Introduction to English Literature 2024
 

 

 

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Songs of Innocence 

 

1. Introduction

 

 

 

 

Piping down the valleys wild 
Piping songs of pleasant glee 
On a cloud I saw a child. 
And he laughing said to me. 

Pipe a song about a Lamb; 
So I piped with merry chear, 
Piper pipe that song again— 
So I piped, he wept to hear.

Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe 
Sing thy songs of happy chear, 
So I sung the same again 
While he wept with joy to hear 

Piper sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read— 
So he vanish'd from my sight. 
And I pluck'd a hollow reed. 

And I made a rural pen,
And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear

 

Questions

 

a. What difference does this have as an invocation in comparison with other regular ones? What does it tell you about the poet's unique intention?


b. Does the style of this poem tell you anything at all?


c. This surely contains a pastoral vision. Any unique aspect?

 

 

2. The Chimney Sweeper

 

 

 

 

 

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm. 

 

 

Questions

 

a. A social criticism. In what sense? 


b. The narrator's point of view, is it different from Tom Dacre's?


c. Is there any irony in the moral lesson at the ending?

 

 

3. Holy Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean 
The children walking two & two in red & blue & green 
Grey-headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow,
        Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow 

O what a multitude they seemd these flowers of London town 
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own 
The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs 
Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands 

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song 
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of Heaven among 
Beneath them sit the aged men wise guardians of the poor 
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door

 

 

Questions

 

a. A Criticism on the Church. In what respect?

 

b. Does "multitudes" mean anything at all?


c. The visual image at Stanza 3. What does it tell you?

 


 

 

 

 

 

  Related Binaries

Selections from Songs of Innocence and Experience.pdf  Songs of Innocence and Experience

William Blake lecure slides 150910.ppt  Blake Lecture Slides 2015-2

 

  Related Links

The Fall in the Bible

A Quotation from which "swinish multitude" come from

 

   Related Keyword : Blake Songs of Innocence Songs of Experience
 

 

 
 
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