Holy Thursday (Innocence)

Question 1

Metre

Answer 1

Iambic heptameter

Question 2

‘Walking two and two’

Answer 2

Reference to Noah’s ark

- there is order

Question 3

How many stanzas?

Answer 3

3

Question 4

Lines in each stanza

Answer 4

4

Question 5

Rhyme scheme

Answer 5

AABB (rhyming couplets)

- links to the rows of children

Question 6

Rhyme scheme in stanza two and three

Answer 6

Breaks and half rhyme

- these are more seen in experience poems

Question 7

Repeated use of ‘and’ in second line

Answer 7

Emphasises how many children there are

Question 8

Children tidied up for public occasion

Answer 8

‘Innocent faces clean’

Question 9

‘Beadles’

Answer 9

Old people and priests - holding canes in their hands

Question 10

Setting

Answer 10

St Paul’s Cathedral London

Question 11

Simile in line 4

Answer 11

‘The Thames waters flow’ - cleanliness, flowing, purity

Question 12

Metaphor line 5

Answer 12

‘Flowers of London Town’ - pretty and innocent

Question 13

Blake exposing the church

Answer 13

Cleaning children up for one day so that the church can get more money for themselves

Question 14

Authority figures

Answer 14

Portrayed as intimidating, carrying canes, keep them in order

Question 15

Potential destructive power of children

Answer 15

‘Thunderings’

Question 16

Final phrase ‘cherish pity, lest you drive an Angel from your door’

Answer 16

Story of Lot in the Bible, Angels would dress up as travellers and Sodom offered them his hospitality - as a result when the city burns down the angels keep him safe

Question 17

Structure

Answer 17

Equal line lengths, four quatrains

Question 18

Illustration

Answer 18

Children walking two by two led by beadle- contrast with that of the echoing of green where generations mingled

Question 19

Ironic attack on attitudes that make

Answer 19

Charity school necessary ‘lambs’= innocence or refer to sacrificial victims of uncaring society

Question 20

‘Wands as white as snow’

Answer 20

Signs of beadle’s office performed with purity or motive? Or means of punishment to curb youthful behaviour with snowy frigidity of old age

Question 21

‘Multitude’

Answer 21

Feeding of 5000

- sitting down by companies of green grass

Question 22

‘Might wind’

Answer 22

Reference to acts 2!,9’ing of Holy Spirit

Question 23

‘Beneath’

Answer 23

Morally is ‘wise’ ironic

Question 24

Other poems in volume show

Answer 24

Children at the mercy of negligent or cruel guardians eg Chimney sweeper, Little boy lost

Question 25

Lyrical voice

Answer 25

Appears to be an outside observer

Question 26

Children described as a

Answer 26

Colourful mass, blowing through the streets of London

Question 27

What does the voice suggest?

Answer 27

They are carried out by a current of innocence

Question 28

What are the angels?

Answer 28

The children themselves

• poor charity children are the angels
• picture of children going into church to pray - children are important not the church

Question 29

‘Like the holy spirit’

Answer 29

Song is raised up to heaven - change the attitude toward these children see them as children created by god

Question 30

Colours used

Answer 30

Primary colours - innocence virtue

Question 31

Reference to a mighty wind

Answer 31

The Holy Spirit

Question 32

Democratic view

Answer 32

Idealises children, compares them to lambs (religious overtones)

Question 33

How don’t we read it?

Answer 33

In an enjambed way, it is fairly emphatic

Question 34

Idealistic

Answer 34

Ironic that it is so perfect

- children are clean and orderly, wouldn’t actually be like that, unrealistic and stylised

Question 35

Blake is an artist

Answer 35

Reference to colour - static, distant picture

Question 36

What are the charity children

Answer 36

Controlled and overly organised, oppressed, blowing in a mass into Saint Pauls