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 Balladsand 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,