Holy Thursday (Songs of Innocence) by William Blake

who writes it?

william blake

It is in iambic….

heptameter, 6x foot iamb

what is it written in, in regards to structure?

quatrains

what is the pattern of the rhyming couplets?

AABB

the sound is allusive of a….

nursery rhyme

as the poem goes on the tone grows more….

sinister

where is there a break in iambic heptameter and what does it do?

in the last line between ‘pity, lest’ creating a double stressed syllable highlighting the word pity

where is there imagery surrounding innocence and purity?

• ‘faces clean’

• ‘white as snow’

• ‘lambs’

• ‘little boys and girls’

• ‘flowers’

image of ‘lambs’ alludes to

Agnus Dei - Jesus Christ the ‘lamb of God’ - ‘sacrificing’ the children to prove the humanity and care of the upper classes.

“with wands as white as snow”

allusive of shepherds

guiding the children and used for violence

parade of souls towards Judgement Day - “walking two and two”

what slows the rhythm in the last stanza?

• the breathy sound of ‘heaven’

• alliteration and sibilance

"beneath them sit the aged men”

• as one gets older they get further from heaven

• a child is sent from God and the heavens

• idea of ‘innocence and experience’ - movement away from purity with age

what creates elongated sounds?

• open and elongated vowel sounds

• assonance (repeated vowel sounds)

what highlights the slow procession in the first stanza?

twinned alliteration

the poem questions….

whether Christian charity is real or a facade