Songs of Innocence as a Social Statement

Songs of Innocence as a Social Statement

  • Submitted By: trizzle7
  • Date Submitted: 10/07/2013 5:38 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1387
  • Page: 6
  • Views: 113

William Blake: Printer, Poet, and Political Commentator?
Carl Hiaasen, a satire-loving journalist, believes strongly in that genre of literature saying, “Good satire comes from anger. It comes from a sense of injustice, that there are wrongs in the world that need to be fixed. And what better place to get that well of venom and outrage boiling than a newsroom, because you’re on the front lines.” These veiled criticisms have the power to bring to light, for all to see, inequality that exists in the world and begin a conversation of change. William Blake had the idea to leverage his printing business (instead of a newsroom) and experience as a poet to begin that conversation with his collection of poems entitled Songs of Innocence. Focusing on “The Little Black Boy,” “Holy Thursday,” and “The Chimney Sweeper” satire is his weapon against the vastly unequal social scene in England around the turn of the 18th century.
In “The Little Black Boy,” Blake attacks two main social injustices he believes to be a problem, racial discrimination and religion used as a tool to control and cope with circumstance. Right away, in the first stanza, the reader is introduced to this contrasting imagery, “White as an angel is the English child, / But I am black as if bereav’d of light,” (The Little Black Boy, 3-4) hinting that innately the black man is evil and therefore is lesser than the white man. He is going to have to work harder in order to feel God’s love as “these black bodies and this sun-burnt face / Is but a cloud.” (TLBB, 15-16) Using the disparity between dark and light is a common theme in this poem in which the boy’s mother is attempting to teach him the way to “bear the beams of [God’s] love” (TLBB, 14) so that he is able to rid himself of his dark cloud and be accepted into God’s kingdom. However, it is a long journey being able to finally learn to bear God’s heat and some people are able to do it faster than others, so the little black boy is willing to shade...

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