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xxii INTRODUCTION Blake also tackled the subject of child labor, particularly in his col- lection of poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Blake origin- ally published Songs of Innocence in 1789. The sometimes simple, lyrical poems belie the fragility and vulnerability of a fleeting childhood where children are shielded from the harsh realities of the world. Five years later, he paired the original 19 poems with 26 poems of experience. The sub- title to the combined collection, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, and the poems that are repeated in both sections of the book, such as “The Chimney Sweeper,” show the corruption that can result from abusive work conditions. UNDERSTANDING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TODAY It is difficult to fathom the seismic shift sparked by the Industrial Revolu- tion because many of its revolutionary aspects are woven into the fabric of life today. Director Danny Boyle attempted to capture the spirit of the Industrial Revolution and its role in the history of the United Kingdom by including it in his choreography of the opening ceremonies to the 2012 Summer Olympics. Standing on a grassy knoll overlooking an agrarian patchwork, actor Kenneth Branagh addressed the stadium and television audiences cos- tumed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the Victorian Age’s most famous engineers. He recites this Shakespearean speech: Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep Will make me sleep again and then in dreaming The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked I cried to dream again. (Shakespeare 2000, act III, scene 2) These words are from act III, scene 2 of The Tempest. The speech is deliv- ered by Caliban, a half-man, half-monster inhabitant of the island who is about to kill an imperial colonist, an inventor. It is ripped entirely out of context, Shakespeare having written it several centuries earlier. Although many of the English professors watching the ceremony may have scratched their heads in puzzlement and Americans on Twitter thought Branagh was