Blake 'Holy Thursday' (Experience)

Question 1

Context

What is the ceremony of ‘Holy Thursday’?

Answer 1

‘Holy Thursday’ is an annual church service held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where orphaned children attend the service. - An occassion to focus on value, purity, and charity.

Question 2

Context

Why does Blake use this as the poem’s title?

Answer 2

Blake is both spiritual and religious but didn’t like the institution of the church, as they didn’t help the people they should have. - Blake questions the idea that society os built on corruption.
Blake thought children deserved better lives, as they were closer to their innocencet states, and adults have been corrupted by society.

Question 3

Form and structure

What is the form and structure of Blake’s ‘Holy Thursday’ (Experience)

Answer 3

• 4 quatrains
• Alternating rhyme scheme
• L1-3 of each stanza = Iambic trimeter
• L4 of each stanza = Iambic tetrameter
  
  • Inconsistent meter where the lines appeare stunted and confinded.
  • Undisguised tirade - attacking those who have created a polarised and barbarous society.

Question 4

Lexical set

What is the lexical set that Blake uses to juxtapose England’s prosperity with Child poverty? Commenting on the prosperity of the Industrial Revolution and colonisation to juxtapose the child poverty through the antithesis of language.

Answer 4

• “holy” References to religion, the Bible was an important part of Blake’s childhood. Questions the nature of religion in the context of child poverty.
• “rich” Associated with the prosperity of Industrial Revolution and colonisation. Ironic as Blake knows these children won’t be rich = Social immobility.
• “fruitful” The land is fruitful as there are many children, however, there aren’t positive connotations to the children’s conditions.
• “misery” The “Babes” are “reduc’d to misery” as they are orphaned, abandoned and now paraded around London for charity sake.
• “cold and usurous hand” Synecdoche as the children are being forced into an agentic state, treated coldly.

Question 5

Give a quote from line 8 of Blake’s ‘Holy Thursday’ (Experience)

Answer 5

“It is a land of poverty!”

Question 6

Interpretation

“It is a land of poverty!”

Answer 6

• “land” Blake could imply that if the land was rich and fruitful, there would be no dependency on the church - therefore the church need people to stay poor.
• “land” Ambiguous, where is this land?
• “poverty!” Exclamatory/declarative sentence claiming the land is neglected by the state.
• Iambic tetrameter = places emphasis on the line, as the iambic trimeter lines are usually questions but this is an answer.

Question 7

Quote

Give a quote from lines 10 to 12 of Blake’s ‘Holy Thursday’ (Experience)

Answer 7

“And their fields are bleak & bare,
And their ways are fill’d with thorns:
It is eternal winter there.”

Question 8

Interpretation

“And their fields are bleak & bare,
And their ways are fill’d with thorns:
It is eternal winter there.”

Answer 8

• “And their” Anaphora shows the children’s despair and vastness of troubles. Grouping together the poor.
• “fields are bleak & bare” Natural “bleak & bare” imagery suggests moral bankruptcy.
• “&” Polysyndeton.
• “thorns:” Symbollic of neglect or a defense mechanism which the church has built. Reminiscent of thorn crown and sacrifice = Biblical allusion.

Question 9

Quote

Give a quote from lines 15 to 16 from Blake’s ‘Holy Thurdsay’ (Experience)

Answer 9

“Babe can never hunger there, Nor poverty the mind appall.”

Question 10

Interpretation

“Babe can never hunger there, Nor poverty the mind appall.”

Answer 10

• “hunger” Poverty in London and England and child hunger/desparation contrasts Industrial Revolution’s prosperity.
• “there,” Ambiguous, where will they never hunger?
• “poverty” Ambiguous, we don’t know who Blake is talking to, as there is no direct address.
• “mind appall.” Hidden semantic field of hell throughout poem.