My first (High school) essay I ever wrote about poetry - on the radical genius of William Blake.
And the need for revolutionary artists and art! And daydreaming of utopia!
Friends, I had other plans for what I wanted to write to you about today. But alas, I accidentally stumbled upon an essay I had written in High School (over a decade ago now) about William Blake.
Bear with me. I will admit that as a modern reader, I far prefer to indulge in modern poetry rather than old lyrical rhyme schemes written centuries ago by pompous, extremely privileged white men. It is refreshing to read poetry by women, especially modern women, when there is far less recorded in prior centuries. It is refreshing to read poetry by people of colour and of cultures far and wide, beyond Western Europe.
In truth, I’ve been a revolutionary since High School, when a certain brilliant, Marxist American English teacher of mine introduced me to the radicals of the Romantic era instead of sticking to the antiquated curriculum and teaching us Shakespeare. So I never studied Shakespeare. We studied William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley instead. Still men, and still very white, British men - but at least they were critical of the Empire and spoke of revolution and of emancipation. Equally, William Blake was something of a mystic, and is one of the most iconic artists of his era, though largely uncelebrated and unknown in his lifetime.
Thus, let me introduce Blake in a condensed version of this (verbose) essay I wrote back in 2013, after I share with you his poem, “London”, written in the late eighteenth century.
London
- By William Blake
I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
- The Lovers Whirlwind, William Blake, 1827.
For Context, Excerpts of my High School Essay:
In the late 18th Century, or the time of Blake’s day, civilisation had become and was becoming increasingly more industrialised and urbanised. Man had found many ways to exploit nature and the working class and to ‘capture’ (in the words of Blake) and objectify women. Most people of this day accepted status quo, with their roles in life instilled into them. Few people thought radically enough to see how society was run to enslave them, rob people of freedom, and to benefit the capitalists or the ruling elite. Women were oblivious to their objectification, or simply accepted their subservient role in society, due to social conditioning. This taught them to accept their chains, and thus few thought of equality and free love as Blake did.
In short, Blake saw that the root of the many problems of our civilisation lie in man’s attempt to conquer nature, women and all men, using reason, and in the name of ‘progress’, ‘science’ and ‘development’. Poems like “Jerusalem”, “London”, “Sick Rose” and “Song” illustrate Blake’s true observations. One of the things that “London” attacks is the state, for enslaving the people of civilisation. Blake observes the “marks of woe” on the faces of his people, living in social repression, poverty and misery. The chimney sweepers cry, “hapless soldiers sigh” as “blood runs down Palace walls” - depicting how the Palace, or royalty, or the upper class and their stolen wealth depends upon the blood, labour, exploitation, sacrifice (in warfare) and subservience of the common and poor man.
Thus Blake shows us the extent of the nature of human greed – that drives some to enslave others for the accumulation of one’s wealth and material possession. The depth of Blake’s observation is startlingly true even for our society today in the present, proving that his poetry provides a mirror to our world as well as his. The “Satanic Mills” mentioned in “Jerusalem” marks the age of Industrialism, the factories being “Satanic” in their enslavement of the poor and working class of society. However, alongside the likes of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Blake recognises that in a sense his fellow people had unknowingly surrendered their own freedom, in being enticed by the material things that men value. Thus Blake uses terms such as “Silken Net” and “Golden cage”. Even the net and cage that man used to capture women and nature to exploit them, is described in “Song” using words that evoke feelings of luxury. Luxury is something that we, as humans, are easily seduced by.
Looking at “London” closely, we see that Blake attacks not only the State, but also the church, marriage, and even the family as an ideal and institution. He begins by observing the “charter’d street” that he wanders in London. Chartered physically, being paved, but in every sense chartered metaphorically, representing the paved, predestined lives of all of his fellow people, constrained by their “mind forg’d manacles”. Blake observes that the “manacles” are “mind forg’d” in that they are not physical, and thus those in society were only being constrained by the chains they imagined in their own minds, or by the ideas that they believed about themselves and the world. These ideas had of course been imprinted upon the masses by the culture and society of that time and essentially by those in power. In these lines however Blake infers that change or a revolution was within grasp - all that is needed is for people to learn to break the chains in their own minds and speak freely against the system that they have blindly accepted - this invisible social contract.
Though depressing in tone, Blake illuminates in “London” that once man is awakened to his conditioning or his enslavement, he can be free, as his “manacles” are only “mind-forged”, not real, or physical. Blake also reveals here that man’s desire to control all men in society was self-defeating. Blake reveals this doomed quest in “The Sick Rose” as well. In this poem, man, represented by the worm, “found out” the bed of roses, (that of women and nature). He then exploited the rose, ‘sickening’ it, in order to claim the earth’s resources. In the case of women, the worm found her out, and then invisibly worked out her vulnerabilities so he could use her as a resource, and for an object or beauty, sex and fertility. This act of violence, conquest and domination is however essentially self-defeating - as if the worm destroys the rose, he destroys himself and his own habitat. Blake thus eloquently describes man’s own tendency to self-destruct in his (our) conquest for power and domination, especially over women and nature - themes evident still in this current twenty-first century.
Man’s conquest of women in marriage and the unnatural nuclear family is also self-defeating, as Blake depicts in “London” by the “Harlot’s curse”. This is the “youthful” prostitute that the man in the family and marriage will see when he is no longer satisfied with his wife, who is taught to be subservient but perhaps not to sustain her husband’s sexual desires. He will cheat with this “Harlot” and her curse will be her giving this husband syphilis, who will continue to sleep with his wife, and eventually pass this disease on to her, unknowingly. Eventually when this wife conceives a child, this unborn too will have inherited the disease from their mother, and will die, along with its parents. Blake mentions “the Marriage hearse” – that marriage marks a funeral for all involved, all due to the “Harlot’s curse”. This shocking story within this poem startles the reader along with Blake into questioning marriage and ‘the Nuclear Family’, of a female and children all under the control of a male head, the way society has been conducted for several hundreds of years. It makes us question how man dominates woman and the family, and whether this is sustainable and right, or if there may be other alternatives.
My essay is even longer than this in full, but my points have mostly all been made. My final paragraph was this (I have condensed it):
Whilst Blake boldly observes and records the overlooked truths of his society several hundred years ago, this window of poetry reflects plainly our own present modern-day society in many ways. The same greed of wealth and materialism exists, fuelled by Capitalism and corruption, whilst there is still poverty and repression, inequality and injustice, and enslavement of entire populations. One would wonder if we are any more advanced with an ‘improved’ society today than in Blake’s day, in the name of scientific ‘progress’ and ‘development’ or with the aid of technology. One could argue that with the commercialisation of society today, (or rampant late-stage capitalism and neoliberalism) inequality grows, as do our collective problems such as environmental degradation - as greed fuels an economy with unnatural ideas of “endless growth” and continues to fund wars and genocides that murder millions of innocents. The empire persists, continuing to spin narratives of its own justification, seducing the masses into believing in a world where capitalism is the only economic system and violence and warfare are justifiable means to an end, whilst it spits out just enough glitz and entertainment to keep us distracted and subservient to the status quo of a world with so much suffering.
- The Sun at His Eastern Gate, William Blake, 1820.
Hopefully, you see the relevance of Blake’s work here, and how all of his observations are still pertinent from a critical perspective of society. As the genocide in Gaza rages on, as Israel is fed weaponry by the West and its allies, as hundreds of thousands of innocents are murdered, I think a lot about the ways that we accept the inevitability of this empire. Here, writing is my protest. The sharing of brilliant minds/art/works is my protest. I encourage the reading of Noam Chomsky and William Blake. If more of us expanded our minds beyond those “mind-forged manacles” that have shaped our ideas of what is “normal” and “acceptable”, if fewer of us tolerated a society of exploitation even on the ideological level to begin with; change would and could occur. Our minds are powerful, our ideas are powerful. If more of us persist or commence in the process of decolonising our minds and beginning to question the values we have inherited blindly, the collective psyche shifts.
For me, learning to rest as I heal from chronic illness currently forces me to unlearn internalised capitalist values about my inherent worth in society. I am not currently “productive” in society in the ways I once was, or have been. Learning to rest to heal without guilt has been one of the most difficult internal processes for me, just as learning to trust, surrender and accept the tides of life as it is has been. I’ve been forced to surrender my ambition, my timeline (for healing), my life plans and even life direction currently, as I live in an extended pause - or learn to exist entirely differently, in the ways that I relate to myself, my body and to reality/Life.
Life currently is far from what I had planned. But part of my process of decolonising my mind and body is unlearning a belief system that I now see as harmful for the health of my system and for that of the planet - where one is governed by rush and force and hustle and productivity and extraction - where the body is seen as a tool for exploitation instead of a sacred temple to live in and enjoy. I am unlearning the belief that a body or person’s worth is measured by their output and energy instead of being cherished as inherently worthy and sacred simply because it exists, as with every flower and tree and life form here on earth. I mention this here because I now see this work as revolutionary and radical and emancipatory and as important as any protest for social and political change, justice or liberty.
I have much more to say on the topic of un-internalising capitalism (a whole essay in and of itself for another day), community and revolutionary ideas and ways to practically live them - but I will bookmark that also for another day. I will leave you with some brilliant pieces and ideas from other revolutionary thinkers and writers whom I admire. I encourage you to read these pieces, to continue the conversation in your own circles and to question your own values.
Mainly, I would love to implore you to imagine a kinder world for us ALL to live in. You might feel as powerless as I do in regards to continued genocides happening overseas, but remember that your imagination is powerful. (Note to self). As cynical as I often feel about the world we inhabit (on the level of politics and systems of oppression), I remind myself of how nature regenerates, wounds heal and that perhaps more of us need to start daydreaming about utopia instead of fixating on all that is dystopic.
With love,
Laura
- Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing, William Blake, 1786.
Also, this is incredibly impressive writing for high school! Jeepers.
What fortune to have had that teacher. I’d be curious if you’d want to share this with him? As a former teacher, hearing that I had an impact is very meaningful.