The poem
Is this a holy thing to see. In a rich and fruitful land. Babes reduced to misery. Fed with cold and usurous hand?
Is that trembling cry a song? Can it be a song of joy? And so many children poor? It is a land of poverty!
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.
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.
this is a really good poem.
In this poem Blake is mean and hates children just like his wife. It is known that both he and his wife would often poke at their larger offspring and often burn their hands so they would not take too much food at the dining table. The family were not poor or rich but just above the poverty line and they of course could of had, quite happily may i add, rather fat children. Blake however hated these greedy instincts…
Read the whole commentIn this poem Blake is mean and hates children just like his wife. It is known that both he and his wife would often poke at their larger offspring and often burn their hands so they would not take too much food at the dining table. The family were not poor or rich but just above the poverty line and they of course could of had, quite happily may i add, rather fat children. Blake however hated these greedy instincts that his children possessed as he had also been an overweight child. It was not until he went to the drastic means of a 'gastric bypass' surgery that he was able to become known as 'Slim Bill' in the un-ironic sense. Now that he was now in fact slim the nickname was not as popular so a new one was in order by which he then he became known as 'Big Will'. Nicknames you see are not exactly funny if they are not in the least bit ironic. So you see next time you hear that Tiny Tim is coming to beat you up, remember the chances are his nickname is ironic and he’s going to be one big mofo.
That first comment is completely wrong Blake never had children of his own and if you took your time to read this poem properly you would soon realise how Blake mocks a society which is cruel to its children !