William Blakes Treatment of Childhood in his Poems

The glorification of childhood is dominant romantic feature of Blakes poetry. In his poems child is a figure symbolizing
God or Christ. His world of innocence however is not entirely untouched by unpleasant elements.
In the opening poem of Songs of Innocence Introduction the child is shown to be a source of heavenly inspiration. In
other words, he is a Christ- figure who brings divinity into the world. In the poem The Lamb the same kind of divinity
of children is portrayed. Here innocence of child connects him with innocent lamb as well as God.
I a child and thou a lamb
We are called by His name.
Thus, the child is treated as having divinity within his soul and the poet visualizes the holiness of the child and unifies him
with the lamb and Jesus. According to Blake the innocence of a child disseminates from the simplicity of his heart and
feelings which are not tempered by the elements of worldliness, customs and rule. Possessed with this nature the child is
akin to God and he feels the presence of God in all the objects of Gods creation.
The childhood is marked by absolute freedom and excessive joviality. Happiness and joy are omnipresent in the world of
children. Songs of Innocence celebrates these natural raptures of the children and their sports, shouts ad play. To Blake
childhood is a period of innocence since the sophistical social set up has not affected the children. Since they are free in
their pursuit of joy, they are pretty aloof from the mannerism and divided aims of the world. They want to play and frisk
in the greenery until they are tired and satisfied. This state of children is portrayed in Nurses Song of Innocence.
No, no let us play, for it is yet day
And we cannot go to sleep
Besides in the sky he little birds fly
And the hills are all covered with sheep.
The happiness of the children is overt and excessive and they dont want to go to steep until the day ends. They are happy
in playing, singing and dancing and they speak even to the inarticulate creature such as the lamb, bird and flower. Blake
also uses some set symbols such as lamb and shepherd in his Songs of Innocence in order to symbolize the innocence of
the children as well as the sense of security.
But Blake was not blind to the sufferings of the children. He showed that sometimes children become the pathetic victims
of the unjust behavior of the adult. The suffering of the children is manifested in the Chimney Sweeper. Here he shows
the victimization of children by society.
In The Chimney Sweeper,(songs of innocence) Blake throws light upon the miserable life of young children who are
subject to inhuman treatment in the society of industrial England. A carefree child is a natural symbol of innocence. But
the children are thrown in the eternal hell of suffering. The boys named Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack are sold to the masters
sweep when they are very young. They are treated like animals. They have to wake up in the night and go on sweeping the
soot of chimneys even when fire is burning below in the fireplace. They put soot in the sooting bags and come out like
little black spirits. At home they sleep on poor beds and are fed poorly. They are the victim to the inhuman atrocity of the
society. Thus their radiant innocence is completely shattered.
In The Chimney Sweeper,(songs of experience)The child is telling society that his pain is being caused by those in
whom he put his trust his parents. They abandon him and go ...to praise God & his Priest & King (Blake, 11). Perhaps
they do this, because on the outside their child looks happy and they probably think that they are helping him more than
anything:
And because I am happy, & dance& sing
They think they have done me no injury,
In the meantime, the church is also playing a part in his misery. How? Because it allows the parents to come inside its
building to pray when they should be protecting their child from all harm:

They are both gone up to the church to pray

A heaven of our misery

In simple and yet golden diction, Blake expresses childs first thoughts about life. For him all human beings are in some
sense and sometime the children of a divine father but experience destroys their innocence.