William Black Poetry Explanations
Songs of Innocence Introduction
On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing to me;
These lines have been quoted from Introduction to Songs of Innocence written by William Blake. Here the poet speaks of the child whom he saw on a cloud. This is a vision seen by the poet.
While the poet wanders through the valleys playing his pipe he sees a child on a cloud. The child bids him to pipe a song about a lamb and the poet obeys him. This is a vision seen by the poet. The poet was a visionary whose ideas came to him in the form of clearly visualized encounters with angels, prophets or other symbolic characters. He believed that words were dictated to him by some supernatural powers. He always saw vision and these he embodied in poetry. It is the Divine Spirit that manifests itself in familiar to the devotee. Followers of Christianity will have visions of their particular aspect of the deity, like Christ.
Thus, here the word "child" bears great significance. It may refer to Jesus Christ whose abode is heaven or it may signify the angel of innocence or it may be the personification of the spirit of pastoral poetry.
And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear
These are the concluding lines of William Blake's Introduction to Songs of Innocence. Here the poet says that he wrote his songs of happiness at the request of the divine child.
While the poet wanders through the valleys piping his pipe he sees a divine child on a cloud. The child commands the poet to pipe a song about a "Lamb" and some other happy songs on his pipe. The poet plays the music melodiously on his pipe. His music melts the tender heart of the child and makes him weep out of joy. The child bids him write the songs and vanishes from the poet's sight. The child inspired the piper to engrave those songs for all and sundry, for the present as well as the future. So obeying the orders of the child the poet makes a pen out of a hollow reed and producing ink with the help of staining clear water, symbol of purity, the poet writes down his songs of happiness and cheers so that every child may enjoy them.
By choosing a reed the poet maintains the rurality of the atmosphere. By and large, the piece is ornamented in pastoral splendour and dazzling colours of countryside beauty.
Poem: The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?Dost thou know who made thee?
These lines belong to The Lamb of "Songs of Innocence" written by William Blake. Here a little boy addresses a Lamb and asks the Lamb about its creator.
In The Lamb the little boy asks a question to a Lamb that who is his creator. He also tells him that both he and the lamb are created by the same creator, namely, God or Christ. The lamb and the little boy are the symbol of 'Gentleness', 'Meekness' and 'Mildness' and Christ has these qualities. So, He called Himself a Lamb and He praised children for their innocence of "such is the kingdom of God". In these lines the little boy praises Christ for His blessings to us and tells the lamb that he has been blessed with life and with the capacity to feed by the stream and over the meadow; it has been endowed with bright and soft wool which serves as its clothing; it has a tender voice which fills the valley with joy.
In this poem, Blake introduces a religious note and compares the little boy and the lamb with Christ. Because they are the symbol of innocence.
He is meek, and he is mild; He became a little child. I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
These lines have been extracted from the poem The Lamb in the "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake. Here the poet extends the world of innocence even to the animals that are insignificance and base in the human eye.
In the poem, we find a child patting a lamb and asking if it knows who the giver of its life and bread is. He asks it whether it knows who has given it silken fleece of immaculate white and the thin voice of its bleat. The child himself answers his questions. He defines the Almighty God as one who is known after the name of the Lamb who is meek and gentle. Since God descended to the earth as infant Jesus he is also called a child. The child, the lamb and God are all brought to unite to form a single divine entity.
Thus, the poet creates an atmosphere of innocence extending from God to animals via human children. Here lies the essence of the poem.
Poem: The Chimney Sweeper
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry "'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
These lines have been quoted from The Chimney Sweeper of Songs of Innocence written by William Blake. Here the poet portrays the pathetic condition of the chimney sweeper of a very young age.
The speaker of the poem is a little chimney sweeper. In Blake's time little boys were commonly employed for sweeping chimneys in England. A boy, carrying a brush, was sent up a chimney to sweep away the soot accumulated on the inner walls of the chimney. Most of the boys were sold by their parents to the master-sweeps who trained them for the work which was very unhealthy and dangerous.
The speaker of the poem says that his mother died when he was at a very early age and his father sold him to a master-sweep. At that time he was so young that he could not pronounce the word 'sweep'. 'Sweep' is a traditional shout of a chimney sweeper. A sweeper had to parade the streets shouting 'sweep!' to tell the people that a chimney sweeper is around to work. The speaker says that from the day when his father sold him to a master-sweep, he was sweeping chimneys and was sleeping in the soot, the black substance left by smoke. Thus his living condition is also miserable.
These lines portray the painful after-effects of Britain's industrialisation. Poverty compelled many a father to sell his children to master-sweeps who employed these children on poor payment. In those days the sight of children sweeping the soot of chimneys is very usual, though inhuman.
Poem: Nurse's Song
Well, well, go and play till the light fades away, And then go home to bed.
These lines have been extracted from Blake's Nurse's Song of the Songs of Innocence. Here the nurse agrees with the children and permit them to continue playing.
The Nurse's Song in the Songs of Innocence is quite a simple poem in which the poet renders a conversational narration of the talk between the nurse and the playing children. When it is likely to be night very soon, the nurse advises the children to come home back till next morning. But the children are not ready to go home soon at the advice of the nurse. They say that the creatures of nature have not returned to their dwelling place. The sheep and the birds are still there and as the sun has not fully set they can play some more time. At this point the nurse permits them to play until they are tired, satisfied and the sun sets. Having being allowed the liberty and freedom to play they shout with redoubled energy. The happiness of the children is overt and excessive, and so the little children leaped and shouted and laughed, and the hills were echoed by their sounds.
In these lines we find the true nature of the nurse. True, it is her duty to take the children home and protect them from the enclosing darkness. But the nurse is so generous that when the children demand to play more, she cannot refuse the request of the children.
Poem: Holy Thursday
Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean, The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green, Grey-headed beadles walked before with wands as white as snow.
Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames waters flow.
These lines have been taken from Holy Thursday belonged to Songs of Innocence written by William Blake. Here the poet portrays how the children were going to St. Paul's Cathedral on a Holy Thursday.
Holy Thursday is the "Ascension Day" that is, the day on which Christ rose from his grave and ascended to heaven. This happened on the fortieth day after Resurrection. Special church prayers are held on that day to commemorate Christ's Ascension. But the lines depict the children of charity schools being marched to the Holy Cathedral to offer thanks to God for the kindness they had received from the patrons during the year and to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the charity schools. On a Holy Thursday the innocent faces of the children were washed clean and they walked in lines of two wearing dresses of red, and blue and green colours. The old church officers, called the beadles, walked with white staff or rods before the children till the children enter into the high dome of St. Paul's Cathedral into which the children flowed like the waters in the river Thames.
These lines give emphasis on the order and decorum of the occasion. The procession is regular, the children are uniformed in their dresses and formation. The beadle's wand or rod is a symbolic implication of authority. The colour of the wand is 'white' which harmonizes with the innocent clean faces of the children.
 |
| Poem Explanations |
Songs of Experience Introduction
Turn away no more;
Why will thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watery shore,
Is given thee till the break of day.
Exp. These are the concluding lines of Introduction to the Songs of Experience by William Blake. Here the kindness of God towards mankind is expressed.
In Blake's Introduction to the Songs of Experience we identify the speaker as a bard. The Bard like God foresees the future and he is as well aware of the present and past. Christ, when he finds man evicted from Eden, weeps for them and walks through the Garden calling for Adam and Eve. In the same way the Bard, or the prophet, urges the Earth to rise above the material concerns, to awaken the sleepy Earth. Now darkness and night envelop Earth; but the Bard asserts the instability of the night and the assured advent of dawn. But the Earth seems to be insensitive to the call of the Bard. Therefore the poet asks why she (Earth) turns away from his words. He hopefully assures her that the starry floor and the watery shore will cease to exist when the day breaks and the rays of the sun spread everywhere since "Earth" symbolizes men, the Bird's call is in fact meant for the rise of man.
The Bard and God are homogeneous both in respect of their power and divinity. The remarkable and noteworthy point is that the Earth does not seem to read positive to the inspiring call of the Bard.
Poem: The Tyger
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame they fearful symmetry?
These two lines belong to The Tyger of Songs of Experience written by William Blake. Here the speaker asks the question to a tiger that what immortal hand or eye has created such a ferocious animal.
In The Tyger the tiger is a ferocious animal. The tiger is such an animal which bears 'burning light in him. It is vigorous and dangerous animal which lives in the forest or a gloomy place. Here the forest or a gloomy place is also compared to the world of Experience. The speaker wonders at the dreadful and yet well proportioned shape and figure of the tiger and asks who could have been the designer of the tiger's body. The speaker is afraid that how did the Creator of the Tiger soar to the distant skies or descend to the depths of the earth in order to obtain the fire required for the tiger's eyes and whose hands could have dared to catch hold of that fire.
In this poem of Blake, the tiger symbolises the state of experience. In The Tyger the tiger is Blake's symbol for the fired forces in the soul which are needed to break the bonds of experience. There is terrible beauty in the tiger and the poet wonders at the creature.
When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see?
These lines have been extracted from Blake's poem The Tyger in the section of Songs of Experience. Here the poet tells us about God's creation of inhabitants for the earth.
Blake's use of "the stars" to symbolize the angels is Biblical. The "stars" are the rebellious angels under Satan, when they failed to defeat God and were beaten they threw down their spears in surrender and moaned for their defeat. In their submission the rebel angels are said to have shed tears which, as the poet says, may have watered heaven. It is after that event that God started creating inhabitants for the earth. So at the time of the defeat of the rebelling angels, God might have just finished the creation of the awesome tiger and smiled on his hidden purpose behind all his acts. It is astonishing that the same creator who made the lamb made the tiger too. The tiger's creator is not only a God of wrath, the creator of Satan, but also a God of mercy, the creator of the tiger's "contrary" the lamb of innocence.
Both Lamb and Tyger are visibly the parts of God's creation. God created the tiger, the aggressor and the lamb, the prey. The co- existence of fierceness represented by the tiger and the gentleness represented by the lamb is a mystery, a mystery of contrariness.
Poem: The Chimney Sweeper
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.
These significant lines have been quoted from The Chimney Sweeper belonging to the Songs of Experience by William Blake, a great humanitarian.
In these lines the savagery of the attack, of the callousness and cruelty of authority is seen and God, His priest and King are all blamed for the state of the children who are the worst victims of the corrupted social infrastructure. 123
There is a vivid contrast between the life of a child should have happy upon the heat and the suffering to which it is reduced by those who make up a heaven of the misery of the children. The children are deprived of their rights. Nobody understands them. As they sing, dance and enjoy boyish pleasure all think that they are happy. The authority who is to preserve the rights of the boys think that they do not commit any harm to the children. The church is fake because it does not know the value of humanity. It is confined to some artificial rituals. The king is blind as he is surrounded by an impenetrable will of flattery and vain-glory. So he fails to conceive the plight of the children. The chimney sweeper Act of 1788 is nothing but a laughing stock. Hence, Blake pricks the conscience of the society here.
In estimation it can be said that Blake expresses a passionate sincerity and a deep sympathy for the child. His humanitarian feelings are poured here. He is ranked as a poet of the distressed.
Poem: Nurse's Song
When the voices of children are heard on the green And whisperings are in the dale,
The day of my youth rise fresh in my mind, ancaq ni bata My face turns green and pale.
These lines have been extracted from Nurse's Song belonged to the Songs of Experience written by William Blake. Here the poet depicts the reactions of the Nurse on seeing the children playing in the green meadows and whispering in the valley.
In the poem we find the thoughts or feelings of the experienced Nurse. The children are playing in the green meadows. The Nurse hears the voices of the children who are playing in the green meadows. And when she hears the whispering of the children in the valley, it reminds her of her own childhood. She feels nostalgic. She looks back to her joyous younger days and is reminded of the hopes and desires of those days. She is sorry because her youth is past and feels envious and jealous of the young children who are playing and whispering in the green meadows.
Thus this Nurse is fully different from the Nurse of the "Innocent" section. Though this Nurse experienced the same situation, she expressed different impulse. The memory of her joyous youthful days turns her face into green and pale. Here "green" implied green-eyed monster which is jealousy, Urizen, the god a jealousy.
Poem: Holy Thursday
For where-e'er the sun does shine, And where-e'er the rain does fall: Babe can never hunger there, Nor poverty the mind appall.
These lines have been quoted from Blake's poem "Holy Thursday" belonged to the section of Songs of Experience. Here the poet says that there is no need for charity in a rich country like England.
England is a rich and pompous land. Blake says that there is no need for any charity towards children because England is self sufficient. According to the poet, charity is unnecessary because England is fairly prosperous and she can easily provide as much food as the children require. Children shall never starve in a land like England where the sun shines brightly and where there is profuse rainfall. The sun-shine and rainfall refers to the blessings of God. In Blake's period, because of industrial revolution, England was materially progressing and many became rich and the rich became richer. In such a progressing land, poverty cannot terrorize the mind of children. Thus, Blake ends the poem with a note of hope that if the philanthropists of society are sensitive and sincere towards poor children, it can eliminate their misery.
Poem: London
But most thro' midnight streets I hearonnairly loa to A How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new born Infant's tear, to And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
These are the concluding lines of William Blake's London which appears in Songs of Experience. Here the poet tells us about the curse of harlotry spread in the city.
In London the poet decries the three great evils of society- callousness as exemplified by the chimney-sweeper's miserable life, the adversity of war as expressed in the case of the soldier and lust represented in the malpractice of harlotry that looms large as a threat to the purity of marriage and the happiness of the offspring. At midnight the curses of the young harlots are heard in the streets and this plagues and spoils the holy tie between the wife and the husband in their marital life. It is loveless marriage that causes man to seek physical pleasure elsewhere, in effect, brings harlot into being; and so she curses the "marriage hearse." It becomes also a curse for the young child that is born either from the marriage or from the adultery. The child is thus "blasted" as soon as born he will never have any chance to grow up content and happy.я эз
The interdependent misery of the inhabitants of London is most forcefully expressed in these lines.