The Nurse's Song Commentary

Authors Avatar

The Nurse’s Song Commentary

These two poems are called The Nurse’s Song by William Blake. Blake was an English poet who was born in 1757 and died in 1827. Blake was part of the Romantic Age, which was a revolt against the scientific, rationalization of nature, and admired emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience. Although Blake was largely unrecognized as a poet during his lifetime, his work was idiosyncratic for those times. His poetry embraced the imagination, and was reverent to the Bible, but hostile to the Church of England. His views that opposed conformity are evident in his poetry, especially these two poems.

One poem is from Blake’s Songs of Innocence which describes the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating love and a closer relationship with God, whereas the other Nurse’s Song is from Blake’s Songs of Experience which deals with the loss of innocence following exposure to the material world, and its mortal sin.

In the Nurse’s Song from the Songs of Innocence, there is a conversation between the nurse and the children she looks after: she tells them to come home because it is dark, but the children ask to play for a while longer, which the nurse allows. On the other hand, in the Nurse’s Song from the Songs of Experience, the nurse simply commands the children to come home because she seems to think it is a waste of time, “your spring and day are wasted in play”.

Both Nurses’ Songs are set on “a green”, indicating a natural environment. However, the structures of the two poems differ. The Nurse’s Song from Songs of Innocence consists of four stanzas, each consisting of four lines, whereas The Nurse’s Song from Songs of Experience only consists of two stanzas. Therefore it is much shorter, as seems harsher. The Nurse’s Song from the Songs of Innocence has an upbeat rhyme scheme of abab, which is reminiscent of a nursery rhyme, indicating a sense of innocence and balance. On the other hand, The Nurse’s Song from the Songs of Experience uses alternate rhyme in the form of abcb, which makes it less upbeat than the other poem. The alternate rhyme is deceptive, as the reader expects the rhyme schemes in both poems to the be the same, but the poem does not sound like a nursery rhyme, and therefore seems less cheerful and innocent. The presence of deceptive devices in the Nurse’s Song from the Songs of Experience creates a negative, sinister feeling to the poem in comparison to its counterpart.

Join now!

One of the prominent characters in the two poems is quite obviously the nurse, as indicated by the titles. In the Songs of Innocence, the Nurse seems to be caring, idyllic and motherly, as she refers to them as “my children”. However, in the Songs of Experience, although the Nurse also refers to the children as “my children”, in the context of the poem, it seems to have a harsh, repressive tone, indicating a strict nurse. The children in the Songs of Innocence seem to be carefree. The “voices” and “laughing” of the children is heard, indicating happiness. On ...

This is a preview of the whole essay