Holy Thursday (1789)William Blake.

 

'Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean 

The children walking two and two in red and blue amd green 

Grey headed beadles walk'd before with wands as white as snow 

Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow 

O what a multitude they seem'd these flowers of London town 

Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own 

The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs 

Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands 

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song 

Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among 

Beneath them sit the aged men wise guardians of the poor 

Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door 

Poem: Holy Thursday, 

Extracted from:Songs of Innocence and Experience. 

Date of Publication: Song of Innocence and Experience in 1789.

URL: http://www.online-literature.com/blake/616/

 

 

 

The poem that we are going to analyse is Holy Thursday, by William Blake, extracted from one of his Illuminated Books, Songs of Innocence and Experience. On Holy Thursday, William Blake describes the trip of one group of children, possibly members of a charity school, to Saint paul’s Cathedral on Holy Thursday, the Ascension Day.

In the poem, William Blake describes how the children of the Charity School of London (we can know it because Blake sets the poem in the traditional Charity School Service in Saint Paul’s Cathedral on the Ascension Day) go towards the Cathedral, flowing, as the Thames does. They go in pairs (walking two and, verse 2), dressed in intense colours, supervised by grey headed beadles. In the cathedral, the children form a hugue and brilliant multitude. They remind the speaker of a company of lambs sitting by the thousands and raising their innocent hands in prayer. Afterwards they start singing sounding gorgeous (like harmonious thunderings, verse 10), while the old (aged) people  stand by. The speaker, moved by the feeling of the vision of children in church, askes the reader to remember that such kids as these are actually angels of God.

The poem has twelve verses, divided in three stanzas and it rhymes AABB. The verses are long, not very typical in William Blake’s poem, possibly because the poet wants to suggest the trip of the children towards Saint Paul’s Cathedral, or the flow of the river (into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow, verse 4). The poem is write in third person of, there’s no presence of first person, i.e., the author is not present in the text (the children walking, verse 2; they seem’d these flowers, verse 5). The author is a simple narrator.

In the first stanza, the poet starts his narration informing to the reader that it’s Holy Thursday, and that the  faces of the innocent children were clean. He’s speaking here about the children of Charity School,, orphan children, maybe they have washed their faces because they were going to the cathedral. And they are innocent because they are going there because of their faith, they don’t know yet what it means the Holy Thursday to christian people.  In the next verse, the childre are walking in pairs, in red, blue and green.  They are wearing bright colours becausde they children, innocent, maybe the author is expressing the feeling of the children: for one day, they aren’t in the orphanage, and they are making a trip through London.  In the third verse, the poet makes a metaphor about the beadles, grey headed beadles, because of the age of them, they are old because they have grey hair. They go before the children. Here, the poet makes one comparison related to the wands that the beadles have, they are as white as snow, beause they are pure, their faith is innocent. In the last verse of the strophe, the narrator finally states where are the children going, until this verse we know that they are going to the church, because it was a Holy Thursday and they were preceded by beadles, but we didn’t know the setting of the poem. In this verse,  the author sthates that they are goning to high dome of Paul’s (Saint Pauñ’s Cathedral) in London. Here, the author makes another metaphor, comparing the children with the Thames flow. They are making a trip throgh London, just the waters of Thames river do.

In the second stanza, the author continues his narration of the Holy Thursday in the place where the children are and he’s describing what is happening. In the first verse he makes another metaphor of the children, but know his point of view changes, now the children are like flowers of London town. Now, they are not innocent, but beauty and fragile. The author is referring to the future of that children and their innocence. Their innocence is very breakable, because the orphan children in 18^th had a few possibilities: to have a grave illness and die, or to become a thiefs or killers. Just a few of them will have a good life. In spite of their future, Blake describes the children in the follonwing text as a brilliant multitude (they sit with radiance all their own). In the next verse, the author continues describing with another the children, but he has come back to their present: they still have innocence, they are compared with lambs. In the last verse of the strophe, the poet continues speaking about the innocence of the multitude of children, thousands of boys and girls, which are in the church praying with innocence, raising their innocent hands.

In the third and last stanza, the children start singing. Here, we can find another metasphor, noe like a mighty wind, referring to the voice of the children, a powerful voice, which is going to Heaven, maybe they have a chance. The voice of the children, expresses the poet in the next verse, is also like harmonious thunderings. In the following verse we can see beneath the children, the men wise guardinans of the poor. We can find here a constrat between the children, poor, innocent, witht pure faith, and the men. They are rich, they have lost heir innocence, so they are in a lower level than the children and, in the last children, the author claims to the men, and to the reader, to help that children. Probably, as I said before, they are goning to have a dark future but, actually, they are children of God and they have to have a chance. And the people don’t have to look at them in a bad way, because they don’t control their situation, simply thay had bad luck when they were born. That’s what the narrator wants to say, maybe impressed by the vision of the children in bright colours in the first strophe and their beautiful voices singing to Heaven: that, actually, everybody are children of God.