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William Blake

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Holy Thursday was the first Thursday in May where there was a service every year for the charity schools of London; they may have been attended by as many as 6000 children. In Innocence the poem conveys the innocence of the children but can however be about the irony of the service and the fact that the poverty is present. the reference to ‘lambs’ and repetition of ‘multitudes’ emphasises the number of children and perhaps the extent of the poverty, the lambs could also be interpreted as a sacrificial animal, which shows the children are being used to make the people feel good. The lines in this poem are longer than Blake’s typical poetry and this could also emphasise the volume of magnitude of the poverty, furthermore the ‘flowing river’ also gives imagery of a large volume.
The metaphor of ‘flowers’ emphasises the children’s beauty and innocence, but also the positioning of them ‘flowers of London town’ contrasts their beauty to the ugly setting of a city and gives them a certain strength in that they are able to flourish as flowers in a city. Holy Thursday in Experience however gives a different image of selfishness and irony as it conveys the idea that there shouldn’t be poverty and questions why there is in a ‘rich and fruitful land’, this could show that there is money available but it is not being used to reduce the poverty. The rich only do something once a year to make themselves feel good and as if they have helped the children. This can also be seen in Innocence in the last line ‘then cherish pity’, this could either be seen as positive as the children would be even worse off if there was no pity but to ‘cherish’ it seems like the people are happy to have it as it makes them feel better about themselves when they help the children once a year, the reality is they should be helping them all year.
This line also causes the reader to contemplate the true meaning of pity, the reference to the children’s ‘clean’ faces suggests that they are not like that usually and they have just been given the privilege to be clean for one day only. The ‘clean’ charitable image that is given conceals the poverty that the children experience every day. Furthermore the march of the children and the image of the ‘beadles’ leading them with ‘wands’ suggests regimentation and authority rather than charity and love. In Experience the ‘cold and usurous hand’ that feeds them suggests that they are doing it for self-interest rather than through pity for the children. The hand could also represent the city as a whole as they are not doing anything to help the situation of the children. The positive images in Innocence are now reduced to symbols of the wasting resources of failing crops and baron land. This could also signify the children’s future.
The reference to the ‘Thames’ in Innocence gives a strong image of the poverty as the Thames water is renowned to be dirty, the industrial revolution at the time could also be seen to be making more dirt and pollution for the river, which in itself emphasises that the revolution could be causing more poverty for the children. In Experience this can also be seen in the question ‘can it be a song of joy?’ this furthers the image that even though the city may be prospering in other ways in the revolution for the children things are only getting worse and this is emphasised further by the third stanza; ‘their sun does never shine’ ‘their fields are bleak and bare’ ‘their ways are filled with thorns’ ‘it is eternal winter there’. This stanza also shows that if the people do not look at what is around them then they will not see the poverty and will not help. The imagery in Innocence is all of spring, such as the flowers and lambs, whereas in experience the images are of winter and darkness.
Both poems are similar in the ways that they are conveying the underlying message that the pity is purely selfish, however Innocence conveys it as more positive and the children are portrayed in a positive light in that they are receiving warmth and are experiencing a happy day. Experience portrays it in a negative light and uses more harsh imagery and gets to the point that there is little hope for the children.

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