Economical and religious repression Essay

Illustrate from Blakes songs the ways the poet shows that the people of his age were alienated from their innate(p) selves and from conjunction by political, economical and unearthly repression A major target of Blakes in the conquest to correct the moved(p) state of society was that of religion and the Church. Blake was an unconventional Christian.Although entirely the way religious, as seen in poems much(prenominal)(prenominal) as The Lamb and Night, he abhorred the concept of unionised religion and believed it to be an extremely damaging institution which was more refer with the oppression of the lower classes and the continuance of the unequal status quo than with true religion. Blake believed the deterrent example codes that were extolled by the Church were significantly damaging to society, making innocent concepts deviate and ca exploitation bitter unhappiness. In The Garden of Love, Blake conveys his feelings on the inhibitory qualities of religion.This poem is t he basis for Blakes theory on repressive religion, using The Garden of Love as a basis for the damaging do of religious bans, Blake then goes onto portray how the effects change with different experiences such as delight and sex. In the poem, the utterer returns to The Garden of Love where he used to play (which seems to refer to the innocent discoery of innerity by children) and finds that it has been transformed. Where once children used to play on the green there ar now priests in black gowns, and gravestones where there used to be flowers.The vocaliser has become aware of Church law and its oppressive bans, Blake emphasises the influence of the religious ethical motive by use of metrical technique. The power of Thou shalt not paralyses the poem, with three successive stresses halting the regularly anapaestic rhythm. In the kindred way that Thou shalt not stops the flow of the poem, the construction of the chapel stops the innocent play of children. In the design which a ccompanies the poem children are seen praying over the graves of Joys & Desires, which were murdered by the Church.Blake further expands his theory on how repressive religion alienates people of his day from their cancel selves in his both poems on inner intercourse, The Blossom and The offensive blush wine. The Blossom is a celebration of what Blake would call completely natural sex, macrocosm free from morals and repressive religion it is a wonderful and joyous occasion, so upright of emotion that it makes the robin sob with joy. The Blossom is full of positive language, such as happy, merry and pretty and contains a simple and alert rhythm that conveys the naturalness of the act and how positive such sex is.The Sick travel on the other hand portrays sexual intercourse at its most depraved and shameful. The poem is a vision of sex infra the influence of repressive religious morals and restricting social conventions it portrays sexual intercourse under the influence of re pressive religious morals. The poem utilises a complicated and lumpy rhythm, with a mix of anapaestic and iambic feet and a disturbing first line which is difficult to scan, the world of Experience is clearly evoked through Blakes metrical technique.The poems imagination of an invisible worm flying at night in a howling storm is full of darkness, violence and depravity. The Rose hides (implied by put up out) her sexual pleasure, her bed of crimson joy, which reveals the hypocrisy of womanly pleasure in this depraved form of sex the Rose has sexual desire but hides it from the invisible worm. In the final two lines Blake sums up his point of the poem, that this kind of sexual intercourse, this dark secret love, Does thy life destroy.Through his portrayal of love and sex in the Songs, Blake shows the damaging effects of religious repression. Repressive religious morals and laws hit led to the body change state detached from the soul, and sex, which the Church associates with the body, has become a seedy and deviant act. In these poems, Blake has shown that the Church has alienated people from their natural selves. In My Pretty Rose Tree, Blake reveals his beliefs on the unnatural constraints of jointure.Blake repudiated each kind of binding contracts or morals, which might constrain the natural self from its freedom and nuptials fell firmly within his sights. As furthermost as Blake was concerned, marriage was a absolutely institution (as revealed by the marriage hearse of London) and an unnatural social prison which severely damaged peoples natural selves. In the poem, a flower was offered to the speaker, a metaphor for an extra-marital affair, by a woman which the speaker finds attractive (Such a flower as May never bore).However, the unnatural constraints of marriage cause the speaker to unhappily, suggested by the slowing of the rhythm with a double stress in And I passed the sweet flower oer, turn worst the offer and return to his wife, his Pre tty Rose tree. The artificial boundaries of marriage realise led to the speaker giving up the chance of being happy with his sweet flower and to being trapped with his jealous Rose tree whose thorns are his but delight.Blake suggests that without the constraints of marriage that the speaker would have been free to follow his heart, rather than conforming to an artificial law and becoming unhappy. In London, Blake further expresses his attitude towards marriage. In the poem, marriage is presented as a hearse, a vessel for carrying the dead, though with their bodies (their sexual selves) being dead in a loveless and institutionalised marriage which extols the virtues of the soul over the deviant and depraved body. Blake blames the unnatural state of love in society on the Churchs separation of body and soul.The separation has strained the soul to be encapsulated in marriage and the body to be forced to become deviant and turn to youthful Harlots. Sexual pleasure has only two optio ns, either a loveless marriage or get pleasure from seedy and diseased prostitutes. Marriage, in Blakes eyes, has made all sexual pleasure the kind found in The Sick Rose, depraved and hidden, whereas in a world free from the unnatural constraints modify people from themselves, people would be able to enjoy the pleasure found in The Blossom.