A LITTLE BOY LOST

Question 1

What is the poem about?

Answer 1

• A little boy dares to question the institutional wisom of a priest
• As a terrible punishment he is burned to death.

Question 2

Context behind the poem

Answer 2

• The Catholic Church asserted the authority of the priesthood.
• Whilst Protestant reformers suggested there is the possibility for direct communication with God without the need for priestly intercessions. (or intermediaries)- central Tennent of protestant theology

Question 3

Albion meaning

Answer 3

• In British mythology and medieval literature, Albion became a poetic and symbolic name for Britain.
• Romatic connotations

Question 4

Religious allusions

Answer 4

• Alters are the table in a Christian church at which the bread and wine are consecrated in communion services that commemorate the sacrifice of Jesus
• The altar is where the bread and wine are placed during the communion service.
• Blake places the congregation in the place of the Romans who brutally scarified the Holy father.

Question 5

Why is the little boy lost?

Answer 5

*Morally lost in the eyes of the Church
* Lost in the face of death
* Spritually lost

Question 6

Symbolic interpretations

Answer 6

• Mediates on the existentialist idea that humans are limited in their ability to know or love beyond themselves and their experiences. This limitation in love and knowing has theological implications as the boy questions whether we humans can reciprocate the love of a being capable of infinite love.
• Critiques the hypocrisy and dogma of the church by placing the congregation in the place of the Romans who brutally sacrificed the Holy father.
• The destruction of curiosity, imagination in the cruel world of experience, in this understanding the boy becomes a sacrifice to the cruel God Urizen. Reflects Blake’s skepticism towards blind faith and the suppression of intellectual inquiry.