William Blake: Innocence Poems Flashcards
Introduction:
Summary:
- The Speaker (a piper), played a song for a child, who is inspired.
- The child suggests that the piper write down to share with others.
- The poet communicates creativity and beauty which connotes the divine source and truth.
Key Quotations:
“Piping down the valleys wild, / piping songs of pleasant glee”.
- Represents purity and innocence with music and joy, creating autonomy and freedom.
“And I made a rural pen. / And I stain’s the water clear”.
- Capturing the innocence of life, and turning the natural world into art.
The Blossom:
Symbolism:
- The Blossom suggests growth.
- Innocence, beauty and new life.
- Blossom compared to a playful child.
- Joy found in nature and youth.
- Delicate imagery.
Key Quotations:
“Little fly, / Thu summer’s play / my thoughtless hand / has brushed away”.
- Fleeting of nature.
- Expresses how easily life can be disrupted.
“The blossom of the peach and the rose, / And the little child with his merry face”.
- Highlights the connection between nature and innocence.
The Schoolboy:
Summary:
- A young boys perspective on school.
- He loves the natural world and enjoys the freedom of summer mornings.
- The boy expresses sadness/frustration at being forced to sit in school, which he sees as confining and unnatural.
- Highlights the tension between the joy of childhood innocence and the constraints imposed by society, particularly the education system.
Key Quotations:
“I love to rise in a summer morn, / When birds sing on every tree”.
- The boys natural joy and connection to the world around him.
- This contrasts the oppressive environment of school.
Highlighting how nature offers freedom and joy compared to the rigid structure of education.
“How can the bird that is born for joy / Sit in a cage and sing?”
- Innocence and freedom of the boy.
- “cage” symbolises the constraints of formal education.
- This suggests children should be allowed to grow freely rather than be confined by institutional structures.
Hold Thursday:
Summary:
- Poor children are dressed in fine clothes.
-They are paraded through London.
- Poem critiques societal system keeps them in poverty.
- Contrast between there outward appearance and their suffering reality.
- The holiness of the occasion is undermined by the social conditions the children face.
Key Quotations:
“Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean. / Cane children walking two and two, in red and blue and green”.
- The children’s innocence is emphasised by their clean faces and colourful clothes, symbolising purity and vulnerability.
- However, the poem sets up a tension between their outward appearance and their hidden suffering.
