Auguries of Innocence

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1863

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Sociohistorical Context: England in William Blake’s Day

William Blake’s work directly engages with the sociopolitical reality of his time, as is evident in “Auguries of Innocence.” The poem refers to the problems of poverty, child labor and abuse, gambling, the sexual exploitation of women, and England’s moral and social decay. It also critiques industrialization and militarism. While in the second half of the 18th century, England was rapidly establishing itself as the world’s largest colonial power, Blake did not celebrate British expansionism. Rather, he was pained by the systems that caused inequality and injustice, arguing that poverty and wealth were part of the same puzzle.

After winning the last Anglo-French War in 1763, England—rather than France— became the world’s most powerful naval force. England was rapidly expanding its colony in India, strengthening the empire. The move toward the Industrial Revolution was also well underway, with textile mills, in which textiles were spun by machines rather than by hand, gaining prominence in the 1780s. For Blake, these great changes came at an enormous human cost: As industry expanded and the need for cheap labor grew, orphans and other marginalized children were taken from poorhouses and put to work in textile mills. While rich industrialists and politicians amassed wealth, poor workers were forced into cramped quarters plagued by tuberculosis and cholera. The economic divide grew, while the Church of England was increasingly aligned with the rich and powerful. The controversial rule of George III (ruled 1760-1820) further destabilized society in England.

At the same time, revolutionary ideas were in the air. Calls for greater political and social equality were gaining momentum all across Europe. In France, a worsening economic crisis erupted into the French Revolution, which began with the demand that peasants and farmers gain more voting rights but ended with the demise of feudalism and the execution of the king. Blake was a keen supporter of the struggle and in 1791 wrote the celebratory poem “The French Revolution.” The poem contains themes of the innate divinity of humans, and how inequality and materialism lead to the oppression of that divinity by institutions. These ideas are recurrent in the poetry of William Blake and appear in “Auguries of Innocence.”

Literary Context: William Blake and Romanticism

Although Blake is regarded as one of the earliest great Romantic poets, it is challenging to fit his art, poetry, and philosophy into any one mold. While Blake does share many of the ideals of Romanticism—such as prioritizing the individual and the imagination, rejecting dogmatic reason, championing freedom and revolution, and celebrating childhood—his mysticism as well as his ideas about nature set him apart.

Romantic poets like William Wordsworth (1770-1850) believed that nature was the source of all good. In the poetry of Wordsworth, and then John Keats (1795-1821), nature is the ultimate reality and mystery, inspiration and escape. For Blake, on the other hand, nature is not the ultimate reality. Rather, nature’s physical form, like that of humans, is temporal; the ideal form comes from imagination, faith, and one’s inner visions. When Wordsworth praises daffodils, the beauty of the actual daffodils moves him to great epiphanies; for Blake, a wildflower represents the supernatural power that created the flower.

Blake self-confessedly did not like the philosophies of French scholar and writer Jean-Jacques Rosseau, considered by many as the “Father of Romanticism.” Rosseau’s books, like Emile (1762) and Confessions (1781), gave rise to radical Romantic ideals about the education of children, the importance of feelings above reason, and the supremacy of nature. Blake was critical of Rosseau for multiple reasons, but two relevant criticisms were Rosseau’s idea of the “natural man” and nature being the ultimate escape. Rosseau believed goodness was the default state of man, and humans would return to this state if they discarded institutions. Blake believed institutions would not magically disappear, and that people themselves had to work hard—and upon themselves—to remove inequality and injustice in society. Furthermore, a preoccupation with nature could cause humans to ignore their sociopolitical reality. Blake’s Romanticism thus combined social and spiritual duties while aiming for a mystical ultimate reality.

Lastly, Blake’s Romanticism is part of a wider cultural response to 18th-century Neoclassicism, a movement in art, philosophy, and literature that was concurrent with the Age of Enlightenment. During the 18th century, Neoclassicists focused more on reason, order, and scientific fact than on sentiment and feeling. Romantics rejected such hyperrationality as restrictive, believing it devalued the imagination and whimsy. For Blake, an overt focus on reason and observable reality was all the more repugnant because he believed that ideal forms came not from observation but from faith and a visionary approach. In “Auguries of Innocence,” doubters and the faithless dogmatically limit their world to perceivable facts, thus depriving themselves of the transcendent spiritual reality around them.