The Shepherd - Innocence Flashcards
“How sweet is the Shepherd’s sweet lot!
From the morn to the evening he strays;”
Blake introduces the poem with an unequivocal statement, repeating the word ‘sweet’.
There is a sense of peace and gentleness in the word ‘strays’. It suggests lack of force, trusting in whatever power exists that all will be well. It is interesting that ‘strays’ is often used in religious contexts to signify deviating from the path of righteousness. Here it is the opposite.
The shepherd is not straying; he is staying with the flock. I cannot figure out why Blake chose “strays” instead of “stays.” OR can he not follow his sheep if he stays right?
The word ‘Shepherd’ beginning with a capital letter calls for a personification. The poet depicts a wonderful landscape with a few sheep and a shepherd. The shepherd symbolises to Christ and the sheep represents the human beings. Human beings are happy and at peace under the blessings of God. - According to Blake, God is within us and thus, we have to listen only to our inner voices. He says that he knows no other Christianity or Gospel except the one that incite man to exercise the divine arts of imagination, the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but just a faint shadow. He chides the idea of supernatural deities. “Thou art a Man, God is no more, Thine own humanity learn to adore”
“He shall follow his sheep all day,
And his tongue shall be filled with praise,”
This shepherd doesn’t command, but instead follows his sheep, as an indulgent parent might give a child free reign. Few parents would have done this in Blake’s time, when children were harshly treated and physically punished.
The role reversal highlights the importance of children and how parents should treat them with respect
“tongue shall be filled with praise.” This seems to contrast the entire second stanza, which to me seems to imply that the Shepherd is Christ watching over his flock. If that is the case, why would Christ follow and praise the flock? It seems that it would be the opposite, that the flock would follow and praise Christ the Shepherd. The only explanation I can come up with is that the Shepherd recognizes that there is beauty, divinity, and holiness in the flock and seeks to nurture and protect that divinity, and to sing the praises of God’s manifestation in humanity. Furthermore, it echoes Psalms 51: 15, a song traditionally ascribed to King David, Israel’s king (allusion).
“For he hears the lambs innocent call
And he hears the ewe’s tender reply;”
The shepherd is like a father overseeing a mother and child. Blake uses a lexical field of words to describe the ideal; ‘innocent’, ‘tender’, ‘watchful’ and ‘peace’.
The entire poem is in the present tense except the third and the fourth lines. It may imply that the Shepherd will follow the sheep not only to this world but also to the other world.
Setting - There is little to disturb the tone of praise and peacefulness.
“He is watchful while they are in peace,
For they know when their shepherd is nigh.”
The shepherd has a God-like or Christ-like role. He is watchful but not intruding. The sheep are content because of the security he brings.
Summary
The shepherd is gifted with a sweet fortune as he roams all across the valley from morning to evening. While following his sheep, he sing songs in praise of God. The Shepherd is ever happy and peaceful because he finds himself among his sheep who let out innocent calls. The flock of sheep feels safe only because it knows the proximity of the Shepherd.
The role of the Shepherd and its imagery
Blake was concerned to express what he believed was his true understanding of Christianity. He was writing for a public that, for the most part, was Christian and shared Blake’s familiarity with the Bible. Thus, he used Christian images that he knew his readers would recognise, but in ways which questioned how the image was commonly understood.
The Shepherd plays a significant role, perhaps most aptly the role of a guardian angel. His presence is only entitled with security and safety of the flock of sheep. The poet plays with the lyrics to ensure the security is actually felt by the sheep and is not just superimposed. We never find a hint of the Shepherd’s dominance, have perceives him as friendly. He only involves in taking care of his allies and provides them all the liberty to move far and wide! However, it’s only the sheep who feel comfortable to rest in the Shepherd’s proximity “for they know when the Shepherd is nigh”
The poem abounds in pictorial beauty and ecstatic imagination. The flock of sheep, the green valleys, the all-pervading influence of the Shepherd sets the poetic environ, and is instrumental in the development of the theme of the poem. The innocence represented by the sheep and the caring Shepherd knots a tie of mutual relationship between man and Almighty.
This one image controls the whole poem. In the Old Testament, God is portrayed as the shepherd of Israel (e.g. Isaiah 40:11; Psalms 79:13; Ezekiel 34:11-24). This is the image of God in the famous Psalm 23 ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ Psalms 23:1-6. In the New Testament, Jesus is the good shepherd, who goes seeking after his lost sheep. See Big ideas from the Bible > Sheep, shepherd, lamb.
Shepherds are standard figures in English literature, especially in pastoral poetry. Pastoral evokes a past world of rural innocence, such as the Garden of Eden before the Fall of humankind. The shepherd often represents, too, the goodness of a life close to nature in contrast to the artificial life of the town. Blake is able to hint at this tradition by praising the ‘sweetness’ of the shepherd’s life.
Structure
simple rhythm and rhyme scheme to remind the reader of nursery songs and children’s hymns and his engraving shows a pastoral scene, with no unpleasant interruptions
The poem is composed of two quatrains, rhyming ABCB DEFE. The basic metre is anapaestic except where the first line starts – and the last line of the first stanza ends - with a iamb. The latter causes the reader to linger on the idea of the overflow of praise. The start of the next stanza focuses this on the innocent and harmonious relationships between the sheep.
We then move to a new thought as we see the watchfulness of the shepherd and the peacefulness of the sheep.
Theme of authority and leadership
This is the central underlying theme of The Shepherd. In other poems, authority is generally represented by parents or parent-figures. Here, the shepherd is someone who is alongside, but does not rule his flock. His care does not repress or direct the sheep but enables them to live fully as sheep. He is full of praise for them rather than demanding obedience from them.
Blake’s divergence from traditional imagery
f Blake’s shepherd is associated with Christ (described in the New Testament as the Good Shepherd), some important differences need to be noticed:
The biblical Good Shepherd is followed by his sheep
Here, he follows them
In the Old Testament, a famous figure was the shepherd who became a guerrilla leader, then king, David
Here, the idea of the shepherd as leader is absent. The notion of Blake’s shepherd ‘straying’ conveys an air of careless ease and freedom to his days. Although he is watchful, he does not need to worry about his sheep, but can meander along with them
According to the Bible and in Christian teaching, it is the shepherd who receives praise from his sheep for his watchful, tender care.
Here, the shepherd praises his flock for the tender love between lamb and ewe. They can be peaceful because he watches over them but there is a sense of mutuality. He watches over them but doesn’t ‘lord it’ over them.
If the poem is read as Blake’s shepherd being associated with God, Blake seems to be emphasising the vision of a ‘God alongside people’, who loves humankind without demanding obedience in return. He has no association with rules and laws, with leadership and authority, with binding and caging.
How is this a song of innocence?
In reality, the job of any shepherd is to be constantly vigilant over his sheep, in the face of danger. But this is a Song of Innocence; there appear to be no overt threats to heighten the shepherd’s vigilance. Blake conveys this by having the sheep resting ‘in peace’ rather than ‘without fear’. Fear does not seem to be part of the speaker’s vocabulary.
In the Bible, the Good Shepherd has to protect his flock against enemies. He is also personally vulnerable - he ‘lays down his life for his sheep’ John 10:11. The vision of an innocent lacks this perspective.
Ironically, innocence is always vulnerable to being threatened, devoured and destroyed because it does not understand the existence of what can threaten, devour and destroy.
