Innocence is Bliss
Considered eccentric by his peers and unappreciated by the critics of his time, William Blake was an artist notorious for his unique and often radical social beliefs. Adapting a talent for art to his training as an engraver's apprentice, Blake combined his poetry and illustrations into intricate etchings. He used his etchings to produce, among other texts, the poetry collection entitled Songs of Innocence and Experience shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. This collection provides socially conscience poems from two disparate points of view. The poem "Holy Thursday" has two versions in this collection; each expresses a different state of spiritual awareness. Each poem's speaker sees the same procession of orphan's, but their life experiences, or lack thereof, create a skewed interpretation of the events. Both states of innocence and experience represent an extreme; the child like naivete of innocence, and the cold bitterness of experience.
The radiant hum of the children described in the innocent version is now questioned in this version: "Is that trembling cry a song?" (l. Songs of Innocence tells the story as a naive viewer lacking life experience. The child like state of innocence can't (or won't) see the orphans for their misery; instead it sees the orphans for their dedicated faith and the charity that cares for the children. In the accompanying illustration, the long stanzas of this version are mirrored by the orphans in their lengthy lines. In the Songs of Innocence "Holy Thursday" Blake uses three stanzas with two rhymed couplets in each. Society wants only to see happy and devout Christian children The parade of children on Holy Thursday helped William Blake demonstrate his two spiritual states of being. This helps to create a visual association with rivers of water. The children take part in a charade to insure the public that all is well with these abandoned children. The speaker feels that the orphans are uncorrupted lambs of god, as precious and delicate as a city flower: "O what a multitude they seem'd these flowers of London town/ Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own/ The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs" (ll. On this Holy Thursday the orphans are expected to demonstrate their faith and happiness by singing songs of "joy" when clearly they are miserable. The second "Holy Thursday" is made up of four quatrains with four beats each. The speaker emphasizes the orphan's purity while ignoring the grim situation that comprises their life. It would be upsetting for the public to see the children in the context of their respective orphanages "Nor poverty the mind appall" (l.
Common topics in this essay:
Songs Experience,
Songs Innocence,
William Blake,
Human Soul,
Holy Blake,
Paul's Thames',
,
songs innocence,
River Till,
Innocence Experience,
innocence experience,
poem's speaker,
william blake,
speaker poem,
|
Acceptance Essays
