blake context

• Blake


  Born in 1757, lived in disturbed political times in London, was a radical dissenter, accused but never found guilty of treason, had underlying senses of unrest and disenfranchisement
• London during Blake's time


  • Radicalism, Gordon riots, non-conformist mobs, militarised city, looming social injustices like child labour and prostitution
• Blake had enormous passions and anger towards social injustices like child labour, which worked their way into his poems as metaphors
• In London, some streets were 'chartered' meaning you needed permission to walk down them - reference to bureaucracy and rebellion/revolution
• The Paris massacres of 1792


  Described by a contemporary as 'one might as well think of establishing a republic of tigers in some forests in Africa'
• Wordsworth describes post-revolutionary Paris


  As 'defenceless as a wood where tigers roam'
• Romanticism


  A revolution in the arts alongside political, social and industrial change, with an emphasis on emotions, exploration of nature and human, belief in the power of imagination, interest in mythology, fantasy, gothic and supernatural themes
• America became a republic in 1776, the French Revolution began in 1789, but the hopes were not fulfilled, leading to the 'reign of terror' in 1793-4
• Blake's religious beliefs


  Christian yet refused to submit to the authority of the Anglican church, viewed the church as responsible for social injustice, hypocritical and complacent, did not worship the old testament God whom he viewed as cruel
• Blake rejected the idea of predestination