![]() ![]() In “A Little Boy Lost” from Songs of Experience, Blake admires the boy’s inquiries into the nature of God and his own Thought, even as he sharply criticizes the religious leaders of his day for demanding mindless obedience to dogma. Blake was not opposed to intelligent inquiry, however. Songs of Experience in particular decries Reason’s hold over Imagination, and it uses several ironic poems to undermine the alleged superiority of rationalism. ![]() He also sees the soul-killing materialism of his day, which uses rational thought as an excuse to perpetuate crimes against the innocent via societal and religious norms. ![]() As a poet and artist, Blake sees the power of art in its various forms to raise the human spirit above its earth-bound mire. Blake has no patience with clergy who would assuage their own or their earthly patrons’ guilt by parading poor children through a church on Ascension Day, as in “Holy Thursday” from both sections, and he reserves most of his sharpest verse for these men.īlake is a strong proponent of the value of human creativity, or Imagination, over materialistic rationalism, or Reason. ![]()
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