Spring (Innocence) Flashcards
(18 cards)
Give an overview of the poem
- Birdsong, children and a lamb welcome the new year
What does Spring symbolise?
- Symbolizing the awakening of nature after the dormancy of winter (Rebirth/ Renewal/ transformation)
- Blossoming of youth
- Fertility, abundance, and prosperity.
What is the structure of the poem?
- A lyric poem
- Simple prosaic lexis
- Refrain
- Transferred epithet
- Dimeter
- AABB/ CCDD/ E
What is the perspective the poem is written in?
- 1st Person Perspective
- Create a sense of immediacy and intimacy
- Reference’s to other poems or characters from Blake’s “Songs of Innocence (flutist, Little Girl lost/ Little Boy lost)
Symbolic interpetation of the poem
- Romantic, pantheistic representation of nature and springtime. Untained by the vices of experience. Aspirational vison of a prelapsarian world
- Children in communion with nature
- Idealised vison of childhood and innocence which can be problematised.
Stanza 1: “Sound the flute now it’s mute”
- Reference to the Greek God of Pan.
- A nymph was turned into a reed to protect her chasity from Pan. Pan blew the reeds in fustration and the pan flute was created.
- Perhaps sexuality is the bridging point between innocence and experience.
- It can be uncomplicated, without shame but can be distorted when entering experience.
- Perhaps its up to readers to choose which way they experience it.
- In Ancient Greece the flute was the shepards instruments. Thus the poem guides readers.
Stanza 1: Pastoral / Animal Imagery “Birds delight/ Day and night/ Nightingale/ In the dale/ Lark in sky”
- “Nightingale” sing in the evenings. Whereas Lark sing at dawn. Even at polar ends nature is connected. Everything is in a state of harmony.
- “Birds” symbolise the liberated spirit. Elevated plane of existence/ divine/
- Blake reveres even the smallest units of nature (universalism)
Refain “Merrily/ Merrily to welcome in the year”
- In a cheerful way/ no consideration of consequence
- Everything within the world of the poem are presented as happy and free. Perhaps reinforcing the message that only through a connection with nature can man obtain similar levels of perpetual happiness and freedom.
- Joyful climax to the 3 syllable pattern
- Continuity/ harmony
Dimeter
-A metrical line of verse with two feet.
- Emphasises the innocence of the scene
Pantheism
- views the universe and nature as synonymous with divinity.
What is the effect of the simple, prosaic lexis?
- Creates a sense of musicality (lyrical feel)
- Situates the poem in the state of innocence, childhood which brings simplicity, unbridled joy
- Although the 2 states should be integrated there is value in innocence.
- Testament to Blake’s values in making his poetry accessible (Introduction)
Bible verse: Look at the birds of the air…
They do not sow or reap and yet your Heavenly father feeds them.
“Little Boy/ full of joy/ little girl sweet and small”
- They are loaded with plentiful delight and exultation. There is physically no room for vices or troubles. Thus, the children are ironically protected by their great capacities for joy.
- Omission of articles, suggesting a universal image of childhood
-Further opposites, boy and girl joined in happiness. Binaries are often needed for a fuller perspective, image
“Cock does crow/ So do you/ Merry voice/ Infant noise”
- metaphor for daybreak (beginnings/spring)
- Discordant lexis disrupts the tranquility of the poem only to further indicate new beginnings.
- Reciprocity as man echoes back the cocks crow in perhaps a sense of reverence, harmony and connection. Man is in communion with nature.
What is the symbolism of the “little lamb”?
- Christ (as the sacrifical lamb)
- he underwent death without being guilty of any iniquity.
-Sacrificial Atonement for humanity
“Come and lick
My white neck;
Let me pull
Your soft wool;
Let me kiss
Your soft face;”
- Sensual, romantic imagery.
- Imperatives- desire for intimancy, service and sacrifice
- “Soft” repetition- gentle, vulnerable
- Promotes the idea of being married with Christ, as Christian theology suggests Christ has made man the recipients of his affection and, in turn, man must make him the ultimate object of his affection. The New Testament calls Christ the “bridegroom” and the church his “bride.”
How can this complete, idealistic innocence be problematised?
-The absence of experience results in an ironic state of deprivation, - There is no room for growth, and integration and thus a sense of completeness.
-Despite being submerged in a world of spring that signals change the children are oblivious and unchanging which can either be celebrated or problematized.
“Without Contraries…
“Without Contraries is no progression.” Polarities like love and hate “are necessary to Human existence.”
