Exploring Innocence and Experience in 'Holy Thursday'

Send us a text

In this episode I have a movie recommendation too!

There are two Holy Thursdays, one in The Songs of Innocence and another in the Songs of Experience. The focus for this episode is the innocence.

As with other songs of innocence poems, there is a layer of darkness just beneath the surface. Ostensibly this is a poem about an annual procession of orphans in London called Ascension Day. The poem is told from the perspective of a casual observer of the ceremony.

We'll go line by line and see how Blake is using the form and meaning of his poem to vibrate your brain in such a way as to allow you to understand a deeper meaning behind this ceremony.