SONGS OF INNOCENCE

IPING down the valleys wild,

Piping songs of peasant 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 cheer.

'Piper, pipe that song again;'

So I piped: he wept to hear.

 

'Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;

Sing thy songs of happy cheer!'

So I sang 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 vanished from my sight;

And I plucked 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," written by William Blake is a poem that is about a piper. William Blake does a great job in this poem of describing the setting so that the reader can see what is happening. What is amazing about William Blake's poems is that all of them have a deeper meaning than what most readers would think. Most of the time Blake writes about a happy situation. In the poem ''Songs of Innocence" Blake shows emotion through a child's glory. At the beginning of the poem Blake has a child that is in a valley and then sees a piper. The piper then walks up to the child and the child says, "Pipe a song about a lamb."

      A typical reader probably wouldn't see the religious tie that William Blake made in this line, but I know that Blake uses the Lamb to symbolize Jesus. Blake makes the reader think that all along the child wants to hear a song about a lamb, but what makes Blake a great poet is his use of non humane objects and tying them into his romantic poetry. Another great aspect of this poem is how cheerful the piper and the child are.

      Blake does a great job of making the voice of this poem merry and exciting. In the last stanza, I believe that Blake is trying to get a message across. I think that Blake is trying to say that every child should enjoy listening to merry music about Jesus. In reality, most teenagers do not do this. I know for a fact that the music I listen to does not have a merry sound, or have anything to do with the bible. Now all kids listen to are songs with great beats or songs that are on the radio. What happened to the music about Jesus? What happened to all of the merry music? I believe that Blake did a great job of showing his symbolization through personification. Blake is a great poet and has written many great poems, because of this we look back on him and see how he has helped our era.