Romantics Poetry

What is a summary for William Blake’s Holy Thursday: ‘Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean

The speaker describes charity-school children who take part in a procession in St Paul’s Cathedral celebrating Jesus’ ascension

“The children walking two and two”

Polysyndeton imitate children, suggesting military regimentation which evokes the children’s disciple and institutional order, revealing how society forces the innocent into uniformity and conformity

Blake’s approach to the children of the procession as a whole highlights the lack of individuality within England where everyone is connected to a single identity

“Into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames waters flow.”

St Paul’s = a prominent symbol of the Church’s power and authority of which its rigidity contrasts to the children’s youth and virtue

Simile compares children to an urban, polluted river which flows through a city of inequality and misery, depicting how children are naturally pure but have been altered by their oppressive environment and financial situation

“multitudes of lambs…their innocent hands”