The "Romantic period" which spanned from 1798 to 1822 was an era of great social and political upheaval and was characterised by the industrial and the French revolutions. Following these two main phenomena, many changes in the fields of economics, politics and religion occurred and it became a major point of discussion by the romantic age poets like Wordsworth, Blake, Keats and Shelly. Because of a move in the economic system from feudalism to capitalism, workers began to migrate to cities looking for jobs in factories. This caused inadequate wages, long hours of work under harsh disciplines, and the large-scale employment of women and children for tasks, which destroyed both the body and the spirit. Workers had no vote and there were no laws to prevent the factory owners from exploiting helpless workers. They were paid only a small wage, just to let them survive. Long hours of work, dirty dwelling, absence of facilities for recreation, led to gradual erosion of human values.
William Blake's frontispiece for Songs of Innocenc...
Blake Chimney Sweeper (1794)
Blake The Chimney Sweeper (1789)William Blake, who is recognized as one of the main poets of this era, confronts several issues of this period through his poetry. The poetry of Blake is renowned for its critique of society and injustice as well as expressing strong religious influences. The Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience were constructed by Blake concerning the destiny of the human spirit and the differences between how children and adults look at a particular event from two different viewpoints. The poet stands outside of these viewpoints recommending neither and thus paving a way to readers to understand the realistic nature of society through contradiction in poems such as "Holy Thursday", "The Chimney Sweeper", "The Lamb", "The Tyger" and "London".
Songs of Innocence were originally engraved on illustrated plates in 1789. They were mostly joyful and...