Blake’s Juxtapositional Prosodic Method in “Holy Thursday” (Innocence)

Abstract

At first glance, Blake’s “Holy Thursday” (Songs of Innocence) depicts the heartwarming scene of brightly clad charity-school children parading toward St. Paul’s Cathedral to join the congregation in hymn and prayer. On closer inspection, however, the poem’s metrical variation, barbed similes, and juxtapositional prosodic method jointly execute a subtle indictment of the “cold and usurous hand” (“Holy Thursday,” Experience) of institutionalized charity. Such an indictment is further illuminated by viewing the Innocence poem retrospectively through the lens of its identically titled counterpart in Songs of Experience and prospectively through the lens of An Island in the Moon, Blake’s unpublished prose satire or burlesque.