BLAKE

1) Do you agree with the editors of your textbook that Blake's poetry had the power to enact social change by appealing to the imagination of the reader?

2) Why might the editors have included the Parliament transcript as a primary source document? How did it affect your reading of Blake's work?

1. I do agree with the editors of our English textbook that Blake's poetry had the power to enact social change. However, I also feel as if Blake didn't only appeal to the imagination of the reader. Besides imagination I think Blake also wants to his readers to sympathy for the child in both poems. In The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence , after I read it I felt bad for the child because he had to endure child labor but also hopeful because he believed he would go to heaven. Seeing the child have hope that one day he was be rewarded for his hard work on Earth in heaven gave me a feeling of optimism. In the Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Experience, I felt bad for the child because he had nothing to look forward too. Instead of thinking his next life would be wonderful he was negative, and depressed because of what he had to go through. His childhood was wasted and he had to live with the fact that his parents sold him into his fate. I imagined if I was this child who had to sweep chimneys would I be optimistic or would I be pessimistic?

2. I think including the Parliament transcript as a primary source document was very beneficial for the reader. When I read a poem most times I just think the writer makes it up. After reading the poems I was able to read the primary source document and see that child labor really did happen. It was an issue back then and I think writing the poem is a way to express that. I also think the primary source document draws more attention to the poem. It backs up Blake's poetry with actual evidence. Overall, I think without the Parliament transcript the poem wouldn't make as much of an impact as it did with the background information.