Analysis Of William Blake's Literature: Regulars And Rebels In Religion

Regulars and Rebels in Religion
During the Romanticism Period religion was often a critical part of everyone’s life. People attended church every Sunday and followed the words of the Bible on a day to day basis. Many authors from the Romanticism Period were firm believers of a God and many were also followers of Christianity. Although many authors believed in God and were Christians, some of the authors from this era were atheists or had differing opinions about religion and the way God should be worshipped. Samuel Coleridge was a firm believer in God and he was a follower of Christianity. His strong Christian beliefs are most apparent in his famous poem, Fears In Solitude; in this poem he talks about how his beliefs affect his everyday
In his works Blake also talks about the harm the church could do to a person. His famous poem The Lamb was full of references to religion. The main character is a child who talks to a lamb. The child asks the lamb who his creator is, and says that Jesus was called by his name. The Bible frequently references Jesus to be “The Lamb of God” (John 1:25, New American Standard Bible). “He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child” (p. 43), Jesus shares the traits with lamb, being kind and calm. Jesus was also described to have been very innocent, like the child in the poem. In the poem The Garden of Love, Blake talks about the restrictions and negativity of the church. The poem discusses a speaker who goes back to visit his old favorite park. To the speakers surprise, there is a church and a graveyard where his favorite playground previously stood. The church had placed bars around the church grounds and the graveyard; this is a reference to the restrictions that organized religion puts on
Shelley was an atheist, he did not believe that any form of God existed. While Shelley was in college, he co-wrote a pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism. His college was so appalled by this act of defiance, that the college said the boys could either deny that they wrote the pamphlet or they would be expelled. Shelley chose the option that led to his expulsion. When Shelley’s parents heard of their son’s beliefs they were furious and devastated. They insisted that he quit his radical ways which included: atheism, sexual freedom, political radicalism, and vegetarianism (Biography,