Holy Thursday (innocence) Flashcards
Summary
Views impoverished children as angelic innocents, linking them to charity and goodness.
Describes an Easter Week procession of orphaned children heading to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Pious speaker admires the children’s purity but fails to question the causes of their suffering.
Suggests that treating poverty as a moral failing rather than a societal issue harms the most vulnerable.
Children serve as a reminder to be a good Christian.
Tone: Spirituality and purity, reinforcing the religious imagery.
“two & two, in red & blue & green”
Polysyndeton creates a sense of endless continuation, emphasising the overwhelming number of orphaned children.
Highlights the severity of social issues—something must have gone terribly wrong for so many children to be parentless.
Speaker’s tone is both enthusiastic and critical, questioning how society allows such widespread poverty.
Criticism of the city for leaving these children in the care of harsh, authoritarian figures.
Reflects the unnatural regimentation imposed by adults, enforcing strict control instead of compassion.
“Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow”
Simile: The “flow” of children suggests a vast, continuous movement, emphasising their overwhelming number.
Irony: The Thames flows freely, symbolizing liberty, yet the lower class remains trapped in poverty and oppression.
Highlights how society, controlled by the ruling elite and the church, restricts the freedom of the poor.
Comparison with nature: Corruption is so pervasive that it even taints the natural world.
Pure vs. polluted: The contrast between the natural purity of the river and its transformation into a polluted sewer reflects society’s moral decay.
“flowers of London town”
Metaphor = precious and vulnerable
Flowers = natural world, delicacy and beauty contrasts the corrupt city
Flowers = short lifespan, fleeting nature of childhood innocence and the brevity of life due to the high infant mortality rates
Only there for decoration to make the church look good
“Multitudes of the lambs”
“Multitudes” “multitude”
Diacope = stresses just how overwhelmingly huge this crowd of children is
high childhood mortality rate
Religion connotations/symbolism
Innocent children - they have not done anything wrong
Holy thursday service = suggest an importance of christian symbolism
Christ himself - the Lamb of God, was sacrificed, the children are not only sweet but sacrificial
“Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song…like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among”
Simile = biblical allusions, = children are in touch with the divine
A powerful wind, in Christian readings of these stories, is often a stand-in for the Holy Spirit, a visitation from God.
Alliteration = sounds like a choir, praising the lord
creates an appropriately breezy, breathy harmony here.
Listening to these children, then, the speaker feels in touch with divinity. Something sacred is happening here.
Oxymoron - ambiguity, wrath of heaven at human hypocrisy, the lack of true christian charity in the treatment of children - reflect blakes anger
Structure
Three quatrains
Simple shape = feels a lot like an innocent nursery rhyme = deceptive as the critique has a deeper message
seven metrical feet per line
Rigid structure: Blake was very much against the very regimented social order of the time
Rhyme
AABB rhyme scheme = effect is solemn, a dignified measured tread to match the importance of Blake’s message.me.
singsongy rhyme scheme of couplets, a nursery rhyme used to calm children down
ironic one, a veiled critique of a corrupt society as much as a celebration of childlike innocence
Iambic metre heptameter = Blake is making an unusual and attention-grabbing choice here. These long, pulsing lines evoke what they describe: a seemingly endless parade of orphans
