Full Title: Rousseau one said, “Man was born free and everywhere he is in chains”. How do Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” reflect this sentiment?

Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” reflect this statement in many ways. Blake’s view of innocence as an almost divine state before our fall into experience is present in many of his Songs. This poetry also ties in with the first part of the aforementioned phrase, “Man was born free”. The statement is epitomised in “Infant Joy” (one of Blake’s “Songs of Innocence”). Here, a new-born child is given complete freedom to choose its own name in an environment which is undoubtedly joyful and “sweet”.

However, in the poem’s counterpart in “Experience”, the chaining and restriction of mankind is presented even from birth. The violent action in the poem builds up to the final lines in which the child is “Striving against my swaddling bands”. Already the infant is helplessly chained , unable to even move, but still struggling against its bindings. Eventually, however, the “weary” child ceases to resist and resigns itself to being “bound”. Already the child has succumb to restrictions placed on it by others.

Another of Blake’s poems, “London”, shows the second half of Rousseau’s statement to be true in the context of a city. From the first lines of the poem an oppressive feeling is generated. Twice the word “chartered” is repeated, creating a sense of industrial ownership and domination. In its first context of the “street” this seems reasonable, but Blake goes on to suggest that even the “Thames” is chartered. This influence of man over nature is made especially distasteful through the dissonance in the line.

In the second stanza Blake finishes with “The mind forged manacles” which he hears “In every voice”. Through this, Blake is suggesting that the chains and restrictions placed on us are self-imposed and artificially created. The two main institutions he blames for the creation of these “manacles” are mentioned in the next stanza: religion (“black’ning church”) and the government (“palace walls”). It is also suggested that this self-imposed restriction and obedience is causing death and destruction as the “soldier’s sigh / Runs in blood down palace walls”. Here the blame is clear.

Blake’s views on marriage in “London” also seem to suggest restriction and finality as he refers to the “marriage hearse”. This effective juxtaposition of weddings and funerals causes them to intertwine. Even through the seemingly happy occasion of marriage, more “mind forged manacles” are being created.

The issue of religion as a chaining or restricting institution is common within Blake’s work. “The Garden of Love”, a Song of Experience, shows this particularly well. Blake describes how the pastoral “green” which he used to play in as a child has been built over with a church. Even the physical description Blake uses for the chapel shows evidence of restriction and limitation, the “gates… were shut” and “‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door”. The final line of the poem reflects Rousseau’s writing perfectly. The priests which now occupy the “Garden of Love” are “binding with briars my joys and desires.” This line is full of literary devices, such as alliteration, which emphasise and draw attention to it. The strong rhythm and internal rhyme being particularly effective in focussing the reader’s thoughts on this line. It is clear therefore that Blake also blames institutionalised religion for the “mind-forged manacles” previously mentioned.

The effect of these manacles on innocence is also portrayed by Blake in his poem “The Nurse’s Song”. The first line echoes the opening of its counterpart in the “Songs of Innocence”, with the idyllic scene of children “playing on the green”. The innocence is soon shattered however as the nurse demands they come in from their play, wasting their time. Perhaps the chains of humanity can also distort our thoughts about childhood and innocence. To the untainted children, their play is not “wasted” at all, but to the nurse who “turn[ed] green and pale” quite the opposite is true.

In conclusion, Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” fully reflect the idea that “Man was born free but is everywhere in chains”. Blake blames institution for laying claim and control over everything, and creating “mind forged manacles” in the human brain.

_{Mark achieved: 16/20, A-}

_{Teacher’s comments: Super overview, although a tighterstructure is needed, along with more detail and expansion on points.}

_{References: “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” by William Blake.}