Explore the ways in which challenging society is presented in ‘Holy Thursday (E)’ and ‘The
Sick Rose’
The poems ‘The Sick Rose’ and ‘Holy Thursday’ are from the book Songs of Experience, and were
written during the ime of ‘Enlightenment’, and represents the ime of liberaion and art, in which
muliple revoluions take place – these poems have many readings, including how society is being
challenged by the lower classes, and how the upper classes could be seen as corrupt and destroying
the innocence represented by children.
The ‘Sick Rose’ uses the phrases ‘howling storm’ and ‘night’ in the frst stanza; these indicate that
there is an element of fear and danger, whilst also possibly suggesing that the infuence of others
are loud, and overbearing – paricularly shown through the ‘howling storm’. I believe that this is
referring to the wealthy members of society who are also acknowledged in Holy Thursday (both in
Songs of ‘Innocence’ and ‘Experience’), and how they are exploiing others lower in society such as
the children in need of charity. This is then further proven by how, in ‘The Sick Rose’ the ‘invisible
worm’ fies through the night and howling storm, which could possibly be referring to how the
invisibility of the worm may be represening the damages of society, how those in government and
higher classes are infuencing society, and how they are becoming corrupt; the French revoluion
had inspired many Briish reformers to go against the government and monarchy, whilst terrifying
those in power, especially as – paricularly during the Hanoverian Dynasty – it’s popularity dipped
several imes throughout this period of Romanic period. The government of William Pitt the
Younger, was especially worried by the prospect of revoluionary ideas being exported to Britain,
which responded with poliical repression known as Habeas Corpus (radical poliical leaders could be
arrested without trial due to this policy being suspended) – this demonstrates that corrupion was
taking control of the government, which I believe Blake was trying to show in ‘The Sick Rose’,
presented through the way he describes how society is changing from innocent to experienced,
which could also be linked to ‘Holy Thursday’ – both Innocence and Experience – and how the
children go from innocent and happy, to experienced and miserable. This can be indicated by the use
of rhyme between the words ‘joy’ and ‘destroy’ in ‘The Sick Rose’, which I believe could be Blake
publicising his view on how the joy of something could lead to destrucion; ‘his dark secret’ implies
that something is going on that others do not know about, which – in terms of society – could be
referring to the oppression the government is enforcing, and how the wealthy are exploiing children
in need of charity, shown by how in ‘Holy Thursday’ the children are ‘fed by cold and usurious’
hands. The idea of usury is how one person lends money and adds interest, which could be Blake
referring to how the government lend the populaion, and the children in paricular, resources and
materials, but take more than they give – another form of manipulaion that gives the suggesion
that parliament are trying to oppress and challenge society, which is ulimately pushing back and
challenging authority.
The ‘Holy Thursday’ in the Songs of Experience is a coninuaion from the ‘Holy Thursday’ in SOI,
and shows that the children – who are the main protagonists in the poem – are being given charity
without love or care, whilst their real needs are being ignored. This is further imposed by how, in
the second stanza on the second line, the line ‘Can it be a song of joy?’ reinforces the self-righteous
people, as if to say that because the children seem to be singing joyfully, they are fne. These types
of rhetorical quesions are placed throughout the frst two tercets, and this technique helps to
provide evidence of how Blake thought the government were controlling the populaion, paricularly
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