William Blake
He lived in London all his life, except for a year he spent in Sussex.
While in Sussex he suffered from writer's block. It was only in London, he wrote, that he could "carry on his visionary studies...see visions, dream dreams."
In the June of 1780 it is suspected that Blake may have participated in the Gordon Riots. The riots were led by Lord George Gordon, a retired navy lieutenant, who was strongly opposed to proposals for Catholic Emancipation.
During Blake's life there was the French Revolution. During the aftermath was when he wrote The Songs Of Innocence.
There was Social and Political unrest. The government responded to this with restrictions of the freedom of speech - This led to the banning of Blake's book The Rights Of Man.
Due to this unrest, in 1780 he was arrested on suspicion of spying during a sketching trip on the river Medway.
William Blake's portrait in profile, added later t...
William Blake's frontispiece for Songs of Innocenc...
Portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips, 1807In 1793 Britain was at war with France. The ordinary British soldiers were often close to mutiny because of their living conditions. Blake used this as inspiration for a line in the poem London "The hapless soldiers sigh/ Runs in blood down palace walls."
In the 18th Century London was in many respects still a medieval city, with a mercantile (trade) heart with rich and poor still living side by side. By the end of the century the city became increasingly sub-divided. It was this social sub-division that Blake wrote about in many of his poems.