ANOTHERS SORROW

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Songs of Innocence

Plate 27

We have been following the motifs in the three poems from Innocence which first appeared in Island in the Moon. Michael Phillips, in William Blake: The Creation of the Songs, on Pages 13-14 comments thus:

"Each of these has been presented from a distinct point of view. And, within the songs themselves, each presents a different perspective upon the child and childhood. In Holy Thursday, it is that of the distant but moved observer, sung by Obtuse Angle, a name which itself is suggestive of a way of seeing and not seeing. In Nurse's Song we are taken aback, in reverie: 'it puts me in mind of my grandmothers song' by the singer and by the song. And in The Little Boy Lost sung by Blake's own persona, 'Quid the Cynic', in the first stanza the child speaks to us directly and poignantly, abandoned by his parent. We are brought full circle, back to the match seller's cries.

    [" I cry my matches as far as Guild hall
     God bless the duke & his aldermen all
...
     I ask the Gods no more
          no more no more"]

In Songs of Innocence, Blake will fully explore and modulate the contrary perspectives of innocence and experience first seen here.
...
In the pages that follow we are about to learn from the children, to reawaken a part of ourselves that in relation to the world of experience, to our world, has been diminished or altogether lost."

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So Blake is showing us innocent children who play with lambs and frolic on the Ecchoing Green, whose mothers and angels and wild animals watch over them. But we see also innocent children who are forced to sell matches, climb chimneys, go hungry and feel lost and abandoned.

It is not enough to feel empathy for those who suffer, Blake asks us to enter into the joy which is felt by infants, children, parents, birds, flowers, insects and animals. Blake has woven both aspects of emotions into his Songs of Innocence. There is delight in the beauties of a world where everything works together; and there is anguish when harm is visited upon the helpless. Blake asks us to look at the emotions which are felt by a child when he feel lost and when he feels protected and valued. In Providing images in words and pictures of alternating emotions, Blake makes us aware of the internal dynamics of our own emotions as well as the joy and woe that others experience. Our ability to empathize with others is enhanced by entering into the emotional states which he presents. Unless a person has a realistic understanding of his own emotions, his empathy for others will be inauthentic.    

Blake selected On Anothers Sorrow to be the final poem in Songs of Innocence in all of the copies which he collated after 1818. Although the poem emphasizes the pain which is felt when one sees another suffering, we are left with and image of joy which comes from the savior being ever present bringing his peace.

Songs of Innocence, Song 27, (E 17)    
"On Anothers Sorrow        

Can I see anothers woe,
And not be in sorrow too.
Can I see anothers grief,
And not seek for kind relief?

Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrows share,
Can a father see his child,
Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd.

Can a mother sit and hear,
An infant groan an infant fear--
No no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

And can he who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small birds grief & care
Hear the woes that infants bear--

And not sit beside the nest
Pouring pity in their breast,
And not sit the cradle near
Weeping tear on infants tear. 

And not sit both night & day,
Wiping all our tears away.
O! no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

He doth give his joy to all. 
He becomes an infant small.
He becomes a man of woe
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not, thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy maker is not by.
Think not, thou canst weep a tear,
And thy maker is not near.

O! he gives to us his joy,
That our grief he may destroy
Till our grief is fled & gone
He doth sit by us and moan"
   

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Philippians 4
[4] Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
[5] Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
[6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
[7] And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.