Once I was innocent, but then I experience the pain of procrastination

"Holy Thursday" (Songs of Innocence)

‘Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,

The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green,

Grey headed beadles walk’d before, with wands as white as snow,

Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames’ waters flow.

Oh what a multitude they seem’d, these flowers of London town!

Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own.

The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,

Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,

Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of Heaven among.

Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;

Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

"Holy Thursday" (Songs of Experience)

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 and bare,

And their ways are filled with thorns:

It is eternal winter there.

For where'er the sun does shine,

And where'er the rain does fall,

Babes should never hunger there,

Nor poverty the mind appall.

                 For this blog I'm supposed to take a Blake poem, analyze it, and then connect it back to Grendel if possible. Luckily, I noticed a connection or a similarity between Blake's things and Grendel. Blake has this theme of Innocence vs Experience and Grendel lives that theme. He goes from the innocent baby in his cave, to the experienced one who "create[s] the world blink by blink". He goes from that innocent boy, to the one who knows violence and is appalled by it. Then he goes from that boy to the boy dazzled by poetry, having gained the knowledge of his purpose in life. Then he goes from this content boy to one filed with malice and violence, the most experienced of all of his stages. In Blake's poems, specifically the two above, there is not an obvious listed occurrence that banishes the children from the happy realm of innocence to the dark one of experience, it just seems to be a natural pathway through life. If you examine the rhyme schemes and line lengths in the above poems, it is apparent that the Innocence poem has a constant AA BB type rhyme scheme, while the Experience poem has a broken rhyme scheme that only appears occasionally. The rhyme scheme in the innocence poem represents how happy and hopeful and joyous the children are. It brings the feeling of prancing around and just being happy. Then in the experience poem, the broken rhyme scheme represents the broken hope and happiness within the people. Occasionally there is a glimpse of happiness, but for the most part it is all dreary and glum. Then looking at the actual lines' lengths, the lines that make up the innocent poem are long, with little punctuation. In contrast, the lines within the experience poem are very short, and have much more punctuation, especially in the second stanza where there is a mark every line. The short lines seem to show how little hope the experienced people are. They seem to be too tired to expand on what they are saying. The punctuation seems to signify like discipline within these people. The exclamation points and question marks create a feeling of harshness maybe even punishment. It seems as though the experienced people have been taught not to talk too much, or that they have learned through their experience that it is better for them to keep their mouths shut. Okay now connecting back to Grendel, his innocence and experience are the most evident when looking at his  encounters with the shaper and the dragon. When Grendel first saw the shaper, he had been pretty innocent up until then, but then the shaper filled him with a childlike joy that caused him to weep with joy. This is very highly contrasted with his time with the dragon. The dragon soiled Grendel's mind, telling him that he must be violent towards the humans because he is the only thing that gives them meaning. Also looking at meaning, the shaper gave him a purpose, he made him feel like he belonged in their society, even if he was the bad guy.On the other hand, the dragon took away his meaning, telling him that he was easily replaceable. This all connects back to Blake because the shaper signifies the happy, innocence of the children seen in the innocent poem above,  while the dragon signifies the dark, hopelessness of the people within the experienced poem.