“Holy Thursday” has two different parts written at different times. They both come from the “Songs of Innocence” work by William Blake. The first one discusses a religious celebration called Holy Thursday in which all the participating schools would celebrate the accusation of Jesus forty days after Easter. The speaker is a third person observer who doesn’t really exist. A group of children walk to church to sing in celebration.
Almost the entire poem is in a very cheery and bright tone. It describes the children as innocent and it compares them to the waters of Thames and to flowers of London. The reader sees the children as perfect, innocent beings. The children begin to sing in the church raising their hands toward the heavens. The author is vivid at this point in the poem; two similes are used describing the children singing, comparing their singing to a mighty wind raising the song to heaven, and harmonious thunderings among the heavens. The last line of the poem offers advice to the reader. It says that if you drive an angel from your door, you should cherish the pity that will befall you. This seems to put the entire poem into a new light, as if the purpose of it was to preach religion, not celebrate it. Although I would not go so far as to say the poem is a religious propaganda based on the subtle suggestion in the last line.
The poem has a simple story and a simple meaning. Like most religious poems, this poem describes a perfect person in the eyes of the particular religion, and shows it in all its innocence, then subtly hints at the imperfection of all other things. This poem is not quite as straight foreword in expressing the imperfection of the reader as opposed to the perfection of the children, which I liked very much. Most religious poems seem so one sided and insulting. They seem to only serve a single purpose, to influence religious beliefs upon people using guilt or inflicting low self-esteem.
The second poem has a similar theme, innocence of children, but it has a much more somber tone. The first stanza asks the question is it a holy thing to see a child born and turned to sin and misery. To see a child cared for and fed by a cold unholy person. The second stanza explains the confusion of the child; it does not know the world that it has been born into. The stanza asks another question, does the child cry for joy, or not? It also explains that so many children are born into poverty. The third stanza goes on to talk about the life ahead of the child born. It explains that his life will be filled with misery and unholy things will block his path. The last stanza, however, changes the tone. It gives hope, explaining that where good things flourish, a child will never be in poverty.
Although I do not like religious poems much and I prefer to seclude myself from organized or publicized religion, I enjoyed the poems. I especially enjoyed the second part even though it had a melancholy theme; I liked the imagery and metaphors.
"Dark
Satanic Mills"
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