Ideological Purposes of Williams Blake's Poetry

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Language is used to offer representations of the world and position readers to the designs of the writer. Writers may manipulate grammatical and stylistic elements for ideological purposes, as William Blake (1757-1827) does in many of his poems from The Songs of Innocence and Experience. From Blake’s writing, it can be justified that to create a poem is to be in revolt against your times, though even as literary texts challenge the ideology of some groups within society, they can also be used to support the views of others. Blake utilizes many formal elements of writing to produce particular meaning in his poetry. His manipulation of symbolic language, metaphor, structure and rhythm all aid in his criticizing of the dominant ideologies of the 18th century England he lived in. His poetry can be read as a challenge of the orthodox Christianity promoted by the Church during his time, the exploitation of religion and innocence for personal profit in a capitalist society, and the unnatural influences of the industrial revolution. Language is a powerful tool to persuade the reader into a premeditated way of viewing the world they live in. Language can be shaped to produce particular meanings and effects. Blake’s use of language in his poems “The Chimney Sweeper” from The Songs of Innocence And Experience challenged the collusion of State and Church that oppressed the working class for personal profit throughout his time in. During Blake’s time (18th century England), the practice of selling children, effectively into slavery, as chimney sweeps was rampant in London. Young children were the only people small enough to climb up chimneys to clean them. The poor conditions in which these children lived gave them a very low life expectancy. Blake comments on the use of religion to exploit these children’s innocence, and ensure their silence. The “Angel” in “The Chimney
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