Topic: Songs of Innocence (Holy Thursday) – William Blake
- Criticises the church for their overinvestment in material wealth making it an instrument of inequality
Themes/Context Literary/Dramatic Devices Techniques
of whole
poem
Holy Thursday – ‘innocent/ clean/ white’ – semantic cluster of cleanliness and purity - deceptively
‘two & two, in red & blue & green’ – regiment contrasts vitality of simple/monosyllabic – direct failure of internal rhyme shows underlying simple,childishness
ascension day
danger that portrays
(Jesus back to complexity
‘snow/ flow’ – monosyllabic masc rhymes
heaven) - ballad quatrains
‘before,’ – caesura, authority and ceremony - constant
Unorthodox: ‘Grey’ – contrasts vitality of children juxtaposition
spiritual but not ‘Flowers of London’ – bring a natural joy/beauty to an otherwise grim, industrial city between nature and
religious – C of E ‘town!/ radiance all their own’ – half term reiterates internal happiness, they children radiate outwards DESPITE religious instructions culture
corrupt and ‘multitudes’ x2 – continuous crowds converted to rich background, (2 by 2) nature overpowering dogma (children/beadles)
dogmatic ‘seated in companies’ – links to 2 by 2 structural restriction and organisation – Rousseau’s criticism (education killed children’s passion)
Prelapsarian – ‘hands/ voice’ – movement to different parts shows transition from material to spiritual
time before the Fall ‘harmonious thunderings’ – oxymoron, sublime power
of Man (innocent ‘Beneath’ – children elevated above religious doctrine and ceremony
‘lest you drive an angel from your door’ – biblical allusion
and unspoiled)
Rousseau – we are
born innocent and
society makes us
immoral
- Criticises the church for their overinvestment in material wealth making it an instrument of inequality
Themes/Context Literary/Dramatic Devices Techniques
of whole
poem
Holy Thursday – ‘innocent/ clean/ white’ – semantic cluster of cleanliness and purity - deceptively
‘two & two, in red & blue & green’ – regiment contrasts vitality of simple/monosyllabic – direct failure of internal rhyme shows underlying simple,childishness
ascension day
danger that portrays
(Jesus back to complexity
‘snow/ flow’ – monosyllabic masc rhymes
heaven) - ballad quatrains
‘before,’ – caesura, authority and ceremony - constant
Unorthodox: ‘Grey’ – contrasts vitality of children juxtaposition
spiritual but not ‘Flowers of London’ – bring a natural joy/beauty to an otherwise grim, industrial city between nature and
religious – C of E ‘town!/ radiance all their own’ – half term reiterates internal happiness, they children radiate outwards DESPITE religious instructions culture
corrupt and ‘multitudes’ x2 – continuous crowds converted to rich background, (2 by 2) nature overpowering dogma (children/beadles)
dogmatic ‘seated in companies’ – links to 2 by 2 structural restriction and organisation – Rousseau’s criticism (education killed children’s passion)
Prelapsarian – ‘hands/ voice’ – movement to different parts shows transition from material to spiritual
time before the Fall ‘harmonious thunderings’ – oxymoron, sublime power
of Man (innocent ‘Beneath’ – children elevated above religious doctrine and ceremony
‘lest you drive an angel from your door’ – biblical allusion
and unspoiled)
Rousseau – we are
born innocent and
society makes us
immoral
