William Blake Critics

Critics and their quotes on Blake's poetry

George N. - The Chimney Sweeper (I) - “Tom’s dream…”

George Norton: “Tom’s dream functions like the workings of ideology”

Anon - The Garden of Love - “The poem equates…”

Anon: “The poem equates the fall not with sin, but with organised religion itself.”

Carol R. - “The effect of in…”

Carol Rumens: “The effect of innocence on experience is less one of mockery than moral complication”

Nicholas M. - The Lamb - “(the boy speaker’s)…”

Nicholas Marsh: “(The boy speaker’s) faith (…) is only good for the world within (…) the space of the poem”

Anon - The Tyger - “without that com…”

Anon: “Without that complexity (the more dangerous and intimidating side of the world) a work of art win’t be fully honest and authentic”

Simon M. - “In the ideal world…”

Simon Mold: “In the ideal world of the songs of innocence, it is indeed often the child who leads.”

Ross W. - “(aspects of) Christianity are…”

Ross Wilson: “(Aspects of) Christianity are reduced or deformed versions - that rely upon suffering.”

Nicholas M. - The Chimney Sweeper (E) - “The church and state…”

Nicholas Marsh: “The church and state enables them (the parents) to absolve their consciences”

Carol R. - The Divine Image - “The idea that…”

Carol Rumens: “The idea that prayers are directed to this human form, rather than God, are radical.”

Raymond W. - Earth’s Answer - “Criticised his ma…”

Raymond Williams: “Criticised his materialistic society for blunting imagination.”

Linda F. - London - “People make…”

Linda Freeman: “People make their own graves, Blake insists, when they refuse to open their minds.”

John H. - “Not allowing con…_

John Higgs: “(Not allowing contraries to exist) would result in a static, unchanging world devoid of joy or surprise.”

Brendan C. - Intro to Innocence - “Perhaps the convers…”

Brendan Cooper: “Perhaps the conversion of artistic feeling into words itself is a loss of innocence.”

Linda F. - The Chimney Sweeper (I) - “(The narrator is) una…”

Linda Freedman: “(The narrator is) unable to comprehend the world he finds himself in, (making) innocence a much more frightening state than experience.”

George N. - The Chimney Sweeper (I) - “religion is active…”

George Norton: “Religion is active on children’s oppression because it makes them promises about the after life rather than dealing with injustices on earth.”

Anon - The Garden of Love - “The poem makes…”

Anon: “The poem makes the psychological passage from childhood innocence to adult experience.”

John G. - The Tyger - “Nothing in the poem…”

John Grant: “Nothing in the poem is ‘obviously affirmative”

Linda F. - The Chimney Sweeper poems - “issues of both social…”

Linda Freedman: “Issues of both social criticism and organised religion both as ‘manifestations of the same fundamental problem of blinkered perception.”