William Blake 1757-1827

Three Stages of Being

Innocence > Experience > Organized Innocence Blake juxtaposes two modes of vision in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Both of these modes are necessary in our spiritual life. The state of Innocence proves that we possess the powerful, creative, and divine imagination Experience is the analytical state of mind that separates us from the Divine Blake sees Organized Innocence as a state where we assimilate the opposing act of experience, yet have the ability to transcend it

Pastoralism Pastoralism is the controlling convention in S of I. The shepherd-sheep relationship and the special world in which they exist represents the characteristic mode of perception in the state of Innocence. Here the innocent has the ability to recast his world imaginatively where he is home and cared for by a loving shepherd.

When our world cannot support the pastoral vision, Innocence transfers it to an afterlife where chimney sweepers sport like lambs and where they will have a loving shepherd/father. We may see this as a moral platitude, but it does show proof of our divinity

Los Blake called the fallen human imagination Los

The Tyger [sic] Blake’s best known poem is also one of his best accounts of the origins of the limited and terrifying world that we inhabit The mere fact that tigers exist in this world to threaten us is proof of the inadequacy of the world that we conceive.

British Abolition of Slavery

1805-1833 In 1805 the House of Commons passed a bill that made it unlawful for any British subject to capture and transport slaves, but the measure was blocked by the House of Lords. In February 1806, Lord Grenville formed a Whig administration. Grenville and his Foreign Secretary, Charles Fox, were strong opponents of the slave trade. Fox and William Wilberforce led the campaign in the House of Commons, whereas Grenville, had the task of persuading the House of Lords to accept the measure. Greenville made a passionate speech where he argued that the trade was "contrary to the principles of justice, humanity and sound policy" and criticised fellow members for "not having abolished the trade long ago". When the vote was taken the Abolition of the Slave Trade bill was passed in the House of Lords by 41 votes to 20. In the House of Commons it was carried by 114 to 15 and it become law on 25th March, 1807. British captains who were caught continuing the trade were fined £100 for every slave found on board. However, this law did not stop the British slave trade. If slave-ships were in danger of being captured by the British navy, captains often reduced the fines they had to pay by ordering the slaves to be thrown into the sea. Some people involved in the anti-slave trade campaign such as Thomas Clarkson and Thomas Fowell Buxton, argued that the only way to end the suffering of the slaves was to make slavery illegal. However, it was not until 1833 that Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act.

The Tyger The insistent questioning reproduces the very heartbeat of the tiger and the blows on the anvil struck by the tiger’s creator who is the fallen human imagination that is called Los by Blake and that is necessarily the source of everything in the world. Who then made the tiger? We did with our fallen and limited perception that separates the universe from Eternity and fills the world with threatening objects