Holy Thursday - Blake Flashcards
Summary
“And their sun does never shine./ And their fields are bleak & bare./ And their ways are fill’d with thorns”
Anaphora → Repeated “and” adds to the piling misery on the children.
Metaphor → Represents the harsh lives they will endure beyond childhood.
Syntactic Parallels → Emphasise the bleak, unchanging nature of their suffering.
Biblical Reference (Crown of Thorns) → Suggests suffering and deprivation have permanently damaged them, either making life harder or warping their personalities.
Critique of Society → The speaker portrays England’s treatment of its poor children as unnatural, like an “eternal winter” where even the sun refuses to shine.
“Is this a holy thing to see/ In a rich and fruitful land,—/ Babes reduced to misery,/ Fed with cold and usurous hand?”
Rhetorical Question → Expresses outrage, challenging the idea of holiness in a Christian country.
Juxtaposition → Contrasts England’s wealth with the suffering of its children.
Social Critique → Highlights the hypocrisy of a prosperous nation allowing such misery.
Synecdoche (“cold hand”) → Represents the heartless figures responsible for the children’s suffering.
Call for Systemic Change → Charity isn’t enough; the real issue is preventing children from being orphaned and abandoned in the first place.
Structure
Quatrains = reflect The poem’s forceful simplicity emphasises Blake’s Message of rage at England’s injustice.
Highlights that even a child could understand the suffering caused by the system.
Contrast Between Form & Meaning – While some nursery rhymes are bleak, few deliver such a direct social critique.
“For where-e’er the sun does shine, And where-e’er the rain does fall:”
Parallelism → Creates a prophetic vision of a just world where resources are shared fairly.
Natural Imagery → Suggests that nature provides enough for all, but human greed disrupts this balance.
Social Critique → England’s unequal wealth distribution is unnatural and unjust.
Metaphorical & Literal Sun/Rain → Represents both material needs (food) and emotional needs (love and care).
Unfulfilled Hope → The suffering child longs for a normal life, something unattainable in Blake’s society.
Rhyme and meter:
Accentual Meter – Four stressed beats per line, creating a driving rhythm.
No fixed metrical foot, but the steady beat gives the poem the feel of an angry political nursery rhyme.
The meter reflects the speaker’s rage and sorrow over London’s orphans and societal injustice.
Rhyme Scheme
Alternating ABAB pattern in some stanzas (forceful).
Softer ABCB pattern in others, sometimes with slant rhyme (e.g., joy / poverty).
Mix of patterns makes the poem feel slightly ragged, mirroring the speaker’s emotional intensity and critique of false charity.
