William Blake, a British writer, has always been somewhat misnamed as a poet and would perhaps more appropriately be called a craftsman or artisan. As a poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver who illustrated and engraved his own books, he has been widely studied and valued as a visual artist. To be able to fully comprehend his works, one must consider his poems as material artifacts as each of his creations embody more than simply text. From the collection of poems known as Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, this style of art in producing his poetry is clearly evident. Two of these 'songs' in particular, Nurse's Song and Nurse Song, stood out in conveying their message through the imagery surrounding the written script of the poem. Although these two titles are nearly identical, these poems are quite contrasting in the method they choose to depict a similar tale. Both are stories of a lady nurse who is caring for a group of children as they play outside. However, these two tales take on perspectives that lie on opposite ends of the spectrum and utilize Blake's imagery to give meaning to each and every word within the poems.
             The two books, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, undertake greatly contrasting standpoints with regards to one story, adopting the role of either an optimist or pessimist. While the first poem is written from the perspective that the events unfolding are rather innocent and pure, the second poem exposes the tale from a position of a knowledgeable cynic. Though the two of these stories hold a general truth of the situation at hand, each have their own insights along with shortcomings regarding what is revealed.
             Within Blake's compilation known as Songs of Innocence, he included the optimistic account of this tale which is known as Nurse's Song. This poem is written from the perspective that the speaker apparently lacks worldly knowledge and conveys the...