views on morality. “All Religions are One” is an example of Blake’s views on both equality and the necessity of the poetic genius; it was his first attempt at an illuminated manscript. The beginning principle states, “That the Poetic Genius is the true Man. and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their Genius. which by the Ancients was call’d an Angel & Spirit & Demon.” Blake seems to be conveying that the soul of man is the same, and that it is portrayed through the case enwrapping it, the human body, and the poetic genius shapes the soul, so the poetic genius also shapes everything to man. Principle 5. in “All Religions are One” states, “The Religions of all Nations are derived from each Nations different reception of the Poetic Genius which is every where call’d the Spirit of Philosophy.” Blake states that philosophy and the poetic genius are one, meaning that when each nation

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William Blake Taylor Downs looks at its roots of philosophy, they are looking at the work of the poetic genius; said nation derives their religions from their interpretations of ancient philosophies, so each man derives his religion from that of the poetic genius. After proving that all men are alike, Blake is able to prove through Principle 7th that, “As all men are alike (tho’ infinitely various) Religions & as all similar have one source,” followed with, “The true Man is the source he bring the Poetic Genius.” Each and every religion, each and every man, derives from the previous writings of the poetic genius. Blake portrays the idea that poetry brings one closer to the understanding of the “true essence,” and thus brings us to God: poetry is divinely inspired. Meaning that each religion comes from a once divinely inspired poem or story, and branches from each nation’s interpretation of the poet genius’s words. Accordingly, each man is shaped by what they know growing up, and what they know is what they’re told, and what they’re told is what one has once written; meaning that each man is a reflection of the poetic genius. Blake is conceiving that he himself believes that humanity all derives from, originates from, began with, the poetic genius; he believes that the poetic genius is to thank for everything man perceives, is inspired by, and imagines. “America a Prophecy” is just as the title conveys: a political allegory of the American Revolution, a mixture of Blake’s mythical world and moral tradition. It’s a metaphor “mythologizing [the American Revolution] in his writings into the epic cosmic struggle between the forces of the Authoritarian

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William Blake Taylor Downs Jehovah (the figure of (‘Urizen’) and the forces of youthful rebellion (symbolized by the mythological figure of Orc).” (Brittan) The tale begins in a description of Northern mythology, the woman Blake refers to known as Vala. The red orc is the “imprisoned spirit of organic life.” The fourteen years which Blake mentions represents the years of 17621776 in America. Blakes aspirations are represented by political symbols of revolt are introdued by Orc. By the silence of Vala, she represents nature. Blake gives Orc voice by her rape, yet is felt as eternal death – Blakes representation of generative life. (Erdman) The King of England is recognized in the shape of a dragon, “The eastern cloud rent; on his cliffs stood Albions wrathful Prince / A dragon form clashing his scales at midnight he arose.” The following lines represent the king not allowing the American colonies to break off by attempting to make them fear him above all else, “And flam’d red meteors round the land of Albion beneath. / His voice, his locks, his awful shoulders, and his glowing eyes, / Appear to the Americans upon the cloudy night.” The fiery beast in plate four represents the fight America put up when the king sent armies to the colonies, their strive for independence, and the fear this put upon the king, “The King of England looking westward trembles at the vision.” (Erdman) The stone of night in plate five suggests a representation of Jacob in Genesis 28:11 and the tablets of law. Both plates seem to represent a bloody change. Plate six represents America’s Declaration of Independence. Ironically, Albions Angel turns out to be formed as a serpent, being dragon of

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William Blake Taylor Downs death, in plate number seven, “Art thou not Orc, who serpend-form’d / Stands at the gate of Enitharmon to devoir her children…Why doust thou ome to Angels eyes in this terrific form?” In plate eight, Orc identifies Urizen with the Jehovah of Exodus, while “redeemed man” is identified with the walkers in the furnace of Daniel. The angelic reply in plate nine attempts to arouse the king’s governors against the Orc but Washington and the other rebels have already turned toward England. Orc is the child of nature rebelling against her restraints. Plate ten seems to be inspired by the tale of Atlantis. In Blake’s tale, the “summit of Atlantis rise up again for Blake, as a consequence of the American Revolution and the mythic revolt of Orc.” (Erdman) Plates eleven through fourteen are the actions of America and are spoken of in a promptly political way. The angels become devils and follow Boston in its revolt against the British. Albion’s Angel sends enormous plagues against the rebellion Americans, “for he claims to be the scourge of God.” (Erdman) The plagues, however, are reversed onto the shores of England in plate fourteen. Throughout his lifetime, William Blake consistently attended to three major interests: art, politics, and faith; he didn’t for one moment hold either above the others and continuously intertwined all three amongst each other. His art was forever inspired by the happenings in the world as well as his own belief of his infinity as a poet – his own divine faith helped him to create the now masterfully seen pieces of literature. From childhood visions, to teenage apprenticeships, to adult protests, Blake rises above most other

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William Blake Taylor Downs writers of his time with his true devotion. His work wasn’t recognized for its true greatness until years after his own death, but today he is considered one of the six major romantic era poets.

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