William Blake: Introduction Flashcards
Summary
Song depicts the poet walking down valley, and sees a vision of a child on a cloud. The child instructs him first to play a tune, then to sing, then to write his songs down.
- Trying to send the message that writing can communicate with a much wider audience.
- The poem itself is a kind of justification of why he’s written the songs of innocence
Poem is full of contradictions.
‘Pleasant glee’
(Line 2) Peasant is a mild way of saying joy, whereas glee is a lot more bright and cheerful, a kind of oxymoron.
‘So I piped, he wept to hear’ (line 8)
‘While he wept with joy to hear’ (line 12) creates a kind of tension, although weeping with joy, the reader senses there is something more to it.
Perhaps it’s to do with the song about the fragile lamb, innocence of nature will not remain undamaged.
Uneasiness in the poem.
Although the poem itself is very joyful, and meant to be a happy song set in Blakes idea of arcadia (suggested by the word ‘wild’ (line 1)) there are elements that create a sense of uneasiness to the reader
‘And I pluck’ d a hollow reed’ (line 16)
Something quite harsh about the adjective ‘hollow’ might be suggesting that the act of writing is not as true as to sing, or there is less to it.
Pluck’d implies viciously pulling something away from something else, almost in a painful manner, it could be connoting to the industrial revolution and pollutions impact on nature.
‘I stain’d the water clear’ (line 18)
Staining something also suggests something quite harsh. Is Blake referring to the art of water colouring, or suggesting that by writing about innocence itself he’ll stain the subject.
Context
The child on the cloud
It’s possible to interpret the child on the cloud that Blake sees as his brother Robert. When Robert died, Blake said he saw Roberts spirit rise toward heaven ‘Clapping with joy’, and also claimed that he could contact his brother for guidance whenever he needed. When Blake new he wanted to create a volume of poetry, he became puzzled on how e should proceed, so he contacted his brother who told him how to continue, as the child has done. On one of the plates at the beginning of the book, it shows the piper walking in the wild with a child who appears to be clapping above him, which would certainly suggest it is Robert.
The child ‘vanish’d from [Blakes] sight’
This could be connoting to Blakes idea that he much preferred individual spiritual and religious experiences rather than the church, as Blake hated the Church.
‘Valleys wild’ (line 1)
Blake was a much more natural rather than industrial person. Although he lived in London, he imagined a sort of Arcadia in the wild world. This world is seen a lot in the songs of innocence.
