He once stated: "I must create my own system or be enslaved by another man's." this truly defines the rebellious spirit of Blake. Similar to the notions examined at great length within the Songs of Innocence, Blake is strongly in favor of intuition, spontaneity, energy and imagination; characteristics he later equates to being man's path to divinity. Meanwhile he was strongly opposed to the melancholic notions that are found riddled throughout his later work. Highly critical poems on rationality, normality and societal parameters are not uncommon and a trademark of Blake's later, far more bitter poetry. As a social commentator, a number of issues relevant at the time were the inspiration behind gloomy works such as "The Chimney Sweeper" regarding industrialization and, from the Songs of Experience.
Blake was society's unwillingness to accept and recognize new ideas and opportunities for change. Stating at one point that these reservations were "an enemy to social progression". To be condemned in a society that is much Blake's as well as anyone else's is a torment that would be felt on all of his art.
"The Chimney Sweeper" from William Blake's Songs of Innocence comprises.
"songs of happy cheer" about field and flower, hill and stream, and the innocence of child and lamb, as seen through the eyes of a child (World Book vol.2 pg 314). .
In one excerpt, "The Chimney Sweeper," Blake, through religious symbolism, gives the image of an innocence child living a life of hardship and grief that gains comfort from the knowledge that God will deliver him to a better life in heaven. The image of this child "who cried when his head, that curled like a lamb's back, was shaved" gives the impression of the sacrificial lamb, sacrificed into a life of hardship, poverty, and early death. The child dreams of an .
"Angel who had a bright key and he opened the coffins and set them all free," an angel who carried the word of God and of eternal life.
