EX-The Little Vagabond

Question 1

in what year was there an edit of the Songs of Innocence and Experience in which this poem was considered too subversive of authority and was thus ommitted?

Answer 1

1839

Question 2

4 stanza poem follows what type of rhyme scheme though starts ABCC?

Answer 2

AABB

Question 3

What is structurally significant of the fact that unlike many of Blake’s poems in Songgs of Experience which break down into slant rhhyme, this does not and instead beings with a discordant rhyme?a

Answer 3

as the structure parallels the development of the poem in which the little vagabond begins with the wrong and ends with innocence, albeit an innocence that has experience into the cynical and weary world.

Question 4

Blake sees the appeal of the public houses over the staid and restrictive ecclesiastical environment and feels, as expressed in other poems such as what (x2) that reglious authroity is unnecessarily impeding mankind’s appreciation of the spiritual though his experience and pleasure in the natural world?

Answer 4

Holy Thursday and the Garden of Love

Question 5

What does the “ale house” symbolise?

Answer 5

it stands for everything which celebrates human community and the goodness of physical life without prohibition and the exercise of external authority

Question 6

What is the “pleasant fire” which helps “our souls to regale” metaphorical of?

Answer 6

firstly it has conventional association with warmth, light and creativity. This also links with the Christian teaching where fire is a symbol of God’s Holy Spirit, the bible of which teaches that the church is called not to quench this fire, but to instead fan the flame

Question 7

What is the christian teaching liked to the idea of the “pleasant fire” which helps “our souls to regale”?

Answer 7

he Christian teaching where fire is a symbol of God’s Holy Spirit, the bible of which teaches that the church is called not to quench this fire, but to instead fan the flame. Blake was critical of established church practices which appeared to ignore this

Question 8

The Church that “is cold” stands for what within the poem?

Answer 8

it stands for the repressive system which Blake argues denies pleasure in life and projects God as a life-denying ruler

Question 9

Who is Dame Lurch

“And modest dame Lurch”

Answer 9

This is a teacher who at the time Blake was writing would instil the values of the church and repress children through basic education at dame schools that would deny them freedom and physical pleasure

Question 10

To Blake, what does the construct of the child represent and how does he use this in protest?

Answer 10

the child represents an image of freedom and the creative imagination. Blake uses this construct in protest against a system that would seek to destroy their freedom and exploit them, as in The Chimney Sweeper

Question 11

Blake clearly attacks the approach of some forms of contemporary Christian values as it taught the innocent what, as in the innocent Chimney Sweeper?

Answer 11

to accept their present suffering and injustice for the promise of bliss and the absence of all suffering in the next world

Question 12

In Blakes work, adults are often perceived as inhibiting and repression the children in their care. Their own fear and shame are communicated to the next generation through their desire to ‘protect’ children from their desires. Rather than setting the children free by safeguarding their innocence, what do they do as evidenced in the poem?

Answer 12

in the poem Dame Lurch and the schooling she provides only represses the children and binds them to a cold world of experience and hardship

Question 13

If the church, and thus society, would indulge into that which flourishes human satisfaction then what does the child note?

Answer 13

that we would then “ be as happy as birds in the spring”

Question 14

What can be interpreted from the fact the child suggests that there “Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel “ if God saw us happy?

Answer 14

The child envisages God being reconciled with the Devil in a way that celebrates the divinity of the individual over that of God.

Question 15

This poem uses the attractiveness of the ale house to the urban poor to explore the way in which Blake’s contemporary social system died them the possibility of human satisfaction; what in particular are attacked?

Answer 15

the structures of organised religion

Question 16

Some critics see the poem as an assertion of the rights of the body over the moralistic approach to it espoused by the traditional christianity of Blake’s time. However what is slightly hypocritical about the childs vision?

Answer 16

that child’s vision of happiness is inadequate as it is materialistic and focuses around the consumption of alcohol which arguably is used as a device to ignore the hardships of oppression as opposed to overcoming the forces of the rigid, hierarchical structure

Question 17

Although the child’s vision may not be perfect given that that child’s vision of happiness is inadequate as it is materialistic and focuses around the consumption of alcohol which arguably is used as a device to ignore the hardships of oppression as opposed to overcoming the forces of the rigid, hierarchical structure; what positive can be made of it?

Answer 17

it does not offer a solution but merely offers a necessary aspect of human experience to offset the puritanical denial of the flesh. This poem is one of experience and so unlike the child narrator in the innoence Chimney Sweeper, this child is not vulnerable to exploitation demonstrated by his position as a vagabond. This child has experience what love and charity means to his society and with the absence of parental figures he is likely to have dependant upon the charity of a parish to which he faces the burning callousness of Dame Lurch

Question 18

The opening repetition of “Dear Mother” establishes a childlike tone which is reinforced by the simple connective such as ???

Answer 18

but and and

Question 19

the childs experience is clear from the fact he even suggest what God should do which was contrary to conventional doctrine. What quote suggests this?

Answer 19

Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel

Question 20

Most of the poem is written in closed rhyming couplets, what does this add to/what is the effect?

Answer 20

this adds to the certainty of the speaker’s agrument

Question 21

The only line which does not conform to the overall structure of the poem is the first which describes the Church as “cold” why?

Answer 21

in order to illustrate how the church is likewise out of step with human lifestyle as this line is discordant in the poem

Question 22

The rhyme of the poem is _______ giving it a jaunty tone like a drinking song especially when combined with the closed rhyming couplets

Answer 22

anapaestic

Question 23

The titular child has wandered into the comradarderie and warmth of the ale house. He posits an ideal future in which church and ale-house join forces to nourish their congregation in body as well as spit and where Christian fellowship takes on what role?

Answer 23

takes on jovial and celebratory aspects rather than the self righteous parsimony the boys sees in practise

Question 24

What does the child suggest when he suggests that his children have become as pleasant and happy as he”.?

Answer 24

that God is happier when we achieve a balance between then needs of the body and of the soul

Question 25

This poem is not a plea for drunkenness but rather an appeal for kindness and compassion from a religion that is described in the poem as what?

Answer 25

as “cold” and unfeeling

Question 26

The voice of the poem is that of another of Blake’s abandoned children; the child wishes that it be the church to take up its natural responsibilities to the poor but with the comraderie and compassion of the ale house. The demonised Dame Lurch who is directly associated to the punitive church as it actually exists is said to even be redemmed if only the church “_________________”

Answer 26

would give us some Ale”

Question 27

The child suggests that if the church and ale house was to unify forces then God “Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel “ This might be taken to refer to the state that Blake calls “organised innocence” what is this?

Answer 27

this is a state superior to the partialities of both innocent and experience where these two opposite viewpoints might be harmonised and reconciled; though he is clear that this state did not exist