Blake Songs of Innocence and Experience poems

Anticlericalism- context

-Attacks established religion exposing what he sees as destructive dogmas and ideologies- distortion of true spiritual life into a system of moral laws which bound people in shame/fear of punishment

-draws attention to the miseries caused through the Church’s demand for obedience and obeisance,offering no respite to children for their hunger and misery while Blake appeals for compassion and responsibility (CS)

-the church fails in acting charitably, mercifully, empathetically ect. as a powerful organisation which does nothing to help the powerless and disenfranchised and complicit in the oppression of the people

-established religion is presented as tyrannical both spiritually (LBB) and sexually and emotionally (GOL)

GOL- Blake espouses a liberal outlook on sexuality and sexual desire, attacking the repressive and damaging influences of traditional religious teachings and morality on natural human instincts

-disliked the hypocrisy of the church( and wider state) that maintained poverty as an oppressor that invited capitalism to society, parents were conditioned to pray in church while raining their children to a life of misery as the Church of England was socially seen as an arm of the state- religious observance ensured the population was kept in order

Hymns context:

Isaac watts( hymn writer) encapsulates late 18th century ideas of how children should behave creating religious and didactic children’s verse- children seen as having a natural inclination to evil and imposing moral lessons - in singing them children learned to embody these values- while B advocates for imaginative freedom

-Locke and Rousseau emphasised childhood innocence and benevolence

-felt orthodox Christian’s was punitive ‘thou shalt not’ and problematic

Protesting against government power- context

Benevolent pastoral world contrasts and directly attacks the repressive arm of government

Biting satirical criticism of the corruption within his contemporary Georgian society- state of experience imposed prematurely upon innocence by oppressive authoritarian institutions

-songs written in 1794 when British gov was deeply conservative and reactionary- fear of subversion and political unrest(French revolution) led to draconian policy making

-Industrial revolution- industrial magnates were making money on the backs of the proletariat and slave trade was thriving despite growing dissenting voices

-the country was in the hands of a few powerful men who ensured control remained where it was, he suggests the political world is motivated by selfishness and those who have power want to bind others to their own benefit- B supports the vulnerable and powerless and those being controlled

Against the education system- Context

-argues implicitly that the best education comes when children are given freedom to grow, believing nature was the best educator because it is instinctive and sympathetic

-(SB) directly condemns the formal education system which limits the creativity and natural curiosity of children, suggesting when children are taken away from the natural rhythms of life they will be cast into a world of winter barrenness

Green world and eco politics- context

• human life is at its best when it has a healthy relationship with nature being a part of it and not superior to it- seeking to remove the anthropocentric view that humans have, suggesting that nature should be afforded the same rights as human beings

• -a healthy interaction between human nature and a sympathetic understanding of nature’s powers and laws can increase human joy and well-being suggesting then the imagination would be freed from all repressive forces

Champion of freedom, against laws, conventions and opression- context

Children as symbolic of creative imagination-industrialism and child labour as a consequence of the way in which mechanisation and conformation to wage labour cut people off from their naturally independent imaginations

-images of imprisonment and binding are recurring as they indicate the lamentable state of the world Blake saw in which people are controlled and subjugated

-protested agaisnt the human laws which sought to restrict sexual freedom, believing love was natural and should not be subject to conventional controls

Blake context

Sympathetic to both American and French revolutions championing the mental and physical freedom of the individual and condemning those who wield power. Recurring imagery of constraint and binding reflect his antipathy towards hierarchies and power structures that seek to impose their will and ideology on the common man or children. Gives voices to the oppressed and underpriviliged

-questioned and attacked the actions, motivations and legitimacy of the authorities of his day(church, monarchy, government), rebelled against the style and sentiments of Augustan writers

The world of innocence, safety and security- context

Blake uses children as devices to present the purity and sacred nature of innocence and how society can remove this innocence, rendering them as victims with fallen childhoods

-Utopian and idealised world invites readers to ask questions about the world they live in and the vale and nature of experience.

-Children (and people) are happy, free, protected and secure as human beings are in harmony with both each other and nature- emblematic of strength and security to symbolise what good government should be

-possibly suggests if humans live in a harmonious state they can share and therefore dissipate the sorrows of others

Overall Blake AO3/ evaluation innocence vs experience

Blake establishes a world of freedom and innocence so that he can constant it with the forces that bring about this loss of innocence

Innocence cannot last forever unchallenged, although it’s possible to prolong/regain through love/beauty it is inevitably under threat of being superseded as we move into adulthood. This progression as a fall from grace is inevitable yet is made worse by tyranny and harshness of politically through rules of moral law and an ethic of punishment rather than religious forgiveness- led to distorted way of viewing the self, the world and god as humanity had a blinkered perspective characterised by a sense of alienation, anxiety and fear

Self conditioning- we witness the suppression of healthy individual life by an ideology comprised of work ,power and repression and minds internalise these shackles. The process of internalisation absorbs these oppressive forces and accepts them without question and hindering any imaginative development

Innocence as a condition allied to childhood, viewing the natural and human world without fear- Biblical fall as an accession to carnal knowledge yet Blake presents the world of innocence as once of natural, unforced pleasure in sexuality

-Blake as distrusting the forces in contemporary society due to the increasing mechanisation of the world around him

-whilst Blake advocates for an unrestricted state of innocence for the creative imagination and freedom of children, his poetry depicts a more sinister reality, where children are corrupted and exploited by higher powers and authority figures

"And I wrote my happy songs every child may joy to hear"

Introduction

More benevolent reflection, not imposing the doctrine of theological constraints (didactive),

Choosing an open mind to imaginative freedom

written to be accessible to children as Blake wants anyone to take what they can from his creative process

“Drop they pipe, thy happy pipe; sing thy songs of happy cheer.”

“And I made a rural pen, and I stained the water clear”

Subversion of the authority of adulthood on children

Imprint on the natural world, becomes chartered and restrained as his imagination is something commanded rather than intuitive

Blake as a prophet like figure as the piper

Chimney Sweeper (I) Big ideas:

Statement of narrator- dramatic monologue in simple rhyming couplets-only innocently repeating the moral code which has been taught by society,

ironic use of anapaestic rhythm exposes the overly simplistic sermonising B attacks in the church

holding a mirror up to readers as it church/society that decides children with this false morality as ‘your chimneys’ inflict a culpability to readers for their labour

-takes place in pastoral idyll to contrasts the grim realities of their lives with the ecstatic vision of liberty contained in Tom’s dream- childhood and the impact of industrialism on the natural world

- Innocence-seems a more frightening condition as they have no way of understanding the world in which they live, the inability to see the state as a malice that keeps little boys chained to a dangerous life

-Organised religion becomes a manifestation of the fundamental problem of a blinkered perspective. Attacks the established church for perpetuating insidious myths which maintain the dispossessed in a state of false consciousness

-Blake not advocating for a passive acceptance of earthly misery in order to gain freedom/joys of kingdom of heaven after death

-established church and uncaring parents that restrict our vision and prevent us from understanding both our oppression and the infinite possibilities of true perception

“my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry “ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!”

Chimney sweeper (I)

Narrator: unable to comprehend the world in which he finds himself, both internalised the language of abuse and don’t have the vocabulary to criticise it

Children not appreciated by comodified into social ill of child labour

Poetic strategy ‘weep’- Blake suggests as these words sound similar to us- audible similarity- there is little difference in their meaning to the child- he does not know he has been taught a false language that conditions him into believing that sadness is a part of everyday life as he does not have adequate language to comprehend/criticise

Metre: unstressed-change in anapestic metre, emphasises childhood innocence and naivety and blind acceptance of oppression- subverting the joy they should experience by making light of it

removal of protection- forced into state of experience

“his head that curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved”

“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”

Chimney sweeper (I)

‘lamb’ critique of accepting lot in life- criticising submission as not a true martyrdom

allusion to biblical sacrifice for voluntary moral purpose (Jesus) contrasts their forced sacrifice for capitalist purpose- sense of corruption to loss of innocence

‘soot’ man made corruption tainted the natural state of innocence- tainted by reality- innate vulnerability of children

Narrator as an inadvertent agent of indoctrination- lulling him to accept his state as a false parental figure- silencing his freedom of speech and ability to question institutions- false consciousness without freedom of mind

“thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack, were all of them locked up in coffins of black;”

Chimney sweeper (I)

lexis of death and constraint

“And by came an Angel who had a bright key, and he opened the coffins & set them all free”

Chimney sweeper (I)

illusory promise of afterlife and salvation

Angel- figure of salvation and oppression- no true intervention , position of power as the only one that can liberate as a manifestation of the power of the church, facilitating their death- becomes inevitable

‘bright key’ image of freedom as blinding- god as the light of the world exploiting innocence to restrict and make them unquestioning (of the validity of the power of the church)

“down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run, and wash in a river and shine in the sun”

Chimney sweeper (I)

pastoral dream- harmony between man and nature

biblical Garden of Eden-before the fall- transcendental imagery

Only attained as a form of utopia as industrialism removed the beauty/accessibility of nature and can now only be dreamed of/ found in death

shedding burden and distorted view of the world to return to the innocent state, can only escape labour in death/reclaim bodily freedom

“the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, he’d have God for his father & never want joy.”

Chimney sweeper (I)

conditional relationship with god- subverts the benevolence of God

reduced to a transaction- not omnibenevolent god- encouraging submission

conditioned to accept abuse by religion

“we rose in the dark”

“So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm”

Chimney sweeper (I)

Satirical- self perpetuating cycle, ignorance and passivity towards capitalist exploitation and complicity from the church

Christian doctrine justifying class inequality- Angel as a metaphor for the church’s manipulation and distortion of religion as a mode of social control- preying on vulnerable in society

mistreatment as a way of life- religious ideology weaponised as a mouthpiece of the upper class

Bleak view of the world- fall- contrasts the idlylic picture of innocence in “shine”

Makes suffering endurable, suppresses lower classes to accept oppression

Chimney Sweeper (E) Big ideas:

Rhythm slows down to last lines to expose hypocrisy of religion. The law by passed by parliament in 1788 to protect child sweeps failed to make any difference when Blake wrote Songs of Experience in 1794- poets anger at society’s indifference

speaker directs his towards organised religion implying it profits from his misery

Blinkered perception: Blake sees the sin of organised religion as preventing people from seeing things by training them in the fallacy of received wisdom, implying social problems are intimately connected with spiritual problems. As the parents fail to perceive his misery, they fail to perceive the lack of spiritual truth in the doctrines and practices of the church

-social ill of child labour/exploitation

-corrupting influence of organised religion/ as a form of opression

-state of experience

“A little black thing among the snow, crying “weep! ‘weep!” in notes of woe!”

Chimney sweeper (E)

Dehumanised in poem and in society- reification under capitalist system

‘snow’ winter setting suggests nothing can grow or thrive under restriction

manifests experience in a physical way- tainted and made vctim to organised religion-corrupted/destroyed by adults,

criticises oppressive forces- not one way as he stains their reputation- stain on human consciousness

‘notes’ juxtaposes religious songs of praise later, irony of religion ignoring suffering

contrasts ‘weep’ ‘sweep’- suggesting experience is a state of knowledge as the child knows this has been forced upon him

“They are both gone up to the church to pray”

Chimney sweeper (E)

Parents- oppressed and conditioned themselves by organised religion, turns a blind eye to child exploitation in the name of piety and absolving guilt in church

directed blame to parents and church- they prioritise absent authority figures over the safety of the children in pursuit of salvation- feel a ‘moral duty’ as if piety absolves their blame

-they collude with the state and church to construct his misery and suffering as they absolve themselves of guilt of selling him into slavery

“They clothed me in the clothes of death, and taught me to sing the notes of woe”

Chimney sweeper (E)

marked into the exploitative trade- cycles of oppression

parents and all authority figures complicit in child exploitation by not preventing it

accepted misery through conditioning into state of fear and the removal of the joys of childhood- state of experience imposed

‘taught’ -didactive- possibly Blake’s perception of formalised education as a negative force- distorted?- creative/imaginative freedom of childhood subverted

‘Clothes of death’- soot turning them black into colours of mourning as this labour will eventually kill them

“Are gone to praise God and his Priest and King, who make up a heaven of our misery”

Chimney Sweeper (E)

‘heaven’ ‘misery’- oxymoron mirrors hypocrisy in society, conditioning children into labour for the promise of ‘heaven’

-Organised religion built upon innocent pain suggesting the church weaves a fiction of happiness pretending children are happy from suffering

Parents symbolic of government- responsible for the well-being of the poor- criticising the abandonment of responsibility/not sharing their wealth while living- in pursuit of maintaining appearances/religion

lies, deceit, fallacy- promise of salvation as a guise of corruption- indoctrinating a false consciousness (harmfulness to naivety)

‘God’’Priest’’King’- figureheads of religion that allow religion to control and exploit- direct oppressors- the church as manufacturing and sustaining this system of exploitation- organised religion as built upon oppression/acceptance of oppression

The Echoing Green (I) Big Ideas

Ten line stanzas (dizdains) in rhyming couplets-dizdains built from couplets reflect the building of lives from a series of ordinary days- repetitions reflect cycle of life/nature and refrain at end of line makes echo literal by bringing readers back to the echoing green

• Pastoral/bucolic setting-symbiotic relationship between nature and humans that benefit from each other, unrestricted harmony between man and nature

• Absent authority figures that are benevolent allowing a sense of equilibrium- adults see play as a necessary part of development/fulfilment- facilitating the ability to grow in nature without unnatural restrictions-offering stability through nostalgic memories, Green world

• Old john/oak-symbols of strength and security of what good government should be as an experience that doesn’t devour innocence

• Cycles (seasons,life cycle, cycle of a day, action to rest) of youth in natural accordance with nature-sense of rejuvenation, energy and vitality-people take comfort in the rhythms of life and generational play

Children as symbolic of creative imagination-industrialism and child labour as a consequence of the way in which mechanisation and conformation to wage labour cut people off from their naturally independent imaginations

Final couplet-can show natural cycles/peace/security and the natural need for rest to enable rejuvenation, OR the inevitability of experience encroaching on innocence ending on a not of disquiet and fear

“The merry bells ring to welcome the spring. The sky-lark and thrush, the birds of the bush, sing louder around, to the bells’ cheerful sound.”

The Echoing Green (I)

Church bells-alligned with the natural world-active passive role in the community rather than an absent authority- bells stimulate freedom and don’t overpower nature- contrast London as they are a form social control as the unrestricted view of the world is untainted and nature can still be appreciated

man-made music in harmony with the natural soundscape

Subverts the oppressive nature of the church- what christianity should be in recognising the authority of nature by allowing it to become louder

“Old John, with the white hair does laugh away with care, sitting under the oak among the old folk”

The Echoing Green (I)

Seasons of regeneration- positivity to experience as wisdom comes with age and brings protection

Symbolises the benevolent authority figures of adults through the ‘oak’- uncorrupted by man and withstands the cycles whilst retaining its natural state

Facilitates the joy and childhood of youth in ageing

‘oak’- allows the young and old to amicable share the same space and afford the human characters freedom. It is an emblem of strength and security, a symbol of what good government ought to be

“ ‘Such were the joys. When we all girls & boys, in our youth were seen, on the Echoing Green.’ “

The Echoing Green (I)

Communal experience- natural process that doesn’t separate the generations or isolate individuals

“The sun does descend, and our sports have an end”

The Echoing Green (I)

Play and creative imagination as a learning/developmental experience

Inevitability of day and the continuation of play and joy

“Round the laps of their mothers, many sisters and brothers, like birds in their nest are ready for rest”

The Echoing Green (I)

Sense of community

Still retain freedom under protection- ornithological imagery of birds having the propensity to leave the nest/ explore- parental authority is benevolent and unrestrictive

“And sport no more seen, on the darkening Green”

The Echoing Green (I)

Natural cycles of the day- allows the sunrise to become visible and catalyses the regeneration- cyclical ending- positive progression into nighttime

Ending of the state of innocence- innocence as transient which makes progression inevitable, yet you are still able to inhabit and reclaim a sense of innocence within experience - doesn’t have to be a devouring force

London (E) Bid ideas:

-many empires, including Britain, feared similar revolutions alike the french revolution leading them to act more restrictive+oppressive-pinacle of industrialism

Manacles- could represent the deeply ingrained respect for tradition and institutions that stopped the people of London from following the French Revolution in overthrowing their oppressors in church and state

-sense of ownership within industrialism - nature and pathology of people owned by government- visible weaknesses as people are controlled through their weaknesses

• criticism of the church

• criticism of marriage as making people readily accept suffering and impose bureaucracy on human passion

• social ills of child labour and prostitution-cycles of oppression that promote experience devouring innocence

“I wander thro’ each chartered street, near where the charter’d Thames does flow”

London (E)

Blake himself has freedom- aimlessness in being free from constraints and acts as an observer/flaneur as an educated individual he can recognise plights yet he calls to action for collective power

“chartered” alludes to the ownsership by the rich/crown as a symbol of control to split up london and make individuals pay- shows hoe institutions have taken over the city and the natural river. Also the inescapability of social and political constraints

Natural world shackled by human institutions of suffering

Commodification and imposed restriction to the natural entity of the river stresses Blake’s criticism of the ruling classes domination of the city

“mark in every face I meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe

London (E)

sense of permanence- branded by their suffering

Antanaclasis- collective homegenity of oppression

Metaphorical scars left by the controlling oppressive system- makes them vulnerable through visible weaknesses such as sexually transmitted diseases or visible poverty and malnourishment

Alliteration links their despair to their weakness amplifying the damage- syntactic parallelism to create a semantic field of suffering

“In every cry of man, in every Infant’s cry of fear, in every voice in every man”

London (E)

Anaphora- all humans are imprisoned and there is no individuality in suffering

Atmosphere of relentless opressiom

“The mind- forged manacles I hear”

London (E)

The regular meter is upset here adding a sense of suffering and effort

May represent the deeply ingrained respect for tradition and institutions that stopped the people of London from following the French Revolution

“How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry every blackning church appals; and the hapless Soldier’s sigh runs in blood down Palace walls”

London (E)

Their cry figuratively blackens the church due to its abuse and exploitation of the vulnerable- they authorise the sweeper’s suffering making the establishment culpable

The ‘blackening church’ is a dark force of evil while the soldiers blood is an indictment of the King who sent him to die

Soldier is helpless and does nothing to diminish his own suffering

the hypocrisy appals Blake

“But most tho’ midnight streets I hear how the youthful harlot’s curse blasts the new-born infant’s tear”

London (E)

Oxymoron- no future or vitality to youth- cycles of opression

“and blights with plagues with the marriage hearse”

London (E)

Marriage is a restrictive christian construction used as a means of control- likened to a death sentence

Marriage as a fallacy- manufactured to make suffering more endurable- beuracratic control over human emotions- shackling love

When the voices of children are heard on the green and laughing is heard on the hill”

Nurses song (I)

Subverts Isaac Watts idea of obedience ‘seen not heard’ as the children are introduced through the audible presence they occupy/dominate

idyllic bucolic and pastoral setting as an arena for children to freely express imaginative freedom

‘hill’ more wild, allows them to be liberated- authority figure below them, distanced, allows them freedom- hierarchical power subverted

Reminiscent of Garden of Eden before the fall- carefree state

“My heart is at rest within my breast and everything else is still”

Nurses song (I)

subverts innocent state of unbridled passion- sense of peace and calm to natural cycles

‘still’ viewing the natural uninhibited state of innocence without fear) distorted view

maternal and comforting imagery- benevolent authority figure

Alliteration of ‘hill’ and ‘heart’- this is a diacope- this repeated ‘h’ sound requires an exhale of air which gives the stanza a breathlessness- fitting to the children’s running depicting their vitality

“Come, come leave of play and let us away, till the morning appears in the skies”

Nurses song (I)

‘us’ collective plural pronoun- no sense of isolation or separation between authority and children

presence of an authority figure and hierarchy in place- benevolent

prioritises their well-being as a reassuring presence - doesn’t use the night/nature as a source of fear- it is not weaponised as a mode of control

“No, no let us play, for it is yet day and we cannot go to sleep. Besides, in the sky the little birds fly, and the hills are all covered with sheep”

Nurses song (I)

repetitive “no, no”- Desperation to retain sense of innocence- their process of reasoning is aligned with childhood energy

no sense of fear towards authority - can express their needs and desires

Children aligned with nature- symbiotic relationship- they cannot sleep while there is vitality and energy in the natural world as this is a source of development and learning

‘fly’ synonymous with the freedom of the natural world

Anaphoric “and” enclose the polysyndeton found in the bible making it appear like the Garden of Eden before the fall- also mirroring the children’s desires to extend their joy and play and connect with their environment

“Well we’ll go and play till the light fades away”

Nurses song (I)

‘Well, well’ mirrored repetition- mirrors their childhood joy

‘light fades away’ appreciates childhood energy and spirit by allowing them to rest

Natures cycles- through the natural end to a day- aligned and in harmony with human development- positivity to growth and development when in harmony with nature

fascilitates their childhood and enables them to thrive

“The little ones leaped & shouted & laughed and all the hills echoed”

Nurses song (I)

Reminiscent of the Garden of Eden before the fall- a carefree state

‘leaped and shouted and laughed’- dynamic verbs - contrasts Chimney sweeper (I) as the children are able to achieve this in life and not transactional or conditional on their obedience- unbridled freedom- idealised parental figure

‘echoed’ voices reverberating- nature as intensifying their laughter joy and play- symbiotic relationship

“When the voices of children are heard on the green, and whisperings are in the dale”

Nurses song (E)

Children not fully innocence as innocence cannot remain with the presence of deceit-they have adapted to survive in an arena of restriction- partially experienced

sense of fear, deliberately repressing their behaviour under authority

secrecy and hidden joy as childhood joy is not embraced

‘dale’ open valley- no put on a pedestal no sense of equilibrium - physical reminder of hierarchal structure-open valley element of surveillance. Could symbolically represent a fall from innocence into the corruption of adulthood

“The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind, my face turns green and pale”

Nurses song (E)

‘fresh’ pain of loss of innocence- raw evokes state of sickness

‘green’ ‘pale’ death and lifelessness- morality associated with experience- subverting the vitality and freedom/regeneration of green to one of sickness- experience state as parasitic destroying the host and corrupting innocence

“Then come home my children the sun is gone down, and the dews of night arise”

Nurses song (E)

Childhood play not encouraged- no care as her objective is fear not revitalisation

‘dews of night’ adults instilling a sense of fear towards the natural world- danger to the unknown- the expanse and natural process of nature is feared

“Your spring and your day are wasted in play, and your winter and night in disguise”

Nurses song (E)

‘your’ personal pronouns- separation and isolation- cycles are not collective no harmony between adults children and nature

‘wasted in play’ child exploitation- not useful as not labour focused- OR memory of innocence can be painful to their future of labour- innocence as misleading bestowing an ignorance/vulnerability

‘disguise’ malevolent, unnatural and inauthentic

Inevitability of experience state/adulthood suggesting innocence cannot hide reality and this state of curiosity/freedom is futile- trying to prevent the loss of innocence yet this is impossible as vulnerability is innate(painful?)

Imagery of appearance vs. reality- experience as removing the fallacy of innocence-Sheltered from the cold reality in which they live- She recognised her own freedom yet had to disguise/deceive her true authentic self to reform/inhabit experience- forced to repress unbridled desires- state of denial by imposing mental restrictions - yet these are intangible and can be broken

Nurses Song: Experience Big Ideas

A nurse hears voices of children playing outside, prompting her to remember her own childhood from her adulthood persepective- viewing their play as wasteful due to her inability to appreciate innocence

-Adult cynicism/bitterness/jealousy

-An oppressive vision of authority

-A world in which childhood innocence, curiosity and freedom are not seen to have any inherent value

-The idea that childhood-and the notion of free unhindered joy is nothing but a fantasy

-cycles of repressed freedom

Nurses song (E) AO3/ Evaluation

• Blake advocating for a sense of equilibrium( a coexistence) between the two contrary states of innocence and experience- innocence is vulnerable to corruption and overstepping natural boundaries in only inhabiting experience is plagued with a distorted view (fall)

• Increasingly mechanised industrial society raised Blake’s concerns that child labour and conformity cut people off from their naturally independent imaginations. Seen as the nurse believes childhood- and the notion of free, unhindered joy- is nothing but a fantasy

Nurses song (I) metre/ big ideas

Anapaestic - steady rhyme lend the poem a carefree skipping sound that evokes the children’s joy, creating a sense of harmony that reflect the idyllic world in which everything is in its rightful place (setting reminiscent of before the fall with an idealised parental figure)

bucolic setting, state of unbridled childhood freedom as the nurse (authority figure) cherishes the creative freedom of the children

nurse facilitates their natural curiosity and instinctive energy

Pastoral setting conveys their world is marked by freedom and innocence with the absence of fear, in harmony with their surroundings that evokes the children’s joy

Metres

Iambic:(most common- any mood)

London(b)with breaksTrochaic (dull,heavy mood)

-Introduction

Anapaestic(bouncy, light mood)

-echoing green

-nurses song (I)

-nurses song (e)

Dactylic (mostly linked to movement and action)

Spondaic (2 or more syllables equally stressed eg, fire fire-fire fire

“I love to rise in a summer morn when the birds sing on every tree” “Oh! what sweet company”

The School Boy (I)

Present tense- possibility to still access a state of innocence (under oppression?)

‘rise’ elevated among nature but subservient under adult authority

Affirms his desires in direct conflict with education, suggests formalised education does not meet the needs of children

‘birds sing’ equilibrium and harmony between humans and nature- symbiotic relationship

“The distant huntsman winds his horn”

The School Boy (I)

absent authority presence-

symbolises the destruction of the natural world and that experience is always present to some degree- innocence cannot prevail/solely exist but doesn’t have to be devoured

“But to go to school in a summer morn oh! it drives all the joy away”

The School Boy (I)

Tone shift- dull monotonous- rehearsed and mechanical suggests this is unnatural- conditioned

Contrasts ‘rise’ as unnatural amidst nature’s natural process taking away growth to impose restriction on movement

“Under a cruel eye outworn. The little ones spend the day. In sighing and dismay”

The School Boy (I)

Physical hierarchy- oppressive educational system

‘outworn’ sense of experience, fatigue of adulthood- contrasts the singing and it is incongruous with the idea of youth

Lexis of lethargy as formalised education can negatively restrict creative imagination through the ‘fall’

“Ah! then at times I drooping sit” “Nor in my book can I take delight, nor sit in learning’s bower, worn thro’ with the dreary shower”

The School Boy (I)

‘bower’ tree shade of natures classroom as a protective environment that facilitates natural development

‘bower’ ‘dreary shower’- pathetic fallacy- shade as restriction from light and premature exposure to the experience state- imposing manufactured seasons and thus development that doesnt reflect their needs or natures rhythm- early indoctrination as cyclical process and infiltrated development as education is a source of socialisation for children

‘drooping’ imagery of a wilted flower- the deprivation of nature as damaging- plant imagery links the idea that children thrive on freedom

-physical stature shows a subservience to education- crushes rather than elevates- must occupy less space in the sphere of formalised education and become homogeneous as children are conditioned- (takes away the uniqueness of nature to undistinguishable field of sorrow?)

“How can the bird that is born for joy, sit in a cage and sing?” [child] “droop his tender wing, and forget his youthful spring”

The School Boy (I)

‘born’ intrinsic creative passion-born innocent yet this natural process is taken into confinement

‘droop’ loss of vitality and energy, taking away their propensity for freedom

‘forget’ conditioned into a state of experience

“O! father & mother! if buds are nipped” “and if the tender plants are stripped of their joy in the springing day”

The School Boy (I)

Parent as complicit- generational cycles that perpetuate cycles of oppression- (NSE)

‘nipped’ taking away the propensity for natural development by condemning him to a life of fatigue and fear - premature removal of innocence

‘stripped’ no ability to revisit- childhood should be appreciates and take pleasure in inhabiting it

Violent verbs- formalised education as exercising direct harm by removing the intrinsic parts of nature- takes children out of natural cycles that may prevent them from re-inhabiting innocence

‘tender plants’ both vulnerable and moldable to be conditioned

“How shall the summer arise in joy” “Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, or bless the mellowing year. When the blasts of winter appear?”

The School Boy (I)

• questioning suggests formalised education doesn’t provide an adequate education

Sense of loss and bereavement fostered- allowing readers to mourn this exposure

No preparation for the transition to experience- becomes painful

‘blasts’ plosive sounds- unprepared for winter as prematurely stripping innocence makes growth painful

‘destroy’ experience devouring innocence

The Schoolboy (I) Big Ideas

• Institutional oppression- formalised, restrictive education- jaded, cynical authority of school teacher

• Destruction of innocence- children denied their rightful, imaginative freedoms- parents complicit in this

• State of experience (poem initially in I and moved to E by Blake)

importance of living in natural accordance with nature

Little Black Boy (I) Big Ideas:

• limitations if innocence- Blind obedience/ uncomplaining acceptance

• Attack on contemporary attitudes towards race and slavery. Many people contemporary to Blake believed non-white races to be inferior+ used this to justify slavery

• Attack on distortion of Christian beliefs- acceptance of early suffering for promise of God’s love in the afterlife

• White saviour complex

Little Black Boy(I) context

• Britain dominated the slave trade from 1730-1800 then became one of slavery’s loudest opponents. Rewriting the story of slavery in the imagination of the British public with a narrative that glorified the affair of some white abolitionists

• Biggest opposition to slave trade came from religious movements( quakers and evangelical protest groups) - eg. William Wilberforce saw it as a spiritual crusade

• 1788- Blake wrote TLBB

• 1807- Britain abolished slave trade

“My mother bore me in the southern wild”

The Little Black Boy (I)

‘southern’ western attitudes towards Rae that see this as uncivilised and degenerate- subvert the positivity of natures education with contemporary racist attitudes

Implicit satire from Blake to critique white superiority

“I am black, but oh! my soul is white. White as an angel is the English child; but I am black as if bereaved of light”

The Little Black Boy (I)

Apologetic tone as the speaker feels the need to repent- physiognomy

‘Bereaved’ sense of deficiency to his racial identity/inferiority- suggests he lacks something essential, echoes the dehumanisation of black people as this disparity views them as subhuman

‘Angel’ spiritual elevation- links the white children and god to imply they occupy a higher position in authority/hierarchy- potential corruption of religion??

“My mother taught me under a tree, and sitting down before the heat of day”

The Little Black Boy (I)

‘Mother’- benevolent caregiver, inadvertently complicit in perpetuating these attitudes due to generational oppression, maternal figure, didactic, colluding in system of oppression unintentionally, protective

‘Tree’ links to the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, sense of experience through self consciousness to his own race, cannot live freely in a state of untainted innocence (before the fall now experience has devoured innocence) as internalised racist attitudes and prejudices have been imposed upon him

-Tree as shading him from God? Society believes black people aren’t deserving of God’s love

‘Taught’ idealistic education within nature ‘natures classroom’, or trapping him in a false consciousness

Parental authority as inadvertently oppressive

“and we are put on earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love; and these black bodies and this sun-burnt face is but a cloud, and like a shady grove”

The Little Black Boy (I)

-‘little space’- restrictive word due to oppression as they are conditioned to believe they must occupy a small space in society

-‘beams’ sun and heat as a symbol of God’s love suggesting that their racial identity makes them more able to receive God’s love

‘Bear’ self-punishment by accepting his earthy position and suffering as it is conditional on God’s love, suggests that only through suffering and enduring oppression will they achieve salvation once they have learned and experienced hardship- generational conditioning

‘Lambs’- repeated imagery of sacrifice as the black child remains a victim in the afterlife

‘Golden tent’- superficial opulence, idealistic yet deprives the child of this on earth reserving it only for God and (white children?)

‘Cloud’ ‘shady grove’ superficial earthly appearance, racial identity removed, only accepted by Gods in death once racial identity is obsolete?

‘For when’- conditionals

“For when our souls have learned the heat to bear the cloud will vanish; we shall hear his voice” “come out the grove my love and care, and round my golden tent like lambs rejoice”

The Little Black Boy (I)

‘Bear’ self-punishment by accepting his earthy position and suffering as it is conditional on God’s love, suggests that only through suffering and enduring oppression will they achieve salvation once they have learned and experienced hardship- generational conditioning

‘Lambs’- repeated imagery of sacrifice as the black child remains a victim in the afterlife

‘Golden tent’- superficial opulence, idealistic yet deprives the child of this on earth reserving it only for God and (white children?)

‘Cloud’ ‘shady grove’ superficial earthly appearance, racial identity removed, only accepted by Gods in death once racial identity is obsolete?

‘For when’- conditionals

“Little English boy” “when I from black and he from white cloud free, and round the tent of god like lambs we joy”

The Little Black Boy (I)

‘Cloud free’ position of elevation and transcendence

“I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear to lean in joy upon our father’s knee, and then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair, and be like him and he will then love me”

The Little Black Boy (I)

‘He will then’ conditionals as he gains acceptance by God yet is in a position of servitude to the white boy-conditional and transactional

‘Heat’ metaphor for God’s love- suggests he is more deserving as he endures earthly hardship- his race makes him able to bear it thus more deserving than the white boy

‘Silver hair’-English boy elevates as a result of the servitude, alludes to the power that the British gained from the sacrifice/slavery of black people- (boy facilitates their position of ‘equality’ by aiding the boy

‘I’ll shade him from the heat’- modal auxiliary verb expresses futurity and add a sense of certainty to his oppressive position/treatment- submission and blind acceptance of inferiority even without his racial identity in the afterlife as this is deep-rooted

‘be like him’- God and English boy as white saviours as he can only be equal once he becomes like them

Garden of love (E) Big ideas:

-marks the psychological passage from childhood to adult experience with string echoes to the passage from innocence to knowledge of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

-denied physical pleasures by the rule-bound morality of the church

-criticises the way in which human sexuality has been inhibited and distorted by organised religion

-Blake saw the threat of losing joy and desire of childhood innocence unless we can develop out creative imagination to replace that lost innocence we will lose the essence of life itself

-Blake could attack a new chapel build in Lambeth by his home- built by subscription appealing him at the idea that those who couldn’t lay would be excluded from Christianity’s Garden of Love

FREE LOVE MOVEMENT:

• philosophy that seeks freedom from state religion and church interference in personal relations- critical of the marriage laws of his day and the christian notion of chastity as a virtue and shame surrounding desire

• confining sex to marriage is restrictive and kills desire- documentation and formalisation of intense emotions dulls and extinguishes them (LE)

“I went to the Garden of love”

The Garden of Love (E)

‘the Garden of love’ as a metaphor for desire and seeking desire tainted by organised religion as Blake critiques man’s imposition and construction of restriction on sexual expression

‘I’ purpose and intent to seek desire

‘Garden’ as both the Green world and love and desire in a natural state+ links to the Garden of Eden (B: uninhibited naked state A:state of inhibition and shame)- possible transformation into a human construction as a regulated part of nature

“A chapel was built in the midst, where I used to play on the green”

The Garden of Love (E)

‘Chapel’ man-made construction and symbolic of the restrictions on desire as a place of marriage, capitalisation hints to the institution of the church and the physical space it occupies

- physical embodiment of the church arguing that religions codify faith and through the process of codification religion becomes less liberating

‘midst’ made the focal point, drawing people in and restricting freedom?

‘play’ unfettered sexual expression, progression into adulthood, physical barrier from reinhabiting free state as the speakers positive memories are possibly replaced with loss (NSE)

“And the gates of this Chapel were shut, and ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door”

The Garden of Love (E)

Anapaestic metre broken with monosyllabic harsh, punitive sound- refusal of poem to settle into a regular anapaestic meter represents the central conflict between love and organised religion and how religion disrupts the natural order of things

‘gates’-entrance to religion and salvation as conditional on sacrifice of freedom and subservience due to the transactional nature of Gods love

‘shut’ - discriminatory and oppressive attitudes of the church as punitive and unwelcoming, withdrawing accessibility

‘Thou shalt not’- allusion to the Ten commandments- scripture used to demonise sexuality and doctrine used to legitimise control over sexuality by condemning free sexual exploration, no specfic command after imperitive suggests the Church forbids arbitrarily

-regulatory interference of established institutions into love as the broken metre displays how this stunts the natural growth of love

-allusion to religious commandments as organised religion imposes restriction and punishment by imposing a false consciousness

“That so many sweet flowers bore “ “And I saw it was filled with graves, and tomb-stones where flowers should be”

The Garden of Love (E)

‘sweet’ spring, floral imagery of the unrestricted organic growth of nature as both nature and love are connected in how they are nurtured and cared for- harmful anthropocentric view of humans that inhibits the joy that an appreciation for natures powers offers

‘graves’ Death in place of regeneration as the documentation and formalisation of extreme/intense emotions dulls them and leads to the death/extinguishing of love and desire (LE)

“And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, and binding with briars my joys & desires”

The Garden of Love (E)

Final image of the Church’s restrictive power, internal rhyme, tetramter becomes longer pentameter leading to a sense of collapse/delfation as the priests are further doling out commands and restricting joy

‘and’ cumulative repetition echoes the ongoing anxiety and shame that adulthood is consumed with

‘Priests’ agents of religious dictation and oppression- lose their individualism under collective repressive system of thought

‘walking their rounds’- mechanical and regulated movements that suggest a loss of bodily freedom under religion, lose their individualism under collective repressive system of thought with no possibility for exploration

imagery of encircling and entrapment as religion becomes an absent surveilling authority that possibly represents the subconscious control of shame within the blinkered perspective in the experience state that instils self regulation

‘binding’ ‘briars’ reminiscent of crown of thorns- biblical sacrifice- as religion commands a sacrifice of sexual liberation for a potential chance of resurrection and salvation

‘black gowns’ - internal rhyme with ‘round’ emphasises the monotony of their routine and religion- homogeneous in collective ideology of chastity, mourning the loss of sexual identity

Little Girl Lost Big Ideas

-Ona meas grace, favoured by God, God as Urizen the God of the old-testament a restraining and limiting force

-inverting Parable of the prodigal son

-free love as a spiritual idl as the institution of marriage is a societal construct and therefore an impediment to true human nature- lost essence of humanity and cannot access the world in a free state with repression and suppression

-father is trapped in archaic conservatism and cannot accept the truth- ‘morally lost’-loss of patriarchal control

-Blake’s prophetic voice offers the hope that free love will be attained one day and indictment of the state where natural desires have been twisted be external forces of religion and social norms/ sexual expression shrouded in shame and repressed

Free love:

-seeks freedom from state regulation and church interference in personal relationships

-idea that men and women have right to sexual pleasure without social or legal constraints

“Children of the future age, reading this indignant page, know that in a former time love, sweet love! was a thought crime”

Little Girl Lost (E)

-Blake opens prologue using prophetic voice- creative a distanced and detached perspective of what Blake saw as the absurd/ regressive conventions that stultify open and innocent love in his current context

juxtaposes emphatic repetition of ‘love,sweet love’ with criminality in literary binary opposition- reality is more complex yet Blake presents a challenging alternative to the restraint on free love in order to maintain an ordered society as a defiance of social order

‘Crime’ rhetoric that sexua, expression is transgressive and unnatural

“In the age of gold, free from winter’s cold, youth and maiden bright to the holy light, naked in the sunny beams delight”

Little Girl Lost (E)

‘age of gold’ possible reference to the Garden of Eden before fall of man as ‘wintry cold’ represents societal restrictions which destroyed love

‘Age of gold’- elevated state of opulence depicts the expanse of nature offering the value of unbridled freedom from shame and repression that triumphs man- made riches

‘maiden bright’ symbol of innocence, chaste/virginity- image of vitality and energy to the connotations of light which facilitates the exploration over the structural progression of the poem

lexical field of brightness ‘holy light’ ‘beam’ ‘brightness’ suggest inner purity and reflection as while the couple are naked they are innocent and feel no shame

“Once a youthful pair, filled with softest care, met in garden bright where the holy light had just removed the curtains of night”

Little Girl Lost (E)

continued lexical field of brightness and purity contrast metaphor for secrecy in ‘curtains of night’- extremes of darkness of light and dark are binary opposites

‘Holy light’- light in its most natural state offers divine acceptance while the latter ‘holy book’ represents oppressive religious doctrine offering the view of what religion should be as spiritual acceptance that isn’t punitive

Links to Garden of Eden as uncorrupted by shame

“Then, in rising day, on the grass they play; parents were afar, strangers came not near, and the maiden soon forgot her fear”

Little Girl Lost (E)

‘parents were afar’ ‘strangers’ as subtle hint of distant threat as they represents strictures of the conventional world, objects of fear and authority removed they are liberated in a natural state

‘soon forgot her fear’ suggests her innocent reticent was readily overcome due to her awareness of social constraints- only knows to fear without an understanding of these restrictions she is unable to criticise them

‘On rising day’ pastoral setting presents development of day in tune with their childhood and romantic development

‘On the grass they play’ sexual expression facilitated in harmony with nature implies that it is only shame that removes innocence and not sexual expression/exploration which is essential to human spirit

“Tired with kisses sweet, they agree to meet when the silent sleep waves o’er heaven’s deep, and the weary tired wanderers weep”

Little Girl Lost (E)

‘Weary tired wanderers weep’ Awareness of the social conventions represented by the unspoken presence of parents and strangers- night has negative connotations as a time of grief for those who are weighed down by life

-alliteration of ‘w’ linguistically links these words to link the fallen state to exhaustion and misery once childhood energy is lost- links to Adam and Eve as those who are expelled and shunned from society are forced into sexual repression

‘Tired’- passionate desire of couple to progress with their relationship-possibly transgressive in the eyes of the church

“To her father white came the maiden bright but his loving look, like the holy book all her tender limbs with terror shook”

Little Girl Lost (E)

‘White’ synonymous with puritanical ideas of organised religion

‘White’-devoid of life/vitality/energy in fallen state contrasts bright which emits light-Ambiguous description of father could refer to grey hair, troubled life or shock of relationship

‘Loving look’ ‘holy book’- Implication that the father believes their love is morally wrong - parental care infused with organised religion as he becomes an inadvertently oppressive figure as an agent of fear, representing the hypocrisy of church who maintain a facade of care and benevolence which is repressive

“Ona, pale and weak, to thy father speak! Oh the trembling fear! Oh the dismal care that shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair"!”

Little Girl Lost (E)

‘blossoms’ possibly hoped to seek renewal through her and hoped for her to retain her virginity - her fathers love is not sufficient to understand her needs and grant her freedom. He is hidebound by convention and her joy is destroyed as a result

‘Pale and weak’- she is reduced in the eye of religion no longer bright and prematurely aged into state of anxiety and fear to repress what was once free- not allowed dialogue as she is no longer autonomous and reduced, synonymous with the didactive messages of Isaac Watts

Imagery of confession and purging of sins-imparting religious guilt and repentance due to rhetoric of chastity highlighting the harm of organised elision which imposes religious punishment not forgiveness within their doctrines

‘Shakes the blossom’- fathers view that sin goes against nature, in doing so he removes her sexual freedom and prevents her prom inhibiting this without shame- links to autumnal movement from the sexual connotations of spring to winters cold where love dies

Reverse prodigal son as she is not welcomed back, female shame and lust less forgiven and not forgotten in the eyes of society