“Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Introduction

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“Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Summary

“Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Themes

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  Child Poverty and Society's Failures

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  Society vs. Nature

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)”

• Lines 1-4

  Is this a holy thing to see
  In a rich and fruitful land,
  Babes reduced to misery
  Fed with cold and usurous hand?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Is that trembling cry a song?
  Can it be a song of joy?
  And so many children poor?
  It is a land of poverty!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  And their sun does never shine.
  And their fields are bleak & bare.
  And their ways are fill'd with thorns
  It is eternal winter there.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  For where-e'er the sun does shine,
  And where-e'er the rain does fall:
  Babe can never hunger there,
  Nor poverty the mind appall.

  

  

  

  

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“Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Babes
• Usurous
• Where-e'er
• Appall

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Speaker

“Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)”

More “Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to the actor Toby Jones performing the poem.

  • A Brief Biography — Visit the Poetry Foundation's website to find an overview of Blake's life and work.

  • Blake's Legacy — Read contemporary novelist Philip Pullman's reflections on what Blake means to him.

  • Blake as a Visual Artist — See more images of Blake's wild art (and learn about his artistic philosophy) at the website of London's Tate Gallery.

  • The Poem Illuminated — See an image of the poem as Blake intended it to be read: in one of his engraved and hand-painted illustrated manuscripts. It's worth thinking about how the images Blake chooses interact with his language.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake

  • A Dream

  • Ah! Sun-flower

  • A Poison Tree

  • Earth's Answer

  • Holy Thursday (Songs of Innocence)

  • Infant Joy

  • Infant Sorrow

  • Introduction (Songs of Innocence)

  • London

  • Nurse's Song (Songs of Experience)

  • Nurse's Song (Songs of Innocence)

  • The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)

  • The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence)

  • The Clod and the Pebble

  • The Divine Image

  • The Ecchoing Green

  • The Fly

  • The Garden of Love

  • The Human Abstract

  • The Lamb

  • The Little Black Boy

  • The Little Vagabond

  • The School Boy

  • The Sick Rose

  • The Tyger

  • To Autumn

  • To the Evening Star