Pre 1914 Poetry William Blake Essay

These poems Holy atomic number 90 (experience) and Holy Thursday (innocence) be curry on Ascension Day in a service in St. Pauls church. This was a special occasion for the orphans who came from London kind-heartedness Schools.The Holy Thursday (innocence) poem can be interpreted in ii different ways. The impression we get at first is that the orphans be treated well and they lead happy lives but after recital Holy Thursday (experience) you start to realise that there is a prohibit way of understanding the same poem. This view shows the orphans to be mistreated and genuinely unhappy.The phrase their indigent faces brush suggests children that argon creation well looked after rather than being abandoned and roaming the streets of London. there is a suggestion that the children w ar companions, are well behaved and have a sense of order by the line the children walking two by two This is further added to by the phrase In red, dark-skinned and green which implies that they were dressed in bright, clear-sighted uniforms rather than rags.The children have angelic guardians to nurture and protect them, as implied by the lines Grey-headed beadles walked before who have wands are described as clean-living as snow which makes us feel that these are enchanted guardians who are pure and magical. Another phrase that adds to this is the sentence Wise guardians to the poor. There is further reference to the good work that the guardians are doing when William Blake uses the terminal Multitudes of lambs implying the guardians are shepherding and guiding devoid creatures. The thought process of lambs conjures up the image of animals all sort unitedly making sure that they are all safe.The orphans are referred to as flowers in the second divide, implying delicate, natural and beautiful. Flowers signify peace implying that the children are good-natured. pose in companies they sit like good well-behaved pupils in a school, to say their nature is calm and pe aceful rather than loud and rowdy.Their god-fearing nature is implied by the words raising their innocent hands belike referring to prayer as they are hopeful and eager.In the last paragraph William Blake is saying the children en exuberate going to church, praying and singing hymns as like a mighty cheat on they raise to heaven the sound of metrical composition.Overall the poem has a lively rhythm with pace to give it a beat and fluidity. flat I am going to analyse Holy Thursday (experience) poem. In the first stanza Blake describes England as a country which is well-heeled and fruitful. This would start to be his own experience of life in England but this parameter can be interpreted in different ways. Blake could have meant that England is rich in that there is fruit and food but it is poor because of the sum of orphans. He uses holy to infer that England is a Christian Country and asks wherefore babies should be reduced to ruin and fed and looked after by masses who d ont care for them Cold and usurious hand?.In the second stanza he asks three rhetorical questions. We know the trembling exclaim isnt a song and that whatever is crying is probably altogether and whitethornbe crying out for help.Can it be a song of joy?Perhaps it could be a song of joy for the favoured a couple of(prenominal) who live in the rich and fruitful land but for the m any poor children roaming the streets of London it isnt. It is a land of poverty. In the precedent poem Holy Thursday (innocence) he says that the children raise to heaven the voice of song. He obviously believes that songs can lift a centre and in Holy Thursday (experience) it hurts him, that there are no songs of joy going heavenwards form children who are so pure. Normally to invite how rich a country a country is you measure the come up of wealth the country but here Blake is measuring the happiness by asking if their singing which is usually a sign of happiness from children.The ternary stanza d escribes their happiness in terms of the climate. Their lives are like a holding where thesun does neer shine.And their fields are bleak and bare.In the terce line he contrasts their journey through life with that of Christs crown of thorns. The image that this reflects is of a painful way through life. And the neighboring line is echoed in a later work by C.S Lewis who uses the term eternal winter to mean a place, like Siberia, that is unbearably execrable and where happiness does not exist. This metaphor makes us aware that there is never any joy of warmth in their lives and that emotionally they are on the whole bereft and emotionally starved of love.In the last paragraph he again refers to the environment and the weather to describe a situation where everything would be all right and Babe cam never hunger there. This completely fails to show the real reason why those children are poor. Rain and self-restraint wont get them out of the grinding poverty that they are in. It is simply used as a metaphor to change the childrens situation from eternal winter to dry warm summer in which they would appear to be happy. Throughout the poem there is a need of colour and description so it is difficult to conjure up any image other than of a grey bleak landscape, where grey passel and grey children exist in a society that doesnt appraise them. In Holy Thursday (innocence) he uses descriptive words such as clean, two by two, red, blue, green and as white as snow to conjure up a picture of London that is quite different. Blake similarly appears to be contend the church in other poems for its splendour and wealth but in like manner its lack of humanity and awareness of the multitudes of lambs which could be led to the slaughter and misery of poverty.Reading the Holy Thursday (experience) makes you reconsider the poem Holy Thursday (innocence) and its approach. In a negative this is my interpretation.In the first stanza it is implied that the thousands of orp hans are being do to scrub their faces clean so much that it hurts. This cleanliness of the children is only a faade to give a good impression when the phrase their innocent faces clean appears. This implies that the children are disciplined and regimented. This makes a good impression on the carers. This is alike show in red and blue and green because it shows that they are being made to wear a uniform. Being forced to wear uniforms office that the orphans also lose their individuality.Grey-headed beadles walked before could show that these carers are bighearted people who order the children around and make them walk two and two like in the multitude. This also implies that these bad people are narcissistic because they only look after themselves and they might only be flavor after the children for extra money. These armed services officers have canes to beat the children with as it says with wands as white as snow. This idea of the children being part of a military force is backed up by the quote seated in companies they sit. Because the army is sectioned off into companies, they stand in a genuine order and they are very obedient.These flowers of London town implies that the children are innocent and pure but like flowers they will eventually die. Flowers are also vulnerable and easily ruined. The comparison between the groups of children and the multitudes of lambs implies that the orphans like the lamps, group together like pure innocent creatures. The image of the lamb also stands for the idea of vulnerability and sacrifice. Like the lambs the orphans are forced to do what the carers tell them to do, and may face an early death as victims of a cruel world. Thousands of dinky boys and girls suggests that there are any poor orphans who are homeless. This shows that there is a large scale of poverty. The orphans plead for help by raising their innocent hands.Like a mighty windvoice of song implies that the wind is like a destructive hurricane ready to sweep their lives away. Ironically the wise guardians of the poor are there to look after the orphans for the money and are not concerned about the orphans at all.The rhythm of the poem in this negative view is a like a strict military march.