Industry, Spirituality, and Experience in William Blake's "The Mental Traveller"

William Blake's "The Mental Traveller" takes the reader on a journey through a prophesy or vision that "cold Earth wanderers never knew" (4). With a cyclic style of narration bringing the reader back to the beginning of the tale, "The Mental Traveller" covers several layers of topics including industry, spirituality, creation, and the sexes. Blake buries his meanings in the complex metaphors throughout the text, using his method to force the reader into their own mental traveling. However, the path is difficult and the reader must ask several questions about the poem: What is the overlying story? Who are the characters and what meaning lies behind their actions? Why doesn't Blake just come out and tell us what he means? These question, among others, invades the reader's mind while reading Blake's poem.

Industry in "The Mental Traveller" assumes a stigma as the speaker narrates the tale. Through the metaphor, industry slowly swells and devours life and civilization as characterized by the baby boy mentioned in the ninth line. The Babe is confined by industry in line 13 by "iron thorns." Unlike the thorns of Christ's crucifixion, the babe is crowned with iron, a product of industry. The Old Woman numbers every nerve and grows young as the boy grows old (17-20). Industry, in turn, grows through the work and life of the boy, but when the boy grows older, he turns on the Woman, who is now young, strong, and vibrant. The industry, and the workers, if not treated justly will revolt and fight for their rights. As the industry ages, it produces a flux in the poor and homeless population. The industry must then contribute more money to the community in order to rectify the new situation. This theme is carried in lines 30-40 when the Man feeds the beggars and the poor. The industry, in the end, destroys itself and everything around it. As the Man grows younger, the surrounding land turns into a vast desert, barren to all signs of life. When the Man returns to the form of a child, cities are once again built in the desert and the shepherds begin to graze again (92).

Questions of spirituality and religion pervade this poem from the outset. Ten lines into the poem the reader discovers a scene of crucifixion, wherein the babe that is born is nailed "down upon a rock" by an old woman (11). Lines 12-16 map out allusions to Christ's crucifixion including the crown of thorns, the wounds in the hands, feet, and side, and also to the chalice which collected Christ's blood after he died. However, the roles are reversed several lines later when the child grows older and shackles the woman who is growing younger (22-4). A rape ensues suggesting that while religion is supported when youthful, it will eventually take over and place the supporters in captivity, therefore limiting freedom. With the woman (representing the faithful) in captivity, the boy goes on to collect riches through "industry" (32). The Church's methods for collecting riches was through tithes (ten percent of yearly income) and indulgences which bought a soul less time in purgatory. Even though the Church's door is "For ever open" (40), the "Female Babe" brings a new sense of freedom and spirituality that the Church refuses to touch (44-8). The Female Babe grows and finds another man to love. Together they "drive out the aged Host" (51) and he sets off to find "some other [to] take him in" (53-4). When the Old Man finds a new Maiden, thus new followers, he begins to tighten his grip which scatters the "Guests" (61) and turns the world into a "desart vast" (66). The world that the Old Man attempts to deliver, "The Garden & its lovely Charms," disappears (59-60). Although religion strives to furnish an adequate rationale for maintaining faith, many of these points fade when approaching pure reason. While the Old Man grows younger, the woman ages as she is tracked down. When she is an Old Woman and he a babe again, the desert grows into civilization (90). When the locals find the young babe, they realize what will happen and they avoid the child at all costs (93-6). Even the wild animals avoid the child, realizing the doom that would pursue. The cycle then continues with the Old Woman crucifying the child, but the reader now knows why her malicious act takes place.

Blake, within the context of the poem, comments greatly on age and experience. In lines 77-84, the narrator equates youth with lust and ignorance. The boy "pursues her night & day / By various arts of Love beguild" (79-80). The narrator describes the boy's "arts of Love" as deceitful, therefore signaling the reader to be wary of youthful pursuits. As people grow older, experience eats away the innocence. This theme is demonstrated through both the crucifixion scene (10-6) and also the rape scene (22-8). Experience takes from innocence what it needs and wants to retain. Innocence proves to be more forgiving than experience; where innocence is beguiling, experience is terrifying and hurtful. Nevertheless, experience, with time, grieves for the loss of innocence and then becomes giving, attempting to put right what went wrong. This idea is captured in lines 39-41 where the man keeps his door open to feed the beggars and poor. But as the experienced ones move into the realm of the elderly, the youth ostracize them: "They soon drive out the aged Host" (51). In the end, despite what experience has taught the old, the aged Man and Woman become spiteful and jealous, wanting to take from the youth their innocence. The Old Woman catches the shrieks of the Male Babe in line 12 and the Old Man chases the young Maiden in line 80. Experience, although wise, quickly becomes envious of youth and their innocence.

Blake's commentary on industry, spirituality, and experience amount to a need for a heightened sense of spirituality. People cannot be held down or captivated by an organization set to limit freethinking. Blake captures, through his narrator, a sense of discontent with limitations prescribed by religious leaders of the time. Through intense metaphor and narration, Blake includes the readers on a mental expedition to explore the deepest concerns with aging and dealing with the loss of innocence. "The Mental Traveller" introduces more questions than it answers, but Blake's poem endures the scrutinizing readings.