William Blake was a Romantic poet who used the Old and New Testaments of the Bible as the primary material for his poetry. (Merriman) Through his interpretations of the Bible, he later applied himself to his style of poetry, in particular, songs of innocence and songs of experience. His goal was to denounce the evils and cruelty of mankind through a symbolic stance against oppression. He believed that humans have a spiritual void and seek to fill their void through greed and obsession with materialistic culture. (Ferguson, Salter, and Stallworthy) In most of his poetry, he emphasizes how all-consuming materialistic culture leads to the downfall of society. Blake is stating that humanity will ultimately be lost due to mankind's suffering from oppression and tyranny, leading one to try to surpass another. Blake symbolically states that this cycle will never cease, until humanity is spiritually renewed through God. One particular view of oppression that Blake emphasized was set around the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Industrial factories had a high supply of new products, so there was an extremely high demand for labor, so children were used as workers. The political and social issue of child labor began to spread, as workers endured experiences such as rigorous discipline, severe punishment, unhealthy working conditions, low wages, and inflexible working hours. (Whaples) During that time many Romantic writers and poets focused on exposing the government's unjust and tyrannical rules, in events such as child labor and the treatment of the poor working class during the Industrial Revolution. Blake was one of many poets of the era who emphasized the social and...... the medium of paper ......mington Hills, Michigan: GaleGroup.December,2000.http://www.galenet.com /servlet/SRCFerguson, Margaret, Mary Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. "Blake's Legacy." The Norton Poetry Anthology. University of Pittsburgh, 2005. Web. February 28, 2012. Whales, Robert, ed. "Child Labor During the British Industrial Revolution". EH.net. EH.Net Reviews, 02/03/2010. Network. February 29, 2012. .Merriman, CD. "Romance". The literature network. Jalic, INC, 2003. Web. 1 March 2012. .Ricca, Cindy. "Lost Childhood: Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution." Eastern Illinois University. Teaching with primary sources, 2008. Web. 4 March 2012. .