‘No, no, let us play, for it is yet day
And we cannot go to sleep’…
‘Well, well, go and play till the light fades away
And then go home to bed’.
In 1789 when Blake’s ‘Songs of innocence’ was produced, there was a feeling of optimism and hope within British society, due to the commencement of the French Revolution, which was instigated in that same year. This Revolution instilled in many Britons the idea that a brighter future was forthcoming not only to France, but also to Britain; a future devoid of repression and restrictions placed by politics, religion and society as a whole. This belief was one that Blake wholly invested in, overtly supporting the French revolutionaries, not least through his poetry. The lines from ‘Nurse’s Song’ in Innocence, quoted above, therefore not only display an ideal of childhood that Blake wished to become a reality, but also symbolised the aspiration for repression of children, and subordinates within society to become a thing of the past. Also through ‘Nurse’s Song’ in Innocence, Blake portrays the notion of children playing with the natural cycle of the day;
‘Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies’.
This implies that there are no restrictions and regulations in an ideal childhood, and that, as nature, children should be uncontrolled and uncultivated. The idea of a new morning arriving also supports the idea of new hope for a better future. The presence of a regular rhyme scheme gives weight to the ideal being portrayed, as emphasis falls on those words being rhymed. For instance, in the first stanza the words ‘hill’ and ‘still’ are rhymed. This emphasises the pastoral images that were often associated with ideals in Blake’s lifetime, due to the havoc caused by the industrial revolution. The internal rhyme within the third line also accentuates the fact that the thought of an ideal childhood such as the one portrayed through this poem, is enough to set society ‘at rest’;
‘My heart is at rest within my breast’.
Blake’s ‘Songs of Experience’, produced in 1794, is the result of the outcome of the French Revolution, amongst other social revelations, witnessed by Blake. The French Revolution saw one form of repression and restraint replaced with another form, thus demolishing British optimism for a future free of oppression, and consequently Blake’s. The absence of certain aspects of ‘Nurse’s Song’ in Innocence, in ‘Nurse’s Song’ in Experience clearly displays Blake’s loss of hope for a future free of repression. The most obvious perhaps is the lack of mention of a new day, and so new hope. Instead emphasis is placed on ‘winter’ and ‘the dews of night’, inducing an ominous tone into the poem.
The contrasting second line in Experience,
‘And whisp’rings are in the dale’
with that in Innocence,
‘And laughing is heard on the hill’
echoes the political situation at the time of composition of the poem in Experience; new laws had been introduced, namely the retraction of freedom of speech amongst Britons, due to the government’s fear of a revolution occurring. In Experience, Blake portrays a much more realistic view of what childhood was like in the England of his day; restricted by the authority figures within society:
‘Then come home my children, the sun is gone down…
Your spring and your day are wasted in play,
Your winter and night in disguise’.
This quotation not only demonstrates the commanding nature of the Nurse towards the children, but also illustrates Blake’s use of ‘spring’ to symbolise childhood, and ‘winter’ to symbolise adulthood. Thus, he implies that authority figures control the children in such a way that they are discouraged from playing and therefore being carefree and as nature, but rather taught that childhood is a time to prepare for adulthood, and so from Blake’s point of view, a time for corruption to begin.
Blake’s transition from Innocence to Experience evidently, through these two poems, is symbolic of the shift within society from optimism that an ideal can be attained, to cynicism and the belief that repression is inevitable.
Blake was not only cynical of the roles of society and politics in repressing and controlling children, but also of the instigators and leaders of organised religion, whom he believed neglected their role of protecting children and their innocence. ‘The Chimney-Sweeper’ in Experience, for example, conveys Blake’s belief that organised religion mislead people, parent’s in particular, to think that they were doing right by God as long as their children were willing to do their duty:
‘And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury’
And have gone to praise God and his priest and king’.
This not only demonstrates Blake’s belief in the upholding of incorrect morals by organised religion, but also their neglect of their responsibility to protect the innocence of children, as clearly the child is unhappy;
‘A little black thing among the snow,
Crying ‘weep, weep’ in notes of woe!’
Yet despite the ‘woe’ felt by this child, the church chooses to ignore it and rather gain praise from parents for teaching their child to fulfil their duty, however dangerous.
Instead of presenting the central child in ‘The Chimney-Sweeper’ in Experience to be one in a world of innocence, as he does in ‘Nurse’s Song’ in Innocence, Blake portrays a child in the cruel world of experience, which reflects his cynicism towards the negligence of society, politics and religion in their roles of protectors of the innocence of children. This belief of Blake’s that authority figures within separate areas of society disregard their responsibility to protect children is best epitomised in the final lines of ‘The Chimney-Sweeper’ in Experience;
‘…are gone to praise God and his priest and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.’
