A Little Boy Lost: Difference between revisions
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{{short description|Poem written by William Blake}} |
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"'''A |
"'''A Little Boy Lost'''" is a poem of the ''[[Songs of Experience]]'' series created in 1794 after the ''[[Songs of Innocence]]'' (1789) by the poet [[William Blake]]. The poem centers on the theme of religious persecution and the corrupted dictates of dogmatic Church teachings. As part of ''[[Songs of Experience]]'' the poem is set in the wider context of exploring the suffering of innocent and oppressed individuals—in this case a young boy, and his parents—within a flawed society that is oppressed and disillusioned with ''life's experience''. |
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==The |
==The poem== |
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<poem> |
{{blockquote|<poem> |
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Nought loves another as itself |
Nought loves another as itself |
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Nor venerates another so |
Nor venerates another so. |
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Nor is it possible to |
Nor is it possible to Thought |
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A greater than itself to know |
A greater than itself to know: |
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And Father, how can I love you, |
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Or any of my brothers more? |
Or any of my brothers more? |
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I love you like the little bird |
I love you like the little bird |
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That picks up crumbs around the door. |
That picks up crumbs around the door. |
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The Priest sat by and heard the child |
The Priest sat by and heard the child. |
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In trembling zeal he |
In trembling zeal he seiz'd his hair: |
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He led him by his little coat |
He led him by his little coat: |
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And all |
And all admir'd the Priestly care. |
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And standing on the altar high, |
And standing on the altar high, |
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Lo what a fiend is here! said he: |
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One who sets reason up for judge |
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Of our most holy |
Of our most holy Mystery. |
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The weeping child could not be heard |
The weeping child could not be heard. |
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The weeping parents wept in vain: |
The weeping parents wept in vain: |
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They |
They strip'd him to his little shirt. |
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And bound him in an iron chain |
And bound him in an iron chain. |
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And |
And burn'd him in a holy place, |
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Where many had been |
Where many had been burn'd before: |
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The weeping parents wept in vain. |
The weeping parents wept in vain. |
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Are such things done on Albions shore.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blake |first=William |author-link=William Blake |editor-last=Erdman |editor-first=David V. |editor-link=David V. Erdman |title=The Complete Poetry and Prose |date=1988 |publisher=Anchor Books |isbn=0385152132 |edition=Newly revised |pages=[https://archive.org/details/completepoetrypr00blak/page/28 28-29] |url=https://archive.org/details/completepoetrypr00blak/page/28 }}</ref></poem>}} |
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Are such thing done on Albion's shore?<ref>{{cite web|last1=William|first1=Blake|title=A Little Boy Lost|url=http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-little-boy-lost/|website=Poem Hunter|accessdate=9 April 2015}}</ref> |
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</poem> |
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==Analysis of |
==Analysis of the poem== |
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In this poem, Blake's titular character, a little boy, appears, by lights of Church pedantry, to have questioned religious dogma, to wit: that every person must love God more than themselves or any other; for his sacrilege the boy has instantly become "lost" to the Church. Reacting to his speech, a zealot Priest leaps to denounce the boy and to dramatize his offense. The little boy is peremptorily castigated as a heretic and summarily burned at the stake, even though the child's age—he is a little boy, after all; he sees the world through the eyes of a child's innocence—would seemingly preclude him from comprehending the awful construing of his words (by the Priest) as heresy. On the other hand, a reader might theorize that Blake intends to portray the child as precocious and with intentions to dissent from Church teaching—perhaps the Priest thinks so. However, the actual words applied by the author to the boy's speech offers very little toward this view; instead, it is the child's innocent candor that seems to inspire his words. |
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In this poem, the titular boy is persecuted because he had doubts with his religion and then the priest presented him and his parents and him wept, but for different reasons. He then was murdered for thinking he is the divine and not God and that he thinks love should be equal which the priest or holy figure can not figure out.<ref name="Katherine Montweiler">{{cite web|last1=Montweiler|first1=Katherine|title=A little boy lost|url=http://www.english.uga.edu/nhilton/wblake/SONGS/50/50montw.bib.html|publisher=Google Scholar|accessdate=6 April 2015}}</ref> As the poem profresses, the father and family weep for the boy. The poem has three relationship, one between the father and son, then between the father and priest, and then God and the son. Katherine Montweiller intereprets these relationships within religious metaphors: one is that the real father is the priest and trying to play the act of God. The boy just wants a universal love versus a self love.<ref name="Katherine Montweiler"/> Blake writes the poem as an accessable for the average readers. The poem makes God the punisher and the reason why man is decimated each other. This poem shows the abusive power of religious leaders and its blasphemy. The mentioning of [[Albion's shore]] is resembling a holy ground, which states that know matter where you live or who you are there is no redemption. |
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==Background== |
==Background== |
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It appears the author has drawn the “Priest” as not merely a parish priest but as metaphor for the hierarchical powers-that-be of the Church. Certainly Blake seems to hearken back to the time when the Church wielded almost unchecked powers throughout England (and most of Europe) to judge and destroy anyone it deemed intolerable in thought or behaviour. |
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When the poem was first published, critics thought it to be annoying and and difficult. What makes the poem confusing is that the boy himself is confused. A commentator thought the boy is just trying to compare the divine of man to God and that we can all equally love as God loves us. The poems title hints of what this poem is about, even symbolically. Blake wanted his poems to be written for the common man.<ref name="Google Scholar">{{cite web|last1=Cox|first1=Stephen|title=Adventures of "A Little Boy Lost": Blake and the process of interpretation|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23105070?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents|website=JSTOR|publisher=Wayne State University Press|accessdate=2 April 2015}}</ref> The main point Blake was trying to make was that young innocence has a grasp on religion and its corruption in the poem and the real world and within this message everyone who thinks otherwise shall burn for it.<ref name="Edwin John Ellis">{{cite web|last1=Ellis|first1=Edwin|title=The works of William Blake Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jURaAAAAMAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=analysis+of+%22a+little+boy+lost%22+blake&ots=KG92wLofHw&sig=9HEN3lZktvz86TeJZWNaWQjZiOA#v=onepage&q=%22a%20little%20boy%20lost%22&f=false|website=google|publisher=Google Scholar|accessdate=9 April 2015}}</ref> |
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Blake wrote his poetry for the common man.<ref>{{cite journal |
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|title = Adventures of 'A Little Boy Lost': Blake and the Process of Interpretation |
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|last = Cox |
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|first = Stephen D. |
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|author-link = Stephen D. Cox |
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|journal = [[Criticism (journal)|Criticism]] |
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|publisher = [[Wayne State University Press]] |
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|issn = 0011-1589 |
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|eissn = 1536-0342 |
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|volume = 23 |
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|issue = 4 |
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|date = Fall 1981 |
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|pages = 301–316 |
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|jstor = 23105070 |
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}}</ref> |
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== Structure== |
== Structure== |
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The poem is divided into six quatrains, all in iambic tetrameter. The first quatrain introduces the subject of love of self in the voice of an omniscient narrator; the language is highly stylized. The second quatrain is the much simpler speech of a little boy expressing his thoughts on love of God, of others, and of nature. |
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This poem is spilt up into six quatrains and all are in iambic tetrameter. The first two quatrains are about the little boy speaking of love and what he thinks religion should be. The next quatrain is about the priest hearing the boy question God and his faith and then makes the boy a tyrant to show the public his treason. As the poem moves the boys innocence dissipates.<ref>{{cite web|title=Art Analysis #5: A Little Boy Lost|url=https://artandhum.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/art-analysis-5-a-little-boy-lost/|website=Art and Hummanities|publisher=Word Press|accessdate=6 April 2015}}</ref> When you look at the photo above you can see there are two numbers one on the inside of the outline and one on the outside. The first number is the sequence of the songs of innocence and then the outer is the songs of Experience.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Blake|first1=William|title=A Little Boy Lost|url=http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=songsie.r.illbk.54|website=William Blake Archive|publisher=William Blake|accessdate=6 April 2015}}</ref> A man who studies blakes shorter poems suggests that the reader does not understand the full meaning of stanza one until you read stanza two and when reading the second stanza the reader can take hold of what the child is trying to state, which is universal love and not self-love that he is being condemned for.<ref name="Google Scholar"/> |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{William Blake}} |
{{William Blake}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Boy Lost, A}} |
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[[Category:Songs of Innocence and of Experience]] |
[[Category:Songs of Innocence and of Experience]] |
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[[Category:1794 poems]] |
[[Category:1794 poems]] |
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Latest revision as of 10:09, 5 March 2024
"A Little Boy Lost" is a poem of the Songs of Experience series created in 1794 after the Songs of Innocence (1789) by the poet William Blake. The poem centers on the theme of religious persecution and the corrupted dictates of dogmatic Church teachings. As part of Songs of Experience the poem is set in the wider context of exploring the suffering of innocent and oppressed individuals—in this case a young boy, and his parents—within a flawed society that is oppressed and disillusioned with life's experience.
The poem[edit]
Nought loves another as itself
Nor venerates another so.
Nor is it possible to Thought
A greater than itself to know:
And Father, how can I love you,
Or any of my brothers more?
I love you like the little bird
That picks up crumbs around the door.
The Priest sat by and heard the child.
In trembling zeal he seiz'd his hair:
He led him by his little coat:
And all admir'd the Priestly care.
And standing on the altar high,
Lo what a fiend is here! said he:
One who sets reason up for judge
Of our most holy Mystery.
The weeping child could not be heard.
The weeping parents wept in vain:
They strip'd him to his little shirt.
And bound him in an iron chain.
And burn'd him in a holy place,
Where many had been burn'd before:
The weeping parents wept in vain.
Are such things done on Albions shore.[1]
Analysis of the poem[edit]
In this poem, Blake's titular character, a little boy, appears, by lights of Church pedantry, to have questioned religious dogma, to wit: that every person must love God more than themselves or any other; for his sacrilege the boy has instantly become "lost" to the Church. Reacting to his speech, a zealot Priest leaps to denounce the boy and to dramatize his offense. The little boy is peremptorily castigated as a heretic and summarily burned at the stake, even though the child's age—he is a little boy, after all; he sees the world through the eyes of a child's innocence—would seemingly preclude him from comprehending the awful construing of his words (by the Priest) as heresy. On the other hand, a reader might theorize that Blake intends to portray the child as precocious and with intentions to dissent from Church teaching—perhaps the Priest thinks so. However, the actual words applied by the author to the boy's speech offers very little toward this view; instead, it is the child's innocent candor that seems to inspire his words.
Background[edit]
It appears the author has drawn the “Priest” as not merely a parish priest but as metaphor for the hierarchical powers-that-be of the Church. Certainly Blake seems to hearken back to the time when the Church wielded almost unchecked powers throughout England (and most of Europe) to judge and destroy anyone it deemed intolerable in thought or behaviour.
Blake wrote his poetry for the common man.[2]
Structure[edit]
The poem is divided into six quatrains, all in iambic tetrameter. The first quatrain introduces the subject of love of self in the voice of an omniscient narrator; the language is highly stylized. The second quatrain is the much simpler speech of a little boy expressing his thoughts on love of God, of others, and of nature.
References[edit]
- ^ Blake, William (1988). Erdman, David V. (ed.). The Complete Poetry and Prose (Newly revised ed.). Anchor Books. pp. 28-29. ISBN 0385152132.
- ^ Cox, Stephen D. (Fall 1981). "Adventures of 'A Little Boy Lost': Blake and the Process of Interpretation". Criticism. 23 (4). Wayne State University Press: 301–316. eISSN 1536-0342. ISSN 0011-1589. JSTOR 23105070.