Nurse's song experience Flashcards
“When the voices of children are heard on the green”
This poem is the mirror of a poem from Songs of Innocence. This nurse, unlike the nurse of Songs of Innocence, does not allow children to experience their youth and freedom
This particular poem also juxtaposes with ‘The Nurse’s Song-Innocence’ as it is not as cheerful and joyful. It allows the reader to recognise the harsh reality of society and how important childhood is to an individual.
“whisperings in the dale”
The ‘whisperings’ are not explained, but these could be the trials that the children will face when they are older
This poem begins with the nurse hearing whispers from the children which suggest that they are partaking in secret activity which allows them to become experienced.
The literal and moral ‘high ground’ of Nurse’s Song (I) (where ‘laughing is heard on the hill’) is exchanged for shady goings on in the dale/valley. Certainly ‘the dale’ suggests a place at a greater distance from the Nurse, too far away for immediate oversight, or to exert control.
From the Nurse’s bitter perspective, even the ‘purity’ of childhood is a pretence. Alternatively, she might be reflecting on her adult self (in the ‘winter’ of her life) and the necessity of concealment of the true self in order to function socially.
“the days of my youth rise fresh in my mind”
She is nostalgic about her past
This also makes the use of ‘fresh’ in line 3 ambiguous and ironic. The memories come ‘fresh’ in so far as they come repeatedly, but these are not fresh and full of life. They are often-visited and devoid of life.
“face turns green and pale”
In line 1, it denotes the freshness and fertility of the land and the children. It represents freedom and growth
In line 4, it refers to jealousy, which leads to stagnation and constraint.
When hearing the children;s “whsiperings”, the nurse ‘turns green and pale’ and reflects upon the previous innocence of the children. The nurse then realises that the children are becoming young adults and are aware of their own sexuality; in other words, they are growing up.
In the valley, listening to the voices of the children of nurses seems to have heard of a conspiracy. And reminds her of the green god Irisin’s green jealousy of hearing. Nurse remembers her childhood and is sorry. Which will never return. But these children are now flowing in. As a result, he forced them to return home. The nurse feels that she has lost her childhood and forced the children to return home. He is afraid of children that their precious time is being wasted in sports and due to the evening the cold air has come down which is very harmful. Now it seems that the winter and night chi, which indicates that the nurse has completely lost her youth and now there is no other way to go back. Blake seems to want to show up at this old age of youth life.
“dews of night arise”
This mirrors the Nurse’s words in the Songs of Innocence, except that she doesn’t allow them to play longer. The sun going down could be a sinister sign.
“wasted in play”
The Nurse is jealous of the children’s freedom and innocence. She feels play is a waste, perhaps because she resents her current situation as their caretaker. She feels her life, and by extension theirs, is useless
Structure and versification
The anapaestic metre of lines 1, 5, and 8 produces a jauntiness that is undercut by the content and tone of the poem, particularly by the heavy iambs of line 4. The full weight of the nurse’s denial of life is underlined by the internal rhyme in the third line of stanza two, which contrasts the two sentiments. The overall effect is to give the statement the weight of an undeniable maxim, which the repeated ‘and’s reinforce.
The rhyme scheme in this poem is not the childlike rhyming pattern used in the previous poem, this suggests that the nurse is upset and displeased that the children are growing up and losing their innocence. The experienced ‘Nurse’s Poem’ is half the size of the innocence poem with only two stanzas instead of four. This could represent the rapid growth of the children from the first to the second poem and allowing the audience to sense the nurse’s loss and disappointment she is feeling
The nature of parental care and authority
Here the nurse, a quasi-parental figure, deliberately inhibits and represses the children. She uses the authority of a society based on external authority figures and laws to mask jealousy and cruelty as ‘love’.
The effects of the Fall
second, related theme is the effect on human relationships of fallen divided selfhood which sees itself at the centre of its world as something to be protected and defended. Its pleasures must be jealously defended and denied to others. One chief pleasure is exerting control over others, which can often masquerade as showing protective love.
The perception of children
Here, the nurse resents the freedom and creativity of the children – she is not simply stopping their play, she is stifling the spirit within them.
