Power and Corruption Eve McMullen 12th Grade

Blake explores ideas of power and corruption consistently throughout his two collections. Most notably corruption tends to focus around particular elements of society such as the Church with which Blake himself took issue. Power is interesting as it is seen in a variety of forms through the contrasting lenses of innocence and experience but often ties in with corruption as Blake makes scathing indictments of its abuse in society.

In a large portion of his poetry Blake takes aim at the institutionalized religion of the day which he believed had corrupted the true doctrines of Christianity, often at the expense of the poor and innocent in society. Such corruption is explored in his poems that center on the suffering or abuse of innocent child figures; for example, the Holy Thursday poems describe the event that took place in London each year, in which wealthy Church benefactors would parade orphans through the streets to St. Paul’s so they may give thanks for their patron’s generosity. Blake takes the role of the indignant observer who sees the hypocrisy in the Christian benefactor’s behavior. This is best conveyed through the symbol of the Church’s ‘Fed with cold and usurous hand?’ which creates a juxtaposition between the...