Blakes View on Oppression of Children by Adults Essay -- William Blak

Blakes View on Oppression of Children by AdultsBlake was a poet who wrote in the Romantic period. He had imaginationlisticviews somewhat life, and believed that the traditional agricultural way oflife was the best way to live. He despised the industry that wasestablishing itself in England because it was the opposite of theideal country lifestyle that Blake idealised. The idea that Blakebelieved that children were oppressed is an interesting one, because,there ar a number of poems which suggest different ideas about thistopic. The poems that I will be using to address this get it on are TheEchoing Green, Nurses Song, from innocence and the Nurses Song,from experience.The Echoing green, is quite a positive poem. The moving picture of the sunrising The sun does rise, on the first line symbolises naked lifebeginning and immediately establishes a positive tone to the poem. Inthe second stanza Blake writes,Such, such were the joysWhen we were all, girls and boys,In our youth time w ere seenOn the echoing green.This envision shows that the memories of the old people when they werechildren are of the joysOn the echoing green. This doesnt suggestthat they as children were oppressed. The use of the word joy, showsthat people were happy to see them playing, and that they were happytoo.Blake uses an image of children sitting about their mothers knee, hewrites,Round the laps of their mothersMany sisters and brothers.This image of children around their mothers knee is an image ofsecurity and safety. The position that they feel they can sit about theknee of their mother, in this stereotypical image of a happy familydoesnt suggest that the children in this poem are oppressed... ...y has a negative view of the childish desire forplay which clearly has an effect on the children. The fact that theythe are whispering shows that they are afraid of the nurse, and thatthey cannot designate their true thoughts and desires freely, which iswhy they whisper, and therefore show s that Blake feels that childrenare oppressed.I feel that the two poems from innocence which are The EchoingGreen, and The Nurses Song, display Blakes ideological view ofcountry life which I referred to in my introduction, and show hisdesire for childhood to be enjoyed. But the Nurses Song, formexperience shows the reality of life that it is hard, and people,like the nurse in the song arent happy and full of joy, like thememories of the old people in The Echoing Green, and therefore,Blakes poetry confirms the view that children are oppressed by