protest against church and religious hypocrisy

• blake condemns church for repressing desire, joy + the body

  accuses it of moral corruption + complicity in social injustice
• key poems

  the garden of love

  the little vagabond

  london

  a little boy lost
• ’the church is cold,

  but the ale house is healthy and pleasant and warm’

  sacred place is seen as uninviting, aloof by child-like speaker

  place of profanity offers love, affection + community that isn’t returned by cold church- takes more than gives
• ‘if at church they would give us some ale,

  and a pleasant fire our souls to regale,

  we’d sing and we’d pray all the live-long day,

  nor ever once wish from the church to stray;

  impossibility of speaker’s idea

  desires change in church, unable as church doesn’t allow progression through damnation of questioning + development

  wishes to be warmed + feel inviting + bring joy instead of restriction

  would stay faithful
• ’we’d be happy as birds in the spring’

  almost antithetical to perception of church

  austere figures become joyful

  natural figures

  link to freedom afforded when religion loses barrier of cold church between humanity + god
• ’modest dame lurch…

  would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch’

  devoted figure of church

  enforces doctrine

  similarly offers no comfort

  consequences of blindly following church + inaction

  innocent suffer
• little vagabond’s protest

  church’s remoteness

  inability to connect + speak to people

  barrier to forgiving meaningful relationship w/ god

  cold austerity contrasted w/ warmth + community

  strictures placed on society