The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

“The Garden of Love” by William Blake (1794)

This poem appeared in Blake’s Songs of Experience. It illustrates two themes prominent in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: The suppression of natural desire is a grave error, and the church must take responsibility for it. In the poem, a chapel has been built in the “Garden of Love” (Line 1), and the commandment “Thou shalt not” (Line 6) is written over the door. The speaker laments that the garden has been turned into a graveyard (either real or metaphorical) and the priests are busy “binding with briars my joys & desires” (Line 12).

“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake (1794)

This poem is also from Blake’s Songs of Experience. It highlights the kind of social injustice that angered Blake and made him side with the radicals who were campaigning for change. In this poem, Blake brings attention to the plight of the child chimney sweepers in London. Boys as young as five, because they could squeeze into very small spaces, were forced to clean chimneys, with devastating effects on their health and safety. In the poem, the parents of such a boy attend a church service, where they sing hymns in praise of God, king, and priests, thus endorsing the cruelty of State and Church that permit such horrors.

America: A Prophecy by William Blake (1793)

Blake showed in The Marriage his support for spiritual and political freedom, and in America: A Prophecy, written a short while later, he fiercely endorses the cause of the American colonists in the revolutionary war that ended in 1783. He encloses the narrative in a mythological framework while also naming historical characters, such as George Washington, who speaks to American patriots, warning them of the tyranny of the English king. England threatens war, and Orc, the spirit of revolution, arises in America. The war runs its course, and the poem closes with the nations of Europe trying to shut out the idea of liberty that has triumphed in America. France, however, “reciev’d the Demon’s light” (that is, Orc).

Blake thus connects the outbreak of the French Revolution to the spread of ideas that arose in America during the previous decade. His disgust with and opposition to the English king is so noticeable in this poem that he may have taken a risk in publishing it, complete with his name and place of publication (Lambeth) on the title page. In 1793, counterrevolutionary sentiment was on the rise, and the British government passed legislation against seditious writings. Perhaps for once it was fortunate for Blake that he had so few readers.

The Book of Urizen by William Blake (1794)

This is one of Blake’s early prophetic books and shows his developing mythology. One of the eternal beings, Urizen (reason), usurps power. Los (the creative imagination), who was once joined with Urizen but was torn from his side, tries to heal the rift but to no avail. Many ages pass. Eventually, a religion based on reason appears and exerts a tyrannical rule over human life. It imposes one uniform law on everything: “One command, one joy, one desire, / One curse, one weight, one measure, / One King, one God, one Law.” Blake commented succinctly on this in The Marriage: “One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression” (Plate 24).

Other mythological beings emerge. Enitharmon, the feminine aspect of Los, separates from Los and they have a child, the revolutionary spirit, Orc. (This is touched upon in “A Song of Liberty.”) In this poem, however, there is to be no revolution. For the time being, Urizen continues in his self-tormenting state—power does not make him happy—and the scope of human life shrivels as a result.