Criticism of Organized Religion in Little Boy Lost and Little Boy Found

Criticism of Organized Religion in Little son Lost and Little Boy Found   Organized religion and its misadventure to the natural world is a topic that William Blake addresses quite frequently in his writings. In Little Boy Lost, from Songs of Innocence, Blake presents a young child, representing the f directgling mind, getting lost in the dark forest of the material world. The illustration at the top of the page shows the little son being led by a lighthearted or spirit of some kind, the vapour that Blake ulterior speaks of. The boy cries out to his father, not his biological father, but the priest that has been directional him on his education of the world thus far. The priest is moving as well as fast for the boy and leaves him behind to wander through the thick manure of the world of man alone.   In the next case, Little Boy Found, Blake reconciles the nix ikon of the priest and religion that was presented in the previous work. It begins by copulation the tal e of the boy who got lost by following the wandering light of the priests version of religion. God hears the boys cries and comes to his rescue like his father in white. This could be referring to God appearing as human, or Jesus, or in the image of his father, the priest. God leads the child rear end to his mother, the mother earth, depicted at the right on of the stanza, perhaps with wings. The mother earth had been seeking her natural child who had been led astray by the misconceptions of man-made religion. The illustration at the top of the plate shows the little boy and a female figure, presumably the mother earth, twain with halos, walking through the forest hand in hand. This hints at the prognostication of man in his proper natural context. Blake is making a statemen... ...nity of totally living things, including himself. The harsh reaction of organized religion to this idea is illustrated in the south Little Boy Lost, in which the youth is actually ruin for his rebe llious thinking. The first set of poems tells of the boys lack of success in a religious system in that did not seem to really grapple about the boy, and left him floundering. It then describes his introduction to God in the forest, who brought him back to his mother, the earth, which showed him proper reverence of God through nature, not priestly education. The second poem captures organized religions harsh reaction to this unorthodox and rebellious thinking, and destroys the boy for trying to reach outside of the accepted normal teachings. Together, the poems show an growing from Blakes dissatisfaction with organized religion to an outright indictment of its practices.