Blake Flashcards
Introduction to innocence presents children as pure and holy
“On a cloud I saw a child”
Introduction talks of Jesus as a lamb
“Pipe a song about a lamb”
The shepherd says god is always protecting
“He is watchful while they are at peace / for they know when their shepherd is nigh”
The Lamb (innocence) questions people’s knowledge on their creator and says they share a name
“Little lamb who made the / dost thou know who made thee?”
“For he calls himself a lamb”
The lamb makes obvious allusions to Jesus
“He became a little child”
The little black boy (inn) says suffering is necessary
“We are put in earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love”
The little black boy (inn) shows forgiveness
“I’ll shade him from the hear”
The chimney sweeper presents death as a release
“And along came an angel who had a bright key / and he opened the coffins and set them all free”
The chimney sweeper (inn) enforces the idea of divine order
“So if all do their duty they need not fear harm”
The little boy lost (inn) suggests religion is being lost
“Father, father, where are you going”
The little boy found (inn) suggests that god is the ultimate saviour
“God ever nigh, appeared like his father in white”
Holy Thursday (inn) presents the benefactors as magical
“wands as white as snow”
Holy Thursday (inn) enforces how important love thy neighbour is
“Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door”
Introduction to exp suggest the earth is corrupt
“Lapsed soul”
Earth’s answer suggests that religion is repressive
“Break this heavy chain!”
“That free love with bondage bound”
Holy Thursday (exp) presents the benefactors badly
“Fed with cold as usurious hand”
The little girl lost (exp) says Jesus is a lion
“Kingly lion”
The chimney sweeper (exp) condemns the promotion of inequality the church brings
“And are gone to praise god and his preist and king, / who make up a heaven of our misery”
The garden of love suggests religion doesnt include all
“And the gates of the chapel were shut, and “thou shalt not” writ over the door”
The garden of love uses nature to imply the evil nature of the church
“Tomb stones where flowers should be”
The garden of love suggests religion is restrictive
“Binding with briars, my joys and desires”
Intro of inn uses vivid natural imagery
“And I made a rural pen,/ and I stain’d the water clear, / and I wrote my happy songs,/ every child may joy to hear”
The lamb uses the idea of birth and nature
“Gave thee life and bid thee feed / by the stream and o’er the meed”
The little black boy suggests that god is in nature
“Look at the rising sun: there god does live”
Holy Thursday (inn) compares children to flowers
“O what a multitude they seemed these flowers of London Town”
Holy Thursday (inn) compares the children to a river
“Till into the high domes of Paul’s they like Thames water flow”
Earth’s answers says it’s unnatural to hide joy
“Does spring hide it’s joy / when buds and blossoms grow”
Holy Thursday (exp) uses nature to depict the children’s sadness
“And their sun does never shine / and their fields are bleak and bare”
Little girl lost compares heaven to earth
“And the dessert wild / became a garden mild”
The little black boy says skin colour doesn’t reflect holiness
“And I am black, but O! My soul is white”
The Chimney Sweeps talks of selling children
“When my mother died I was very young / And my father sold me while yet my tongue / could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep / so chimneys I sweep and in soot I sleep”
Holy Thursday presents the men as kind
“Wise guardians of the poor”
London says society is ruined
“And I mark in every face / marks of weakness, marks of woe”
London shows the corruption of the church
“Every blackning church appals”
London talks about early pregnancy
“How the youthful harlot’s curse / blasts the new-born infants tear / and blights with plagues the marriage hearse”
