In most of poems in Songs of Innocence, there is a reversal of the expected hierarchies. The effect is subversive: that is, the poems reject the authority of the dominant culture over the individual and the authority of the rational mind over the imaginative faculties. The child is resurrected within the adult. Imagination, desire, and creative energy are released and liberated.
Whereas in Songs of Experience, we encounter the dark underside of the virtues upheld in traditional children's literature. Many poems reveal the perversion of natural creative energy that results from repression and injustice.
Holy Thursday is from Songs of Innocence and has a religious theme which is shown from the start in its title. It is to do with children attending church as they are seen as innocent and pure. It is a religious hypocrisy as it talks of:
“…these flowers of London town.”
This is referring to the people in the church, he is saying they see themselves as good religious folk who pride themselves in attending church even though do nothing else to help others.
There is the imagery of the children seen as lambs. This suggests they are innocent and trusting in their elders, however they are lambs to the slaughter. They are being forced to conform by their elders. In the first stanza, there is the binary opposition of the vibrant colours of the clothes the children are wearing and muted tones of the beadles grey hair and white wands. White usually connotes purity and innocence. Here, however, it is used ironically. These “Wise Guardians” are nothing of the sort and participate in charitable acts for their own glorification.
When the children enter the church, Blake contrasts them to the river Thames:
“…like Thames’ water flow.”
Blake does this as they are both large flowing masses, and the river Thames is running alongside the children. Blake suggests that both the vast number and the idea that they could have an effect if they worked on a concurred fashion. Instead they merely follow innocently, trustingly like lambs. A lamb of God is a lamb that is being sacrificed to God. It is a sacrifice of innocence. These children are like lambs of God being led to the slaughter. This poem is written in rhyming couplets to give the effect of a children’s rhyme, indicating innocence. This gives it a rigid structure and an easy rhythm. Blake’s poems were often very lyrical as if they were intended as songs; this poem is an example of that.
This poems contemporary relevance is mainly evident in the last two lines of this poem. It is hidden in sarcasm; it talks of the old men as:
“…wise guardians of the poor.”
These men are the beadles. A beadle is a minor official of the church; they have the power to punish minor offenders. These men punished the poor greatly for minor offences. The line after they are described as guardians is:
“Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.”
This is saying if these men are the guardians of the poor, then take pity on the poor and these children in case you drive an angel from your door.
The next two poems I will write about are two that contradict each other; they are The Tyger, and The lamb. These two poems reveal the two sides of Blake’s literatural stance and reveal much about his views.
Published in 1794 as one of the Songs of Experience, Blake's The Tyger is a poem about the nature of creation, much as is his earlier poem from the Songs of Innocence, The Lamb. However, this poem takes on the darker side of creation, when its benefits are less obvious than simple joys. Blake's simplicity in language and construction contradicts the complexity of his ideas. This poem is meant to be interpreted in comparison and contrast to The Lamb, showing the "two contrary states of the human soul" with respect to creation.
The imagery of the tiger is dangerous and exciting whereas the lambs imagery is of innocence, joy and beauty. In describing the tiger, we are transported into a highly metaphorical setting of a blacksmith's forge, which Blake's imagination sees as the only possible source for the creation of anything so awesome. And since we are talking about the Creator of the World and the Universe, not just of the tiger, it is fair to say that the 'Tyger' symbolises all that is awesome, fearsome and predatory in the world we live in and beyond. The Tyger, compared to The Lamb, uses more blunt, unsettling imagery:
"…forests of the night"; "Burnt the fire of thine eyes; "…dread hand…dread feet"; and the mention of the "hammer", "chain", and "anvil".
With Blake using the hammer etc. in this poem, you could make the point that The Lamb is a representative of the pastoral age, when people kept sheep and lived mainly in the countryside, whereas The Tyger reflects the rapidly expanding industrial age in which Blake lived at the time of writing this poem. In contrast to the lamb, the tiger is presented as a ferocious animal of:
"Fearful symetry,"
This shows that a truly skilled, immortal, metaphorical blacksmith must of forged this beast.
The Lamb is presented as meek and mild, a creature with
"Clothing of delight" and a "Tender voice".
It is a creature that reflects the qualities of Jesus Christ, the so called Lamb of God, in Biblical text, just as we are meant to reflect the image of Christ as a man.The Lamb contains very gentle language:
"By the stream and o'er the mead"; "Softest clothing, wooly, bright"; "He is meek and he is mild".
This builds the image of an innocent, helpless creature, in complete contrast to that of the Tiger.
This poem has a singsong, nursery rhyme rhythm. Also the narrator finally tells the lamb who and what he is. The imagery, rhythm, and sound all point to unaware innocence. The poem is written in simplistic language with few syllables, in an almost child-like rhyming style, with a consistency of vowels and in rhyming couplets.
The whole poem gives the idea of life and existence, and more importantly the beauty in which it was supposedly created by God. This is a complete opposite to The Tyger, where Blake questions whether or not the same creator, that created the lamb, could of created such a monstrosity in the Tiger’s form, which in fact relates to the environment that is around him.
