Revision:Blake - Innocence

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The Echoing Green

• Idealised world
• Guardians in the form of Old John, "Old John with white hair/Does laugh away care" and the mothers "round the laps of their mothers" - the children are innocent, and need protection.
• The end is ominous, "darkening green". We learn to associate dark with evil in Blake, and so it seems that evil is even corrupting the Echoing Green(shorthanded to TEG because I'm lazy )
• Personification in the first stanza, "to the bells cheerful sound" again idealises the world here.
• Direct counterpart to London in Experience.
• Children are compared to birds, "Like birds in their nest" - similar to The Schoolboy, emphasising innocence of children.

The Divine Image

• Contrast to The Human Abstract, and A Divine Image. Though interestingly A Divine Image was left out of the final compilation....
• Sheperd imagery in the first stanza, showing God as the shepherd; Pslam 23, "The Lord is my shepherd"
• Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love are part of everyone - personifies these ideas, and shows how as they are God, and also in humans, we all have part of god in us.
• "In heathen, turk or jew" - probably politically incorrect now, but still. Shows how Blake saw everyone as having part of God in them, no matter what their religion.

The Chimney-sweeper

• Ironic - attacks the church for preaching the message at the end, "So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm"
• Pathos for the characters, ""My father sold me while yet my tongue/Could scarce cry, "weep weep weep weep""
• Tom Dacre is shown as innocent, "that curled like a lambs back" - shaving of his lamb-like hair shows how he is thrust forcefully into experience.
• "Then naked and white" - in death the children are innocent again, like in the Garden of Eden, where when Adam and Eve were naked at first, but happy and innocent, so not ashamed.
• "Then down a green plain leaping" - like TEG, moving into innocence.
• "Coffins of black" - while these can be seen as traditional coffins, perhaps they could also be the chimneys where the children have died?? Or, as Alex Ramsay suggested, they could reflect on society at the time, and they are dependent on these 'coffins' (and the chimney-sweep-master people) for life. Nice idea!

The Little Boy Lost, and The Little Boy Found

• Father figure abandons child, like in the Chimney-sweep
• "And away the vapour flew". Controversial line here. It could be the hope of being found leaving, or perhaps a Will 'o' the Wisp leading the child astray, or the child's spirit leaving him as he dies. Which one? Maybe all three!
• God "appeared like his father in white". Shows God as the boy's true father. Perhaps the boy is dead and in heaven, or is he still alive in the fen?
• "Her little boy weeping sought" - mother cares for child, contrast to father.
• "Led by the wandering light" - again, the will 'o' the wisp thing.

Night

• Contrast to other ideas of night.
• Usually night is nasty in Blake, where tigers, wolves, hyenas, dragons, etc. etc. eat lambs and generally scare people. However, in this poem night is shown as safe, as angels protect everyone.
• "The birds are silent in their nest/And I must search for mine" - again, innocence connoted through the birds.
• "every thoughtless nest" - these angels guard everyone.
• "Pour sleep on their head/And sit down by their bed" - guarding the creatures from the nasty evil stuff that comes in the night.
• "When wolves and tigers howl for prey/They pitying stand and weep/Seeking to drive their thirst away/And keep them from the sheep" - here even the wolves and tigers are being looked after. I suppose the angels take a large stock of frozen meat with their magical sleep-inducing drugs when they go out every night...
• The last 2 stanzas are the most interesting (well, as interesting as Blake can be).
• The lion, symbolically evil, nasty, eats lambs, etc. is shown as caring.
• Perhaps this is all in heaven??
• "Shall flow with tears of gold" - pity, redemption, etc.

"And now beside thee, bleating lamb/I can lie down and sleep" - lamb and tiger are united in peace, and lion now guards the lamb (though what from?!)

• "On he who bore thy name" - Jesus, religious ideas - makes it seem more likely that they are in heaven.

Comments

These notes are aimed at A Level English Literature students at A2 level.

Originally written by Forgotmytea on TSR Forums.