Within the poem, the piper (possibly Blake?) is being told what to do by a child. This shows the importance of children in Blake’s view. The poem is filled with joyful and pleasant words such as ‘happy cheer’ and ‘joy to hear.’
The fourth stanza represents him as being a natural writer with phrases such as ‘rural pen’ which emphasises nature. Furthermore, the illustration that is specifically for the poem shows a piper represented as a naked shepherd with sheep. Nudity emphasises innocence and the picture depicts and draws parallels between God and children, and similarly a shepherd and his flock. In the final stanza, the phrase ‘And I stained the water clear,’ gives the impression that perhaps a darker future is to come as innocence is in effect being stained or corrupted by experience. This implies further meaning, and subtly hints at the forthcoming transition between innocence and experience, showing that we are already aware of Blake’s intentions early on in the Songs of Innocence. His concern of the innocent being corrupted and his fascination with the contrast between the two states of humanity is already fairly clear.
‘The Shepherd’ carries on with the theme of innocence and childishness. Again, it has an undemanding rhyme scheme of ABCB, with a simple rhyme scheme (iambic tetrameter) and structure. The poem’s simplicity is further shown with the use of anaphora. The poem is a vision of innocence and oneness. It talks of the shepherd’s relationship with his flock and like the introduction, uses joyful, playful words and pleasant imagery. ‘And his tongue shall be filled with praise’ reflects a positive tone. There can be a direct comparison made with the shepherd and his sheep, to God and his people, much like the illustration used for the Introduction to Songs of Innocence. It is in this poem that we are introduced to another of Blake’s concerns, his concern and critique of power structures and in particular, the church. There are many implications within The Shepherd that this is a concern. ‘He shall follow his sheep all the day’ demonstrates and draws parallels with people following religion or in fact power structures in general. Moreover, in the last two lines, ‘He is watchful while they are in peace’ implies that they are peaceful because he is watching over them, and the last line of the poem, ‘For they know their shepherd is nigh’ infers that the shepherd is not always there. In other words, the sheep need the knowledge of the shepherd’s existence and of him watching over them in order to be happy. This could perhaps be connected with the notion of God, and could be seen as a critique of those who are religious to be slightly naïve towards the notion of an existing God, or that they cannot find happiness unless they believe that a God is there. This introduces the theme of religious repression, something that Blake often demonstrates dislike of within his poems. Bloom, a critic, states that ‘The Shepherd inspires a confidence in his flock which is entirely dependant on his actual presence.’ This reiterates this idea of Blake’s mocking of God’s meaning to people and of blind obedience amongst the masses. We see in this poem, underlying traces of doubt and more meaningful, sinister ideas, showing the slight transgression throughout the Songs of Innocence, moving towards the Songs of Experience.
The introduction to the Songs of Experience greatly differs from the first introduction. Here we see a Bard being represented, rather than a piper. With an ABAAB rhyme scheme (but with half-rhyme) we see that the regular from met in the Songs of Innocence introduction has been altered and adjusted to represent the change between innocent and simple, to experienced and more complicated. There is still much natural imagery within this poem, as nature appears to be a recurring theme throughout Blake’s poetry. Yet, the word choices have changed and become less playful and more meaningful. The first stanza shows forceful imprecation and commanding language. The first stanza also represents the Bard as being all-knowing. ‘Who present, past and future sees’. This contrasts with the piper, who only appears to be aware of the present. This again emphasises the difference between the innocent and the experienced. There are many hints towards sin in this poem. ‘The lapsed soul ’and‘ fallen, fallen light renew’ imply sinful behaviour. The third stanza however seems to relate back slightly to the introduction of Songs of Innocence, with phrases such as ‘dewy grass’ and ‘the morn rises.’ This gives a sense of freshness, and beginnings. This shows the variety of experience and its complications compared to innocence.
Within the poem ‘Earth’s Answer,’ we experience a direct link between it and ‘The Shepherd.’ There is a continuation of the ‘religious repression’ theme, showing all the poems and their themes, demonstrating Blake’s styles and concerns, to be interlinked somehow. The five lines within each of the five stanzas are regular, to epitomise the structures of religion. There is an aberrant rhythm, not one that is simple as seen in the Songs of Innocence, and this is perhaps to symbolise that the restraint of the church is not natural. In the first line personification of the earth is used, ‘Earth raisd up her head,’ and the second line shows dark imagery, further emphasising the abnormal stance of the earth. The word ‘darkness’ relates to ignorance and darkness of reason, and ‘dread’ and ‘fear’ are other examples of this imagery. Line six, ‘stony dread’ perhaps represents a prison and conjures up images of being repressed, again relating most probably to the repression of the church. The last line of this first stanza, ‘And her locks cover’d with grey despair,’ signifies physical ageing which in reality should represent the accompanying wisdom that age brings with it, yet in this case, ignorance seems to be a substitute for wisdom. ‘Prison’d’ opens the second stanza, continuing the theme of imprisonment, and the stanza contains natural imagery, and language of limitations and boundaries. The line ‘Starry jealousy does keep my den’ is particularly significant as the word starry implies heaven, and God. The line shows religious jealousy of our freewill, and suggests that religious repression is due to the wanting to hinder our creativity. The poem goes on to discuss the idea of religion oppressing innocence and sex, ‘Chain’d in night, The virgins of youth and morning bear,’ and the fourth stanza contains much language that represents fertility, such as ‘buds and blossoms grow.’ This provides a slight link with the Songs of Innocence.
The poem ends by concluding that religion oppresses our natural instincts and that we should break free from this. ‘Break this heavy chain, that does freeze my bones around.’ The word freeze here clearly shows the oppression demonstrated, and provides a contrast to nature and the ‘budding’ and ‘blossoming’ that can be found in the Songs of Innocence. This poem essentially echoes ideas found in The Shepherd, yet on a much more intense level. The poem is almost a plea to all to break free from this repression. The language used is strong, ‘Selfish! Vain! Eternal Bane!’
The Shepherd and Earth’s Answer link closely, as do the introductions to both Songs of Innocence and Experience, and in all poems we see Blake’s obsession with nature, the transition between the innocent and the experienced and the relationship between God or religion and the people. We see how he carefully selects the structures of his poems to echo the ideas entailed within and the careful word choices to emphasise both innocence and experience. The poems provide an introduction to Blake’s styles and concerns by gradually breaking into his main ideas and themes, and they show us that his works are greatly coincided.
