In the Songs, Blake expresses “two contrary states of the human soul” choose a pair of poems to show how he does this.
The term ‘Holy Thursday’ refers to an annual service that took place in St. Paul’s Cathedral from 1782 onwards for the children of London’s charity schools. Blake wrote two highly contrasting poems with this title in ‘Innocence’ and ‘Experience’, which look at contradictory perceptions of charity and also address other concepts such as the relationship between adults and children. While these poems reflect “two contrary states of the human soul”, it could also be argued that they share some similarities.
In ‘Innocence’, the children in ‘Holy Thursday’ rejoice in the charity bestowed upon them through “the voice of song”. They are content and joyous in a “radiance all their own”, and have “innocent faces”, suggesting that they have not yet experienced any great suffering. The attitude portrayed in ‘Experience’ is a direct contrast to this; the children are “fed with cold and usurous hand”, suggesting that charity is a negative force. This may reflect the concept that charity is only given to those who have experienced hardships. The “babes reduced to misery” seem to have no opportunity for happiness, as “their sun does never shine”. In this way, the children in the second ‘Holy Thursday’ poem have lost their innocence.
A “song” can be found in both poems, each expressing a very different mood. The “harmonious thunderings” in the first ‘Holy Thursday’ imply a joyful chorus sung from the “seats of Heaven”. This elevated diction emphasises the contentment of the children and highlights the presence of “an angel”. This “angel” may symbolise the benefactors and the kindness they have bestowed on the children, or could imply that the congregation in “the high dome of Paul’s” is being watched over. In contrast, the “song” in the second ‘Holy Thursday’ is merely a “trembling cry”. The diction here indicates a much more dismal and pessimistic tone, and the irony of “song of joy” suggests a bitter mood.
The abundance of colour in the first ‘Holy Thursday’ reflects the happiness of the children; they are dressed in “red and blue and green”, unlike the “bleak and bare” children in ‘Experience’. The lack of colour and vivacity further portrays the loss of hope for the children in the second poem, compared to those in the first who are cared for by “wise guardians”. Furthermore, Blake suggests that each ‘Holy Thursday’ poem is linked to a season. In ‘Innocence’, the children are described as “flowers” and “lambs”. These metaphors are images of spring, contrasting with the “eternal winter” described in the second ‘Holy Thursday’. Spring implies warmth and contentment, emphasising the happiness of the children. Blake uses this in other ‘Innocence’ poems, such as in ‘The Ecchoing Green’. The presence of the “skylark and thrush”, birds that are associated with spring, immediately insinuates a joyful mood. On the contrary, the implications of winter in the second ‘Holy Thursday’, such as the “bleak and bare” fields “filled with thorns” rather than “flowers” suggest a desolate and sombre mood. This is also echoed in other poems throughout ‘Experience’, such as ‘The Garden of Love’, where “briars” have replaced the “sweet flowers” that the garden once bore.
In the second ‘Holy Thursday’ poem, Blake expands on this by suggesting that “where’er the sun does shine”, children are content and poverty cannot “the mind appal”. This indicates a relationship between spring and happiness: if a child is born into a happy situation as described in the first ‘Holy Thursday’, they “can never hunger”. However, if they come into a world of “misery” and a “land of poverty”, there is no hope for them. This concept is reflected in ‘Infant Joy’ and ‘Infant Sorrow’; the happy child is born into a joyful and untroubled situation, while the unhappy child comes into a “dangerous world” and meets corruption and sorrow there. The narrator in the second ‘Holy Thursday’ appears to question religion by asking how “poverty” can exist in such a “rich and fruitful land”, and the use of ‘Holy Thursday’ as a title seems ironic as the poet describes “babes reduced to misery”. ‘The Tyger’ also emphasises questions about the existence of good and evil together, as the narrator asks “what dread hand” could have created a creature as innocent as “the lamb” together with the fearful “tyger”.
The relationship between adults and children in the two poems is very different. In ‘Innocence’ the adults are “wise” and “agèd”, acting as “guardians of the poor”. They lead the children into the Cathedral with “wands as white as snow”, indicating a protective and caring disposition. The only mention of adults in the second ‘Holy Thursday’ is the “cold and usurous hand” that feeds the “babes”. The lack of interaction between adults and children here is indicative of a very cold and distant relationship and emphasises the desolation of the infants. However, it is also possible that the first ‘Holy Thursday’ portrays an ironic view of this relationship. In both the poem and the engraving, the children are “walking two and two” behind “grey headed beadles” and they are “seated in companies”, suggesting regimentation and restriction. In this way, the first ‘Holy Thursday’ poem contrasts to other poems from ‘Innocence’, such as ‘The Ecchoing Green’, in which the children and adults “laugh away care” together. The engraving that is paired with the second ‘Holy Thursday’ poem further demonstrates the distance between adults and children in ‘Experience’: two infants lie separated from the adults and are naked, indicating their poverty. The clothed children weep and cling to a woman who appears to be unresponsive.
While the diction in the first ‘Holy Thursday’ poem is elevated, the attitude is quite naïve and offers a vast contrast to the more realistic but highly pessimistic attitude of the second ‘Holy Thursday’. The two poems are different in many ways, but their similarities suggest that innocence is open to exploitation; the ‘over-protection’ of children may lead to subsequent restriction and “misery”. Thus, Blake suggests that we must “cherish pity” by valuing and protecting innocence but not suppressing it.
