Black Poetry

Blake Poetry

Verily I say unto you, Whoseover shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. [S Luke, 18 (17)] The words are those of Jesus, who was neither unaware of reality, nor indifferent to suffering. The childlike innocence referred to above is a state of purity and not of ignorance. Such is the vision of Blake in his childlike Songs of Innocence. It would be foolish to suppose that the author of ^СHoly Thursday^Т and ^СThe Chimney Sweeper^Т in Songs of Innocence was insensible to the contemporary social conditions of orphans or young sweeps, and that therefore the poems of the same names in Songs of Experience are somehow apologies or retractions of an earlier misapprehension. For the language and style of Songs of Innocence are so consistently naпve compared to Songs of Experience, that it is clear that the earlier poems are a deliberate attempt to capture the state of grace described in the Biblical quotation above - a celebration of the triumph of innocence in a world of experience. Often the words of the poem are spoken by a child. It would be impossible to imagine a modern child using language such as: Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice.

and it is most unlikely that children spoke thus even in Blake^Тs day. Yet this is the language of children^Тs hymns. I was personally acquainted with all the words in ^СThe Lamb^Т, through Sunday School hymns, long before reaching school age. By using the vocabulary of the hymnals, Blake emphasises for us the connection of which the child is instinctively aware: I, a child, and thou a lamb, We are called by his name.

The syntax and tone, however, have the authentic simplicity of children^Тs speech. The first verse is a series of questions addressed to the lamb. The second stanza begins with the child^Тs triumph at being able to answer those questions: Little Lamb, I^Тll tell thee.

Typically the questions are asked purely for the satisfaction it gives the child in answering. There is a great deal of repetition in all the songs: in ^СThe Lamb^Т this takes the form of a refrain repeated at the beginning and the end of each stanza, once more reminiscent of children^Тs hymns. In contrast, ^СThe Tyger^Т has an incantatory rhythm, far more like a pagan chant than a childish hymn. And the vocabulary is no longer within the understanding of a child: What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? This song also asks questions. But in the world of experience, unlike the world of innocence, there are no longer any reassuring answers. The world of Innocence is a world of confident answers; in Experience the answers remain. Indeed, the questions themselves become more threatening. The slightly incredulous question above alters subtly during the progress of the poem until the word ^СCould^Т is finally replaced by the far more menacing ^СDare^Т. There is no such progression in Songs of Innocence. Each song captures the ^Сmoment in each day that Satan cannot find^Т [Milton, II, Pl.35, 1.42].