Notes on The Age of Innocence
Introduction
This 'Introduction' sets the tone for the Songs of Innocence as a
whole, with its use of images of the child and the Lamb (Christ),
together with the bright idyllic pastoral setting, establishing the tone
of Innocence: guiltlessness, freedom from harm and sin. The
full-page illustration, which accompanied this poem as frontispiece
to the Songs of Innocence, shows a piper looking up at a child
resting in the cloud, whilst sheep graze securely between the trees:
the mutually complementary relationship between text and
illustration is itself indicated in the final stanza, with the reference
to the 'rural pen'. Even in this apparently direct celebration of
childhood innocence, laughter and joy, commentators have detected
an anticipation of the darker tones of the Songs of Experience, and
the sense that this Springtime vision is transitory. The phrase "wept
with joy" is one indication, as is the reference to the staining of the
"water clear". Yet the predominating tone of this lyric is happy and
full of joy. It is worth comparing this poem with the 'Introduction' to
the Songs of Experience.
The Shepherd
Once again, as in the 'Introduction', we have a bright idyllic pastoral
vision, but with perhaps more obvious allusion to the figure of Christ the
Shepherd. It is worth noting that, in the poem, the Shepherd may watch
over his flock, such that they are at peace and full of trust, but it is he who
follows them, and is full of praise for their innocence and trust: the sense
is one of mutual trust and responsiveness, rather than docile obedience.
The Blossom
Many critics have pointed out the symbolic sexual connotations at
play in this lyric, with its vision of the young Blossom anticipating
the Sparrow's and Robin's embraces. These associations are there,
but the poem can also be seen as an evocation of innocent love,
merriment and growth within the natural order.
The Schoolboy
This child-monologue, like The Little Black Boy and The Chimney
Sweeper, expresses a less idyllic and sunlit feeling than poems such
as The Shepherd. The boy complains at the constraints of education
and the classroom, which deprive him of access to the joys of
Nature, and force him prematurely into the world of adult cares and
responsibility. His argument may be an innocent (unthinking)
reaction, and thus represents one form of Innocence: - innocent
complaint . However, it may also represent a view on childhood and
education often associated with Rousseau, and developed by
Wordsworth in the Lyrical Ballads and Ode: Intimation of
Immortality, that childhood is a state of natural grace, and entrance
into the adult world means loss and imprisonment in the artificial
constraints of civilisation ("shades of the prison-house begin to
close / upon the dying boy", Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations). Within
the Songs of Innocence it is probably right to view this as a
'transitional' poem, anticipating the darker vision of the Songs of
Experience.
Holy Thursday
This is probably the controversial of the lyrics in the Songs of
Innocence. The problem is mainly one of identifying the tone and
attitude of the speaker and the poem towards the procession of
children. Like Holy Thursday: Experience the poem describes the
annual service of thanksgiving held at St. Pauls in the 1780s and
1790s for Charity School children, where the children gave thanks
for the charity they receive throughout the year. Should the children
be so grateful for this charity, or are they so innocent that they
know no better? It is clear that the children here are viewed as
lambs, flowers and angels, traditional images of innocence, but
what is the speaker's attitude to the "aged men, wise guardians of
the poor"? Is the last line of the poem directed at them, (bearing in
mind that Charity Schools were often accused of neglecting or
mistreating their charges), or does it celebrate the ways that this
young flock is taken in hand and arranged into serried ranks?
Comparison with Holy Thursday (Experience) is illuminating.
The Little Black Boy
In this child-monologue Blake's treatment of the little black boy's
perspective on Christianity and salvation may well be ironic,
forming the basis for a more savage attack on religious and social
hypocrisy. The child's mother consoles the child with a vision of a
better life to come, away from the prejudices and hardship of this
life, and the child accepts this, encouraging him to a further vision
of leading (rather than being led by) the little white English boy to
God and Heaven. The mother's teaching may itself be a form of
'innocence', and the boy's vision of a Heaven, transcending the
divisions of race, is certainly 'innocent'. The central question the
poem raises, like Holy Thursday (Innocence) is what Blake's attitude
is towards the child's (and the mother's) attitudes: does he see them
as touchingly naive, or tragically misguided? Throughout the poem,
in the references to 'black' and 'white', Blake plays around with the
traditional associations between 'white' and 'good', but also, in the
little black boy's views on Soul/Body, makes the point that colour is
skin deep, but colour is no indication of spiritual state. The poem
should, perhaps, be approached in the light of British attitudes
towards missionaries, and arguments about the abolition of slavery
in the late eighteenth century.
The Lamb
In this poem, like The Shepherd, Blake again brings out the
traditional associations between the Lamb and Christ, in a simple
lyric which relies on a pastoral setting. The speaker is presumably
the child, which allows Blake to express a joyous state of protected
innocence and harmony within and amongst creation. It is
worthwhile to compare this poem with The Tiger.
Night
In the first three stanzas of the poem we are presented with a view of a
harmonious and protected creation, watched over by guiding angels. In
the fourth stanza, however, there is an acknowledgement that even these
angels cannot prevent 'wolves and tygers' from preying on the meek and
mild, and the poem ends with a vision of the after-life, where the lamb and
the lion lie down together, and the lion becomes shepherd. 'Innocence', in
the poem, may be found in this life (symbolised by grazing lambs and the
guardian angels), but ultimately is to be found in the after-life. The
predominant tone of the poem as a whole, however, is one of idealism and
of Christian celebration.
The Chimney Sweeper
Once again, as in Holy Thursday and The Little Black Boy, this
child-monologue uses the child's innocent perspective to present what
could be a biting and savage indictment of social and psychic
repressiveness: the child's consoling vision of the pastoral after-life may
be a glorious and 'innocent' celebration of Heaven, or it may equally well
show the extent to which the child-speaker has been conditioned into
acceptance of his slavery in this life. The references to the 'blackness' of
the children, together with the dualistic references to black body/white
soul, invites comparison with The Little Black Boy. The imagery within
stanzas Four and Five, of leaping and laughing children, washing in
rivers and children on clouds, recurs throughout the Songs of Innocence.
Compare this poem with The Chimney Sweeper (Experience)
The Divine Image
This lyric expresses in abstract terms the cardinal Christian tenets of
God becoming Man, and therefore of the human form as a
manifestation of God himself: for that reason all men, regardless of
creed or colour, should be seen as divine creations, and as
manifestations of Love, Mercy, Pity and Peace. This 'innocent'
multi-racial perspective is, perhaps, better expressed in lyrics such
as A Cradle Song. the poem as a whole, however, should be
compared with its counterpart, A Divine Image, the poem which
initially appeared in the Songs of Experience,
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