Monday, February 20, 2012
Religious Agenda
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence all seem to convey a religious message of some kind. Five of the nineteen poems contain images of lambs, and fifteen deal with children. Both the lamb and the child are symbols frequently associated with Christ. Blake at times seems to take on the role of a Sunday school teacher in trying to teach the mercy and love of Jesus. His meter and rhyme schemes reflect this: they are overly simplistic, but at the same time catchy. For one who despised orthodox religion, Blake seems to be following the mainstream with these ideas. Perhaps he intended to use his poems to preach his own philosophy of how God and humanity interact.
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I think it is important to remember that the title of the collection is "Songs of Innocence," rendering children the most appropriate subject matter for Blake's poems. That said, I do appreciate your commentary on the repeated use of the lamb. Although the image of a lamb is and always has been commonly used to symbolize youth, there were undoubtedly other metaphors with which Blake could have worked to embody innocence. Perhaps Blake selects the biblical lamb to argue that religion is for the innocent- institutions begin embedding it in the minds of youths from their births. However, once children grow into adults and gain more experience from the world around them, faith is hardly as simple as it is conveyed in poems such as "The Divine Image," "The Shepherd," "The Chimney Sweeper," and "The Lamb." Perhaps Blake calls this collection "Songs of Innocence" because he understands that youth is the only time period in which believing is ever as easy as these poems portray it to be.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to add that I read the collection of works as almost a critique on the naivety associated with religion. Like an easily influenced child, I think Blake is commenting on how religion is blindly accepted and many followers never question the ideas and beliefs that religion instills. I think it is also important that no evil representations are present (obviously, being songs of innocence). However, I think Blake does this to show how religion does not always account for the negativity in the world and society. Why is there disease? Why is there hatred? How can religion and a God be so "innocent" if evil is always present?
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