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Night
- Night is a contrasting poem to loads of the others, due to one key fact: it portrays night as positive, where guardian angels protect everyone, rather than the time where wolves and tigers hunt for food.
- "The birds are silent in their nest/And I must seek for mine". Birds in Blake connote innocence, and so the narrator can be seen as innocent.
- "In heaven's high bower" - this can relate to the tree in TEG ("Sitting under the oak/Among the old folk"), and be seen as sheltering the world from harm.
- "Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves/The feet of angels bright". Jesus is often represented by the lamb, and so perhaps angels are treading in Jesus' footsteps - in the world, protecting humanity.
- "Unseen they pour blessing/And joy without ceasing" - the angels protect everyone keeping at bay Experience and the evil stuff that roams in the dark.
- "every thoughtless nest" - these angels protect everyone. The concrete noun, "nest" has connotations of birds, and so this connotes innocence again.
- "They visit caves of every beast" - ditto above, looking after everything.
- "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 - even experience is kept at bay by the power of God. 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 two stanzas are particularly important and interesting (what am I saying?! Interesting?!).
- In them, the lion in portrayed as innocent, and guards the sheep in this idealised world, "And now beside thee, bleating lamb/I can lie down and sleep" - the predator and the prey are united in peace.
- Perhaps the last two stanzas are in heaven? The 'fold' has been seen before in The Little Black Boy ("the tent of God"), and again the lamb could be Jesus - creating harmony amongst all species.
- "Or think on him who bore thy name/Graze after thee and weep". Pretty blatant references to Jesus, and here again the lion is tamed - becomes a veggie, follows lamb like humans followed Jesus.
- "Washed in life's river" - washing away of violence and experience? The mane "shine like the gold" could also symbolise innocence and radiance/happiness.
- Many of the ideas in this poem are based on the Old Testament.
- However, the idealism in the poem is not complete - at the end of the forth stanza, we are told that even the angels cannot protect the lambs all the time, "if they rush dreadful". Yet the angels "Receive each mild spirit/New worlds to inherit" - basically take them to heaven.
- The lion becomes the shepherd in this poem, though as he follows the lamb, "graze after thee", perhaps the lamb/Jesus is still the shepherd. I don't know, maybe it's communism - they're all shepherds....
- Innocence, while it can be found on this mortal plain, "Where flocks have took delight", is also found in the afterlife for definite, "As I guard o'er the fold".
Comments
These notes are aimed at A Level English Literature students at A2 level.
Originally written by Forgotmytea on TSR Forums.
