William Blake

London was published in 1794 in the collection Songs of Experience. It is one of two poems published in Songs of Experience that is not published in Songs of Innocence.

London

I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear

How the Chimney - sweepers cry
Every black’ning Church appals
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse

Biography on William Blake

Eighteenth century William Blake was both a poet and an artist who lived most of his life in London. He was born on 28 November, 1757 to a middle class family living in London (William Blake Archive).

From an early, age he exhibited great skills in drawing. Consequently, when he was ten years old, his father sent him to Henry Pars’ drawing school (William Blake). As a child, William Blake was very unusual-a character trait that continued through most of his life. First, he claimed to see angels and heavenly beings on occasion during moments of everyday life. He also favored styles of art that were out of style, but he was stubborn about drawing as he liked. In 1772, when he was fourteen years old, he became an apprentice to an engraver, James Basire (William Blake). This is where he learned what would be his main trade and source of income. After seven years as an understudy, Blake ended his apprenticeship and set out as a “journeyman copy engraver” (William Blake).

In 1781, William Blake met a woman named Polly Wood, with whom he fell in love; however, she toyed with his affections, accepting his attention but never intending to marry him (Clutton-Brock 23). Thus, thoroughly upset at being scorned, Blake took a holiday down in Battersea where he met Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a local gardener. After a brief courtship they were married on 18 August, 1782 (William Blake). Although their relationship may not have been the most typical, they appeared to truly love each other and were happy. Catherine in particular was a “most patient and devoted wife” who interpreted her husband’s madness as truth (Clutton-Brock 24).

In 1783, William Blake was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Mathews, a wealthy couple who enjoyed art and sponsored many artists. With the Matthews’ support, Blake published his first poems, written through his childhood up to this point in his life, entitled Poetical Sketches in 1783 (William Blake). In 1784, Blake and James Parker, another apprentice, “set up a printing and publishing partnership” but after only a year, this failed (William Blake).

In 1787, one of Blake’s brothers, Robert, died and this had a profound effect on him. In fact, in 1788, William Blake claimed that Roberts spirit “suggested” a “new method of ‘illuminated printing’” in a dream (Clutton-Brock, 38). He used this new style of “relief etching” which he “invented” himself when he printed the book Songs of Innocence in 1789 (William Blake). Additionally, he printed Songs of Experience in 1794, which included the poem “London”. In both of these works, the “nature of illuminated printing allowed the Blakes to maintain control over the entire process of producing and marketing” his works (William Blake). Thus, these poems and accompanying artworks are entirely his own and contain no outside influences. Together, both the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience “illustrate ‘the contrary states of the human soul’” (Clutton-Brock 41).

In 1800, William Blake moved to Sussex to live with William Haley, a fellow romantic author. Although he originally saw this as an exciting fresh start, an incident in 1803 with an English soldier forced him to move back to London under charges of assault and sedition (William Blake). Blake found a soldier on the property and forcibly removed him. This soldier, Private John Scholfield went to the authorities and pressed charges against Blake for assault and sedition. He claimed that Blake “had ‘damned the King of England- his Country and his subjects’” (Crosby 32). After a very rigorous set of trials he was found guilty and “charged with ‘seduction from allegiance and duty, seditious expressions, and assault’” (Crosby 32). From 1803 until 1818, William Blake did not have much work and lived meagerly.

In 1818, William Blake met John Linnell who provided “him with a circle of dedicated followers and a series of creative projects for the remaining years of his life” (William Blake). Finally, on 12 August, 1827, William Blake died. Based on his own descriptions of his illness, it has been suggested that he died from biliary cirrhosis, a common illness among engravers as a result of the substance used on copper plates (William Blake).

Although not appreciated during his time, and usually considered a madman, William Blake has symbolized the beginning of the Romantic Literary Movement.

Cultural and Historical Context

The French Revolution in 1789 had a huge effect on William Blake’s life which echoes throughout his poems. Personally, he supported the revolution in their fight for human rights and he joined a “political reform” society which encouraged this radical thinking in London (Crosby 30). One of the other members in these reform societies was Thomas Paine who wrote the book the Rights of Man in 1792. This publication frightened the British government so terribly that they began to enact legislation to smother all radical associations. This included suspending Habeas Corpus, which is the right of an individual to see a judge or be brought to court, the Seditious Meeting Acts, which limited the size of public gathering to fifty people and the Treason Acts which made it illegal to even speak or write against the king or government (Crosby 30,34). Blake was strongly against the infringement of the government on human rights and the attempt of the British government to utterly control the population. This is especially true when he himself was accused of sedition and was found guilty.

Around 1760, just after Blake’s birth, the Industrial Revolution began and a lot of the despair and oppression of the urban working class can be seen in his poems. The industrial Revolution is famous for its poor working conditions with long hours, low pay and no workers rights. Blake personally came from a family in the “urban artisans”, living on the lower end of the middle class and while he may not have been subjected to the manufacturing nightmare he lived right in the middle of the society (Essick 190). During this time, not only was there a rapid movement from the country to the city as jobs opened up but there was a giant population increase. Thus, “the poor became increasingly crowded into the filthy slums” (Victorian Web). This created “squalid living conditions and very “malnourished bodies” (Floud and Wachter 423). Another huge problem created by the Industrial Revolution was coal. The “fuel” of the rapid industrialization and technology was “coal, which provided a greater quantity of soot and other black smoke” than any previous form of energy (Phillips 151). Not only was this a health hazard in cities but it required the use of Chimney Sweeps. Chimneys were small and thus very young boys were used to climb down chimneys and sweep out the soot. This stunted their growth, ruined their bodies and ultimately kept them from contributing to society when they were older and no longer small enough to sweep chimneys. Many boys were even sold by their parents into this business and most of Londoners were apathetic to their situation. A common attitude was that “chimneys must be swept and boys must bleed to sweep ‘em” (Phillips 151).

Because of these terrible living conditions, life in general became harsh and many women who could not earn enough money in the industry to feed their children were forced to prostitute themselves. Sexually transmitted diseases were rampant including syphilis and gonorrhea which usually led to painful deaths (Brennan). Marital infidelity was quite common and many marriages were strained both by these infidelities and by the sexually transmitted diseases that were unknowingly given to the partner. In London society, there were even different levels of prostitutes: the street girls, middle class harlots and upper society cortesans.

Finally, Although Blake heavily utilized religion in his works and claimed to see heavenly beings, he disagreed with and disliked the “church and organized religion” ([Smith](Smith, D. “William Blake.” William Blake. Odessa College, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014)). One of the major tenets of the current English Church was that human’s “natural desires were evil” and that these desires must be repressed (Smith). Another aspect of Church doctrine that he disagreed with was that “the body and soul were opposites with the soul more important than the body” (Smith). Another religious group that heavily influenced his writings were the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish religious mystic. Swedenborg, originally a scientist, claimed to have visions and dreams given to him from God that lead to a new “spiritual enlightenment” within himself (Rix). God supposedly revealed to him many truths to him about the Christian gospel, including that the Last Judgement was already upon the world in the eighteenth century and the belief that the spiritual world was on earth if you looked for it. Swedenborg established a church known as New Jerusalem which attracted many followers including Blake’s parents. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that these teachings may have impacted his early life, including his visions of God and angels. However, in many of his later works he does argue against Swedenborg’s teachings.

Bibliography

#### Journal Articles Clutton-Brock, Alan. Blake. New York: Macmillan, 1933. HathiTrust Digital Library. Web. 07 Feb 2014

Crosby, Mark. ““A Fabricated Perjury”: The [Mis]Trial of William Blake.” Huntington Library Quarterly 72.1 (2009): 29-47. Jstore. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Essick, Robert N. “William Blake, Thomas Paine, and Biblical Revolution.” Studies in Romanticism 30.2 (1991): 189-212. Jstore. WEb. 11 Feb. 2014.

Fletcher, John G. “William Blake.” The North American Review 218.815 (1923): 518-28. Jstore. Web. 8 Feb. 2014

Floud, Roderick, and Kenneth W. Wachter. “Poverty and Physical Stature: Evidence on the Standard of Living of London Boys 1770-1870.” Social Science History 6.4 (1982): 422-52. Jstore. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Mee, John. “The “insidious Poison of Secret Influence”: A New Historical Context for Blake’s “The Sick Rose”” Eighteenth-Century Life 22.1 (1998): 111-22. Project Muse. Web. 8 Feb. 2014

Slagle, Judith B. “Literary Activism: James Montgomery, Joanna Baillie, and the Plight of Britain’s Chimney Sweeps.” Studies in Romanticism. 51.1 (2012): 59-76. ProQuest Literature Online. Web. 8 Feb. 201

Scholarly Web Sites

Brennan, Zoe. “Sin City: One in Five Women in 1700s London Were Prostitutes.” Canadian Content Forums RSS. Canadian Content, 10 Oct. 2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2014

Rix, Robert. “William Blake and the Radical Swedenborgians.” William Blake and the Radical Swedenborgians. Michigan State University, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.

Smith, D. “William Blake.” William Blake. Odessa College, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014

“William Blake.” William Blake Archive. Ed. Morris Eaves, Robert Essick, and Joseph Viscomi.Library of Congress, 14 June 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2014