Pre 1914 Poetry William Blake Essay Example for Free

Pre 1914 Poetry William Blake EssayThese meters Holy atomic number 90 (experience) and Holy Thursday (innocence) are strike off on Ascension Day in a service in St. Pauls church. This was a special occasion for the orphans who came from London Charity Schools.The Holy Thursday (innocence) poem can be interpreted in cardinal different ways. The depressive disorder we get at first is that the orphans are treated well and they lead prosperous lives but after(prenominal) reading Holy Thursday (experience) you start to realise that there is a negative way of understanding the same poem. This view shows the orphans to be mistreated and very(prenominal) unhappy.The phrase their innocent faces clean suggests children that are being well looked after rather than being abandoned and roaming the streets of London.There is a trace that the children have 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 th e phrase In red, blue and ballpark which implies that they were dressed in bright, smart uniforms rather than rags.The children have angelic guardians to nurture and protect them, as implied by the lines grey-haired beadles walked before who have wands are described as white as snow which makes us feel that these are enchanted guardians who are pure and magical. some other 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 enclosure Multitudes of lambs implying the guardians are shepherding and guiding innocent creatures. The idea of lambs conjures up the image of animals all grouped together making sure that they are all safe.The orphans are referred to as flowers in the s come onhward separate, implying delicate, natural and beautiful. Flowers signify stay implying that the children are good-natured. Seated in companies they sit like good well-behaved pupil s in a school, to say their nature is calm and peaceful rather than cheap and rowdy.Their god-fearing nature is implied by the words raising their innocent hands probably referring to prayer as they are hopeful and eager.In the last paragraph William Blake is saying the children enjoy overtaking to church, praying and singing hymns as like a mighty wind they raise to promised land the voice of song.Overall the poem has a jocund rhythm with pace to give it a beat and fluidity.Now I am going to analyse Holy Thursday (experience) poem. In the first stanza Blake describes England as a res publica which is rich and plentiful. This would appear to be his own experience of life in England but this statement 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 amount of orphans. He uses holy to infer that England is a Christian Country and asks wherefore babies should be reduced to misery and f ed and looked after by people who dont care for them Cold and usurious hand?.In the second stanza he asks three rhetorical questions. We know the trembling cry isnt a song and that whatever is crying is probably alone and maybe crying out for help.Can it be a song of joy?Perhaps it could be a song of joy for the favoured few who live in the rich and fruitful land but for the m some(prenominal) poor children roaming the streets of London it isnt. It is a land of poverty. In the previous poem Holy Thursday (innocence) he says that the children raise to heaven the voice of song. He obviously believes that songs can lift a spirit 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 see how rich a country a country is you measure the amount 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 third stanza descr ibes their happiness in call of the climate. Their lives are like a place where thesun does never shine.And their fields are bleak and bare.In the third line he contrasts their journey by means of life with that of Christs crown of thorns. The image that this reflects is of a painful way through life. And the next 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 sad and where happiness does not last. This metaphor makes us aware that there is never any joy of warmth in their lives and that emotionally they are completely bereft and emotionally starved of love.In the last paragraph he again refers to the purlieu 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 sunshine wont get them out of the grinding poverty that they are in. It is simply used as a metaphor to transfer the childrens situation from eternal winter to dry warm summer in which they would appear to be happy. Throughout the poem there is a lack of colorize and description so it is difficult to conjure up any image other than of a grey bleak landscape, where grey people and grey children exist in a society that doesnt value 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 also appears to be attacking the church in other poems for its splendour and wealth but also 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 orphans are being made to scrub their faces clean s o such(prenominal) 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 also show in red and blue and green because it shows that they are being made to eroding a uniform. Being forced to wear uniforms means that the orphans also lose their individuality.Grey-headed beadles walked before could show that these carers are bad people who order the children around and make them walk two and two like in the military. This also implies that these bad people are egotistical because they only look after themselves and they might only be looking after the children for extra money. These military 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 O.K. up by the quote seated in companies they sit. Because the army is sectioned off into companies, they stand in a certain 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 in the midst of 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 little 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 wi se guardians of the poor are there to look after the orphans for the money and are not concerned slightly the orphans at all.The rhythm of the poem in this negative view is a like a strict military march.