How is his work a commentary on the mores, religious temperament, and society in which he lived in late eighteenth century England? What aspects of this commentary are still relevant today?

William Blake in his writing describes how while walking around London, he hears many things deemed at negative in the society at the time. As he brings up crying infants, marriage quarrels, nagging prostitutes, and even chimney-sweepers, there is much more to what each person is doing which contributes to the idea of individualism during the enlightenment. “And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his priest and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.” from The Chimney Sweeper showcases the religious importance in the society at the time, because people were looking to religion for hope in times of hardship; it points to all the “misery” from all that is heard in the streets of London. All of Blake’s writing contributes to society in England at the time as a whole, although not perfect, makes up a society. We see some of the aspects of his society in ours as well in terms of hardship. In the streets of New York, we might see and hear the same things that could have been heard before.