THE CHILD

                         Fitzwilliam Museum

                         Songs of Innocence

Plate 9, Copy AA

Two aspects of the child which Blake portrays are the potential of the child and the vulnerability of the child. He shows us the child who merrily requests the songs but whose joy brought tears to his eyes. The contradictory nature of childhood is present from the first of the songs. The same child who delights in the simplest of things - the smile, the touch, the sight, the sound, or the taste, can be devastated by a restraining hand, a critical word, or the admonition 'no'.  

As we read through the song of Innocence we hear of stresses which enter the life of the child. The Little Black Boy feels the alienation of not being accepted by the English child. The Little Boy lost can't keep up with his father and must 'weep' to get his attention. The Little Boy Found requires the intervention of God's guidance to reestablish his connection with his family. In the Divine Image the child learns that Mercy Pity Peace and Love are within him because they are synonymous with the Divine Image - the God within. In Nurse's Song we see children who have beyond the need for external supervision because they are aware of presence of the light and desire to enjoy it least it fade. In Anothers Sorrow the child has reached the maturity of knowing that there is suffering to be borne, but who realizes that there is One who shares the pains of the world. 

Songs of Innocence, Plate 4, (E 7)

"Introduction
Piping down the valleys wild
Piping songs of pleasant glee
On a cloud I saw a child.
And he laughing said to me.

Pipe a song about a Lamb;    
So I piped with merry chear,
Piper pipe that song again--
So I piped, he wept to hear.

Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe
Sing thy songs of happy chear,        
So I sung the same again
While he wept with joy to hear

Piper sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read--
So he vanish'd from my sight.
And I pluck'd a hollow reed.

And I made a rural pen,
And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear" 

Songs of Innocence, Plate 9, (E 9)   
"The Little Black Boy.

My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say.

Look on the rising sun: there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away.      
And flowers and trees and beasts and men recieve
Comfort in morning joy in the noon day.

And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face      
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
SONGS 10  
For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear
The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice.
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.

Thus  did my mother say and kissed me,
And thus I say to little English boy;
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:

Ill shade him from the heat till lie can bear,
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me."

Songs of Innocence, Plate 13, (E 11) 
"The Little Boy lost     

Father, father, where are you going
O do not walk so fast.
Speak father, speak to your little boy
Or else I shall be lost,

The night was dark no father was there   
The child was wet with dew,
The mire was deep, & the child did weep
And away the vapour flew."

Songs of Innocence, Plate 14, (E 11)
"The Little Boy Found 

The little boy lost in the lonely fen,
Led by the wand'ring light,
Began to cry, but God ever nigh,
Appeard like his father in white.

He kissed the child & by the hand led  
And to his mother brought,
Who in sorrow pale, thro' the lonely dale
Her little boy weeping sought." 

Songs of Innocence, Plate 18, (E 12)
"The Divine Image.             

To Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
All pray in their distress:
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy Pity Peace and Love,  
Is God our father dear:
And Mercy Pity Peace and Love,
Is Man his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine   
Love Mercy Pity Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk or jew.
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell,
 
There God is dwelling too"  

Songs of innocence, Plate 24, (E 15) 

"Nurse's Song                      
When the voices of children are heard on the green   
And laughing is heard on the hill,       
My heart is at rest within my breast
And every thing else is still

Then come home my children, the sun is gone down    
And the dews of night arise
Come come leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies

No no let us play, for it is yet day
And we cannot go to sleep      
Besides in the sky, the little birds fly     
And the hills are all coverd with sheep

Well well go & play till the light fades away
And then go home to bed
The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh'd  
And all the hills ecchoed"
 
Songs of Innocence, Plate 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"

Fitzwilliam Museum
            Songs of Innocence
Plate 24, Copy AA
  
Fitzwilliam Museum
          Songs of Innocence
Plate 14, Copy AA