Nurse’s Song by William Blake Essay

Comp atomic number 18 and contrast the two versions of cheers Song, cover how Blake illustrates the concepts of Innocence and insureThe Blakean concept of Innocence is foc usaged on purity, vulnerability, trust and harmony often illuminated through the use of children. For Experience the crux is on remorse, regrets and the frequent loss of innocence. In the two versions of Nurses Song children are used to bring out both the innocent and experienced side of the suck up.In the Innocence version of the metrical composition, a repeated word pattern is used. It is reminiscent of childrens chants and nursery rhymes because of the buoyant, song-like rhythm. Come, come leave withdraw dawdle, No, no allow us play, Well, well go and play. This emphasises the childlike, infantile tone of the poem bringing out the innocent, simplistic nature. It also shines a juvenile let down on the nurse, which to a lector in an experienced state of mind, gives off a forced, unrealistic innocence. The use of sound in the Innocence version of Nurses Song is very apparent. It relates to the sounds made by the children, heard by the nurse pranking is heard on the hill, this paints a pleasant picture, an unmistakeably happy find out for the reader. It puts the rest of the poem into an idyllic, dreamlike context, giving a slightly surreal edge to the verses that follow. The final line And all the hills ecchoed, could be seen as a use of pathetic fallacy in that the children are laughing and shouting, and the hills echo them everything in this idealistic world is content and perfect, a utopia of purity, trust and openness.The little ones leaped & shouted & laughd, this list is presented in a puerile fashion, further illustrating the concept of innocence in the nurse herself. By using & instead of a comma, it makes the reader feel as if the nurse has a childlike perspective on the scene, as her narration uses basic, one-dimensional lexis giving an unsophisticated and uncomplicate d view of the world.The symmetric relationship between the children and the nurse makes her seem straightforward and pure, and also inexperienced in her trust in the children. When the children refuse her request to go home to bed, she patently allows them to carry on in their own way Well, well, go & play till the light fades away showing her faith in the reliability of the children and concurrently giving her an air of naivety, and reinforcing her innocence in that she is clearly open to receiving the pleasures of life. It also shows how unworldly she is, how she is blissfully unaware of the dangers around and simply concerned that the children should be in bed when the day turns to night.In the Experience version of Nurses Song the reader feels a distinctly bitter tone given off by the nurse. An underlying message of a bad childhood, or a disturbing youth is given off when she tell aparts The days of my youth rise insolent in my mind, / My face turns green and pale. To some this could imply a feeling of jealousy in the nurse, green being an indication of envy showing the nurse envying the childrens innocence and happiness. However, I think it is simply a device to show how their purity and their inexperience are nauseating to the nurse how it reminds her of her childhood, and how she has deep in thought(p) that youth and vulnerability and is sickened by her current self.In the second stanza of the Experience version, the first two lines are the same, although they seem somewhat more ominous because of the context. indeed come home my children, the sun is gone down / And the dews of night arise Also there are no speech marks around these phrases, impertinent the Innocence version. It means that it is not direct speech from the nurse to the children, but rather an insight into the thoughts of the nurse disguised and dark leaving the reader with a nervous energy given off by the eerie mannerisms of the nurse.A contrast between the two poems is in th e second line of the first stanza. In Innocence it says and laughing is heard on the hill, but in Experience it says and whisp peal are in the dale. The obvious difference is between the laughing and the whisprings. Laughter is a sound of happiness and gaiety, but whispering has an air of secrecy, deceit and isolation. This is an obvious contrast in the levels of communication between the two states, the unprejudiced and open laughter in Innocence almost an antithesis to the guarded, furtive whispering.Another difference between the two is that in Innocence the laughter is taking tramp on the hill an exposed place, safe and high above everything, easily seen and obvious to all. But in Experience the whispering is taking place in the dale. This is a hidden place, dark and difficult to see for the nurse secretive. This subtle difference changes the tone completely between the two poems.Your spring & your day are wasted in play, / And your winter and night in disguise. These final two lines of the poem, I feel, are the most bitter and disparaging of all. Some may say that the seasons of spring and winter are metaphorical, for the winter of your life the darker days, the older, more experienced multiplication the spring representing youth, purity and innocence. As though the nurse is saying that when you oblige the capacity to embrace the gift of innocence, your naivety and inexperience stop you from truly realising what you have and it is then wasted in play frittered away in the menial enjoyment of life. But once that innocence is lost, you enter the winter of your life, in disguise hiding from those that remind you of your innocence, and those that can see your experience.However other interpretation could be that literally in the daytime, during the spring and winter and at night you are always wasting your time so no return what you do time is passing by and you are gradually moving from a state of innocence to experience. That time is squandered in useless, unhelpful ways. The nurses bitterness is expressed in her realisation of this desecration of such a precious thing. It seems premeditated and as though she has reminisced over her youthful times and understood her mistakes as if she has discovered how shes capitulated to the ideals of experience and is unable to return to her candid, childlike self.I feel that overall, the message given by the Experience poem is one of bitterness, remorse and resentment. The darker tone of the poem gives it a deeper meaning to embrace every second or to become a character like the nurse in this version cheated in life and cynical about others. However, the playful, childlike Innocence version is far less evocative and conceives a simpler idea, to laugh and play till the light fades away and the dew of night arise.