The Human Soul In William Blake's The Songs Of Experience

William Blake was a poet and artist during the Romantic Period. His first published work was a collection of poems protesting war, tyranny, and King George III’s treatment of the American colonies. Then in 1789 his Songs of Innocence were printed followed five years later by his Songs of Experience. These were a contrast of the states of the human soul. The Songs of Experience spoke out against the monarchy and the church; they were published the same year that King Louis was executed during the French Revolution. Blake was a supporter of both the French and American Revolutions and one can see his radical outlook on the way the country was being run in his poetry. One piece that stands out the most about his idea of life, specifically around …show more content…
From the “cry of every man” to the “infants cry of fear” (Blake 1469). The lines “In every voice, in every ban,/The mind-forg’d manacles I hear” (Blake 1469) reveal Blake’s purpose of showing the people the “slavery” they aren’t unwittingly trapped in. To “ban” can mean to “prohibit by official decree” and also “condemnation by church officials.” This dual meaning symbolizes that the monarchy is manacling people with their bans on the streets and the river in the first two lines and that the people are manacled by the church’s condemnation of the chimney-sweep children in the following lines. “Forged” also has a great deal of meaning. A forge is used to make metal malleable so it is easier to shape. Blake uses this as a metaphor to describe how the people’s mind are being shaped to the bonds of the king and the church. Blake is also trying to get the people of London to notice they are creating their own manacles by not seeing these atrocities for what they …show more content…
The use of a child-prostitute by men married for convenience was not unusual and the harlot would contract sexually transmitted diseases which she would spread (curse) to others. “Blasts” and “blights” are fascinating word choices. Both words can be defined as any number of plant diseases, which ties into Blake’s underlying theme that the city is diseased and slowing destroying itself and its future. On the surface however blast is referring to a sound. Blight takes on multiple meanings which links different aspects of the poem. Blight impairs growth and the chimney-sweep children do not grow properly. Blight can also mean to wither hopes, which Blake saw in the faces marked with weakness and woe. The final word in the poem, “hearse”, also takes on multiple meanings. It is a means with which to transport a body to the graveyard, but it is also “a frame like structure over a coffin or tomb on which to hang epitaphs”. This gives the poem a feeling of an inevitable end that has not yet