Rousseau, whose writings Blake studied, argued that one of

the principles that motivated human beings was revulsion at

seeing fellow human beings suffer and die. How far do
Blake’s Songs reflect this view of Rousseau in their themes
and language?

Some of Blake’s Songs reflect on the suffering of human beings and

the reactions of the people involved in their lives. It could be said
that by writing poetry about these suffering people, Blake himself
has been motivated by the suffering of other human beings and so
follows the beliefs of Rousseau. Most particularly in ‘The Little Black
Boy’, ‘The Chimney Sweeper’, and ‘Infant Sorrow’, Blake explores
ideas of suffering and death and we can draw conclusions from his
work about the motivations of humans in connection with
Rousseau’s writings.

Human motivation due to revulsion at seeing human suffering is

explored in ‘The Little Black Boy’, related to the issues of racism
and slavery at the time of Blake’s writing. Blake was himself
motivated by revulsion at the suffering of the black slaves, and was
influential in the movement against slavery. The child in this poem
is perhaps motivated by the suffering of his own people, as he
believed that he can be friends with the white children, especially in
the world of God, ‘and be like him, and he will then love me.’ Blake’s
use of the future tense here creates an assertion by the child, as he
truly believes that black and white can be one despite the suffering
of the black slaves at the time. Blake also transcends the normal
attitudes to slavery by presenting the black child and his mother as
intelligent human beings, contrasting to the view of black people
that the slave owners and traders held at the time, believing they
were almost savages and good for nothing but hard labour. The
mother is protective, ‘my mother taught me underneath a tree,’
which is a characteristic she has passed on to her son, ‘I’ll shade
him from the heat until he can bear/ to lean in joy upon our father’s
knee.’ Blake presents radical views on the topic for his time,
following Rousseau’s idea about human motivation caused by
seeing others suffer.

Child suffering is continued in the collection in ‘The Chimney

Sweeper’, where Blake presents an innocent poem in a world of
experience. The child in this poem seems to have accepted his fate,
and so perhaps does not fit totally with Rousseau’s thoughts on
motivation, as the child is not motivated to change his own
suffering. However, the child is motivated to help minimise the
suffering of others, ‘Hush Tom, never mind it.’ The use of the soft
soothing ‘hush’ creates an image of the chimneysweeper as being
old and wise beyond his years and gives him a protective, fatherly
quality despite his age. Once again, Blake himself is following the
view of Rousseau by drawing attention to the ideas of child labour,
as he is motivated by seeing their suffering in the increasingly
industrial world he lived in. Similarly, ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ poem
in Experience explores issues of child exploitation and selling,
although the Experience poem puts more emphasis on the
responsibility of the parents in putting their child in such a position
of vulnerability. The chimneysweeper in this poem is not even
attributed the characteristics of a child, and is referred to as a ‘little
black thing’ showing its diminutive stance not only in stature but
also in society. Within this poem is an example of people who are
obviously not motivated by human suffering, as the child’s parents
ignore the feelings of their child, “and because I am happy and
dance and sing/ they think they have done me no injury.” Here
Blake has characterised the child through typical infantile verbs
“dance and sing” although this is contrasted by the feelings of the
child, which are masked by its actions. Also, there is a point made
by Blake on the role of the church in such social issues, and how
organised religion plays a major role in the actions of people.
Blake’s personal religion was Christianity, although he followed a
kind of free religion based on Jesus and love and freedom, and not
the restriction of the organised church presented in poems such as
‘The Garden of Love’. Blake shows here how the organised church
does not encourage people to act as Rousseau suggests, as the
parents of the chimney sweep are in the church praising God and
his priest and king” instead of acting upon the evident suffering of
their child and the children around them in society.

‘Infant Sorrow’ also includes issues of suffering, although this

poem is from the perspective of a much younger child than the ones
presented in ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ and ‘The Little Black Boy.’ The
suffering in this poem is obvious, presented through imagery of
restriction, “striving against my swaddling bands” where the
sibilance creates a venomous tone from the small infant. Blake also
explores how this continual suffering and restriction can lead to a
breakdown of human emotions and determination, “Bound and
weary, I thought best/ to sulk upon my mother’s breast.” Once
again, the parents in this poem are shown as not being motivated
by the suffering of their child, although Blake is bringing attention to
this social problem by writing about it and therefore is following
Rousseau’s writings. This poem contrasts greatly with its Innocence
counterpart, where the infant has its own voice and opinions, “I am
but two days old” compared to the Experience infant who is
silenced.

The theme of sorrow and suffering of others is explored extensively

in ‘On Another’s Sorrow’. Blake uses a rhetorical questions to
involve the reader and urge them to explore their own motivations
in life, ‘Can I see another’s woe/ and not be in sorrow too?’ In this
poem Blake is clearly exploring Rousseau’s ideas as he is stating the
impossibility for a person not to be moved and motivated by the
suffering of others, ‘No, no, never can it be/ Never, never can it be.’
The repeated use of negatives enforces his certainty that everybody
must be motivated by another’s sorrow. Blake also emphasises his
views by including a comparison to Jesus, ‘He doth give his joy to all/
He becomes an infant small’, which universalises the idea of
compassion for others.

Rousseau believes that the suffering and death of human beings is a

main issue in motivating other human beings to act, and Blake
evidently agrees with this view, as shown through the issues
presented in his poems. Although some of the characters in the
collection obviously are not motivated by other’s suffering, this is
where Blake is making his points and he is encouraging his readers
to be motivated by seeing the suffering of those humans who are
ignored. Blake himself has proved Rousseau’s theory by writing
poems, which create a wider awareness of social issues and bring to
light the suffering of children and other humans which were often
suppressed.